Chapel View Magazine | Spring 2024

CHAPEL VIEW

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

D. Benjamin Adams, T ’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 S. Gilliard, D ’97

Elizabeth Grantland, T ’20

Zach Heater, T ’17

Sara Elizabeth H. Jones, T ’89

Southgate Jones III

Carole Ann Klove, N ’80

Kenneth Lee, T ’74

Arthur Maxwell Powell II, D ’24

Hananiel Setiawan, G ’23

Sanyin Siang, E ’96, B ’02

Max Sirenko, T ’11

Valerie Henry Sirenko, T ’11

CHAPEL STAFF

OFFICE OF THE DEAN

The Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery, Dean

Ava West, Assistant to the Dean

The Rev. Leah Torrey, Director of Special Initiatives 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

Angela Flynn, Worship and Ministry Coordinator

Nicholas Venable, Music Director for United in Praise MUSIC

Dr. Zebulon Highben, Director of Chapel Music

Dr. Philip Cave, Conductor-in-Residence

Chad Fothergill, Chapel Organist

David Faircloth, Program Coordinator for Chapel Music

Dr. Robert Parkins, University Organist

John Santoianni, Ethel Sieck Carrabina Curator of Organs and Harpsichords

Katelyn MacDonald, Staff Specialist

Mitchell Eithun, Chapel Carillonneur

Aaron Colston, Chapel Carillonneur

Katherine Johnson, Organ Scholar ADMINISTRATION

Amanda Millay Hughes, Senior Director of Development and Strategy

Joni Harris, Director of Business and Facilities

James Todd, Communications Manager

The Rev. Jeff Compton-Nelson, Associate Director of Development

Nathan Dove, Communications Specialist

Jimmy Paton, Development Marketing Specialist

Alexander Jones, Hospitality Manager

Lisa Best, Business and Facilities Specialist

Erica Thomas, Staff Assistant for Development

Jeremy Gaddy, Staff Assistant for Hospitality

Leslie Ballew, Wedding Director and Visitor Relations Assistant

Paquita Burnette-Thorpe, Wedding Director

Ann Hall, Visitor Relations Assistant

Ken Davenport, Visitor Relations Assistant

Benny Edwards, Visitor Relations Assistant

Larry Efird, Visitor Relations Assistant

John Murphy, Visitor Relations Assistant

Morgan Dynes, Visitor Relations Assistant

Kalu Amah, Visitor Relations Assistant

Stanley Giles, Visitor Relations Assistant

Poppy Zhao, Visitor Relations Assistant

Anjali Nandagopal, 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); M (School of Medicine)

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

Dr. Anton Armstrong, Tosdal Professor of Music at St. Olaf College, leads a sacred choral clinic on January 20. More than 250 members of choirs from the region joined the Duke Chapel Choir in attending the half-day workshop by Dr. Armstrong, who conducts the St. Olaf Choir. COVER: Students toss their caps in front of the Chapel during last year’s Commencement Weekend.

Only God

A Message from Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery

Dear Friends,

When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb (Mark 16:1–2, NRSV).

You know this story. You have heard it told and retold, year after year, with the joyful refrain: “Christ the Lord is risen today!”

Every Easter, the Chapel is filled with individuals and families gathered to celebrate the risen Christ. The Chapel Choir, the organs, and the brass ensemble fill the sanctuary with bright and joyous sounds. White lilies grace the chancel. The vestments and altar cloths glisten. The service is a vibrant celebration of life and a litany of our thanksgiving for the resurrection of Jesus.

But this year, I am reminded of the story of the three women who went to the tomb, expecting to be blocked and unable to roll the stone away. And yet, they went anyway, carrying spices to care for the body of their friend Jesus. They continued to walk toward the tomb, unknowing but faithful. We are so like these women, walking on, carrying on in the face of loss, stress, strife, and trouble. We are faithful like they were, making love visible in the world, taking the steps we can see to take. And we, like them, are often surprised by the ways in which God has already moved ahead of us—without our asking, without our knowing. And we, like them, arrive to find the stone rolled away. Expecting to find one future, we discover another.

This year, I am reminded that only God can do these things. Only God.

The provision of God is always a few steps ahead of us. The story assures us that just ahead of us, on every path, God is already moving, rolling stones away, already creating unforeseen blessings.

As we celebrate the 100-year history of Duke University, remembering the rich past, I am reminded that God has already gone ahead of us to open the future. This is a reason to rejoice. Only God can do this. And because of this hope, we can joyfully sing:

Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, Because He lives, all fear is gone; Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living, Just because He lives!

May the spirit of Easter carry us into the bright future only God can provide for us.

Yours with grace and peace,

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

As part of Duke University’s celebration of its 100th anniversary, the Chapel held an official Centennial concert that honored the music and legacy of the pioneering jazz artist Mary Lou Williams. The concert on April 14 in the Chapel drew a capacity audience that responded with applause, standing ovations, and spirited singing when cued to sing along.

For the concert, the Duke Chapel Choir joined with talented guest artists: the North Carolina Central University Vocal Jazz Ensemble; John V. Brown, vice provost for the arts at Duke; Orlandus Perry, a drummer and music educator; Patrice E. Turner, director of worship and the arts at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and a student at Duke Divinity School. The performance, titled Our First Lady of Jazz, presented a wide range of Black sacred music, from vocal jazz and gospel to spirituals, classical, and the blues. The event was co-sponsored by Duke Arts and the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture at Duke.

An artist in residence at Duke from 1977 to 1981, Williams wrote for jazz greats such as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and mentored artists such as Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Bud Powell. A religious awakening in her midlife led Williams to compose sacred music, including musical settings for the prayers of the Mass.

A flyer from 1978 advertises “Mary Lou’s Mass,” a Catholic Mass held in the Chapel with service music composed by Mary Lou Williams.

The Duke Chapel Choir performs with (left to right) Patrice E. Turner, John V. Brown, and Orlandus Perry, during the Our First Lady of Jazz concert on April 14.

A Message from the Chair, Duke University Chapel National Advisory Board

Grace Lee, T ’79

I want the central building to be a great towering church which will dominate all of the surrounding buildings because such an edifice would be bound to have a profound influence on the spiritual life of the young men and women who come here (James Buchanan Duke, April 1925).

Next year marks one hundred years since James B. Duke shared his visionary comments with his friend William Preston Few as they walked through Duke Forest. J. B. Duke’s prescient words were shared “only” fifty years before I stepped onto the campus as an incoming freshman.

Not many of us can say we look the same as we did fifty years ago, or even twenty years ago when the second generation of our family became Dukies, beginning with our oldest daughter, Bethany, followed by our son, Brian.

Duke University, like our country and the world, has changed dramatically over the last century. Despite tremendous campus expansion, Duke Chapel remains the heart of our university, standing majestically at the center of campus as an internationally recognized icon of the university. It looks today as it did when it was completed in 1932. I bet there isn’t a single Dukie that doesn’t have a photo of themselves (and their family) standing in front of the Chapel. More importantly, the Chapel still symbolizes in 2024 what J. B. Duke envisioned 100 years ago.

When I arrived for my first year at Duke forty-nine years ago as an awkward, anxious, but excited freshman, I didn’t know how, or if, I would fit in. In the 1970s, Duke was a more ethnically and religiously “homogeneous” place. Students of color were a small percentage of the Duke student body. Fortunately, whenever I stepped through the Chapel doors and into the sanctuary with its beautiful architectural features and stained-glass windows, I always felt a sense of belonging.

No matter what challenges I faced in my personal or academic life, I always left the Chapel feeling more optimistic, spiritually centered, and better equipped to face the challenges life threw my way.

Today, Duke is home to an ethnically diverse student population that more closely reflects the international community we have become.

As we celebrate Duke’s centennial and prepare for the next 100 years, take a moment and reflect on your role in Duke’s history. Ask yourself, what is the future of faith at Duke? These are bewildering times for Duke students as they find their place in an uncertain world. Research suggests that college students feel more stressed and isolated than in previous generations. What can we do to help our students find a religious home at Duke, deepen their faith, and build the spiritual strength that will help them navigate the complex challenges they face nationally and globally? What can we do now and what can we do in the future?

We want Duke and the Chapel to provide a welcoming safe place for every student, students of all faiths and non-believers too. We want Duke to be a place where they can deepen their own faith journey even as they discover and learn about the faith of their fellow students.

In the coming months, we look forward to sharing our dreams for the future of faith at Duke and invite you to join us in supporting these efforts so that the Chapel will continue to have “a profound influence on the spiritual life of the young men and women who come here.”

Sincerely yours,

Grace Lee

Grace Lee speaks at the recent National Advisory Board reunion.

Seeing God at Work from Scripture to Science

A Faith and Learning

Profile of David Ntim

Selected as this year’s Student Preacher, sophomore David Ntim stepped into the Duke Chapel pulpit on a Sunday morning in February and looked out onto a congregation of hundreds.

“What was going through my head during that time was, ‘Don’t mess up,’ but also, ‘Enjoy it, embrace this opportunity,’” says Ntim, who came to Duke from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Poised in the pulpit during that Sunday service, Ntim delivered a fifteen-minute sermon on St. Paul’s interpretation of the faith of Abraham as described in the fourth chapter of the Book of Romans.

“As Paul promises in Romans, ‘Yet [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God,’” Ntim said in his sermon. “May we also be strengthened in our faith and continuously give glory to God.”

Reflecting on the experience of drafting the sermon, which included receiving feedback from Chapel Assistant Dean Bruce Puckett and others, he says, “At first, it was definitely hard finding the words to speak, but after I said, ‘God, please take over,’ everything else just came through.”

Ntim has an active faith life at Duke, attending Duke Chapel Scholars

“Seeing the way that some compounds go out of their confirmation to gain stability—and they do it without an external force—I find it so fascinating...It’s an example of me being amazed at the world God has created, which I get to study and explore.” — David Ntim

meetings, serving as a Chapel Ambassador greeting visitors, and participating in Bible study sessions with the Every Nation Campus group. He says he aims to have his faith seep into all aspects of his life at Duke.

“I pray over my time before I study, or I pray over my friendships, or I pray over my family back home,” he says. “I want to be willing to let God enter each space that I am in.”

One of those spaces is his studies.

A double major in biomedical engineering and computer science who has begun doing lab research, Ntim sees God’s handiwork in the intricacies of molecules and machines. He gives the example of something he learned in Organic Chemistry class.

“Seeing the way that some compounds go out of their confirmation to gain stability—and they do it without an external force—I find it so fascinating,” he says. “It’s an example of me being amazed at the world God has created, which I get to study and explore.”

As strong as he is in his Christian

faith, Ntim has begun to seek out and promote conversations among people of different faiths. As the director of religious affairs for Duke Student Government, he worked with the Chapel’s Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon to organize lunchtime interfaith conversations with faculty members discussing how their religions influence their academic work.

He says his interest in interfaith understanding goes back to last spring as he watched Muslim friends fast throughout the month of Ramadan. “To see their religious devotion—especially with exams piling up, assignments piling up—I had so much respect for their dedication to their faith,” he says.

Coming from a family trained in science—including his older brother Daniel who graduated from Duke— Ntim says he is likely to pursue further studies in medicine, but, following the example of Abraham, he says, “I’m open to wherever God leads me.”

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

Student Engagement

Campus Chaplains on the Faith Lives of Students

More than 2,600 students participate in the twenty-two campus Religious Life groups. More than fifty campus chaplains, ministers, and Religious Life leaders support, guide, gather, and at times challenge these students—as well as many others with no religious affiliation. In an interview for the Chapel’s new Sounds of Faith podcast (see page 21), three campus chaplains discussed their roles as spiritual leaders on campus and what they observe in the faith lives of students. Below are excerpts from their response to the question, “What kinds of issues do you see students wrestling with?”

Chaplain Joshua Salaam, Muslim Chaplain and Director of the Center for Muslim Life

The phrase “to be known” really rings true for me because it’s one of the root words of this Arabic word “anas.” Its meaning is the opposite of lonely. We are social creatures. Some have pondered if God wanted to be known in this creation of humanity and is that something that he’s given us—this desire to be known? And so, we have to balance not doing too much for attention but also not being isolated. I think students, who come from all over the world, are struggling with that balance of not wanting to bend their own morals to be known but also doing enough to stay in some type of social group where they’re not isolated.

Rabbi Elana Friedman, Campus Rabbi and Jewish Chaplain

In the Jewish tradition, we have a teaching that every single person is created from the same stamp, the same seal, of Adam, the first human. So, we’re all alike, yet each person is different and unique, and it’s hard for students to figure out how am I unique and different, and how do I belong with all these other “Adams” around me? I make it a passion to try to take out every single first-year Jewish student for coffee or tea. I want to know all their names. I want to know their stories.

Listen to the full discussion, and subscribe to the podcast, at chapel.duke.edu/podcast.

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

So much of chaplaincy is getting students to name what values they bring with them to college. What were those stories you told yourself, your family told about themselves, your religious community told about themselves? What are stories you’re leaving behind and what are your new stories? I’m a Presbyterian ordained pastor, and there are many stories of Jesus in the gospels. Often, there’s a situation where Jesus sees someone on the other side of the road, before anything is known about that person. Jesus is not saying, “Do you believe me?” before sitting with them. It’s an act of accompaniment and presence that is so potent, and I carry that with me in trying to interact with students from any different religious affiliation or none.

From left to right: Chaplain Joshua Salaam, Rabbi Elana Friedman, and Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon.

Students Seek Meaning Through Art and Narrative

The Chapel’s new “Say the Thing” initiative, a joint project with the Kenan Institute for Ethics, provides creative ways for students who don’t necessarily have a religious background to grapple with questions of meaning and purpose.

Cristal Ortiz, a junior neuroscience major, has participated in two programs from Say the Thing.

“Engaging with Say the Thing has truly helped me better understand myself and delve deeper into self-awareness,” she says. “I’ve experienced spiritual growth by learning not to confine myself to one identity but to accept that I can

I extensively traveled across the diverse landscape of India on a motorcycle. I felt right at home on the road. This experience gave me an abundance of maturity and humility.

Connect with Say the Thing on Instagram @say.the.thing

Another student, Mohith Nambaru says, “Say The Thing has been a paradigm shift in defining my relationship with the world, my time at Duke, and myself.”

“It inspired me to think deeply about love, life, and belongingness,” says Nambaru, a graduate student studying engineering management. “It gave me a renewed outlook on the idea of home and instilled peace from within.”

Below are photos from one Say the Thing program, playfully called “the Hamster,” in which students curate about a dozen photos to tell the story of their life.

In my county, hogs outnumber people. For the year of 2022, Sampson County produced 1,900,000 hogs. Sampson County has a population of 58,990 (2021). So yeah, a lot of hogs. Hog production has been shown to hurt the environment, but it is also a main economic backbone in the economy back home, but we are not talking about that today. Just know Sampson County is a place that has transformed and molded me.

I have learned so much academically since I’ve been at Duke, but it also feels like I’ve lost sight of individuality a little bit. The Studio [program from Say the Thing] felt like this lovely chance to reconnect with my own personhood, the things I value and a reminder to make myself a priority.

Mohith Nambaru, graduate student, engineering management

Cristal Ortiz, junior, neuroscience major

Umang Dhingra, sophomore, psychology and economics majors

Bridging Faith and Learning Through Prayer, Pilgrimage, and Conversation

Through Chapel programs, students deepen their faith and learn about other faiths

Theology Underground

Students and community members participated in a Theology Underground conversation about “Theology and Sports Culture” on March 19. The Rev. Racquel Gill, the Chapel’s minister for intercultural engagement, hosted the conversation with the Rev. Jay Augustine from Duke Divinity School’s Center for Reconciliation and the Rev. Regina Graham from The Fuller Foundation. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

Interfaith Discussion Series

Students helped to organize a series of interfaith lunchtime discussions with Duke professors, moderated by the Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon, director of Religious Life at the Chapel. A conversation on March 6 featured Dr. Samrat Das from the School of Medicine, Professor Norman Wirzba from the Divinity School, and Professor Mona Hassan from the Departments of Religious Studies and History.

Alternative Spring Break Trips

Chapel ministers led three alternative spring break retreats or pilgrimages for students. The Rev. Bruce Puckett, the Chapel’s assistant dean, led a group to the Christ in the Desert monastery in New Mexico for a week of silence and prayer (pictured above). The Rev. Racquel Gill, minister for intercultural engagement, led another group to Charleston, South Carolina, to visit sites related to race and faith (top-right). And, the Rev. Kathryn LesterBacon, director of Religious Life, gathered graduate students at the Avila Retreat Center in Durham for an interfaith retreat (right).

Chapel Scholars

Students becoming Chapel Scholars this year received a blessing during their commissioning in the Sunday morning worship service on October 29. This year, ninety students are participating in the Chapel Scholars program. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

Christian Worship

Guest Preachers in Celebration of Duke Centennial

In his Indenture of Trust in 1924, James B. Duke gave this direction: “I advise that the courses at this institution be arranged, first, with special reference to the training of preachers, teachers, lawyers and physicians, because these are most in the public eye, and by precept and example can do most to uplift mankind.”

One hundred years later in this Centennial Year for Duke University, Duke Chapel is celebrating J. B. Duke’s investment in the training of preachers by welcoming to the pulpit Duke alumni who have become dedicated and faithful proclaimers of the Gospel.

“Ministers of the Gospel don’t just appear fully formed— they are shaped by elders, professors, congregants, peers, and so many others,” says the Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery, who is a professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School in addition to being dean of Duke Chapel. “This year at Duke Chapel, we celebrate the formation they have received at Duke and elsewhere—and also receive the benefit of their wisdom.”

Three alumni who returned to the Chapel to preach this year were asked to reflect on how their Duke educations prepared them as preachers.

The Rev. Shaquisha (Kiki) F. Barnes, T ’96, D ’12, returned to the Chapel to preach during a Holy Week Midday service on March 27. A graduate of Duke’s Trinity College and Divinity School, Rev. Barnes is now a senior clinical administrative chaplain with Chaplain Services at Duke

Regional Hospital. As an undergraduate, she regularly attended services in the Chapel organized by the InterVarsity campus ministry and also the Chapel’s Black Campus Minister.

“The first education taught me grace, and the second time around taught me the power of redemption,” she says about her two Duke degrees. “Both are necessary for the preaching moment.”

“I have received this wonderful training in how to get out of my own way in order to walk with those in my care,” Rev. Barnes says. “I have to use the preaching moment to encourage others to do the same.”

The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland, T ’85, D ’88, G ’08, preached a sermon titled Antidote to Death based on the third chapter of the Gospel of John during the Sunday morning service on March 10. Currently the executive director of the North Carolina Council of Churches, she earned three degrees from Duke and served as the Methodist campus chaplain and executive director of the Duke Wesley Fellowship from 1999 to 2015.

As an undergraduate at Duke participating in the United Methodist Wesley Fellowship, she says: “I hit my stride

The Rev. Shaquisha Barnes

The Rev. Dr. Marc Lavarin preaches at the Chapel's Maundy Thursday service.

mentored by amazing religious life leaders and graduated straight into Duke Divinity School, maintaining many ties with the Chapel. A steady diet of strong preaching laced with Methodist mandates for personal piety and social holiness laid the groundwork for solid preaching.”

“The preachers of Duke Chapel showed me that reality at a critical time in my life,” she says. “Every once in a while I get to preach in Duke Chapel and try to live into that truth. It’s always an honor.”

The preacher for the Chapel’s Maundy Thursday service this year was the Rev. Dr. Marc Antoine Lavarin, D ’18.

“Standing behind the sacred desk at Duke Chapel was a Holy Ground experience,” says Rev. Lavarin, the senior pastor of First Calvary Baptist Church in Durham.

“As a former student of Dean Powery, I’m reminded of his preaching philosophy—‘Trouble in the text, trouble in the world, grace in the text, grace for the world,’” he says. “I pray that as I proclaimed my sermon, the hearers heard the grace available for our troubled world.”

Listen to their sermons by subscribing to the Duke Chapel Sermons podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Learning from Preachers Through the Decades

By Spence Herrington, Duke Divinity School student and Preaching Archives Research Assistant

Before interviewing for a job as a researcher for the Chapel’s Living Tradition online preaching resource, I listened to one of the sermons in the Duke Chapel Recordings digital archive. Appropriately enough for a job researching archival material, the sermon was about humankind’s fascination with time. “Whatever else man is—though he is victim of the passing show of past, present, and future—he feels himself responsible for the use of time,” the Rev. Canon Theodore O. Wedel says in his 1955 sermon The Mystery of Time

Though the preaching archives have written material stretching back to 1946, this sermon by Rev. Wedel, a priest in the Episcopal Church, is one of the earliest audio recordings. Having now listened to or read more than one hundred sermons from the archive, I sense I have joined a tradition that has documented the mystery of time, the history of God with a people, told through the words spoken at Duke Chapel—words delivered from oblivion and preserved for the rest of time. The final prayer in Wedel’s sermon captures this well:

Almighty God, infinite watcher over the children of men before whom the generations rise and pass away. Whom our father’s and father’s fathers have worshiped in lands across the sea; whom, our children and children’s children will worship, perhaps in this very place, seeking as we seek to discover the mystery of thy ways with the sons of men.

I have found that the archives are a witness to us. The voices from the pulpit of Duke Chapel tell the story of a place where people have sought to make sense of, and respond to, the existential and ethical issues of their time with a theological perspective. They hold us accountable so that we do not lose sight of how impactful this sacred space is when it invites in a diverse group of preachers, theologians, activists, and thinkers who seek to build a more beautiful and just world.

The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Copeland

A Love Letter to the Duke Chapel

By Anna Sorensen

Easter is hands down my favorite day of the year. Growing up, Easter meant waking up at 7:00 a.m. for an egg hunt before heading to church for back-to-back services where my siblings and I got to sing the most glorious pieces of choir music, accompanied by a brass timpani and an organ which—literally—pulled out all the stops. Easter is, at its core, a celebration of joy and grace, and a powerful reminder that we are loved. So, being away from home for Easter as a freshman last year was difficult; it was the first time I hadn’t celebrated with my family and home congregation in over ten years, and I felt lonely and disconnected.

But a year has passed since then, and Easter has rolled around once again. I’ve spent this past year growing more attached to the Chapel, and I have slowly made it my own place of worship. From hours of choir rehearsal to random moments of prayer, the Chapel has been a constant presence in my day-to-day college life. This Easter, as the resurrection hymns I know by heart rose within the Chapel walls, I felt as though I was truly part of the congregation.

The Chapel carries different meanings for different people at Duke. For some, it’s a central, enduring trademark of our university. Indeed, few buildings on campus are as recognizable and striking as this magnificent piece of architecture. It’s also a beautiful photo-op, especially this time of year as the life surrounding it blooms in full force. But for many others—myself included—the Chapel is a home for faith and spirituality. The Chapel is a physical reminder of the comforting and persisting presence of God, and of a community grounded in hope and love amidst a busy college life.

Being a religious student in college comes with its difficulties. For those who come from particularly expressive religious backgrounds, it can be challenging to find time to worship at school. Between navigating living on our own, taking college-level classes, and trying to make friends along the way, there’s enough on our plates to manage. If you practice your faith more privately, you may struggle to feel connected to God and a religious community when you find yourself in an entirely new environment, separated from the ties to faith you find at home.

There’s also the challenge of navigating your religious identity in college. In an elite academic setting like Duke, there can be biases against spirituality and religious belief. We tend to define intellectuality within the bounds of reason, emphasizing the explicable over the miraculous. We find it difficult to believe in what we can’t see or label, and we struggle to surrender control and place faith in higher powers.

More concretely, sentiment against organized religion is certainly present on college campuses. I will be the first to admit that there is valid reason to be frustrated with

organized religion today. In a political landscape where religion is often wielded as a weapon of division by a select few in power, it’s easy to lose sight of how much good religious belief and community brings to the world. The Duke Chapel’s motto of “bridging faith and learning” seems especially apt to address these issues, which is an initiative I am particularly grateful for.

Despite the challenges of living by faith in college, studies show that college students crave spirituality and spaces to explore their beliefs. During the complicated transition to young adulthood, religion can be a source of comfort and foster mental well-being. I, for one, leaned heavily into my faith during the first few months here at Duke. The Chapel’s Evensong Singers was the very first activity I picked up, and it remains the most valuable use of my extracurricular time to this day. Every time I enter the Chapel, I feel like some part of me is coming home, and I know I belong to something much greater than myself and my struggles or stresses.

The Duke Chapel is doing some amazing work to create spaces where students can explore their spiritual identities. Anyone can learn about these resources by dropping in for a visit or by perusing the Chapel’s website. Check out the podcast Sounds of Faith to learn more about how Rabbi Elana Friedman, Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon, and Brother Joshua Salaam support students on their spiritual journeys through college life. Get involved with volunteer work in Durham, which aims to “build and deepen relationships in the community [and work at] the intersections of faith and justice to bridge the differences that divide humanity.”

Above all, I would urge all Duke students to keep an open mind as you encounter people from diverse walks of life and faith and to challenge yourself to appreciate the power of inexplicable forces. Every college student should educate themselves on what it actually means to practice religion in today’s world—with all its nuances and dimensions. It is too powerful an influence to be dismissed by intelligent students preparing to engage empathetically with the people around them.

An accessible and robust home of worship was not something I consciously factored into my college decision when I was applying to Duke. But the rewards I’ve found in both the recluse and the community at the Chapel affirm that I should have considered it. So, I genuinely thank God every day that I ended up here: because of all the blessings I’ve found in friends, professors, and this beautiful campus, and because of all the ways my faith continues to mature at Duke.

An English major from New York City, Anna Sorensen is a Duke sophomore and member of the Chapel’s Evensong Singers. This essay was published by the (Duke) Chronicle on April 2 and is reprinted with permission.

Sacred Music and the Arts

Guest Artists, Student Groups Enrich Music and Worship

Throughout the year, the Chapel welcomes guest artists, as well as student-led groups, to perform in concerts, workshops, and worship services. The artists benefit from performing in an iconic venue, while the Chapel community benefits from the expertise and energy of the artists.

“Performing in the Chapel is a unique experience because of its combination of aesthetics and acoustics,” says Professor John Brown, Duke’s vice provost for the arts, whose Duke Arts Presents program brings professional ensembles to the Chapel. “People come to the Chapel to marvel at its beauty, which puts them in a frame of mind to experience art and music. It’s a wonderful place to match performers and their audiences.”

Chapel Music Director Zebulon Highben says the foundation for bringing guest artists to the Chapel is ongoing relationships with student groups and community ensembles who perform annually, or more frequently, at the Chapel.

“We also regularly welcome artists who have never been here before—soloists, collegiate and professional choirs who are passing through Durham on tour, and the like,” Dr. Highben says. “All of these performers enhance our aesthetic life, and connect us to broader musical communities, locally, nationally, and globally.”

What follows is a sampling of this year’s guest artists.

The soprano soloist for this year’s Handel’s Messiah performances was Kathryn Mueller

In addition to singing at the Chapel, Mueller has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, among many other groups. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

Dr. Anton Armstrong, Tosdal Professor of Music at St. Olaf College, taught at a half-day clinic on sacred music at the Chapel in January. More than 250 singers and choir directors joined the Duke Chapel Choir to learn anthems for Lent and Easter from Dr. Armstrong, conductor of the renowned St. Olaf Choir.

Dr. Philip Cave, the Chapel’s conductor-in-residence, directed musicians with Mallarmé Music during a Bach Cantata concert in September. The ensemble, which is adept at playing Baroque-era instruments, regularly performs with the Chapel’s choirs in concerts and worship services. Photo by Kaushik Chinnaraj, E ’23.

The Los Angeles-based composer Saunder Choi led a Duke Chapel Choir rehearsal in January. The Chapel commissioned an anthem from Choi, “Blessed Is the Spot, and the House,” which debuted in the Chapel’s Sunday morning service on February 11. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

The pianist and theologian Julian Davis Reid played during a Jazz Vespers service in November. At the service, Reid led the music and also gave a reflection on God’s gift of rest. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

Hundreds of people attended an organ recital by Dr. Nathaniel Gumbs in January. The director of chapel music at Yale University, Dr. Gumbs performed works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Dieterich Buxtehude, and others on the Flentrop organ as part of the Chapel’s annual Organ Recital Series.

From the center aisle, Dr. Jennaya Robison directed singers with the National Lutheran Choir who surrounded the audience. The choir brought their “My Song As I Journey” tour to the Chapel in March. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

Students with Something Borrowed Something Blue performed in the Chapel on Parents and Family Weekend in November. The group is a co-ed Christian a cappella ensemble, founded at Duke in 1969 as a Christian folk band. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

United in Praise, a student gospel group, performed during a joint concert with Something Borrowed Something Blue in November. The group is advised by, and receives musical direction, from the Chapel’s Nicholas Venable. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

The Musicians Who Give Voice to the Chapel’s Carillon

Each weekday at 5:00 p.m., the bells of the Chapel’s J. Samuel Hammond Carillon ring out across campus with tunes from hymns, classical works, or popular songs. The instrument is both very prominent and also shrouded in a kind of mystery that hides the musician and mechanics that produce its sound. As part of a conversation for the Chapel’s new Sounds of Faith podcast, the two Chapel carillonneurs—Mitchell Eithun, a second-year student at Duke Divinity School, and Aaron Colston, a postdoctoral associate who teaches in Duke’s History and Education departments—discussed how their dedication and musicianship gives voice to the fifty bells in the Chapel tower.

People hear the carillon’s bells, but they rarely see the carillon being played, so can you talk about how the instrument is actually played?

Mitchell Eithun: It's an interesting instrument because it's so public, you can hear it from quite a wide distance, but also private because you don't often see the instrument itself being played. Our carillon is a set of fifty bells. They were cast in England, and each bell clapper is connected via wire to a playing keyboard in the tower. And we use our fists to depress what are called batons, and then our feet to press pedals. So like an organ, we use our feet and our hands to play the carillon. And what we're doing is moving the bell clappers close to the bell casting so that we can strike the bells.

How do you translate music that's not native to the carillon to the carillon?

Aaron Colston: Putting music that's not native to the instrument on the carillon is interesting because you have to think, "Okay, what's the part I really need everybody to hear and what is more decorative?" There are also mechanical issues. On one hand, you can play maybe a musical fourth, but a fifth starts getting a little awkward in terms of an interval. We usually play with our fists, so that creates difficulties for playing music that was written on piano because they've got all their fingers, but we're limited to striking notes with our fists.

How do you decide what music you are going to play on any given day?

Mitchell Eithun: I try to be mindful of the Christian liturgical year, also of Jewish holidays, so I can play music that's appropriate for High Holy Days. Recently, a Jewish alum of Duke sent me some songs that he had arranged for [the late university carillonneur] Sam Hammond back in the 1980s, and so now we have those back in our library, which is great. There’s also civic celebrations. Sometimes we'll play the Harry Potter theme; around Halloween, that's very popular. There are also songs for Christmas and Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, Black History Month, Valentine's Day—all sorts of things that are on the calendar.

How do you prepare yourself to play before each recital?

Aaron Colston: I have to take a big breath because, man, to play that metal, you got to really use your body. I try not to think too much about what's outside, at least for a moment, because you really want to be able to focus. It's very calming. It's also sometimes exhilarating too.

To listen to the full conversation, subscribe to the Sounds of Faith podcast at chapel.duke.edu/podcast.

Listen to the livestream of the daily carillon recitals weekdays at 5:00 p.m. on the Duke Chapel Facebook page.

Mitchell Eithun (left) and Aaron Colston are Chapel carillonneurs.

Community Engagement

Each year, the labyrinth provides people at Duke and in the community an opportunity to practice an ancient tradition by praying, meditating, or simply relaxing while following its winding path. This year, the labyrinth was offered from April 15 to 17.

Dreams and Doorkeepers

By Larry Efird

“I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God” (Psalm 84:10b, English Standard Version).

As many folks do after settling into retirement, I realized I still wanted some type of predictable schedule after thirty years in education, so I would not turn into a blob—at least not a complete one. I began looking around for the odd job here or there and spotted one that caught my eye: a Visitor Relations Assistant (VRA) at the Duke Chapel on the campus of Duke University. The irony of my landing this position at Duke is that my three children and two daughters-in-law all have degrees from UNC. They reminded me that I could work for Duke, but I could not become a Duke fan. I suspect that they are not kidding.

Not long ago, I surprisingly found a letter that I had written to myself over five decades ago, in the sixth grade at Jackson Park Elementary School in Kannapolis, North Carolina. Our teacher must have asked us to write a letter to ourselves imagining what we thought we might do “when we grew up.” That long-lost assignment had somehow miraculously surfaced at my mom’s house in an old manila folder. She never threw any of our important work away—or newspaper clippings—or Polaroid photographs. And after raising seven children and being in the same home for sixty-seven years, that’s quite a bit of archived information! I predicted at age twelve that I would work at Duke one day as a history professor. Why I said I would teach at Duke I have no idea but that’s what my sixth grade self predicted.

When I realized that I would become part of a team who welcome the 600-plus visitors to Duke Chapel on a daily basis, along with answering an occasional question about its history, I figured that was the closest I would come to fulfilling my youthful prophecy. And even though the most frequent inquiry seems to be, “Where is the bathroom?” I am quickly learning how to help visitors appreciate the storied history of one of North Carolina’s most prestigious landmarks.

Often someone will ask me what my position is. I’m not a history professor, not even close, but I am able to discuss history, along with art, literature, music, and theology as those topics arise. I’m not a security guard, although I do have multiple sets of keys, which allow me to unlock the

building in the morning and lock it up again at night. I’m not a chaplain, although my heart is often prayerfully touched by anxious families and individuals, many of whom are seeking a quick respite from medical concerns and treatment of loved ones at the Duke Medical Center which is within walking distance. And even though I’m not technically a Blue Devil fan, I am a big fan of Duke Chapel. Who wouldn’t be when surrounded by multiple pipe organs, seventy-seven stained glass windows, and a 210-foot tower that houses a hand-played carillon?

I might simply be known as a “Visitor Relations Assistant,” but witnessing countless faces of awe and wonder when they first step into the nave and gaze seventy-three feet heavenward, I am reminded of those who were called “doorkeepers” in the Old Testament—the ones who unlocked and locked the Temple in Jerusalem each day for worshipers. I now fully appreciate the crafted words of the English poet Thomas Gray: “… through the long drawn aisle and fretted vault, the pealing anthem swells the note of praise.” At sixty-eight, I’ve learned once again that some dreams take on different forms. I think my twelve-year-old self would be glad.

Larry Efird is a visitor relations assistant at the Chapel. This essay was originally published in the Salisbury Post and is reprinted with permission.

Larry Efird

Advisory Board Reunion Brings Together Students, Alumni, Supporters

A reunion of the Chapel’s National Advisory Board, the first such gathering in the board’s known history, brought together current advisory board members, past board members, current students, Chapel staff, alumni supporters, and former Chapel ministers. More than 100 people attended the dinner and program on March 22, which featured an address from Chapel Dean Luke Powery, remarks by Duke President Vincent Price, a welcome from the board’s chair and vice chair, music from the student a cappella group Something Borrowed Something Blue, and Chapel-themed mementos to remember the occasion.

Dean Powery Recognized for Community Building on Campus and Beyond

In February, Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery was recognized by Duke’s Samuel DuBois Cook Society for his contributions to “improve relations amongst people of all backgrounds at Duke and beyond.” He received the society’s Raymond Gavins Distinguished Faculty Award at a banquet at the Washington Duke Inn.

An announcement about the award said: “A national leader in the study of homiletics, Powery has ensured that the chapel continues to be a centerpiece of the community both at Duke and in Durham. His teaching and research explore the connections between preaching, music and culture, particularly the expression of the African diaspora.”

The Cook Society was founded in 1997 to honor the first African American faculty member hired and tenured at Duke University. Its Distinguished Faculty Award is named in honor of the late Duke history professor Raymond Gavins, who was known for his mentorship and support of colleagues and young scholars. Among the criteria for receiving it is: “Cultivate positive relations between Black people and other ethnic, racial, and national groups on the basis of an enlightened appreciation and knowledge of our historic interdependence.”

Chapel Dean Luke Powery (center) poses for a photo with other recipients of Cook Society awards at this year's banquet on February 15.

Students with Something Borrowed Something Blue sing at the National Advisory Board reunion on March 22.

Digital, Broadcast Media Extend the Reach of Music and Ministry

In December, the Chapel presented its ninetieth-anniversary performances of Handel’s Messiah. That weekend, more than three thousand people attended the three sold-out concerts by the Duke Chapel Choir, professional soloists, and Mallarmé Music. Yet with so many people filling the Chapel, an even larger audience awaited the music.

A composite video recording of the concerts uploaded to YouTube was viewed nearly 60,000 times during the window of time it was available from December 18 through January 6. Data for the video show thousands of views coming from South Korea, Germany, and Japan, in addition to the United States and Canada. With more than fifty comments on the video, it’s clear that the online audience was applauding the performance:

“A truly inspiring version - all the soloists, tempi, interpretation fantastic. Thanks for uploading this!”

“Lovely, inspiring! I was shouting some of the lyrics in unison with the choir.”

“Excellent historically informed rendition! Nice clarino work and dramatic vocal improvisations, all done in a beautiful acoustic space, and recorded with clarity.”

While reaching so many people with an online video of Handel’s Messiah is a first for the Chapel, using media to extend the reach of the Chapel’s music and ministry has a long history. An advertisement in the Duke Alumni Register from 1947 touts the weekly broadcasts of the Chapel’s Sunday services on WDNC Radio—a practice that continues today.

The Chapel was a relatively early adaptor of both YouTube and iTunes (now Apple Podcasts). The result has been a robust and steadily growing audience for services, sermons, concerts, and more, with Chapel videos receiving

more than 400,000 YouTube views annually and more than 15,000 podcast listening sessions each year.

The Chapel’s media presence and capacity have led to opportunities for national and international broadcasts. In 2019, the Chapel’s Marvel of This Night Christmas special aired nationally on CBS Television. In 2014, the Chapel partnered with Trans World Radio to broadcast and live stream a Messiah performance to countries on five continents; the program included an interview by David Hartman, the original host of ABC’s Good Morning America

In 1986, CBS Television broadcast the Chapel’s Easter Sunday service, with this opening line in the announcer’s script: “Live, from the Duke University Chapel in Durham, North Carolina, CBS presents an Easter Sunday worship service.”

In its latest media venture, the Chapel launched its new Sounds of Faith podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The episodes, ranging from fifteen to thirty minutes, explore traditions of faith, sacred music, and spoken word in interview-style conversations mixed with archival recordings of sermons and music.

“The Chapel has a great trove of recordings of sermons, concerts, and major speakers while also being situated at a research university with incredible academic expertise,” says James Todd, the Chapel’s communications manager. “It’s a wonderful combination for producing a podcast like Sounds of Faith or any other faith-based media project.”

Find all of the Chapel’s media linked from the Duke Chapel website at chapel.duke.edu.

A video recording of this year’s Messiah performances brought the music to an online audience of nearly 60,000. Photo by Duke senior Brianna Smith.

Growing, Serving, and Belonging at Duke Chapel

As a first-year student at Duke, Dr. Walker Robinson, T ’00, G ’01, M ’09, H ’12, sang the Chinese national anthem on the Great Wall of China with members of the Duke Chapel Choir and Duke Chorale. The experience was part of the Chapel Choir’s tour of China during the winter break of 1996–97, for which he had received a full scholarship.

“To be a part of that group, to be representing Duke in a newly opening country, to be singing, to be lending one voice among many was an absolutely stunning moment,” Dr. Robinson says. “We learned at least one other piece in Mandarin, and to go to these communities in China and have them hear us sing in their mother tongue, I think it really touched many of them.”

Ever since then, Robinson has sung in the choir (with a few brief interruptions) while also taking on a variety of other roles at the Chapel and with the Congregation at Duke Chapel; he now serves as the vice chair of the Duke Chapel National Advisory Board. His deep involvement with the Chapel has given him a broad perspective on its impact.

“This is an institution that uses its resources, uses its pulpit, uses its connections with other institutions to build a better university, to build a better city of Durham, to build a better state of North Carolina,” he says.

Having grown up in Durham and sung in church youth choirs at the Chapel, Robinson came to Duke with a general sense that he wanted to sing in a choir and be part of a campus Religious Life group. He soon found a place to belong at the Chapel and in the Chapel Choir.

“This is an intense place to be as an undergrad, both academically, socially, relationally,” he says. “From some of those earliest Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings, I came to see Duke Chapel as really a place of respite, a place of repose.”

His involvement grew. He participated in Bible studies with the Duke Wesley group, operated the Chapel tower elevator for visitors, worked on a service project in Honduras with the Duke Episcopal Center, and took an art history course on Gothic cathedrals that included a field trip

to the Chapel. As a Duke graduate student, first in the Master of Arts in Teaching program and then the medical school, Robinson became a member of the Congregation at Duke Chapel, volunteering as a youth leader and serving on a medical mission trip with Family Health Ministries in Haiti.

“I’m no longer an undergraduate or a graduate student, but I still come here every Wednesday evening and spend a good share of the day on Sunday here almost every week,” says Robinson, a member of both the Chapel Choir and Evensong Singers. “It’s home for me—a place of peace, a place of spiritual enrichment.”

Still able to sing the Chinese national anthem from memory, Robinson says he has had some of his most poignant memories through music: singing Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 (Resurrection Symphony) on Easter Sunday, participating in a choral residency at Westminster Abbey, saying goodbye to graduating choir students with John Rutter’s “God Be in My Head,” and making music at the bedside of choir members nearing the end of life.

“If you look at Duke Chapel, you might think, ‘Wow, I get to be here a lot of times each week,’ but it’s really like a lot of other things in life, it’s who you meet along the way,” Robinson says. “Some of my longest friendships have come out of the Chapel.”

“James B. Duke in the 1920s had an amazing vision,” he says, “of having this building be a towering church and a center of the university—a place of solace and sanctuary.”

Dr. Walker Robinson

Meet Our New Staff Members

Recognitions

In November, the Religious Communication Association (RCA) named Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery’s Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race its 2023 Book of the Year. RCA is an academic society for scholars, teachers, students, clergy, journalists, and others who share an interest in religious speech, rhetoric, media, and performance. The association is nonsectarian and provides a setting for professionals of various faiths, or no faith, to study problems of communication and religion.

An original composition by Chapel Music Director Dr. Zebulon Highben received an Honourable Mention award in the Bach Choir’s Sir David Willcocks Carol Competition. Dr. Highben’s Christmas carol “There is No Rose” was just one of six entries selected out of more than 100 to receive an award. In announcing the award, the Bach Choir said, “The judges commended this carol’s engaging, folk-like quality and noted that it is likely to be popular with singers.”

The British early sacred music group Magnificat, which is directed by the Chapel’s conductor-in-residence Dr. Philip Cave, released a new album in February. The Alchemist presents musical settings of the Magnificat text (the Song of Mary) by the late-Renaissance composer Orlandus Lassus.

Morgan Dynes Visitor Relations Assistant

Jeremy Gaddy Staff Assistant for Hospitality

Nicholas Venable Music Director for United in Praise

Kalu Amah Visitor Relations Assistant

Poppy Zhao Visitor Relations Assistant

John Murphy Visitor Relations Assistant

Alexander Jones Hospitality Manager

Paquita BurnetteThorpe Wedding Director

Anjali Nandagopal Visitor Relations Assistant

Stanley Gilles Visitor Relations Assistant

Supported by a Cloud of Witnesses

Amanda M. Hughes Senior Director of Development and Strategy

Dear Friends,

At Duke Chapel, we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses—alumni, neighbors, friends—who give generously to support the flourishing of our mission.

Every day, we welcome visitors from on campus and around the world who enter our sanctuary to find a space for reflection, prayer, and respite.

Every week, musicians and singers gather to share their talents with us through the ministries of Chapel Music. In the lower level of the Chapel, our Ministry Team cares for the spiritual needs of students, faculty, and staff through prayer, one-on-one conversations, group meetings, and fellowship events.

During the academic year, we provide a framework for students. From the first day of classes to the last, the Chapel plays a role in their education. Our professional staff creates opportunities for study, inspiration, play, and comfort, supporting experiences and relationships that will shape their lives for decades to come.

All of this is possible because of you. Every year, your gifts provide close to one-third of our annual budget and keep the Chapel’s ministries vibrant, strong, and relevant. Gifts to the Annual Fund support music, community

engagement, the spiritual wellness of students, the ongoing cycle of worship services, and the resources we need to serve the campus and the community. Your gifts support our media ministry, carrying the excellence of the Chapel to patient rooms in Duke Hospital and the homes of people around the world.

At the Chapel, my belief in the generosity of individuals who share a common vision and mission is bolstered every day. It is a privilege to speak with donors, express thanks, and share our hopes for the future. But there are so many friends of the Chapel that I will never have the chance to meet. This is why we produce Chapel View magazine and our Annual Report. From candles to concerts, from student profiles to program updates, we want you to see and discover the deep impact of your generosity.

This year, please know that we are grateful and hope that the stories included here will be a blessing to you and inspire your continued support.

With gratitude,

Amanda Millay Hughes

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

Alumni and Development Records

Duke University Box 90581

Durham, NC 27708-0581

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.

The Chapel’s worship and ministry coordinator, Angela Flynn, makes the sign of the cross on a student’s forehead on Ash Wednesday. The Chapel partnered with the Duke Catholic Center to offer the imposition of ashes and a brief prayer on the Chapel Quad.

Do More Than You Thought Possible

Current gifts are vitally important and allow Duke Chapel to continue its mission and ministry. Investing in the Chapel’s future can yield invaluable returns to students, faculty, and the Duke community for generations. With help from our expert team, along with your personal tax and legal advisors, your gift can also be part of your own charitable planning for the future.

GIFT PLANNING

Connect with us today to explore how giving to Duke can also help you realize your personal and financial goals. Call (919) 681-0464 or visit giving.duke.edu/giftplanning to get started.