Photo from Spring 2008 performance of Britten’s War Requiem by Mark Manring
THE YEAR IN REVIEW
Friends Newsletter Fourth Quarter 2008 President: Patricia Philipps
by Sam Wells, Dean of Duke Chapel
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Vice President: Gina Harrison Secretary: Karen Rhodes, T ‘92 Immediate Past President: Janet Gwyer, PhD Advisory Board: Jean E. Carr WC ‘61 G. Paul Carr Andrew Crewson, T ‘09 Leigh Edwards, T ‘09 Gus Grant, MD Steve Harper Nan Schiebel, WC ‘53, P ‘92 Anthony Seese, P ‘91 Ella Jean Shore, D ‘56 Emeritus member: William E. King, PhD, T ‘61, G ‘63, G ‘70
INSIDE FY 07-08 Financial Summary
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A Glimpse Ahead
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Upcoming Deans’ Dialogue
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Revived at Last!
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McClendon Organ Recital
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Where the Offering Goes
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The Friends of Duke Chapel
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Ash Wednesday Services
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Life at Duke Chapel is a mixture of complexity and simplicity. That’s what makes it so rewarding. Here are some of the complexities: • We are set in the context of a leading global research university, with people around us who know most of what is known about most of what there is to be known. • We waltz on a dance floor crowded with secularists, other faiths, and a bewildering array of Christianities, each of whom behave at times like oppressed minorities and occasionally see us as an oppressor. • We have an awesome tradition of architecture, music, preaching and liturgy, and many people look to us with hopes and expectations, not all of which we can realize or even sometimes comprehend. • We are part of a complex and sometimes troubled city, and need to continue to discover ways in which we might be part of the problem as well as longing to be part of the solution. There’s a tendency in most of us to imagine that there was a point in time some while ago when all was a great deal simpler. I don’t really believe it. Life in an institution as ambitious as Duke University and as mission-oriented as Duke Chapel is always, and has always been, complex. But the deepest joy comes in the simplicity. The deepest joy comes in witnessing personal transformation – at the studious desk, on the penitential knees, in the servant hands, around the communal dining
table. The deepest joy comes when you realize you’ve been hearing the choir’s anthem in your ears all week and you meet someone and realize they’ve been inspired by the very same chord and the identical harmony. The deepest joy comes at a moment like the performance of Britten’s War Requiem last April when you sense that every aspect of the Chapel’s life – worship, ministry, discernment, outreach, theological reflection – come together in a single week. Here are the some of the simplicities of life at Duke Chapel: • Sharing and nurturing faith is rewarding and challenging wherever one happens to be doing it. • Worship is being inspired by the wonder of God to find the very best in oneself and bring it into God’s presence. • For all the divinity of Christ, it is his – and our – humanity that is usually harder to comprehend, and ministry is about sharing our own shortcomings as well as our gifts. • For all the knowledge and intellect of the university, people are made at least as much of flesh and blood and heart and soul, and this tends to be where faith and friendship takes deepest root. You’re receiving this message as one who has had a part in renewing the simplicity of the life of Duke Chapel, as we enjoy the complexity of our lives together. Thank you. Your vision helps us to dream, and your commitment makes so many of those dreams come true.