2024–2025 Annual Report

B R ID GIN G FA I T H & L E A R NIN G

Annual Report 2024–2025

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Letter from the Dean Dear Friends, “Not an easy road” was the title for my (Duke) Chronicle column at the end of the last semester. In the same series of columns, I wrote a piece on “Don’t hesitate to celebrate.” As I look back on the 2024–2025 academic year, I can see a place for both of these columns as they give us a glimpse of what it means to be fully human. We live with lament and joy, with celebration and challenge. Yet in faith, through every circumstance of life, we open our hearts to the Spirit of God’s breath and movement through our life and work.

We had many reasons to celebrate this year. Among the highlights of the year was the Centennial Founders’ Sunday service in September. We joined with university leaders, Duke family members, and many others to give thanks for God’s goodness in Duke University’s first 100 years. In November, we organized “We Believe” with Religious Life groups from across faith traditions. This gracious hospitality to faith has supported and strengthened the Duke community since the university’s founding.

In December, we continued our longstanding tradition of performing Handel’s Messiah, while also bringing its beauty and message of hope to more than 140,000 online viewers.

Throughout the year, students in the Chapel Scholars program—now more than 130 of them—served in worship leadership roles, gathered for study and prayer, and worked to help communities in Durham and the mountains of western North Carolina.

In the pages of this annual report, you will find many more reasons for celebration—from interfaith conversations on difficult topics and our inter-religious Bridge Internship program of reflection and service to Jazz Vespers with a musical icon and an evening with a masterful poet.

I thank you for your support of all of these celebrations. Every moment of ministry is made possible by people like you who believe in bridging faith and learning at Duke.

In my column “Not an easy road,” I gave the example of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who sat down to pray at his kitchen table at a time of heightened fear and doubt. “It seemed as though I could hear the quiet assurance of an inner voice,” King said, “saying: ‘Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth; and God will be at your side forever.’”

Whether through celebrations or laments, I can attest that God has been with Duke Chapel through it all and will continue to be our help as we stand up for and embody our values—hope, compassion, community, justice, creativity, and joy—and humbly live out our mission of bridging faith and learning.

With gratitude that you choose to be part of the Duke Chapel community,

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

Your Support Matters

Graduating students pose after a baccalaureate ceremony.

1,700+

Students Participate Regularly in Religious Life Groups

Pastoral Services (Weddings, Memorials, and Baptisms)

5,000,000+

$64,425

290,000+

138

Minutes Watched of Online Chapel Videos/Livestreams

Given to Local and International Nonprofits

Visits to Duke Chapel

Members in Chapel Choirs

42,726

134

Social Media Followers

4

79

Chapel Scholars

A Global Community of Supporters With the financial support of faithful donors and Duke University, Duke Chapel pursues its vision of responding to God’s all-inclusive love at Duke, in Durham, and beyond.

Gifts to Duke Chapel come from supporters who live around the United States. The map below represents the places throughout the country where our supporters live with the deeper blue colors signifying the greater concentration of donors. Additionally, the Chapel received support from people in four countries: China, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

2024 –2025

1,162

Chapel Supporters

2,164

Gifts from Donors in

47

States and

4

Countries

5

Celebrating a Centennial Duke Chapel joined in the university’s 2024 Centennial Celebration with three official Centennial events and programs.

OUR FIRST LADY OF JAZZ: CELEBRATING MARY LOU WILLIAMS APRIL 14, 2024

This concert celebrated the life and legacy of Mary Lou Williams, the pioneering jazz artist who served as an artist-in-residence at Duke during the final years of her life. To celebrate Williams’s legacy, the Duke Chapel Choir and Chapel organists teamed up with Duke Arts Vice Provost John Brown, the North Carolina Central University Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and Patrice Turner, D ’24, the director of worship and the arts at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Together, the groups presented an array of Black sacred music, from vocal jazz and gospel to spirituals, classical, and the blues. One reviewer described the concert’s atmosphere: “The overarching sense of unification was felt in the very last pew, and I applaud the ensembles for a thoroughly uplifting afternoon of music.”

CENTENNIAL FOUNDERS’ SUNDAY SERVICE SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

The Chapel partnered with Duke Divinity School and The Duke Endowment to give thanks to God for the university’s one hundredth anniversary, during a Sunday morning worship service that united strands of Duke history, musical genres, students, university leaders, Duke family members, and prayers of thanksgiving. The Centennial Founders’ worship service in Duke Chapel symbolized what Duke University was, is, and could become. Duke family member Charles Lucas offered remarks, students prayed in four languages, Duke President Vincent Price helped lead a litany of thanksgiving, Divinity School Dean Edgardo Colón-Emeric offered a benediction, Divinity alumna Patrice Turner sang a spiritual, and the Chapel Choir, organists, and Amalgam Brass led hymns that were sung at the 1935 dedication and fiftieth anniversary of the Chapel. In his sermon, Dean Luke Powery gave voice to the role that faith in the power of the Holy Spirit has played in the global rise of Duke.

WE BELIEVE NOVEMBER 17–18, 2024

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The university’s Centennial Celebration offered an opportunity to highlight the longstanding Duke tradition of what Dean Powery has called “generous pluralism.” Duke Chapel and Religious Life leaders teamed up to present the “We Believe” initiative with two days of campus programs that explored themes of Feasting and Fasting, Gathering and Departing, and Sound and Silence. Invited speakers and campus Religious Life leaders presented dozens of opportunities to experience the faith traditions at Duke—from chatting with a chaplain on the Bryan Center Plaza to walking the Labyrinth in the Nasher Museum of Art to a keynote address by Dr. Simran Jeet Singh, executive director of the Religion & Society Program at the Aspen Institute.

The The Duke Duke Chapel Chapel Choir Choir and and NCCU NCCU Vocal Vocal Jazz Jazz Ensemble Ensemble perform perform during during thethe Our Our First First Lady Lady of of Jazz Jazz concert. concert.

Speaking Speaking during during thethe Centennial Centennial Founders’ Founders’ Sunday Sunday Service Service areare (left (left to to right): right): Angier Angier Biddle Biddle Duke, Duke, Jr.;Jr.; Duke Duke President President Vincent Vincent Price; Price; Mary Mary Duke Duke Trent Trent Jones; Jones; and and Beth Beth Hubbard.

Hubbard.

Students Students walk walk a labyrinth a labyrinth in in thethe Nasher Nasher Museum Museum of of ArtArt during during thethe WeWe Believe Believe initiative. initiative.

From the joys of the Last Day of Classes to the privilege of being the Student Preacher, students engage with the Chapel throughout the year.

S TU D E NT E N GAG E M E NT

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rom the Orientation Sunday service through the Last Day of Classes festival, students come to Duke Chapel to celebrate, pray, reflect, learn, sing, and more.

One student who developed a deep relationship with the Chapel community is Riley Hamp, T ’25.

A biology major from Waynesboro, Virginia, she began regularly attending Chapel worship services as a first-year student. In her sophomore year, she became a Chapel Scholar, finding a faith community with other Christian students. For her remaining three years at Duke, she participated in Chapel Scholar service projects and shared meals, read scripture, and served communion in Sunday services. She also took up the challenge with other Scholars to read and reflect on the same book of the Bible every day for a month.

As a senior, Hamp was selected as the 2025 Student Preacher, so on Sunday, February 23, she stepped into the Duke Chapel pulpit with her friends, parents, and grandparents in the congregation in front of her. She had the privilege and challenge of preaching on the passage in the Gospel of Luke in which Jesus calls on his disciples to “Love your enemies, do good to those who abuse you.”

She began by citing pop star Taylor Swift’s song “Karma,” which describes how the singer’s detractors will get their comeuppance. Then, she drew a contrast with the biblical message.

“Our human nature is often driven by reciprocity, yet Jesus invites us to take a different approach,” she said in her sermon “Faith Over Fairness.” “He calls us to rise above the instinct for reciprocity, and when faced with injustice, to respond with gratitude instead of attitude.”

Turning to the Old Testament reading from Genesis, Hamp described Joseph’s example of forgiving his brothers for selling him into slavery.

“Choosing faith over fairness, in gratitude over attitude, in times of hardship, means that we let go of the desire for karma and embrace the peace that comes from trusting God instead,” she said in conclusion.

“When we focus on God’s grace, we are free to love others, even those who have wronged us and reflect his mercy in a world that so desperately needs it.”

Hamp’s service and commitment to her Christian faith make her a true Chapel Scholar, bridging faith and learning at Duke through study, prayer, and fellowship.

134

$39,652

Chapel Scholars

1,700+

Scan the QR code to watch Riley Hamp’s sermon “Faith Over Fairness.”

Grants to support Faith-Related Student Travel and Projects

18

Students Participate Regularly

Students Participated in

in Religious Life Groups

Alternative Spring Break Trips

9

CHAPEL SCHOLARS

THEOLOGY UNDERGROUND

In all, 134 Chapel Scholars deepen the intellectual, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of their lives through engagement with Rev. Bruce Puckett and members of the Chapel ministry team.

A signature program at the Chapel, the Scholars offered leadership in worship services, volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, and developed cross-denominational relationships with a Christian focus. Over shared meals, the Scholars found fellowship and consolation as they navigated the academic year. Together, they also read books to deepen their understanding of the Christian tradition. This year’s books included Song in a Weary Throat by Pauli Murray and The Selfless Way of Christ by Henri Nouwen.

To mark the one hundredth anniversary of James Baldwin’s birthday, the Chapel’s Theology Underground series focused on the intersection of Black literature, theology, and belief. The Chapel’s minister for intercultural engagement, the Rev. Racquel Gill, joined guest speakers in leading discussions of authors such as Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright.

At the end of the year, Rev. Gill took a new position as Community Relations Supervisor in the Department of Equity and Inclusion for the city of Raleigh, N.C. She will be missed by the campus community, but we celebrate her new venture.

“At every community event that I go to for the Chapel Scholars, everyone’s very open to meeting new people, very inviting, very welcoming, and there’s just a lot of joy for the Lord that is radiated from this community.”

— Olivia Lee, T ’25 10

Students in the Chapel Scholars program have fun posing in front of the Chapel.

SPRING BREAK

RELIGIOUS LIFE AT DUKE

Every year, Chapel Scholars are invited to apply for support for alternative spring break trips. This year, the Chapel provided $39,652 in funding for Chapel Scholars and other students to do faith-related service work, study, and retreats around the country and abroad.

Rev. Gill also led an alternative spring break trip to Charleston, South Carolina, for Duke and North Carolina Central University students.

With a focus on “race, place, and faith,” fourteen students visited the International African American Museum, the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church, and the Avery Research Center for African American Culture at the College of Charleston.

Religious Life at Duke offers generous hospitality to students as they navigate their time at Duke.

Buddhist, Baháʼí, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and Muslim groups offer opportunities for the practices of their faith as well as service in the local community. Young people connect with their faith, with one another, and work together to build interfaith literacy and understanding.

More than 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students regularly participated in services, programs, and gatherings organized by the twenty-four campus Religious Life groups, convened and supported by the Chapel in collaboration with Student Affairs.

Religious Life groups reach beyond their core members. Combined, these groups engage more than 9,000 students and recent graduates through email and other communications.

Scan the QR code to learn more about Religious Life groups.

Students from Duke and North Carolina Central University on an alternative spring break trip in Charleston, South Carolina.

CULTIVATING INTERFAITH UNDERS TANDING FRIENDSHIP AND PARTNERSHIP

At Duke, friendships lay the groundwork for deepening understanding and strengthening collaboration.

The friendships among Religious Life leaders were important when Duke sought to promote understanding about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Gaza and other conflicts in the Middle East.

In the fall of 2024, the Provost’s Initiative on the Middle East presented “Universities and the IsraelPalestine Conflict: How to Discuss, How to Engage?” with Chapel Dean Luke Powery moderating. Jewish Chaplain Rabbi Elana Friedman and Muslim Chaplain Joshua Salaam were among the panelists who modeled how to promote dialogue without ignoring differences.

The Chapel was also a co-sponsor of a symposium on “Believing in the Holy Land: Religion in the Israel-Palestine Conflict” organized by the Center for Christianity and Scholarship.

THE INTERFAITH ROUNDTABLE

Convened by Assistant Dean of Religious Life Rev. Dr. Lyn Pace at the Chapel and Rabbi Elana Friedman with Jewish Life at Duke, the Interfaith Roundtable gathers Religious Life leaders to explore topics through the lens of various faith traditions, deepening their appreciation for one another and religious pluralism at Duke.

INAUGURAL PLURALISM LECTURE

Duke alumnus and First Amendment expert John Inazu described his vision for “confident pluralism” on campus and in the public square. As part of the Provost’s Initiative on Pluralism, Free Inquiry, and Belonging, the lecture offered a compelling framework for how to navigate religious differences on a campus with dozens of faith traditions.

The lecture “Pluralism, Particularity, and Possibility,” stressed “the courage to hold firm to our own convictions while making room for others to hold theirs.” Two hundred and fifty people attended the lecture in person or live online, with another 400 watching the recording.

Inazu also met with Religious Life leaders and students to discuss how faith groups can find common purpose while holding to the integrity of their beliefs.

“As I look out at all of you tonight, I’m reminded that pluralism isn’t just a theory—it’s embodied in the people we meet, the friendships we form, and the institutions that shape us.”

— John Inazu 12

Dean Luke Powery moderates a panel discussion on Universities and the Israel-Palestine Conflict.

Faculty lead an interfaith Faith and Learning lunchtime conversation.

Dr. John Inazu, a law professor and Duke alumnus, speaks at the Pluralism Lecture.

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EXPLORING MEANING WITH SAY THE THING

Aligned with Dean Powery’s vision of a “chapel without walls,” “Say the Thing” makes spiritual and ethical formation accessible in classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, and common spaces across campus. The Rev. Leah Torrey, director of special initiatives, meets students where they live and learn, always reminding them of the larger story of who they have been, who they are, and who they are becoming.

In the last year, Say the Thing “Lark” events engaged participants more than 3,000 times in creating personalized artifacts. From the outside, Lark events look like colorful, joyful moments of art-making fun and yet at the heart of every Lark is an opportunity for deeper exploration. At one Lark, hosted at the Pratt School for Engineering, over 200 engineering students took a marker to an existing page of text to create a “blackout poem” with the words left visible. New texts, as unique as their student authors, emerged from old texts, an exercise in everyday renewal.

The Duke Office of Climate and Sustainability invited Say the Thing to showcase and

Students transformed existing texts through “blackout poetry” at a Say the Thing Lark event.

organize multiple Larks at the Southeastern Student Sustainability Conference for close to 300 student leaders from universities across the south.

Conference students used bottle caps, discarded paper, and resin to create unique medallions featuring their most prized values like justice, kindness, community, and strength.

Howard Thurman said, “The desire to be one’s true self is ever persistent.” In “The Booth” from Say the Thing, participants are offered thoughtful prompts on a touchscreen kiosk, invited to a moment of silence, and then to respond to questions in a video recording. Each recording is sent directly to the user’s email inbox—a keepsake recording they can return to for further self-examination. More than 2,350 recordings have been made since the launch in 2024.

In a more intensive six-week program called “the Studio,” students draw from their own lives and the lives of influential thinkers, writers, and artists—such as Richard Feynman, Mary Oliver, and Malcolm X—to reevaluate the unfurling plotline of their personal story. The resulting short-form essays authored by Studio students are published in a variety of formats including a zine-style journal titled “our things.” Due to the Studio’s popularity on campus, Say the Thing expanded its services to the broader community. Fourteen early career Durham public school teachers participated in a program offered by Say the Thing to Duke’s TeachHouse.

The “Hamster,” another Say the Thing program, can be found on the Say the Thing Instagram channel (@say.the.thing). Polaroid photos of students are accompanied by brief narratives that link the images to key moments in their lives. Students are challenged to take a full spin through their lives and a critical look at the people, places, and experiences that shaped their unique selves.

Finally, Say the Thing piloted a new program this past spring, “the Civic Studio.” The Civic Studio builds on the Studio curriculum as participants consider the ethical and practical relationship of the self in society. After meeting

weekly for six weeks to discuss issues and structures of civic life, six students and two staff members traveled over spring break to Romania to meet with community leaders and explore cultural centers in Bucharest, engaging the relationship between individual and national narratives. “The national story informs us about what our place in

the country is,” sophomore Aaron Ng said about what he learned in Romania.

Supporting the work of Say the Thing programs are thirty students affiliated with its Self-Conscious Design Team and two Green Devil Interns funded by Duke’s Office of Climate and Sustainability.

Senior Yujin Kim holds up her creation at a Lark event—an old musical score animated by words and images of contemporary musicians.

Congregants participate in the Stations of the Cross service on Good Friday.

CH R I S TI A N WO R S H I P

Students offer prayers in multiple languages during the Centennial Founders’ Sunday service.

E

ach week at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, hundreds of worshipers gather in the Chapel with hundreds more watching online to give glory to God in music, to pray for the life of the university and world, to hear the challenge and comfort of the Gospel, and to recognize one another as children of God. The services unite the campus and wider community, drawing upon the gifts of Chapel ministers and musicians, Divinity School professors, alumni guest preachers, community partners, student lectors, and ministers and volunteers from the Congregation at Duke Chapel.

Attendance pads placed in the pews offer insight into who joins the Chapel for these services.

About twenty percent of people in the pews are

students, while another twelve percent are Duke alumni and five percent are faculty or staff. The Congregation at Duke Chapel as well as visitors and tourists comprise the rest of the gathered community each Sunday.

The growing online reach of our offerings in Christian Worship—Sunday services, Evensong, and other programs—is a steady reminder of the good news the Chapel offers to the world.

26,000

14,310

Attendance at Chapel Worship Services

Scan the QR code for archives and recordings.

Streams of the Duke Chapel Sermons Podcast

105,892

Online Viewership of Chapel Services

150+

Number of Times Students Served as Lectors and Assisting Ministers

17

GATHERING TO GLORIFY GOD

On Sunday mornings, the Chapel is home to a community of Christians who seek to follow the example of Jesus in their daily lives. Other services, like Choral Evensong and Jazz Vespers also welcome communities to gather, pray, and receive the blessings of offering praise to God. CHORAL EVENSONG

Music is at the heart of the Chapel’s Choral Evensong services with sung psalms, anthems, and the canticles of Mary and Simeon—songs of

joyful hope and peaceful fulfilment—all speaking of God’s mercy, light, and abiding presence.

The service continued with an average in-person attendance of 100 people and average online viewership of more than 500 per service.

Partnership with the Divinity School’s Anglican Episcopal House of Studies provides for student worship leaders and connections with local clergy, who occasionally preside at the service.

In celebration of then tenth anniversary of the Evensong singers, the group embarked on a weeklong tour in Oxford, England, where they sang Evensong services in six of the city’s historic chapels and cathedrals.

“The Chapel became my church home. I loved serving in worship services, reading scripture, and serving communion, as well as helping out during the Lent and Easter season with Ash Wednesday and Good Friday services.”

— Mallory Poff, engineering graduate student

Worship leaders, ministers, and faculty process during the opening of the Centennial Founders’ Sunday service.

Jazz legend Branford Marsalis plays saxophone during a Jazz Vespers service.

JAZZ VESPERS

BELOVED SERVICES

Jazz Vespers, presented in collaboration with Duke Arts and John Brown’s Big Band, celebrated its tenth anniversary in the fall of 2024. In the spring of 2025, jazz icon Branford Marsalis, along with pianist Joey Calderazzo, was the guest artist for Jazz Vespers, which drew more than 400 people. Duke poets Tsitsi Ella Jaji and Crystal Simone Smith read their original poetry for the service, while students and Chapel ministers read scripture and provided prayers. Reflecting on the service in one of his (Duke) Chronicle columns, Chapel Dean Luke Powery said: “Jazz is not just one pure thing; instead, it is made up of numerous things, whatever one has at hand in the moment to make music. Isn’t this like our human existence?... We play jazz existentially.”

Christmas Eve celebrated the birth of Jesus in four services, from the 2:00 p.m. Children’s Service to the 11:00 p.m. Lessons and Carols.

Easter services filled the Chapel twice, with another 800 people attending the Easter Sunrise service in Duke Gardens.

On All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween), more than 200 students and community members entered a candlelit Chapel at 10:30 p.m. to celebrate the witness of Christians across place and time.

The Blessing of the Animals outdoor service, organized in collaboration with the Duke Catholic Center, was a favorite among pet owners.

A series of Compline services in Lent, held jointly with the Episcopal Center at Duke, offered silence, prayers, and traditional chants.

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LITURGY AND THE POWER OF PRE ACHING VIBRANT LITURGY

In a Sunday morning worship service last December, when the time came for the sermon, an ensemble of singers and instrumentalists began performing Johann Sebastian Bach’s Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland (“Savior of the nations, come”), BWV 62. The German cantata served as a “sermon in sound” that Sunday with its artful combination of scripture texts, hymn stanzas, prose, and poetry centered on the coming of the Christ child.

Employing a Bach cantata as a sermon was one example of a creative approach to litugy that draws on on the richness of Christian tradition.

A LIVING TRADITION

The pulpit in Duke Chapel continues to offer compelling preaching as each week, the sermons invite listeners into a deeper relationship with God in Christ Jesus. Chapel ministers, Divinity faculty, and invited guests create a vibrant witness to the power of the spoken word. Every year, new sermons are added to the digital collection.

DUKE CHAPEL RECORDINGS ARCHIVE

One example of the power of the digital archive can be found in the sermon by Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis. In 1979, Chavis was serving a decades-long prison sentence for crimes for which he would eventually be pardoned. While a prisoner in Hillsborough, North Carolina, he was also a student at Duke Divinity School. Through his campus connections, he was invited to preach at a service in Duke Chapel memorializing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and received permission to leave the prison and step into the Chapel pulpit.

To a congregation of 1,000 people, he said in his sermon “The Dream Continues,” “I believe, as Martin Luther King, Jr. believed, that this universal dream and quest for freedom existed originally in the mind of God and that Martin was one of the long evangelical succession of prophetic witnesses in the communication of God’s dream to God’s people.”

With 41,625 webpage views last year, the online collection continues to be a source for research, teaching, and inspiration for present-day preachers.

Additionally, a kiosk in the Chapel’s main entranceway (narthex) offers visitors an opportunity to print out excerpts of Chapel sermons; this past year, people took away 1,374 of these printouts as a glimpse into decades of Gospel proclamation at the Chapel.

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Scan the QR code to learn more about Living Tradition.

Dr. Philip Cave, conductor-in-residence, directs a Bach cantata performance.

Dean Luke Powery preaches during a Sunday morning service.

A Chronicle article from 1979 reports on the Rev. Dr. Benjamin Chavis’s sermon at Duke Chapel, delivered while he was a prisoner and now available in the Duke Chapel Recordings digital archive.

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Chapel Choir members sing during a Sunday morning service.

SACR E D M U S I C & TH E A R T S

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ounded in 1932, the Duke Chapel Choir is the oldest established music ensemble at Duke. Leading the community in sacred song at Sunday services and concerts each semester, the 107 choir members combine musical excellence with a strong sense of community.

This year a staff writer at the (Duke) Chronicle, Wanyu Zhang, E ’27 asked to do a behind-the-scenes photo essay and feature story about the choir. Working with junior Zev van Zanten, T ’26 the two teamed up to capture photos and conduct interviews for an article published in late spring, “Making the Duke Chapel come to life: Behind the scenes of the Chapel Choir.”

“Every Sunday, the Duke Chapel erupts with song and joy during Sunday morning services,” the story began. From there, it recounted the choir’s history, current membership, routines for

rehearsals, administrative operations, and singing in Sunday services. The piece reminded the campus that the Chapel Choir has a unique role on campus, providing musical beauty, spiritual depth, and enduring friendship.

This year, the Chapel Choir’s excellence was recognized in a national competition—the choir was awarded Third Prize in the 2024 American Prize for Choral Performance (Community Division).

Scan QR code to read The Chronicle article “Making the Duke Chapel come to life: Behind the scenes of the Chapel Choir.”

“Every Sunday, the Duke Chapel erupts with song and joy during Sunday morning services.”

— Zev van Zanten, T ’26, writing in the (Duke) Chronicle

6,300

138

Attendance at Chapel Concerts

Members of Chapel Choirs

Online Viewership

Participants in Music Clinics

of Chapel Concerts

and Summer Training Programs

149,999

350+

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FAITHFUL SERVICE RECOGNIZED

CONCERTS OF NOTE

On April 6, 2025, University Organist Dr. Robert Parkins presented his farewell recital in Duke Chapel.

He performed on all three of the Chapel’s main organs, selecting pieces he had previously played at dedicatory recitals for each of those instruments during his forty-seven years at Duke. Each section was introduce by a short video interview.

At a reception following the recital, Chapel Dean Luke Powery announced that the Brombaugh Organ, located in Memorial Chapel inside of Duke Chapel, had been named the “Robert Collings Parkins Organ” in Dr. Parkins’s honor.

The Bach Cantata Series traced the renowned composer’s career from his earliest appointments in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen, Germany, to Weimar and Leipzig.

“American Voices” brought the Chapel Choir and the Duke Chorale together for the spring oratorio concert with works by Aaron Copland, Caroline Shaw, and Randall Thompson.

With the theme of “eternal light,” the Evensong singers spring concert performed music

by J. S. Bach, Thomas Tallis, and the contemporary composer Lucy Walker.

The United States Naval Academy Glee Club drew an audience that filled the Chapel for its exuberant performance.

Regular weekday carillon recitals continue, supplemented by the J. Samuel Hammond Carillon Recital Series.

ORGAN SCHOLAR PROGRAM

Katherine Johnson, Chapel Organ Scholar for the past two years, continues her development as a church musician this fall by pursuing graduate studies at the highly selective Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

Dr. Robert Parkins gave his farewell recital, capping his forty-seven years at Duke.

Participants in the RSCMA Summer Choral Residency pose with silly faces.

SPRE ADING SACRED MUSIC THROUGHOUT THE WORLD SACRED MUSIC IN PERFORMANCE

EDUCATING THE NEXT GENERATION

Chapel Music continues to cultivate platforms and venues to build up, present, and pass on traditions of sacred music. The reach is impressive. In addition to the three sold-out live performances, a compilation video recording of this past year’s Handel Messiah concerts was viewed online more than 140,000 times.

The Chapel’s Schola Cantorum choir performed in March at the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association.

This invitation came after a peer-reviewed, blind jury process, and was the first time a Duke ensemble had ever been invited to perform for a national ACDA conference.

The Evensong singers, led by the Chapel’s conductor-in-residence Dr. Philip Cave, sang in six Choral Evensong services at historic chapels in Oxford, England, including Christ Church Cathedral, Exeter College Chapel, and Magdalen College Chapel. The musical pilgrimage was a way to both celebrate the choir’s tenth anniversary and the origins of Evensong in the sixteenth-century Book of Common Prayer.

More than 350 singers came to Duke Chapel this past year to learn and practice sacred music at the Chapel’s choral clinic in January, as well as summer programs by partner organizations Chorworks and Royal School of Church Music in America. Through these workshops, singers as young as ten years old make music in the beautiful acoustic and aesthetic of Duke Chapel.

PUBLICATIONS

Choirs around the country are performing songs made possible through the Music from Duke Chapel Series, published by MorningStar Music from ECS Publishing Group. The growing collection of thirty-one compositions features 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.

Video recordings of selected works from the series have been viewed more than 85,000 times.

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Dr. Ellen Davis, center, with the students, colleagues, and Saint John’s Bible, spent a day chanting all 150 psalms, which she had translated.

SINGING THE PSALMS

In January, ministers and musicians from Duke Chapel joined Duke Divinity School students, faculty, and staff in Goodson Chapel to chant all 150 of the Bible’s psalms. The service was notable not only for its length and monastic quality but also because the 150 psalms were original translations

by Dr. Ellen Davis, the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at the Divinity School.

Dr. Davis spent more than five years creating a new, complete English translation of the Psalms, working with Dr. Allison Hamm. Chapel Music Director Zebulon Highben and Organist Chad Fothergill worked closely with Hamm and Davis to prepare musical notations for singing. These new translations and settings are being using in worship services at the Chapel and in the Duke Divinity School.

“Although I have spent a lot of time with monastic communities, both women and men, over many years, I had never heard all 150 psalms sung in eleven hours. And just the flow of that text was moving to me—and also to hear it in the mouths of my students and my colleagues.”

— Dr. Ellen Davis 26

WELCOMING THE OFRENDA

A collaboration last fall with Duke Arts combined artistic creativity, religious devotion, and cultural traditions. From October 7 through All Saints’ Day, the Chapel displayed a Day of the Dead altar created by the Inter-Latin American Artist Collective. As is customary, visitors were invited to leave mementos honoring deceased loved ones, such as photographs, paper prayer chains, and devotional objects.

C. ERIC LINCOLN THEOLOGY AND ARTS FELLOWSHIP

Duke Divinity School student Jaden Dejesus Blango, D ’25 presented an exhibition at the Chapel titled Imagination and Promise: The Theological Aesthetics of Hope. Inspired by the Christian theology of God as the Holy Trinity, the exhibition comprised pencil drawings of people on cut paper layered on backgrounds textured by water marbling, gold ink, ashes, and magazine clippings.

“What I want to invite people to imagine is God’s promises of a reality that is already-but-not-yet present and can be lived into and encountered,” Blango said about his exhibition.

Jaden Dejesus Blango, D ’25 was this year’s C. Eric Lincoln Fellow in Theology and Art.

Pádraig Ó Tuama reads his poetry.

CO M M U N IT Y E N GAG E M E NT

“It all begins with knowing nothing lasts forever / So you might as well start packing now / In the meantime, practice being alive.”

— From “How to Belong Be Alive” by Pádraig Ó Tuama

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rish poet, Pádraig Ó Tuama came to Duke last fall to deliver the Chapel’s third annual William Preston Few Lecture, titled “Poetry, Prayer, and Public Healing.” Following the poetry reading, in a public conversation with Chapel Dean Luke Powery, Ó Tuama reflected on the power of words to heal: “What I can say is worthwhile trying, is reading peace agreements from other parts of the world because they show what language can do. When it comes to the small peace treaties that we have with our friends, with our neighbors, our family members, in our communities, and our places of work—the ways in which we look to address the past, tell the truth about the violence, and find some way to still stay together in the after of that—that is an act of communal making. It is an act of art.”

3,460

People Climbed the Chapel Tower

$64,425

One person in attendance, Chelsea Krieg, said she appreciated how Ó Tuama drew a connection between poetry and peace. “It’s always nice to be reminded that things that are often considered softer—like poetry and prayer, these introspective things—are incredibly valuable to creating peace,” said Krieg, who teaches creative writing at North Carolina State University.

The Few Lecture brought together students, faculty, and community members for a rich consideration of the intersection of creative writing, theology, and political science. Close to 100 audience members waited in line for a moment with the poet. Ó Tuama also offered a writing workshop for Duke students during his visit to campus.

Scan the QR code to read more about the Chapel’s Few Lecture.

5,000+

Viewership of Dean Powery’s Chronicle column

5,101

Given to Local and

Cumulative Listenership of

International Nonprofits

the Sounds of Faith podcast

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BUILDING BRIDGES IN DURHAM AND BEYOND

Through the Bridge Internship, students from Duke and North Carolina Central University (NCCU) live and learn together in Durham’s West End neighborhood while also working at organizations that contribute to the welfare of Durham. The summer program arises from a partnership among Duke Chapel, the NCCU Office of Community Engagement, and the NCCU Wesley Campus Ministry.

This past summer, six students participated in the program, which included readings and discussions of purpose and the common good from the perspective of different faiths. The internship is poised to grow and strengthen.

Last year, the Chapel was awarded a capacitybuilding grant from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative to help refine and expand the program. This work will include consultations with faculty at Duke and NCCU, conversations with the nonprofit organizations in Durham who offer meaningful internships to the students, and the development of a comprehensive plan for program growth and sustainability.

“There are a lot of elements of cross-cultural communication and cultural humility,” Duke senior Amei Gove says about her internship with World Relief Durham, through which she assisted refugee families, even learning some words in Swahili. “I learned about what it must be like to experience this country as a refugee.”

Bridge Interns, their supervisors, and program leaders at the PathWays House.

THE PATHWAYS FELLOWSHIP

During the academic year, The PathWays Fellowship offers a residential program for service and discernment. Three graduate students lived in the PathWays house this year, sharing in readings, prayers, and retreats grounded in the Christian faith.

PILGRIMAGE OF PAIN AND HOPE

To better understand the people, history, and possibilities of Durham, the Chapel sponsors groups to participate in the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope. Run by the local nonprofit DurhamCares, the three-day-long walking tour of Durham immerses participants in the story of Durham and the biblical story as a way to reflect on what it means to live, study, and work in Durham.

This past year, a total of forty students, local community members, and Duke staff members participated in the two pilgrimages sponsored by the Chapel.

DIRECT CARE FOR THE COMMUNITY

Venturing outside of Durham for an alternative spring break trip, the Chapel led a group of students to western North Carolina to help with ongoing recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene. Joining 100 other volunteers, they painted, removed trash, and installed insulation and vapor barriers at a mobile home park that was severely damaged.

One further way the Chapel continues to contribute to the thriving of Durham and North Carolina, as well as communities abroad, is through financial support of nonprofit organizations. In the 2024–2025 fiscal year, the generosity of Chapel supporters allowed for the donation of $64,425 to fifteen nonprofits working in Durham and abroad to feed people in need, build houses for people seeking homes, respond to natural disasters, and more (see the insert booklet for details).

Students and community members participate in the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope.

“Living in the PathWays House and being deliberate in recognizing our differences in religion and backgrounds and learning to live with them and understand more about them—that’s something I hadn’t really done before.”

— Pratikchhya Rimal, T ‘26 and Bridge Internship participant 31

At the end of the Orientation Sunday service, the Rev. Dr. Lyn Pace (right) offers a word of welcome.

A PRACTICE OF HOSPITALITY

A PLACE FOR REMEMBRANCE

The Chapel Hospitality Team makes meaningful moments possible every day. They open the Chapel’s doors in the morning and close the doors in the evening. In between, they are the warm faces that welcome visitors, answer questions, guide wedding parties, assist event organizers, and listen to the myriad stories of people who come from far and wide to experience the Chapel.

Eight volunteer docents welcomed 1,347 guests through their tours of the Chapel’s architecture, history, and ministries, and eight student ambassadors led shorter tours and provided support for events.

To provide added leadership and oversight for the team, last year the Chapel hired Beca Franca as its first Director of Hospitality and Building Management.

When Cathy Vanliew’s mother, Beverly Crews, passed away in the spring, she turned to Duke Chapel to hold the memorial service. Crews, N ’59, worked for nearly twenty years as a nurse at Duke University Hospital. During that time, she would often come to Duke Chapel to sit and pray after a difficult day. Crews’s family joined the Congregation at Duke Chapel, and four of her grandchildren were baptized in the Memorial Chapel.

While in Duke Hospice Care, Crews said she wanted her memorial service to be held in Memorial Chapel. Vanliew, Director of Operations, Data Partnerships with Duke Health Technology Solutions, contacted the Chapel’s hospitality team, who made arrangements for the service in Memorial Chapel that included presiding minister Rev. Kathryn LesterBacon, T ’06, Chapel Organist Chad Fothergill, and a cantor who sang her mother’s favorite song from Chapel services, “God Be in My Head.”

“It all really came full circle for her. It was her favorite place to be —many tears there and many happy, amazing times…. I’m just very grateful, and I’ll use that word a bazillion times.”

— Cathy Vanliew 32

A PLACE FOR PRAYER

A PLACE FOR NEW BEGINNINGS

A memorial service is one reason people visit the Chapel. There are many other reasons for the 290,000 visits last year. To name just a few others: Family members of hospital patients shared their prayers in the Prayer Box; students slipped inside for a centering moment in the midst of a demanding schedule; school children were inspired by the grandeur of a university chapel; and, a class on “Materiality of Religion” explored the scenes in the Chapel’s stained-glass windows.

For thousands of Duke alumni and employees, their most significant connection to Duke Chapel is participating in a Chapel wedding. Baptisms, graduations, and memorials are also one-time experiences at the Chapel that can produce lifelong memories. In 2024–2025, the Chapel hosted twentytwo university ceremonies, forty-six weddings, eleven memorials, and twenty-two baptisms.

OPENING THE DIGITAL D OORWAY OPENING THE DIGITAL DOORWAY

A NEW LOOK FOR CHAPEL.DUKE.EDU

In addition to the many people who visited in person last year, the Chapel had 172,000 visitors to its website, 572,000 views of its YouTube and Facebook videos, and an estimated social media reach of more than one million. Whether it is the livestream of a worship service, a prayer posted to Instagram, a lecture recording on YouTube, a sermon in a podcast, or a webpage with contact information for Religious Life leaders, all of these online interactions highlight, amplify, and extend some aspect of the Chapel’s mission.

This past year, the Chapel enhanced its online offerings with a new website that allows for dynamic media and easy viewing on mobile devices while retaining its extensive online archive of services, sermons, events, and announcements.

WORDS FOR STUDENTS

Chapel Dean Luke Powery offered gentle wisdom and life lessons to the Duke community in his opinion pieces on The Chronicle website. Topics ranging from “Getting close enough to care” and “Jazz as a way of life” to “The courage to be curious” and “How will you end?” reached a cumulative viewership of more than 5,000 last year.

SOUNDS OF FAITH

The Chapel’s Sounds of Faith podcast explores faithrelated topics with long-form interviews and archival audio excerpts. Having finished its first full year, its number of listens across three platforms—Spotify, Soundcloud, and Apple Podcasts—now total more than 5,000. Episodes include: Chapel Music Director Zebulon Highben on how he composes Christmas music; Divinity student Spence Herrington on her research of the Duke Chapel preaching archive; and Duke music professor Roseen Giles on the musical evolution of J. S. Bach.

Join Us Online 33

Build the Future of Faith WITH DEEP ROOTS IN DUKE’S HISTORY AND A BOLD VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF FAITH— WE ARE MADE FOR THIS. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CHAPEL’S PRIORITIES AND CONSIDER MAKING YOUR GIFT TODAY:

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We Give Thanks The Duke Chapel Staff

OFFICE OF THE DEAN Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery Dean of Duke Chapel Rev. Leah Torrey Director of Special Initiatives Ava West Assistant to the Dean Madison Daniel II Program Coordinator for Say the Thing

DEVELOPMENT Amanda Millay Hughes Senior Director of Development and Strategy Jeff Compton-Nelson Associate Director of Development Jimmy Paton Development Marketing Specialist Erica Thomas Staff Assistant for Development

MINISTRY Rev. Bruce Puckett Assistant Dean Rev. Dr. Lyn Pace Assistant Dean of Religious Life Rev. Racquel C. N. Gill* Minister for Intercultural Engagement Caleb Harris Worship and Ministry Coordinator Nicholas Venable Music Director for United in Praise

COMMUNICATIONS James Todd Director of Communications Karen Huang Communications Specialist Nathan Dove* Communications Specialist

MUSIC Dr. Zebulon Highben Director of Chapel Music Dr. Philip Cave Conductor-in-Residence Dr. Robert Parkins* University Organist Chad Fothergill Chapel Organist John Santoianni Ethel Sieck Carrabina Curator of Organs & Harpsichords David Faircloth Program Coordinator for Chapel Music Katelyn MacDonald* Staff Specialist Mitchell Mitchell Eithun Chapel Carillonneur Aaron Colston Chapel Carillonneur Katherine Johnson* Organ Scholar David Lim Organ Scholar This list includes all current staff, with (*) indicating those staff members who have retired or left the Chapel in FY25 to pursue new opportunities.

BUSINESS & FACILITIES Joni Harris Senior Director of Business and Facilities Lisa Best Business and Facilities Specialist Tasha Braswell Financial Management Analyst Beca Franca Director of Hospitality and Building Management Christina Van Werkhoven Staff Assistant for Hospitality/Wedding Coordinator Leslie Ballew Wedding Director Paquita Burnette-Thorpe Wedding Director VISITOR RELATIONS ASSISTANTS Ann Hall Ken Davenport Benny Edwards Larry Efird Mary Salvarezza Amanda Wu Yixuan (Poppy) Zhao* Stanley Giles* UNIVERSITY HOUSEKEEPERS Oscar Dantzler Beverly Jordan

The Duke Chapel National Advisory Board CHAIR Grace Lee, T ’79 VICE CHAIR Southgate Jones III EMERITUS MEMBER William E. King, T ’61, G ’63, G ’70

MEMBERS David Benjamin Adams, A.B. ’08 Lauren Allen, T ’25 D. Michael Bennett, T ’77 Charles Berardesco, T ’80 John A. Bussian III, T ’76 Carter Cribbs, T ’25 M. Keith Daniel, T ’90, D ’05, D ’16 Ellen Davis Thomas Felgner, T ’94, B ’95 Cathy Gilliard, D ’97 Elizabeth Grantland, T ’20 Zach Heater, T ’17 Sara Elizabeth H. Jones, T ’89 Carole Klove, N ’80 Kenneth Lee, T ’74 Arthur Maxwell Powell II, D ’24 Hananiel Setiawan, G ’23 Sanyin Siang, E ’96, B ’02

Dean Luke Powery greets the families of graduates during a baccalaureate ceremony.

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SCAN THE QR CODE TO GIVE ONLINE.

Flags representing all of the campus Religious Life groups on display during the “We Believe” program.

2024–2025 Annual Report

Duke University Chapel Box 90974 Durham, NC 27708-0974

B R I D G I N G FA I T H & L E A R N I N G

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage PA I D Permit No. 60 Durham, NC

VISION To respond to God’s all-inclusive love at Duke, in Durham, and in the world.

MISSION Rooted in the love of God in Jesus Christ, Duke Chapel bridges faith and learning by nurturing and embodying the intellectual, ethical, and spiritual life.

VA L U E S Hope Compassion Community Justice Creativity Joy