Chapel View Magazine | Spring 2022

CHAPEL VIEW

SPRING 2022 magazine

DUKE CHAPEL NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

CHAIR

Grace Lee, T ’79

VICE CHAIR

T. Walker Robinson, T ’00, G ’01, M ’09, H ’12

EMERITUS MEMBER

William E. King, T ’61, G ’63, G ’70

ADVISORY BOARD

Robin Barefoot

D. Michael Bennett, T ’77

John A. Bussian III, T ’76

M. Keith Daniel, T ’90, D ’05, D ’16

Ellen Davis

Thomas Felgner, T ’94, B ’95

Cathy S. Gilliard, D ’97

Elizabeth Grantland, T ’20

Zach Heater, T ’17

Sara Elizabeth H. Jones, T ’89

Southgate Jones III

Kenneth Lee, T ’74

Jeffrey Nelson, D ’13

Hananiel Setiawan, G ’24

Sanyin Siang, E ’96, B ’02

Max Sirenko, T ’11

Valerie Henry Sirenko, T ’11

Kathryn Watkins, T ’19

CHAPEL STAFF

OFFICE OF THE DEAN

The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery, Dean

Ava West, Assistant to the Dean

MINISTRY

The Rev. Bruce Puckett, Assistant Dean

The Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon, Director of Religious Life

The Rev. Racquel C.N. Gill, Minister for Intercultural Engagement

The Rev. Breana van Velzen, Community Minister

MUSIC

Dr. Zebulon Highben, Director of Chapel Music

Dr. Philip Cave, Associate Conductor for Chapel Music

Christopher Jacobson, FRCO, Chapel Organist

Dr. Robert Parkins, University Organist

John Santoianni, Ethel Sieck Carrabina Curator of Organs and Harpsichords

Kyle MacDonald, Staff Specialist

W. Paul Bumbalough, Chapel Carillonneur

ADMINISTRATION

Amanda Millay Hughes, Director of Development and Strategy

Joni Harris, Director of Business and Facilities

James Todd, Communications Manager

Aaron Canipe, Communications Specialist

Mark King, Hospitality Coordinator

Lisa Best, Accounting Specialist and Office Coordinator

David-Michael Kenney, Wedding Coordinator and Visitor Relations Assistant

Erica Thomas, Temporary Staff Assistant for Development

Blanche Williams, Wedding Director

Ann Hall, Visitor Relations Assistant

Jane Kelly, Visitor Relations Assistant

Shawn Proffitt, Visitor Relations Assistant

Ken Davenport, Visitor Relations Assistant

Emerson Cobbs, Visitor Relations Assistant

Oscar Dantzler, University Housekeeper

Beverly Jordan, University Housekeeper

Duke Schools Abbreviation Key:

D (Divinity School); E (Pratt School of Engineering)

G (Graduate School); MD (School of Medicine)

T (Trinity College of Arts & Sciences); WC (Women’s College)

Chapel Assistant Dean Bruce Puckett and Dean Luke Powery pray for Chapel Scholar students during their commissioning in a worship service on October 17, 2021.

Cover: Members of the Duke community gathered in front of the Chapel for a prayer vigil for Ukraine on March 22, 2022. Photo by Bill Snead, University Communications. All photos are by Chapel communications staff unless otherwise indicated.

REMEMBER AND REJOICE

The Rev. Dr.

I

A. Powery, Dean of Duke University Chapel [@LukeAPowery]

completion by the day of Jesus Christ. — Philippians 1:6

As we travel through the season of Lent and then Easter, marking the death and resurrection of Jesus, I invite you to ask yourself:

Where do you put your confidence?

While the answer can be hard to hear beneath the noise of endless news cycles and the demands of our daily lives, it is still calling out and it is still true. “The one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” This is more than a platitude. We may not finish every email, every home improvement project, or every task we hope to complete. We may not get through the long to-do lists we carry in our pockets, on our cell phones, and in our hearts. We may even forget what is most important, what is true and right and good as we navigate the shadows of our times. But God does not forget, and Jesus does not abandon us. Of this, we can be confident and certain. We can remember this and rejoice.

As I read through this edition of Chapel View magazine, I remember. I remember the long dismal days when the Chapel was closed, weddings were postponed, and services, concerts, and nearly every aspect of our work were all offered only virtually. And yet, love poured out to, from, and through the Duke Chapel community. Your kindness inspired us to carry on.

Every letter, text, email, and donation affirmed the abiding connections of this community.

I remember and I rejoice. I remember the many who died over the last two years. When I am filled with lament over death, I am also reminded of the tremendous love and dedication of our medical community, the nurses and doctors who cared for our loved ones. I remember the faithful around the world who pray daily for wisdom, patience, strength, courage, healing, and insight. And I rejoice that God listens to our prayers and answers with love.

I remember and I rejoice. I remember the bright faces of our students, masked and often weary, but filled with hope for the future. And I remember the Chapel staff, the Chapel’s choirs, the volunteers, and

our National Advisory Board members who worked tirelessly to embody the love of God in Christ Jesus at the Chapel and in their lives. I remember and I rejoice.

Where do you put your confidence?

I invite you to put your confidence in the One who began a good work in you. May this season of Lent—and the Easter season—be a time of remembering and rejoicing for you and for all.

The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery Dean of Duke University Chapel

Luke

am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to

I invite you to put your confidence in the One who began a good work in you.

Dean Powery welcomes the audience to the “Complicated Truths” public conversation on February 24, 2022.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR, DUKE CHAPEL NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD

Grace Lee, T ’79

Iam excited to be the new chair of the Duke Chapel National Advisory Board and am grateful that President Price and Dean Powery have asked me to serve in this capacity during a critically important time for Duke and our country.

As a proud Duke graduate (T ’79), spouse of Ken (T ’75), and mom of two Duke graduates, Bethany (T ’07) and Brian (T ’11), the Chapel holds a very special place in the heart of our family. Decades ago, the Chapel was one of the first places I visited as an anxious and overwhelmed freshman. It was also my very last memory after graduation as I peered over my shoulder while my dad maneuvered our station wagon onto Chapel Drive to begin our long drive home. I still use the Duke Bible that was given to me during the Chapel’s baccalaureate service. For many of us, the Chapel’s central location on campus reminds us daily of the importance of leaning into our faith to help us deal with the many facets of, and challenges in, our lives.

With the numerous boards that support the many institutions on campus, you may wonder what does the Chapel Board do? Simply said, our members bring their talents, expertise, and passion to serve as

advisors to Luke Powery and his dedicated leadership team. Each year, Luke sets goals and priorities for himself and the staff that align with the four key areas of the Chapel’s strategic plan: (1) student engagement, (2) Christian worship, (3) sacred music and arts, (4) and community engagement. As Duke students navigate and process all that is taking place on campus, in our country, and also globally, one of the Chapel’s top priorities is to promote and enhance Religious Life programs that engage, support, and care for them. Whether they are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, or claim no faith tradition as their own, we want our students to know that the Chapel is here for them.

I am thankful for my terrific partnership with our Vice Chair T. Walker Robinson (T ’00, G ’01, M ’09, H ’12) along with our nineteen board members representing six states and D.C. Collectively, they bring a wealth of diverse expertise and perspectives, as well as enthusiasm and generous philanthropic support for the Chapel’s programs. In addition, our student members keep us connected to campus life. I am honored to work with each of them.

Do you have a favorite Duke Chapel memory? I invite you to post it along with a photo on your social media platform (#mydukechapel), tag one or more fellow Dukies, and challenge them to share a memory too. I also invite you to learn more about the Chapel’s work and the many ways that you can support our efforts.

A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed (Proverbs 11:25, NIV).

With blessings and gratitude, Grace Lee

Editor’s note: Grace and her husband Ken have served on the Chapel National Advisory Board since 2018. Residing in Potomac, Maryland, Grace is the executive director of National Park Trust; Ken is a cardiologist for Medstar. They are also members of 4th Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, Maryland.

Please contact Amanda Hughes, director of development and strategy, to learn more about how you can get involved in the work of Duke Chapel: amanda.hughes1@duke.edu.

Grace Lee (center) with her parents Wei-shing and Katherine Ku at her graduation in 1979.

Grace Lee (center-right) with her husband Ken (left) and children Brian (center-left) and Bethany (right) at Brian’s graduation in 2011.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

A Faith and Learning Profile of Caroline Gamard, T ’22

Discerning What Healing Work to Do

Caroline Gamard, T ’22, came to a Duke Chapel service as a firstyear student but didn’t think she would come back until she discovered a faith community through the Chapel Scholars program and also with the Duke Episcopal Center.

“At the start of my sophomore year, I heard about the Chapel Scholars program and opportunities to serve in the Chapel like getting to play a role in the service,” says Gamard, a senior from Fairhope, Alabama. “Having a community of other scholars and students who are also involved in the Chapel was really exciting to me.”

One point of connection Gamard has found at the Chapel is attending the “Just Tea” sessions the Chapel ministry team holds on Monday afternoons in the Student Ministry Lounge.

“I like that it’s ‘just tea,’ meaning that it is only time to go and sit and drink tea and talk to people,”

she says. “Also, Reverend Kathryn [Lester-Bacon] has been a wonderful mentor to me. Sometimes I’ll just go to her and say, ‘Look, I’m having this dilemma I don’t know what to do in this situation,’ and just to be able to share those things with a group authentically and get good advice and good wisdom and just compassion is really important.”

Having begun a major in chemistry, when the pandemic hit, Gamard was left with lots of time to ponder her purpose in life.”

That’s where the Chapel and where these faith communities really came into play,” she says about conversations she had with Chapel and Episcopal Center ministers. “One of the reasons I was originally in chemistry was that I wanted to go into pharmacology and drug design because I was really drawn to this idea of healing through making better drugs, but I realized I really wanted to

be part of that healing process with people one-on-one.”

The discussions helped Gamard decide to change her major to psychology as part of her vision for her life’s work.

“One thing that I want to do in my work is open these spaces for people to come exactly as they are and be authentic and be validated, and I feel like I learned about those spaces by occupying them at the Episcopal Center, and at the Chapel,” she says. “All of those conversations helped me figure out that I really wanted to be a psychologist and work in mental health care.”

Now majoring in psychology, the senior from Fairhope, Alabama, says, “This was my life speaking to me,” she says. “This was God telling me, ‘This is who I made you to be.’”

Watch a video version of this profile at chapel.duke.edu/FaithAndLearning.

New Minister for Intercultural Engagement

The Rev. Racquel C.N. Gill joins the Chapel Ministry Team

The Chapel welcomed the Rev. Racquel C.N. Gill as its new Minister for Intercultural Engagement on March 1. In her role, Rev. Gill offers spiritual guidance, mentorship, care, and programming to students, particularly students of color, and deepens relationships between the Chapel and campus cultural and identity centers.

“At a time when Duke continues to strive for greater racial equity across the university, this new Chapel position— and the presence and work of Rev. Gill—will be a gift to students and the entire community,” Duke Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery said. “Her integrated ministerial knowledge and practice will affirm the dignity, worth, and gifts of all students as she nurtures their spiritual lives. I am excited and confident that she will embody the Chapel’s vision of responding to the all-inclusive love of God in ways that we have not yet even imagined.”

Rev. Gill comes to Duke Chapel from Presbyterian College in Clinton, South

Carolina, where she was the endowed Jack and Jane Presseau Associate Chaplain and also served as a temporary member at large and pulpit supply minister for the Trinity Presbytery. An ordained Baptist minister, she previously served on the pastoral staff at the St. Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York. She grew up in Winnsboro, South Carolina, and is a graduate of Duke Divinity School.

“I’m grateful to return to a place that played such an integral role in my own development,” Rev. Gill said. “My time at Presbyterian College has shown me the joy of journeying with amazing students of diverse backgrounds and providing a place of belonging as they seek to become the best versions of themselves. I’m excited to join this incredible team at Duke Chapel in such a sacred mission.”

On the Chapel staff, Rev. Gill is part of the Ministry Team, which leads the Chapel’s worship services, nurtures students’ faiths, supports campus Religious Life groups, and serves with

community partners in Durham. As part of the team, she is a leader in the worship life of the Chapel, including advising the United in Praise student gospel choir and collaborating with campus colleagues on racial-equity initiatives.

“We are thrilled to have Rev. Gill join the Ministry Team,” said Rev. Bruce Puckett, assistant dean of the Chapel. “She has demonstrated great capacity for connecting with students and creating and leading programs, and I’m confident she will enhance the Chapel’s work with students in general and students of color in particular.”

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Words of Wisdom for the Campus Community

Since the fall of 2020, Chapel Dean Luke Powery has been writing a regular guest column for the student newspaper The Chronicle The columns, which run every-other Monday during the academic year, are a cross between a newspaper op-ed and a homily, providing wisdom and pastoral perspective for students and the wider Duke community.

“I approach these columns the way I approach the Baccalaureate sermon I give each year to graduating seniors—that’s the kind of audience I have in mind,” Dean Powery says. “In these essays, I am drawing on the Christian tradition and my own life experience to try to offer a word of encouragement or perspective or even challenge for issues I see students facing. I attempt to speak about human values and wisdom for living in today’s world.”

The column began in the fall of 2020 back when The Chronicle still printed some of its issues; as of this academic year, the newspaper is entirely online. On the paper’s website columns by Dean Powery received a total of about 2,600 views last year, and this year are averaging more than 300 views per column.

The column is edited this year by Duke senior Margot Armbruster, The Chronicle’s opinion editor and a Chapel Scholar.

“I find it a great break from personal and academic responsibilities to read the column,” she says. “It’s a very digestible format for Chronicle readers to absorb a sermon-like message in 750-1000 words, so I think it allows more people to access Luke’s preaching than otherwise would have been able.”

Topics for the columns are sometimes spurred by current events, such as the one written to celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision for a “world house” published on King’s holiday or another on the connection between the ashes from fires from the war in Ukraine and the ashes of Ash Wednesday. Others come from poignant personal experiences, such as playing a family heirloom harmonic during the pandemic or the painful death of a niece in 2005. Many of the columns are reminders to a busy, and at times hectic campus, about what’s most important in life with titles such as “Burying fear,” “A coherent life,” “Joy?” and “Revere one another.”

A recent column “Remembering Trayvon and Jesus” was prompted by the ten-year anniversary of the killing of the Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. It’s a tragedy to which Dean Powery has a personal connection. “That tragic act of violence against his young, 17-year-old Black body haunts me, and hits close to home because although he was visiting his father in Sanford when he was killed, he lived with his mother in Miami Gardens,

Florida, which is where I grew up,” he wrote in the column.

Ever since Martin’s death, Dean Powery has kept a bag of Skittles and a can of Arizona Iced Tea on his desk—the items Martin was carrying when he was killed—next to a ceramic communion plate and cup from the Holy Land. The juxtaposition of the items, he explained, prompted a reflection on the significance of “remembering rightly.” The memory of Trayvon Martin’s death is a reminder of injustice and brokenness, while Jesus’s words at the Last Supper to “Do this in remembrance of me” are a call for healing action in the world.

“To remember rightly first means that as I gaze upon these elements—Arizona Iced tea and Skittles or a communion cup and plate—I remember all of those who are viewed as non-human rubbish that can be killed or be treated as wretched waste,” he wrote. “Second, to remember rightly is to also believe that remembering can be a practice to re-member the human community. To re-member is the opposite of dismembering; it is to put some broken things back together again.”

In addition to reaching the Chronicle’s regular readership, Dean Powery’s word traveled well beyond campus. A post on Facebook about the column reached 4,800 users and was shared twenty-four times. On Twitter, Duke Divinity School alumnus Rev. Rob Lee wrote, “A moving column by @DukeChapel Dean, the Rev. Dr. Luke Powery.” And, the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina plans to reprint the essay in its Baptist Informer magazine.

Dean Powery speaks during an interfaith vigil marking the twentieth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The communion plate and cup next to the bag of Skittles and can of iced tea on Dean Powery’s desk were the inspiration for one of his columns.

A Student Testimony

On February 20, 2022, Duke senior Maria Morrison gave a Student Testimony during the Chapel’s Sunday morning service. Here are excerpts from it:

Today, I am reaffirming my faith and my commitment to God before leaving the place that brought me so much closer to Him.

I grew up in a fantastic Christian household. When I came to Duke, for the first time I felt really and truly alone. In an effort to find some solace, I eventually started slipping into the Chapel late at night. I would go to the Memorial Chapel, sometimes praying and sometimes just sitting in silence. I didn’t know if it would help, but it gave me time to reflect and reconnect with

God. Over time, it brought me peace.

On one of those nights, I encountered my favorite Bible verse, in Romans 5, verses 3 and 4: “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Following the trials I went through my first year here, I was able to establish a relationship with God in my own right, not simply because I followed my mom to church.

This Chapel and this congregation have been vital to my growth as a Christian. I am so grateful for the transformations in my life over the past few years, and I attribute them to the hope that my new relationship with God has granted me.

Delving into the Roots of Spiritual Practices

Some spiritual practices such as yoga and meditation have become part of American mainstream culture. But their popularity can sometimes obscure their roots in faith traditions and even their true meanings. A conversations series “Spiritual Practices: Return to the Roots” organized by the Chapel this spring gave students the opportunity to hear from campus Religious Life leaders about the origins and depth of spiritual practices from their faiths.

The topics were: “Reasoning and Islam” by Muslim Chaplain Joshua Salaam, “Food and Judaism” by Rabbi Elana Friedman, “Yoga and Hinduism” by Hindu Chaplain Priya Amaresh, and “Mindfulness and Buddhism” by Buddhist Chaplain Francesca Morfesis.

Students Embrace Nighttime Tower Climbs

Left: Hindu Chaplain Priya Amaresh leads a group in a yoga exercise.

This year students have had the opportunity to climb the steps to the top of the Chapel tower at night. Once a month the Chapel ministry team organizes these “nighttime tower climbs” just for students. Fully subscribed, more than 500 students have signed up for the climbs to date. The special experience gives them a rare view of Duke and Durham, lets them participate in a Duke tradition, and offers time for bonding with other students away from academic pressures. It is also an opportunity for Chapel ministers to welcome students to the Chapel who might otherwise never attend a service or concert.

The Ongoing Tradition of Faithful Preaching

On February 13 of this year, the Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale, Div ’79, stepped into the Duke Chapel pulpit as the Clevus and L. H. Boyles guest preacher on the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany. Currently the senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Atlanta, Hale preached her sermon on Psalm 1.

“This psalm is a wisdom psalm in that it is instructive and gives guidance to the one who truly wants to be happy,” she said. “It’s a brief song that cuts to the chase and without apology depicts the two choices for happiness

available to humans: It contrasts the way of the godly and the ungodly— those who are truly happy and those who aren’t.”

Beyond its message about the nature of true happiness delivered to the congregation that Sunday morning, the sermon added to a long and living tradition of preaching at Duke Chapel. Hale herself has preached in the Chapel at least two other times (in 1982 and 1996), sharing the Chapel pulpit over the course of nearly a century with Chapel deans, Divinity School professors, and guest preachers such as the Rev. Billy Graham, the Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, the Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, Dr. Paul Tillich, Dr. Phyllis Trible, and Bishop Desmond Tutu.

The Chapel’s Living Tradition online preaching resource explores the depth

of that tradition—and its value for scholars, theologians, and students today. The expertise of Duke Divinity School faculty, research by Duke students, and the reflections of renowned preachers activate the history of preaching with new questions and considerations. The site is regularly updated with commentary on sermons held in the Duke Chapel Recordings digital archive. Presented on the facing page are excerpts from two recent Living Tradition interviews, conducted over Zoom during the pandemic, about sermons in the archive.

Explore the Living Tradition online preaching resource at chapel.duke.edu/livingtradition. Learn more about the Duke Chapel Recordings archive at repository.duke.edu/ dc/dukechapel

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale, Div ’79, preached at Duke Chapel on February 13, 2022.

Dean Powery preaches on Ash Wednesday, March 2, 2022.

Excerpts from the Living Tradition Website

Cynthia Hale on Preaching God’s Sovereignty

The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale, Div ’79, senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Atlanta, reflected on her sermon And We Know That based on Romans 8 preached on July 14, 1996.

I entered Duke Divinity School in the fall of 1976. I believed that year … that racism would be eliminated. How wrong I was. We’re still dealing with the reality of racism, but I’m still fighting it…. Perhaps it is that holy frustration that keeps me fighting, that won’t let me give up. And so, Paul is wrestling with that in this text because he talks about the frustrations, the struggles that we go through, but they’re not worth comparing to the glory that shall be revealed.

Charles Campbell on Preaching in the Face of Climate Change

The Rev. Dr. Charles Campbell, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor Emeritus of Homiletics at Duke Divinity School, discussed the sermon A Christian Life-Style preached by the Rev. Dr. Carlyle Marney on September 11, 1977.

It’s a credit to Marny in 1977 [to preach about environmental concerns]. It was the energy crisis…. He’s quite clear about the limits of creation. It’s like this garden and it has its limits—we can’t use it as much as we want forever. That’s a very good and helpful insight, even though he’s not really talking about climate change. There are also really powerful sections of the sermon where he’s discussing our inextricable relationship to the created order. So, he’s doing two things that are really important, actually quite early before we were talking about climate change.

Remembering a Student ‘Dialogue Sermon’ from 1969

Redmon in 1969

As a senior at Duke in 1969, Thomas Redmon, T ’69, received a surprising invitation to participate in a “dialogue sermon” in a Duke Chapel service with fellow undergraduate Reed Kramer and the Rev. Dr. Howard Wilkerson, then dean of the Chapel. A member of the campus Wesley Fellowship and active in the ecumenical student group University Christian Movement, Redmon (who then had the last name Raper) agreed to the endeavor.

“I remember it being exhilarating,” Redmon said in a recent phone interview. “It was a relatively new idea at Duke Chapel.”

In the three-way sermon preached on May 4, 1969, Dean Wilkerson began by putting forward different ideas about the mission and identity

of the church. Then, the two students and Wilkerson rotated in giving their views. According to a transcript of the sermon, Redmon says at one point:

[The individual] acknowledges that only in being in a relationship with others can he find himself—and in that process of true self-identity, he allows the church to become—he makes possible the church, that community which gives up its life for the risk and possibility of finding new life.

Looking back on the experience, Redmon sees the sermon in the context of the times.

“One of the most important things for me is that I felt like many of the fairly progressive, even radical ideas that were beginning to surface…—it was an opportunity to get those thoughts into the mainstream of religious thinking at Duke,” he said.

After graduating from Duke, Redmon went to seminary at Boston University and became ordained in

the United Methodist Church. He then earned a doctorate in public policy and made his career in education administration.

Find a full transcript of the sermon, titled The Identity Crisis of the Church: A Three-Way Dialogue Sermon, in the Duke Chapel Recordings digital archive on the Duke Libraries website.

Charles Campbell

SACRED MUSIC & THE ARTS

Above: In conjunction with the Reliquary of Complicated Truths exhibition, the artist Lanecia Rouse Tinsley holds a public conversation with Duke Divinity Professor Dr. Kate Bowler on February 24, 2022.

Left: Lanecia Rouse Tinsley. Detail, Reliquary of Complicated Truths, 2021–22. Discarded wood, various papers, gauze, cheesecloth, thread, and 23k gold leaf.

Opposite page, left to right: Margaret Adams Parker. Detail, Station I Ecce Homo, Jesus is condemned to death, 2019. Paint, birchwood panels, and vinyl letters. Rebekah Schultz. Detail, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 2022. relief woodblock print.

Three Art Exhibitions This Spring

The Chapel views the creative arts as both an expression of worship to God and an expression of human longing for God. This spring, the Chapel is presenting a series of three exhibitions in the main sanctuary (nave).

Reliquary of Complicated Truths

For the month of February 2022, this interactive exhibition invited viewers to consider complicated truths in life for which there are no easy solutions. Presented by the Chapel and the Everything Happens Project, Reliquary of Complicated Truths by multidisciplinary artist Lanecia Rouse Tinsley was an installation created from discarded wood, paper, and other material that invites viewers to place within the cracks of the work their response to the prompt “In my life, there is no cure for....”

Commissioned by the Everything Happens Project, the artist took inspiration from a scene in a book by Duke Divinity School Professor Dr. Kate Bowler. In No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear), Professor Bowler describes being on a trip to the Grand Canyon when she comes upon a remote chapel that is covered in graffiti and slips of paper inserted in the walls with written pleas from the heart, such as “I miss you every day” and “Did you make it to heaven, my love?” Likewise in her work, Tinsely created a vessel for a viewer’s own thoughts, stories, and complicated truths.

Stations of the Cross

During Lent, the Chapel has on view the Stations of the Cross exhibition by artist Margaret Adams Parker. The panels of the exhibition depict Christ’s Journey to the Cross with contemporary figures rendered in muted browns. Parker focuses in these paintings on Christ’s strength in the face of suffering and the intimacy of his encounters with others on his Via Dolorosa.

Communion of Saints: A Reflection on the Body of Christ through Time and Space

On view in the Chapel from April 18 to May 16, Communion of Saints: A Reflection on the Body of Christ through Time and Space presents woodblock prints of past saints and important figures of the church alongside images of current students, faculty, and staff at Duke. The series of prints represents the beautiful diversity of the body of Christ across time, place, and culture. Communion of Saints was created by Rebekah Schultz, a Duke Divinity School student. Schultz was selected as this year’s Duke University Chapel C. Eric Lincoln Fellow. The annual C. Eric Lincoln Theology and Arts Fellowship provides funding to an undergraduate or graduate student to complete a sacred art project and is named in honor of C. Eric Lincoln who was a professor of Religion and Culture at Duke University from 1976–1993.

Chapel Provides Leadership in Sacred Music Through Publication Series

The impact of the Chapel’s music program is visible at organ recitals, in worship services with one of the choirs singing, and during the annual performances of Handel’s Messiah. Both in-person and online, we continue to fill the world with Sacred Music. But what may be less visible is how Chapel Music contributes to church music around the country and across the world through a publication series of sacred music scores.

In the two years since it was launched, the twelve scores published in the “Music from Duke Chapel Series” with ECS Publishing Group/MorningStar Music have sold more than 20,000 copies—and that was during the pandemic when many choirs were inactive or scaled back. As choirs return to singing together, the series is on track to add another six scores this spring.

“Any established choir and conductor is programming ‘the greatest hits’ from the last six hundred years—music from the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern eras,” Chapel Music Director Zebulon Highben explains about the purpose of the series, “but they are also always on the lookout for new music.”

“By establishing a new publication series, we are saying that we want to be a leader in church music, not only in performing new music, but in identifying, highlighting, and then publishing it for other choirs,” he says.

One church that has benefited from the series is First

Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina. For Christmas 2020, they recorded a setting from the series by composer Chad Fothergill of “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.” This past December their choir sang it in a live concert. The church’s director of music, Dr. Daniel Cole, says the piece was “the perfect way to begin our Advent concert.”

“The mysterious, hushed, and haunting quality of the string writing serves as a beautiful, musical meditation on this ancient hymn and on the mystery of the Incarnation,” he says. “The work ends with a stunning and transcendent descant, one that will truly inspire the entire ensemble and congregation.”

In addition to musical excellence, the criteria for the series includes “pieces performed in worship or in concert at Duke Chapel, including newly commissioned works, modern editions of historic repertoire, and liturgical music by a diverse array of composers.”

Some pieces are new arrangements of beloved songs such as Roger Holland’s treatment of the spiritual “Balm in Gilead,” while others are original compositions, such as Jane Marshall’s “Words from Two Women.” The composers themselves have diverse backgrounds. By the end of the spring, the series will have published five pieces by women composers and seven pieces by Black composers. So far nine of the twelve currently published pieces have debuted in Chapel services or concerts.

“I used to work with a pastor who talked about worship being both ‘home and journey,’” says Mark Lawson, the president of ECS Publishing/ MorningStar Music who works on the series, “and this series represents both.”

Dr. Zebulon Highben conducts the Chapel Choir during Sunday morning worship.

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Chad Fothergill

“There is the René Clausen piece ‘It Is Well with My Soul (When Peace Like a River)’ that is done so well—that’s a home piece,” he says, “and then there are pieces that are going to push them a little and move us somewhere else.”

While many of the pieces in the series come from composers outside of Duke, the Chapel Music staff are contributing to the series through their own creative talents. For example, a forthcoming arrangement of Samuel Scheidt’s “Puer natus in Bethlehem” was edited by Chapel Music Associate Conductor Philip Cave and premiered as part of the Chapel’s 2019 national Christmas broadcast The Marvel of This Night. The premiere of Joanna Marsh’s Te Deum and Jubilate came under the direction of Chapel Organist Christopher Jacobson as part of the recent Poetry in Music concert by the Chapel’s Evensong Singers.

Already an established composer when he came to the Chapel, Highben is also contributing some of his own new works to the series. One of them is “Easter Dawn,” an anthem based on the sonnet of the same name by the British poet Malcolm Guite. As part of a Chapel worship service in September of 2019, Guite read the poem. The text was so striking to Highben that he sought permission to set it to music. The Chapel Choir premiered the piece as a virtual anthem recording in the online Easter service on April 4, 2021. This year they will sing it in person during the 9:00 a.m. communion service on Easter Sunday, April 17.

Since coming to the Chapel, Highben has also composed hymns, including one in honor of Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of Dean Powery’s ordination.

“When you are writing a hymn tune, you are writing music for a group of people who have not practiced and aren’t necessarily musically trained,” Highben explains.

“So, the trick with a hymn tune is to write something that is accessible enough that people can sing it having only heard the melody once, but also interesting enough that it doesn’t just retread what the thousands of other hymn tunes have already done.”

While the Music from Duke Chapel Series is new, it builds on a longstanding tradition of music publication at the Chapel. In the 1970s, under former Chapel Music Director Benjamin Smith, the Chapel published a choral music series with the Chapel Hill-based Henshaw Music, including works by major composers of the time such as Emma Lou Diemer and Gilbert M. Martin.

Then in 1987, the Beach Hymnody Endowment was established in honor of late Duke Divinity School Professor Waldo Beach with the purpose of producing new hymns. Over the years, the endowment has funded hymn competitions and commissions. One of the commissioned hymns, “Praise the Source of Faith and Learning” by Thomas Troeger, is based on the Duke motto Eruditio et Religio and appears in several hymnals. Another commissioned hymn about reconciliation comes from an intriguing combination of a text by the late Duke theologian C. Eric Lincoln and a tune by the well-known composer David Hurd.

The new Duke Chapel Series is “sort of a return to form,” Highben says. “There was first this activity of generating new choral music, and then there was this period of generating new hymnody, and now we are bringing those two things back and linking them up for the broader community of choirs and conductors nationwide.”

The hymn “Open Wide the Doors” by Brad Croushorn was selected as the winner of the Chapel’s 2021 Hymn Competition.

Croushorn’s hymn text was chosen from among sixty entries from three countries. In keeping with the Chapel’s focus this year on the value of compassion, the competition sought hymns with connections to compassion in the Bible and in human relations.

“As I see it, practicing compassion—for others and also for ourselves—is what creates an opening (‘doors’ and ‘windows’) to enter into an authentic connection with each other,” Croushorn said about his hymn. “Practicing compassion illuminates our commonalities and brings us to the gentle understanding that indeed, God is in our midst. To me, it is the framework of living in the way of love. And this idea was running in my mind continually while writing ‘Open Wide the Doors.’”

A composer and vocalist based in the Raleigh-Durham area, Croushorn is an associate editor of School

Choral Publications at Alfred Music Publishing and minister of music and liturgy at All Saints’ United Methodist Church in Morrisville, North Carolina. He also participates in the local music scene through the NC Songwriters Co-op and Carolina Contemporary Composers. As a performer, he has sung in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia and at Avery Fisher Hall in New York and multiple years at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Learn more about his work at bradcroushorn.net.

Composer Brad Croushorn Wins Duke Chapel Hymn Competition

Brad Croushorn

Stops along this interactive walking tour seek to understand God’s work in Durham.

At one stop on the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope, Kiana Hertogh stood inside one of the slave quarters at the Stagville Plantation. There, she had a poignant reflection:

“I imagined myself as a twenty-something-yearold enslaved woman looking out of the window,” says Hertogh, a Duke Divinity School student. “I had this profound moment of having the privilege of choice, so how am I going to respond?”

“I have freedom, so I should live into that freedom— embrace it, be thankful for it, celebrate it,” she says about the thoughts the experience prompted for her, “but then I have a responsibility to dispense that freedom, to share it, to work towards a community where all people have that same freedom.”

Hertogh was part of a group of seventeen Duke students and community members who spent a weekend in February praying, reading scripture, and visiting sites in Durham that are significant in the city’s histories. Led by the nonprofit DurhamCares, a Chapel community partner, the three-day pilgrimage explores the intersection of the history of Durham, the biblical story, and the lives of the participants. Sites on the pilgrimage include not only the Stagville Plantation, which teaches about the lives of people who were enslaved on the plantation; but also, Duke Memorial United Methodist Church, located near Duke East Campus and named in honor of the Duke Family; and Parrish Street in downtown Durham, the location of what was called “Black Wall Street.” At these places, participants hear from community leaders, such

as Virginia Williams, who was part of an early Civil Rights sit-in in Durham, and John Blackfeather Jeffries, an elder in the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation.

One of the leaders of the pilgrimage was the Rev. Dr. M. Keith Daniel, T ’90, D ’05, D ’16, a special programs instructor at Duke and former director of community and campus engagement at the Chapel. As a facilitator, Daniel draws on the book A Mile in My Shoes: Cultivating Compassion in which the South African Methodist minister Trevor Hudson lays out three elements for Christian pilgrimage: encountering suffering, reflection on the scriptures, and openness to transformation into greater Christlikeness.

“There’s a scripture in Jeremiah where the prophet says, ‘Seek the welfare of the city,’” Daniel says. “I think part of that is listening to the history of the city, understanding it, reckoning with it, being troubled by it, and then hopefully moving to some positive action.”

The spiritual dimension of the pilgrimage became clear for Hertogh, the Divinity student who also serves this year as the Chapel’s intern for worship and student engagement.

“Something that was brought up a lot was ‘God is already present in Durham,’ so as people of faith, we don’t need to bring God into situations of lament and suffering,” she says. “The question is more, ‘How do we partner with God in the liberating work that God is doing?’”

Beyond the three days of learning, praying, and reflecting, DurhamCares provides ways for participants to build on the experience. The organization nurtures a

network of about 500 pilgrimage alumni through events and an online discussion group, according to Reynolds Chapman, the executive director of DurhamCares.

“We really emphasize that pilgrimage is not just a weekend experience,” he says. “We want people to cultivate pilgrimage as a way of life.”

“Other cities have asked us about how these pilgrimages are done,” Daniel says. “In Raleigh right now there are churches that have consulted with DurhamCares about shaping their own Raleigh Pilgrimage.”

“This is an important time to do this kind of work,” he says.

“Place is really important, and I didn’t want to be in Durham without knowing the history and the story of the place,” Hertogh says. “The pilgrimage was an opportunity to listen deeper into the story of Durham.”

Through its partnership with DurhamCares, the Chapel is organizing groups to go on two pilgrimages each year. The next one will be the weekend of September 9–11, 2022.

Participants in the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope travel through downtown Durham. Photos by Valerie Helbert.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Collecting Stories from Black Alumni

PathWays Fellows

The PathWays Fellows pose on the porch of the PathWays House in Durham’s West End: Taylor Patton, T ’21; Sarah Watkins, T ’21; Boyoung Michelle Kim, T ’21; and Ce’Ondra Ellison, T ’21. Through the Chapel’s PathWays program, they are living in a Christian community, seeking discernment about their vocations, and serving with these community partners (respectively): Families Moving Forward, Duke Division of Family Medicine and Community Health, Adopt-A-Grandparent, and World Relief Durham.

Humanitarian Service Award Winner

The Chapel is collecting the stories of Black alumni at four universities in North and South Carolina. The “Counting It All Joy!” initiative aims to better understand and to make more visible the narratives of Black people who have attended Davidson College, Duke University, Furman University, and Johnson C. Smith University between 1990 and 2020. The Rev. Dr. M. Keith Daniel, a special programs instructor at Duke and an alumnus of Trinity College and Duke Divinity School, is leading the team of researchers conducting the interviews, and compiling edited narratives for publication in advance of Duke’s centennial commemorations in 2024. Anyone interested in being interviewed may contact Rev. Dr. Daniel at kd1@duke.edu.

Employee Memorial Service

This fall, the Chapel recognized Ruby Thompkins (pictured with award), manager of information services at Duke Police, with the Humanitarian Service Award for her efforts supporting education for African American boys in Durham. In this photo, she poses with her award with (left to right): the Rev. Breana van Velzen, the Chapel’s community minister; Chapel Dean Luke Powery; Tompkins herself; and Donna Carrington, executive director of Chapel community partner Community Empowerment Fund.

Each year, the Chapel partners with Duke Health in remembering the Duke employees who have died during the past year. In this photo, Chaplain Resident Christopher Haywood offers a reflection while Rev. Artie Hendricks from Duke Health Chaplain Services lights a candle.

SUPPORTING THE CHAPEL

Longtime Chapel Supporters Serve on Sunday Mornings and Beyond

“We have always been there for forty-seven years now,” Ellie Ferguson says about Duke Chapel. “We have always been there as a place of worship, as a place to be with friends, and to celebrate weddings and baptisms.”

James and Eleanor Ferguson’s ties to the Chapel stretch back to when Jim was an undergraduate student at UNCChapel Hill and was drawn to the Chapel as his regular place of worship. Married in Duke Chapel’s Memorial Chapel in 1975, the Fergusons have contributed to the formation of many of the traditions and groups that shape the Chapel today—from the introduction of the Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols service, to the expansion of the Chapel Choir, and the creation of the Congregation at Duke Chapel.

“You’ve got young minds being shaped by their experiences at the Chapel,” Jim says. “It’s intended to lift your mind out of the quotidian.”

Today, Jim and Ellie serve in roles at the Chapel that are important for Sunday morning worship services, especially as the services return to many of the practices from before the pandemic. Ellie is the head of the altar guild and Jim leads the ushers.

“We’re always behind the curtain in the Memorial Chapel; nobody ever sees us,” Ellie explains about the work of the altar guild, which has about fifteen members. Although it’s behind-the-scenes work, she says, “it’s an important aspect of the overall service to polish the silver chalices and to ensure clean linens.”

As head usher, Jim arrives early to services and assigns up to eight ushers to positions greeting people at the Chapel’s doors.

“The ushers need to be aware, they may be the first and only face of the university a stranger will encounter,” he says. “Whenever we have new ushers, I say, ‘Look, you represent Duke and you want people to come away with a friendly,

and James Ferguson.

warm feeling about their interaction here.’”

Altar guild members also extend hospitality to people attending services, although in a subtler way. “There are many of us that sit in the back of the Chapel and that is actually how we’ve gotten new members of the altar guild,” Ellie says. “We make friends with other families that also sit in the back of the Chapel and then they get interested in the altar guild.”

Both Jim and Ellie build community holding annual lunches to express their appreciation to the volunteers in their groups.

The Fergusons have been committed for decades to the Chapel as a place Jim calls “numinous” and also a community with vibrant traditions of worship, music, and hospitality.

“It’s just a place I can’t imagine living without,” Ellie says, “Just walking through the Chapel really is an amazing experience for both of us because our whole lives have been there for so long so there’s no question about supporting it.”

In addition to their dedicated volunteering, the Fergusons have been trusted thought-partners at the Chapel, offering insight into the experience of visitors, congregation members, and the development of programs and projects. They are also generous donors who support the mission and ministry of the Chapel.

Eleanor

CHAPEL NEWS & NOTES

Welcome New Staff Members

Early Music Excellence

In addition to the Rev. Racquel Gill (see page 5), the Chapel welcomes these new staff members (clockwise from top left): Aaron Canipe, Communications Specialist; Emerson Cobbs, Visitor Relations Assistant; Kyle MacDonald, Staff Specialist; and Ken Davenport, Visitor Relations Assistant.

An Opportunity for Renewal of Vows Ceremony

Every year about seventy-five couples are married in the Chapel. New this year, couples who are already married have the opportunity to request to reserve the Chapel for a Renewal of Vows ceremony. You need not have been married at Duke Chapel. Eligibility for reaffirmation of wedding vows only requires that one member of the couple, or one of their parents or grandparents, must be a current full-time Duke student, a graduate of Duke University, or a current full-time Duke employee. For more information, email chapelweddings@duke.edu.

Under the direction of Dr. Philip Cave, the Chapel’s associate conductor for Chapel Music, the acclaimed British vocal ensemble Magnificat performed a range of early music repertoire in concerts and services during their weeklong residency at Duke, March 13–20. More than 1,000 people attended the offerings, which included a masterclass on singing early music.

The residency comes in addition to the Chapel’s Bach Cantata Series, which resumed this year and continues to be popular.

Early-career musicians will have an opportunity to benefit from the Chapel’s strengths in early music through the ChorWorks summer program June 13–19.

Praise for Evensong Singers Concert

The Classical Voice of North Carolina website wrote a review praising a recent concert by the Chapel’s Evensong Singers. “The choir was fullvoiced and filled the chapel with glorious sounds,” the reviewer wrote about the performance on February 27, 2022, titled “Poetry in Music.” “Soloists who sang from the choir were each superb with pleasing vocal timbre.”

“The performance was beautiful with sensitivity to the meaning of the words and the spirituality of the experience,” the reviewer said.

Dr. Philip Cave introduces Magnifact at their first concert, Songs of Protest and Rebellion, on March 16, 2022.

Student Preacher

Congratulations to Duke senior Joy Reeves, a member of the Duke Wesley Fellowship, on being selected as this year’s Student Preacher. An environmental science and policy major from Frederick, Maryland, Reeves preached a sermon titled Little Ponds during the Chapel’s Sunday morning service on March 27, 2022.

Dean Powery’s New Book Chapter

Chapel Dean Luke Powery is a contributor to the new book Shouting Above the Noisy Crowd: Biblical Wisdom and the Urgency of Preaching from Wipf and Stock Publishers. It’s a collection of essays from leaders in the field of homiletics offering wisdom on the art of preaching and is published in honor of Dr. Alyce M. McKenzie, D ’80, the Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Perkins School of Theology.

In his chapter on “Is Preaching Political?”, Dean Powery explains how preaching is inescapably political because of its theological foundation.

“The incarnation of God in Jesus was God’s political act or political sermon in that God entered the sphere of public human affairs,” he writes. God passes over the powerful leaders of Jesus’s time in order reveal himself in a baby born on the margins of the Roman empire. “Rooted in this understanding of the incarnation of God in Christ, one can say that not only is Jesus the Word of God political but the gospel he preaches in word and deed is a political act as well.”

Holy Week and Easter

The Chapel is observing Holy Week and Easter with these worship services and concerts:

Sunday, April 3, at 4:00 p.m. Spring Oratorio: Remember and Rejoice

Sunday, April 10, at 11:00 a.m. Palm Sunday Service

Sunday, April 10, at 4:00 p.m. Choral Evensong

Monday, April 11–14, at 12-noon Holy Week Noon Services

Thursday, April 14, at 7:00 p.m. Maundy Thursday Service

Friday, April 15, at 11:30 a.m. on the Chapel Quad Procession of the Stations of the Cross

Friday, April 15, at 12-noon Good Friday Noon Service

Friday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m. Good Friday Tenebrae Service

Saturday, April 16, at 4:00 p.m. in Goodson Chapel Holy Saturday Concert

Sunday, April 17, at 6:30 a.m. in Duke Gardens Easter Sunrise Service

Sunday, April 17, at 9:00 a.m. Easter Day Service

Sunday, April 17, at 11:00 a.m. Easter Day Service

Sunday, April 17, at 4:00 p.m. Choral Evensong

THE REBIRTH OF HOPE

Amanda M. Hughes, Director of Development and Strategy

Dear Friends,

At Duke Chapel, we are watching the rebirth of hope. After a long season of masking and grief, closed doors and empty pews, the sanctuary is open again and members of the campus and the community are in attendance for everything from Sunday morning worship services to organ recitals.

Every week, we see more and more tourists, visitors, and friends coming through the front doors. They enter, look up to the vaulted ceiling and down the long center aisle to the chancel and the altar, then up again to the stainedglass windows. Tourists take a quick picture. Visitors ask questions. Friends greet one another in the side aisle. But many of our visitors come here alone, stopping by to pause, pray, and give thanks. They sit down and read from the Bibles in our pews. They light candles in Memorial Chapel. They give thanks.

As beautiful as the architecture of Chapel may be, it becomes more beautiful when enlivened by the people who come here to pause and to hope. This year, weddings and baptisms have also returned to the Chapel. Both remind us that hope is alive in the world. The promises made in wedding ceremonies and the prayers of baptism are both sacred and practical. They are solemn and joyful. The important pronouncements of “Yes” and “I do” remind us that we each have a role to play in the future.

In November of 1992, Dr. Richard Lischer ended a sermon at Duke Chapel with this sentence:

Anyone can say it, dear brothers and sisters. You don’t have to be a prophet or a preacher but only a man or woman, a little boy or girl, of faith: “I have seen the future. And its name is Jesus.”

Looking ahead, may we all say “Yes” and “I do.”

Thank you for being present in this work with us and thank you for every gift given.

Please join us in this time of hope by making a gift to the Annual Fund today.

Yours truly, Amanda Millay Hughes

Your gift today is 100% tax deductable. Please make your check payable to Duke Chapel and mail to:

Director of Development and Strategy

Duke University Chapel 401 Chapel Drive, Box 90974 Durham, North Carolina 27708

For information about credit card or stock gifts, please contact Erica Thomas for assistance at (919) 684-5955 or at chapeldevelopment@duke.edu or gifts.duke.edu/chapel.

Visitors at the Duke Chapel Christmas Open House.

The wedding of Mollie Tisdale Fisher and Jonathan Fisher on August 21, 2021. Photo by Danielle Pressley Photography.

Do More Than You Thought Possible

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