Chapel View Magazine | Spring 2014

Chapel VieW Spring 2014

magazine

FRIENDS BOARD PRESIDENT Gina harrison VICE PRESIDENT anthony Sease e ’91

Students Speak

People Before Protocol

ADVISORy BOARD Charlie Berardesco T ’80 leigh edwards T ’09, D ’11 Gus Grant, MD Steve harper Nancy l. Jirtle anna R. Jones elizabeth lester T ’14 C.B. Richardson T ’92 Jonathan York T ’15

Hannah Ward T ’14: Practice Makes Perfect ... 4

EMERITUS MEMBER William e. King, phD, T ’61, G ’63, G ’70

From the President’s Desk ............................... 1 ... And the Desk of a Student!

Gina Harrison and Elizabeth Lester T ’14 From the Dean’s Desk ...................................... 3

Luke A. Powery

Reprint of News & Observer article

Jay Price

Duke Undergraduate Faith Council ................ 6 Christy Lohr Sapp Jordan Pearson T ’14 and Abdul Latif T ’16 .... 6 Interview by Ryan Pemberton D ’14 Duke Chapel PathWays Student Ministries .... 8 PathWays House Moves ................................. 10 Bruce Puckett D ’09 Investing in Our Students .............................. 11 Beth Gettys Sturkey Voices: Student Stories ................................... 12 Interviews by Ryan Pemberton D ’14 Rachael Clark T ’15 .......................................... 12 Bradford Ellison T ’16 ....................................... 12 Andrew Kragie T ’15 ......................................... 13 Janet Xiao T ’12, D ’15 ..................................... 14

Andrew Rotolo T ’14: Saratoga Fellow ....... 15 Beauty & Calling ............................................. 16 Tim McDermott D ’16 Singing from Taiwan to Durham .................. 16 Chien-Kuang Ding G ’18 Upcoming Events Schedule ............. Back Cover

Cover: Student Preacher Hannah Ward is embraced by friends after preaching in Duke Chapel’s pulpit.

Photo by Joni Harris

CHAPEL STAFF DEAN OF DUkE CHAPEL Luke A. Powery MINISTRy Christy Lohr Sapp, Associate Dean for Religious Life Meghan Feldmeyer, Director of Worship Adam Hollowell, Director of Student Ministry Bruce Puckett, Director of Community Ministry Gerly Ace, Staff Assistant for Student Ministry Kennetra Irby, Interim Black Campus Minister MUSIC Rodney Wynkoop, Director of Chapel Music Robert Parkins, University Organist Robert Horton, Interim Chapel Organist Brian Schmidt, Assistant Conductor and Administrative Coordinator of Chapel Music Michael Lyle, Staff Assistant to Chapel Music John Santoianni, Curator of Organs and Harpsichords J. Samuel Hammond, University Carillonneur ADMINISTRATION Tanisa Little, Business Manager Beth Gettys Sturkey, Director of Development Joni Harris, Assistant to the Dean Adrienne Koch, Communications Specialist Sara Blaine, Event and Wedding Coordinator Lisa Moore, Accounting Specialist and Office Coordinator Lucy Hart Peaden Taylor, Staff Assistant for Development Daniel Reeves, Visitor Relations Specialist FACILITIES Oscar Dantzler, Housekeeper Beverly Jordan, Housekeeper

Duke Schools Abbreviation Key T (Trinity College of Arts & Sciences) D (Divinity School) G (Graduate School) E (Pratt School of Engineering)

FROM THE DESk OF A STUDENT Introduction by the President of the Duke Chapel Advisory Board, Gina Harrison

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mong the choir membership, each year a small group of singers goes beyond the commitment required for services, rehearsals, and individual preparation to learn anthems and concert music. They volunteer to work with Choir Director Rodney Wynkoop, and the Chapel Music staff to serve as officers, section leaders, concert masters, librarians, social chairs, and outreach coordinators. in this issue, i’m happy to introduce you to our current choir president, elizabeth lester. i suspect she may have changed her campus address

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hen i first came to Duke i knew three things for certain: that i was going to major in history, that i would attend almost every Duke Basketball game, and that i wanted to sing in the Chapel Choir. While i am grateful that all three did, in fact, become reality, i had little idea how far those first steps into the Chapel Choir would take me, not only regarding my time at Duke, but also regarding my vocational discernment.

Four years later, i have had very few experiences that do not relate to the Chapel in some way. This faith community has given depth to my personal formation.

Both the people and the spiritual development opportunities offered by pathWays and the Choir inextricably tied the Chapel to my own faith journey.

My faith was something that i may have taken for granted when i began at Duke. Faith has always been a constant part of my life. For the first time in my life i found myself being theologically challenged through the weekly sermons, conversations with peers and mentors, and Chapel discernment groups and classes. i was taught to evaluate what the words of faith spoken each Sunday during service meant in my public life. My faith could no longer be something which i easily accepted without thought. The Chapel caused me to want to learn more about my faith and deepen it as i learned to recognize the

to Duke Chapel by now. in addition to her four years with the choir, she’s a four-year member of the presbyterian Campus Ministry, serving this year as Student pastor. You may know elizabeth as a pathWays Chapel Scholar, a 2012 pathWays Summer intern, or a Chapel attendant.

She is also a student representative on the Chapel advisory Board and was the undergraduate student representative on the search committee for the dean of the Chapel.

So in her spare time (before she writes a new bestseller on time management!), we asked elizabeth to share some insights about how her Chapel experiences have influenced her faith journey and vocational discernment.

ways in which it is woven throughout every aspect of my daily life. at the Chapel i have become part of a diverse group of people who challenge and teach me, support and care for me, laugh and cry with me. i have learned just how wonderful it can be to let my faith journey be shaped with all of these varied and beautiful people.

The Chapel creates a place where, through ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue and experiences, one is able to deepen his or her own Christian faith. My faith experiences would be severely lacking if they were void of the relationships fostered by the Chapel — relationships with faithful members of religions and denominations other than my own. The people who make up the heart of the Chapel, whether they are the staff, students, or visiting preachers, have guided me along in my faith and discernment to where God is calling me to live and be in my own life. Through the modeling of these people, i have gained a sense of what it means to live out God’s call, a call to a life of faith that can take on a variety of forms. i have been given a space to reflect on who God is calling me to be. Because of the Chapel’s influence, i will continue to walk my path of faith and discernment in a way that deepens and strengthens my convictions. and for that i feel truly blessed.

— Elizabeth Lester T ’14

From the president’s Desk

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Dean Luke Powery visits with Jonathan York T ’15 after Sunday worship.

Jonathan is a PathWays Chapel Scholar, a member of the Chapel Advisory Board, and served as a 2013 PathWays Summer Intern.

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Chapel VieW magazine | Spring 2014

PEOPLE BEFORE PROTOCOL From the Dean’s Desk, the Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery

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esus fishes for people because people are his priority (Matt 4:12-23). his gaze is toward human beings. he bears witness to religious tradition but aims to preserve the life-giving character of the tradition. he does this by focusing his attention on people. in one case, there is “a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.” Jesus allows himself to be interrupted by her. This woman’s presence pierces the normal protocol. What Jesus reveals is that a person takes priority over the usual protocol. here is a woman, unnamed and crippled, whose body said it all— not only was she bent over, imprisoned by her physical ailment, but bent and burdened down by an interpretation of a religious law that quarantined certain days for healing. She suffered under the weight of her gender and physical disability because she was ostracized for them, socially. For eighteen years she was trapped by a certain perspective within a religious tradition in which protocol was more important than people. That is, until she encounters Jesus who is person-driven.

Jesus is person-centered. he privileges the person over protocol. The woman doesn’t approach Jesus; she makes no request of him. Jesus takes the initiative to speak to her and to touch her. and when he tells her “you are set free from your ailment,” this is when we realize that his ministry messes with the tradition (or some might say “messes up” the tradition). But he isn’t messing it up, he’s making it what it’s supposed to be. Of course, everyone isn’t happy, which is no surprise in a religious community. a rigid religiosity may be so distorted that protocol is more important than people. in their book, No Longer Invisible: Religion in University Education, Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen present six sites of religious engagement at the university level: religious literacy, interfaith etiquette, framing knowledge, civic

Tweet @LukeAPowery engagement, convictions, charwith responses to acter, and vocation. The latter the question: three have to do with personal identity and purpose. To be reliWhat does it mean to giously engaged in our day, one be “a loving church”? has to include the personal, the person and their needs, just like Jesus did. The person is the heart of university campus ministry, for without people, there is no church because the church is the people. at the heart of the vision and mission of Duke Chapel are people. The beautiful gothic structure may dominate, visually, but the living, breathing ministry of Duke Chapel are all of the people who serve and are served in and through this place. at the heart of the buzz of a university setting is the student body. a research university like Duke may pride itself on its innovative scholarship, effective teaching, and meaningful service to society; however, without the presence of students, both undergraduate and graduate, the mission of a university would lose its heart.

The same is true even for an intergenerational chapel like Duke Chapel. We have children and senior citizens in our midst (and everything in between) but without students in our community, we would cease to be a university chapel. We are such a place, not solely because we are located on a university campus, but because we care for the intellectual and spiritual lives of students and desire their presence and leadership in all that we do on Duke’s campus and in the community.

This magazine is an intentional “turn to the human,” with a focus on students stories, shared from their own voices. When we forget people, whoever they may be, we squeeze Christ’s person-driven love out of Christianity.

This issue calls us to remember students and their crucial presence in our midst. We may already be known as James B. Duke’s “great towering church,” but my hope is that we will also be known as the “great loving church.”

This issue calls us to remember students and their crucial presence in our midst. We may already be known as James B. Duke’s “great towering church,” but my hope is that we will also be known as the “great loving church.”

From the Dean’s Desk

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PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Duke Student Worked Long, Hard on the Sermon She Delivered at Campus Chapel

By JaY pRiCe

h

annah Ward’s first—and probably last — sermon had been written. and rewritten. and rewritten again, with input from several experts in the Duke Divinity School.

She had practiced it in front of a speech professor repeatedly, and alone three times.

Now all the Duke University student, 22, had to do was deliver it. To an audience of hundreds, in one of the most imposing settings imaginable for a first sermon: Duke’s massive, cathedral-like chapel.

Oh, and her sermon was about being perfect.

Once a year, the chapel honors undergraduate students by letting one deliver a “student preacher sermon” in the iconic chapel.

The honor goes to the student whose sermon, submitted without the author’s name, is chosen as the best by a panel. any undergraduate can enter, and the sermons are judged on relevance to that Sunday’s scripture, delivery and appropriateness of subject matter for Duke Chapel.

Ward was raised by her mother, Susan, a family counselor in asheville. N.C. She’s lutheran now, but when she was younger she went to a lot of different churches, “the spiritual-life journey thing,” she jokes. “i really love worship service and love services and listening to sermons, so i’ve heard quite a few,” she said.

That served her well when she decided to write one, said Charles Campbell, a professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School. along with Campbell, her support team included Meghan Feldmeyer, director of worship at the chapel, 4

Chapel VieW magazine | Spring 2014

and Christine parton Burkett, a visiting professor of speech at the divinity school.

So by Sunday, Feb. 23, the text was solid and she had a sense of how she needed to deliver it.

Ward is a religion major (and psychology, too), but plans to become a doctor rather than a minister. That’s why this will probably be her only sermon, at least from a pulpit. and she wanted to make it a good one, not just because it was such an honor, but because she is such a fan of good sermons and believes they should matter.

By Sunday morning, she had two fears left: simply not being able to perform well, and, from a spiritual standpoint, not being able to reach her audience. “i think there are good things at the heart of my message, and my job in the sermon is to try to deliver them in a way that’s understandable, that gives people something to think about later,” she said.

Being the student preacher looks like a high-pressure, lonely honor. The pressure is real, Ward said, but it’s mainly internal. and it’s not entirely a lonely task. “it’s really the most amazing experience because you have that strong support team behind you,” she said. at least, until it’s just you looking out at the cathedral.

The service began at 11 a.m., with Ward, in a white robe, with cross around her neck, sitting behind the choir. after the gospel lesson came the recessional, and while the audience was focused on the cross moving down the center aisle, Ward slipped into the pulpit with her notes and looked out at a sea of pews and seats.

Somewhere in the crowd were the friends she had

invited, along with fellow members of the Undergraduate Faith Council that she helped found, and her mom, who had driven down from asheville along with her godparents and three godsiblings.

She was somehow able to notice the beauty of the chapel, with its airy vaults, thousands of organ pipes and seemingly acres of stained glass windows with biblical scenes. an odd peace settled into her. Then it was time. “how would you describe the perfect person?” she started.

The sermon she had worked on for so long was an exploration of perfection, both in the eyes of God and from a secular standpoint, something she felt particularly apt for life at Duke.

She started well, her tone measured and confident, and early on Ward got in her first joke: “and i don’t know about you but my perfect dentist is someone that feels content NOT to ask me questions while my mouth is gaping open and stuffed with gauze and polish residue.”

With perfect timing, she paused and the audience filled the moment with laughter. They were with her.

Then it came. a sharp tickling in her throat, and her voice clenched. She needed to cough. She coughed.

She battled on. The coughs keep coming, but somehow her voice returned, strong and expressive, after each bout.

“The wonderful beauty of that statue does not come when the sculptor adds a feature from his design, but rather when its true beauty is revealed by getting rid of its rough excess,” she said. “and it’s no different with us.

Beneath that rough edifice we have built around ourselves, that wall we have erected.” her voice gave out again and a choir member handed her something.

“We hide our true essence,” she started again. “The true essence that is dependent on cough drops to deliver a sermon.”

Then the coughs came further apart and finally stopped.

The power came back into her voice and she closed in on the ending, the chance to drive home what she wanted people to think about as they walked out, and maybe even later in the week.

Finally she was there.

“Who among you is willing to take that chisel and hammer and break away the calluses, shed the dust, relinquish the coverings?” she said. “Who is willing to love their neighbor simply because they are here? Who will lace up their shoes and go the second mile? Who will tell the truth and deliver justice and feed the hungry and clothe the poor? Not sure you have the strength right now? Don’t worry.” in the pews, several people leaned forward as Ward paused again, the master of her timing, the master of her sermon. “i hear practice makes perfect.” it was done, an imperfect sermon, but in the end a perfect one as well.

The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), March 5, 2014 reprinted from newsobserver.com practice Makes perfect: hannah Ward

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Duke Undergraduate Faith Council: Mormons and Muslims and More

I love the work I do at Duke. I love it, in large part, because it brings me into regular contact with some of the best and brightest students in the country. The leadership of the Duke Undergraduate Faith Council (DUFC), Duke’s interfaith student group, embodies this. In the three years since its inception, I have had the pleasure of working with dozens of students who are committed to their own faith traditions but who are also passionate about learning from others’ traditions. The presidents of the DUFC have been particularly impressive — both in their own faith lives and in their willingness to cross boundaries in order to build interfaith relationships on campus. The support these students show each other and the camaraderie that they build is inspiring.

It is always bittersweet for me when student group election season rolls around and the leadership transitions. This year was no exception. Jordan Pearson, a senior set to graduate in May 2014, has been a faithful member of the DUFC for two years. He is a member of the Latter Day Saint Student Association and demonstrates a rare gift for commitment and follow through. Jordan is incredibly knowledgeable about his Mormon faith — a tradition that is often absent from traditional interfaith dialogue. Abdul Latif is a Trinity sophomore and Religion major. He is an active member of the Muslim Student Association and his enthusiasm for learning more about other traditions is contagious. As a Robertson Scholar, Abdul is well-versed in bridging the gaps that divide us on this campus — East/West, Christian/Muslim, dark blue/light blue.

In this interview Jordan tells a story about beverages to highlight a point about interreligious awareness. This is an apt metaphor for some of the challenges we face with interfaith engagement on campus. Abdul’s family comes from a culture where sharing a cup of tea is the ultimate gesture of hospitality, but Jordan’s family comes from a tradition that doesn’t drink tea or coffee at all. Whether it is through offering an alternative drink or re-imagining the rituals of hospitality, the DUFC is committed to finding ways to resolve seemingly irreconcilable differences in such a way that everyone can come away feeling honored and refreshed.

—Christy Lohr Sapp 6

Chapel VieW magazine | Spring 2014

Of all the things you could do at Duke, why have you made your work with DUFC a priority?

Abdul Latif: There’s a verse in the Quran, chapter 49, verse 13: “Oh mankind, we have created you from male and a female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another.” i try to live out that verse. ethnically, i am half Jewish and have some Catholic in my blood, but i’m Muslim. Faith is present at Duke, but oftentimes students feel they can’t talk about it. So having a place for dialogue is something that’s extremely important for me.

Jordan Pearson: a large part of it comes from my personal faith, and how important that is to me. as part of my personal beliefs, missionary work and sharing what i believe is a big portion of that. at the same time, while i’m engaging other people, it’s important to be listening to other people and what they have to say. interfaith dialogue is the perfect setting to do that. To learn from other people, and to share what i have to say, in a non-threatening environment.

What, within your religious tradition, inspires you to do inter-religious work?

AL: i am a religious studies major, and in religious studies you realize not to make truth judgments about other people, but to understand what their faith means to them. Not to say whether that’s right or wrong, but what can i learn from you, and

what can others learn from you.

JP: at the root of missionary work and my belief is that we’re all children of God, and we all have individual worth, which makes it important to recognize everyone’s individuality and everyone’s importance. everyone you meet and everyone you interact with is a child of God. Since they have that importance to God, they should have that importance to me, and part of that means valuing them and their beliefs. i think being open to what other people believe is paramount to accepting their individual worth.

Abdul Latif and Jordan Pearson

If you could dream a program that DUFC does, what would it be?

AL: a program i keep joking about is having an interfaith comedy fest, and calling it the Divine Comedy.

There was one a few years ago, and it went relatively well. i guess a more important program would be something service related, DUFC urban ministries, or something of that nature. We are currently working with other interfaith groups on a community garden. We’ve also talked about having a weekly discussion. This past week we started a more regular discussion circle.

JP: Something service-oriented would be awesome. My own religious life group [lDS] has worked with another group [Catholic Center], and that was really successful. We went to one of the local elementary schools that was building a garden

and we went out and got in the mud, doing some of the random gardening work that some of the supervisors there needed us to do, and we got a lot out of it. Organizing something like that, where people of multiple faiths can come together over common ground, that would be great.

Where do you see DUFC growing in the years ahead? In terms of programming, membership, etc?

AL: in terms of programming, first, we want to encourage groups to do activities together, providing funding to help with that, etc. Second, we want to have the kind of events that others might not be able to put on, with a panel made up of many different groups, for example. Third, we want to have regular discussion event.

JP: Moving forward, we want to encourage groups to collaborate, and to do things other groups cannot. earlier this year we organized a panel talk on religion and mental health, which went really well. Getting those different people involved is something that one particular tradition could do, but having resources in different faith traditions gives us an advantage.

What’s been the most meaningful interfaith encounter of your time at Duke (possibly, but not necessarily, related to DUFC)?

AL: last fall break i didn’t go home, and i was missing my family. i went on an interfaith bus tour to six different worship communities around the triangle area. each place felt like home. and i learned two things: everyone loves food, except when fasting, and every place of worship has long announcements. Seeing people in their own environment and being welcomed so openly showed that love and care, while also allowing our mutual differences to exist.

JP: i’m lDS, and as part of my beliefs, i don’t drink coffee, tea, or alcohol. i was with a friend recently when someone offered to buy us coffee. Before i could answer, my friend stepped in and said, “Oh, Jordan doesn’t drink coffee, but maybe he’d like a hot chocolate instead.” it was powerful that he understood my perspective and respected it enough to step up and say something about it.

That was a really neat experience.

Obviously there’s a lot of different aspects to interfaith, but one of those is this idea of understanding and respect for what other people believe. That was a situation that embodies this idea of understanding and respect.

How do you view the Chapel and its relationship to students of different faiths?

AL: The Muslim group does their Friday prayers and service in the basement. Sometimes during this time the organ is practicing. in one sense it’s a beautiful synthesis of different religions; in other ways, it’s hard to listen to the sermon. The Chapel is an undeniable Christian building, but in other ways it does a great job of getting interfaith communities together. i’d like to get more of that diversity of Duke campus engaged there.

JP: i feel like the Chapel as an institution is looked at as an umbrella, under which all the different religious life organizations and groups exist and co-exist. Most students, when they have an interaction with their own faith group, don’t think about interacting with the Chapel.

They’re just going to their own weekly meeting, but they don’t consider that a part of the Duke chapel organization.

— Abdul Latif T ’16 and Jordan Pearson T ’14, interviewed

by Ryan Pemberton D ’14 Duke Undergraduate Faith Council

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DUkE CHAPEL PATHWAyS STU SCHOLARSHIP Adam Hollowell, director of student ministry, teaches a full classroom of undergraduates in his Ethics in an Unjust World course in the Sanford School of Public Policy

INTENTIONAL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY In the PathWays house, program participants live out their Christian faith with daily prayer, meals, study, and service in Durham’s West End

Fellows Recent graduates discern their vocation over the course of one year

Summer Interns Current students discern their vocation through summer internships

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING Christy Lohr Sapp, associate dean for religious life, works closely with two students preparing for a trip to Korea for the World Council of Churches Tenth Assembly

VOCATIONAL DISCERNMENT Chapel staff members offer small discernment groups throughout the academic year

MISSION TRIPS A Chapel Scholar enjoys teaching children at a Costa Rican school 8

Chapel VieW magazine | Spring 2014

UDENT MINISTRIES ARTISTIC EXPRESSION Students in the Gospel Choir and dance team, United in Praise, partner with the Chapel in worship

PathWays by the Numbers

86

Chapel Scholars

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58

Students enrolled

in PathWays courses

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WORSHIP Students participate in weekly worship and special services

40

Approximate number of students who read scripture on Sunday mornings each academic year

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18

Students on PathWays-led mission trips this year

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COMMUNITY CONNECTION Bruce Puckett, director of community ministry, shares a meal with students and local community partners

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Chapel Scholars received grants for other mission/service trips totaling $7,500 last fiscal year

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14

PathWays community partner organizations at which students intern and volunteer

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Chapel Fellows

CHAPEL SCHOLARS Duke Chapel PathWays provides opportunities for students to hear and respond to God’s call for their lives on campus, in Durham, and beyond, through study, counsel, service, and community.

Among the many students who connect with PathWays, a select group displays a unique commitment to the work of vocational discernment on a deeper level. Chapel Scholars form the backbone of PathWays programming by participating widely in the opportunities outlined on this page.

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PathWays students in Chapel Choir

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Summer Interns

Duke Chapel pathWays Student Ministries

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ear the middle of August 2012, the Associate Dean for Religious Life, Christy Lohr Sapp, and I sat in a meeting of residents, neighbors, and organization representatives connected to the greater West End of Durham. We gathered on that hot evening to listen to the beginnings of a plan that Self-Help Credit Union revealed for their “Kent Corner Project”— a project that would include the properties from 1115 West Chapel Hill Street (the address of the PathWays House) around Kent Street to the Interfaith Food Shuttle’s community garden. Of course, Christy and I already knew of the plans that were in the works, but we were at the meeting to listen to what our West End neighbors thought of the project.

One neighborhood leader, Ms. Hazalene Umstead, stood and asked boldly, “What’s going to happen to the PathWays House?” We were glad she asked. Within Ms. Umstead’s question and her subsequent comments, we could hear her recognizing what Duke Chapel’s presence in the West End has meant to her and others.

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Chapel VieW magazine | Spring 2014

We also heard her highlighting the value of the physical structure of the PathWays house. When Ms. Umstead asked her question, she asked as one who has joined PathWays Fellows and Summer Interns around the dining room table, sharing stories of life, faith, and her community. She asked as one who has experienced the blessings and the challenges of living in the West End. She also asked as one who knows the transformation that the PathWays House has undergone.

The house was once a boarding house, inviting undesirable activity to the neighborhood. Since the PathWays students moved in, the house has come to represent the transformation made possible when neighborhoods partner with other people of goodwill for the sake of positive change in the community. Some may remember that the Chapel entered the West End after the neighborhood leaders invited us to be part of the positive transformation of the house and community on West Chapel Hill Street. The transformation occurred both in the appearance (renovation) of the house, and in the

activities that started taking place there. In many ways, the house stands as a visible reminder of the less visible transformations that are happening throughout the West End. Because of the symbolic power of the physical structure of the PathWays House, we determined that it was vital for us to maintain the house, even if it had to be moved off of its foundation to another location. And that is precisely what we did. After much negotiating and changing of plans, Self-Help paid to have the house lifted off of its foundation and moved to its new location at 713 Kent Street on January 17, 2014. As the house settles into its foundation more and more each day, we too are settling into the new journey this move will bring us: a step closer to the heart of Durham’s West End. As PathWays Students and Chapel staff continue to eat, talk, pray, play, and be with our West End neighbors, we believe and pray that people like Ms. Umstead will continue to say, “We’re so thankful for what has happened with the PathWays House, and we’re so glad the PathWays people are part of us.” — Bruce Puckett D ’09

PathWays House Moves Deeper into Durham’s West End

INVESTING IN OUR

TUDENTS

Beth Gettys Sturkey Director of Development

Dear Chapel Friends, My basement office opens out to the Chapel’s living room—a large and bright lounge with many tables, sofas, chairs, and a piano. it is a place for sharing food, gathering for meetings, and rehearsing before a worship service or concert.

One of its most important and consistent uses is as a study, gathering, and resting space for students. at any time of day or evening, i might walk around the corner to see a student hard at work writing a paper on her computer, a group of students talking about a class project, a student studying his music score, or a student taking a nap. When i ask them why they have chosen to be here, many say something such as, “this space feels like home,” or “i know that i am welcomed here.” They express appreciation for the ministers and staff members who greet them warmly and provide them with support (including occasional goodies!). in the midst of a busy Duke life, what does it mean for students and recent graduates to find friendship and support here at the Chapel? What do they need for vocational discernment, for learning to hear and respond to God’s call in their lives? i hope you will learn the answers in reading the students’ stories we’ve collected and shared with you in this magazine. here is another example: Kristen Westfall is a senior pathWays Chapel Scholar and our development office intern (one of four undergraduate students and nine graduate students who are employed at the Chapel). Kristen has planned to be a doctor since elementary school. her discernment process has focused on an exploration of the intersection of medicine and faith. When she had questions about how she might combine the two, she received support in the form of probing questions, suggestions for readings, and deep conversations with director of student ministry, Dr. adam hollowell, and director of worship, the Rev. Meghan Feldmeyer.

Students like Kristen, and the others represented through this edition of the Chapel VieW magazine, are finding ways to give back while at Duke. They are volunteering, befriending, and supporting others in Durham and in the world. Conversations with graduates reveal that they too are finding tangible intersections where their talents help them address some of the world’s greatest needs.

The Chapel has an important mission—providing students with a home base, teaching, befriending, challenging, and encouraging them. We count on your generous support to continue that mission.

With gratitude,

pathWays Moves house | investing in Our Students

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Rachael Clark

Voices: Student Stories

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unior Rachael Clark arrived at Duke with questions about God, but without any defined faith commitments of her own.

“I didn’t grow up in a religious household. My parents believed in God, but we didn’t go to church. I think there’s this thing these days about being spiritual but not religious.

I was one of those.

“In high school I felt like I was missing a religious community, but I didn’t know where to start or how to bring up that conversation with my family.

“At Duke, I was so busy freshman year I didn’t take the time to go searching for my own faith. Sophomore year I hit a bit of the sophomore slump. I knew I believed in God, but I didn’t know what else I believed, and I didn’t have a space to talk with others who were exploring and questioning their own faith.”

Rachael’s spiritual journey took a turn not in the church, but in the classroom.

“I took Ethics in an Unjust World with Adam Hollowell. In many ways, he was my first point of contact. I didn’t really know anyone within the 12

Chapel VieW magazine | Spring 2014

“There is so much religious life on campus that I was unaware of before becoming involved at Duke Chapel.

But now that I am a part of it, I see it everywhere.” religious community, except for him.

Knowing one person really helped.

“At the end of sophomore year, things got worse for one of my friends back home who has been sick for a long time. Out of that sense of needing something and not being able to control a situation that was less than ideal, I began talking with Adam and going to Chapel. That was my first time going to church in the U.S. “The first service I went to was about watching a loved one suffer and the death of a loved one. It was very much on-point with what I needed to hear, one of the moments that was really pivotal with my faith journey. I consider the Chapel my home church now.”

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or Duke Sophomore Bradford Ellison, the Christian tradition has always been a part of his life.

“Religion has played a big part of who I am for my entire life. Growing up in Washington, I attended Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, the oldest Black Church in Washington, D.C. That gave me a sense of the great preachers in American history. I was active in church plays growing up. I played piano, for about seven years, and I still do when I am home.

Arriving at Duke, Bradford was pleasantly surprised to realize his Baptist roots could be fed right here on campus.

“Since I saw my Christian faith being linked most to Southern Baptist culture, and because music was

This past January, Rachael was baptized in Duke Chapel.

“When I got baptized, Meghan Feldmeyer and Katie Owen were there, so I kind of like to think I got baptized into two different denominations,” Rachael says with a smile.

Rachael has noticed several ways in which her religious journey has affected the rest of her life.

“A lot of my faith journey has been about being more conscious of my decisions, how God is calling me in my life, and how that affects not only the little things, but also my career and life goals.

“Coming to Duke, I believed in God but not in Christ, and that’s

important to me — I grew up singing southern Baptist songs — I thought to really continue my Christian walk I would have to find a church in Durham.

Bradford Ellison

definitely changed. A lot of my prayers now are to Christ, and trying to follow his message. I’ve also started reading the Bible.

“In a lot of ways I’m grateful I wasn’t brought up in a religious household. It’s been good to discover my faith. Obviously it’s not something that’s done by me — there have been a lot of people involved in my faith journey — but I know I go to church now not simply because I was raised that way.”

“One of the things I was afraid of was not knowing the church language, and I think I was getting more caught up in the practice of the church rather than the spirit of the church. I was more focused on what I had to do, rather than the fact that God loves me no matter where I am.” – Rachael

“But when I came here, I felt really blessed to be here while Dean Powery was, since I came from a similar tradition. I have definitely told a lot of my fellow students how great Dean Powery is, and how convenient Chapel is.

Not only is this a landmark time to be at the Chapel, as he’s our first Black Dean, but he’s also a great minister.

He’s not afraid to bring in his roots of singing to try and shake things up for the Chapel.

“Many people don’t realize Duke Chapel is a church in itself, apart from the University. To feel a part of that, as a way the students and the community can interact, has been nice. In the classroom, Duke gives me a great education, but being grounded in the Chapel gives me more of a holistic

Andrew kragie W

hen asked about his spiritual journey at Duke, Andrew (above, second from right) frames his response around conversations, trips, and calling.

“Conversations have been intensely meaningful, pushing me to ask what I believe, and how God plays into the hectic life of a Duke under-

graduate. For example, sitting down with Director of Student Ministry Adam Hollowell, and talking about how my faith plays a role in vocation; discussing John Wesley’s views of money with Chaplain Jenny Copeland; or talking with Dean Luke Powery about race at the Chapel. (continued on page 14)

view as a Christian student here.”

Being a part of Chapel life has sparked other interests for Bradford, as well, his passion for Black males being an integral part of the community, for example.

“With the help of three other undergraduates, I co-founded the Black Men’s Choir, which is now an officially recognized University group.

Through this, I would hope that there would be more Black men involved at the Chapel across the university. I would like more Black men to know that Dean Powery is at the Chapel, and they can still have Christ as a part of their university experience.”

Bradford emphasizes the Chapel’s unique impact on his time at Duke as a Chapel Scholar.

“First and foremost it has positioned me so that I go to church as often as I am able. It also reaffirms that I should be an advocate for the Chapel.

“It’s often said Duke is the most loved school by its students. Immediately upon arriving here as a freshman, I thought this is the best experience anyone can have at a university. But my time at Duke Chapel has helped to give me a more holistic, and rounded experience. The Chapel has been the spine of my experience, and it will continue to be.”

Voices: Student Stories

13

(Andrew Kragie continued) “Through my involvement in Duke Undergraduate Faith Council, I participated in a field trip to worship with my Mormon friends. We also did an interfaith walk-for-peace around campus one night. It was really meaningful to hear prayers from people of other faith traditions, and it made me see even more value and depth in different traditions.”

In addition to his on-campus conversations, Andrew has had the opportunity to be involved in a number of trips.

“The most spiritually meaningful trip was going to Christ in the Desert Monastery in New Mexico with Meghan Feldmeyer (photo on page 13). It was there that I had a lot of time of silence and reflection, and very frequent prayer. From that I took away the importance of centeredness (even though I’m still not very good at it!), and the value of a frequent prayer life, not just a corporate prayer life.

“Another trip was when my campus ministry group asked me to lead

“A recent retreat focused on the theme “theology of the heart,” rather than the head. We were involved in meditation practices, and prayer through art. This trip encouraged me to look for a personal relationship with God, not just the intellectual relationship with Christianity.

It was a powerful reminder because Duke is a place of the head, and I was reminded that the heart is unavoidably central.” a trip to Costa Rica, since I had been there before. It ended up being extremely stressful. I was involved in every detail. But I was reminded that I cannot control things, and I have to leave things for God because you can’t do His work without Him.” Andrew points out that his calling at Duke has not been as he imagined when he first arrived on campus.

“I came into college saying, ‘Well, I was hyper involved in church stuff in high school. It’s time to take a breather and focus on my career,’ like every Duke student. But I did a preorientation hiking trip, and one of the leaders was involved in the Wesley group. He became a mentor and I was asked to come back and be a leader for the following year’s small group.

This experience helped me think

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Janet Xiao 14

Chapel VieW magazine | Spring 2014

or PathWays Chapel Scholar and Fellow Janet Xiao, her experience at Duke gave room to shape and grow the Christian faith she brought with her when she first arrived as a freshman.

One theme that Janet continues to return to throughout her spiritual journey at Duke is that of Christian responses to poverty.

“The PathWays Program was there for me during a time when I was asking a lot of questions about service, and specifically about the way I had been trained to think about service my whole life. I took Dean Wells’ course, Ethics in an Unjust World (now taught by the director of student ministry at the Chapel, Dr. Adam Hollowell), and it shook apart the idea that I was helping someone when I

about how I might be able to help others in their own spiritual journey, not just my own.

“Through my experience of being a student leader for the Costa Rica house course, I began working with director of community ministry, Bruce Puckett.

He’s been a big brother in the faith and a spiritual mentor, someone who can both invite me to use my heart in faith and also deepen my intellectual side of faith.”

Even when he tried to avoid it, Andrew’s spiritual journey has interwoven itself throughout his entire Duke experience.

“The depth and breadth of Christian life at Duke, through interaction at the Divinity School and student ministries at the Chapel, makes it hard not to have a spiritual journey!”

was fundraising, or volunteering, or serving meals. The class made me care a lot about relationships. I am really thankful someone hit pause for me when I was trying to do service, and asked really difficult questions, and made me continue to ask questions, non-stop.”

At Duke, Janet was also able to explore her identity as an Asian American Christian woman in conversation with others.

“In conversations with Adam Hollowell, I mentioned that I didn’t know what it meant for me to be an Asian immigrant Christian woman. In response, PathWays allowed me to host two discussion groups on books written by Asian American Christian women. We read through two books, one on theology, one more on experi-

ANDREW ROTOLO: SARATOGA FELLOW andrew Rotolo T ’14 has been awarded a place in the esteemed Saratoga Fellows program. he is an international Comparative Studies Major and pathWays Chapel Scholar who has been involved in Chapel worship services and religious life groups on campus for all four of his undergraduate years at Duke.

The Saratoga Fellows program is a post-undergraduate educational and professional experience for military and naval officers. The program is designed to prepare officers with the formation necessary to be principled leaders in the armed Forces of the United States. it aims to address the central need for military leaders to thoughtfully engage in public discourse with a civil, reasoned, and principled manner that underlies the officer’s calling to public service and the

ence. These groups allowed the space to discuss our own experiences and thoughts for a lot of undergraduates who haven’t had the space to think about or discuss that before.”

Through her involvement with the PathWays House and Community Empowerment Fund (CEF), Janet became involved in Durham, allowing her to enter into a community that previously felt off-limits.

“One of my friends who I met through CEF is an older man who walked me to my PathWays House interview. He had grown up in the West End where the PathWays house is located. We stopped on the doorstep of the PathWays House and he said, ‘Wait, I used to live in this house!’

When I was living in the house, he’d come over every once in a while and

profession of arms. The program’s method of text-based Socratic dialogue offers participants a forum in which to reflect upon the classical and Christian virtues, cultivate a deeper understanding of the human condition, and be equipped to provide the moral and intellectual leadership requisite of the modern professional.

Designed as a six-week long intensive academic residency in philadelphia, pennsylvania, the program consists of a core curriculum of interdisciplinary studies in theology, philosophy, ethics, history, politics, and jurisprudence. andrew is grateful for the vocational discernment offered by pathWays and Duke Chapel, and is excited to join the Saratoga Fellows program after his graduation from Trinity College this May.

we’d talk over coffee. At the doorstep, he originally invited me in, but then I would later invite him in. Until his recent passing, we continued to get coffee together every few weeks. Durham used to be far for me, but this experience brought it really close.”

Janet is quick to emphasize the role PathWays staff played in her journey since arriving at Duke.

“When I think of PathWays, I think of Adam Hollowell and Bruce Puckett, and the fact that they’re really there to be present with students. During times of panic, or difficulty, staff are always there to be present with us.

I tend to forget how present they’ve been, and how helpful their questions have been to me, in making space for me to reflect, and to continue to discern what God is doing.”

— Interviews were conducted by Ryan Pemberton D ’14

Voices: Student Stories | andrew Rotolo: Saratoga Fellow

15

Beauty & Calling

i

had just emerged from the a train at Fort Tryon on the Upper West side of New York. The hudson River, dirty as it may be, was serene and peaceful, and flowed beside me as i managed to find my way through the park to the Cloisters, a former monastery now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of art. This divine escape is a testament to a bygone era when churches understood that beauty and art nourish the soul and reveal the Divine presence to humanity.

When i first entered the chapel, i was confronted

by Christ on the cross, hanging just above the altar in agony, beckoning me to the forty black speakers lining the stone wall. as i walk around the chapel inspecting the room with forty or so other people, i begin to wonder what exactly will happen when the speakers turn on. Suddenly, and all at once, the chapel is filled

with the sound of forty voices. The speakers have erupted, each carrying a different voice; each spot in the room a unique sound. as the voices go on performing Spem in alium numquam habui by Thomas Tallis, which, when translated roughly means “in No Other is My hope,” it seems to me as if Christ is no longer hanging on the cross, but preparing to take me with him to heaven. i glance around the room and see an elderly man standing in front of a speaker with a smile of pure joy; a middle-aged woman who appears to be battling cancer, her eyes closed; a young man close to my age, tears running down his cheeks. each one instantaneously transformed by the sound of voices. i join the young man, and cry. as the piece comes to an end, it’s as if the room takes a collective breath — our first in fifteen minutes. it is difficult, if not impossible, to put words to feelings human beings seem to have when we experience a piece of art that moves us. Sublime, divine, transformative: these are imperfect vessels for our aesthetic experiences. But it is

Singing from Taiwan to Durham I was at Duke in the summer of 2009 as a short-term visiting student.

By that time I had pretty much decided I want to go to graduate school in the field of biomedicine research in a different culture from my homeland (Taiwan). During the two months of dry hard lab work, I was trying to find a church right when Duke Chapel was trying to find people to sing in the summer choir.

Singing the songs of the Church feels to me like the gentle sunlight and water that the tiny mustard seed of my faith needs in order to grow. If this were true in the churches I’d sung in, I imagined it would be thrilling to sing in Duke Chapel with the amazing choir and the magnificent organ accompaniments, so I decided to join

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Chapel VieW magazine | Spring 2014

them. The classical and creative music style caught my heart in the way that reminded me of my home church.

So when the time came to decide on graduate school, even though I had a number of opportunities to interview in different places, I decided that Duke would be the perfect place to not just nourish my intellect in the field of science, but also to nourish my faith.

Though the music is similar, Duke Chapel is very different from my home church, in the style of the building and of the service, and in the way people interact with one another.

The Chapel’s generous atmosphere reminds me to embrace the diversity of people, especially the college students, university staff, and the surrounding community. I am so glad to

be at Duke and a part of the choir at Duke Chapel.

— Chien-Kuang Ding G ’18

precisely these words that we use to describe great art because we often feel that we have transcended our circumstances and become one with humanity and with God. Being an artist, especially a Christian artist, is not easy. We are prone to selfdoubt and pain, which others likely do not understand. The international arts Movement (iaM) understands these struggles. Started as a collective where Christians in the arts can gather together and learn from one another, iaM is a thriving non-profit dedicated to celebrating the role of faith in the arts.

Duke Chapel sponsored my trip to the iaM conference last fall with the hopes that it would rekindle in me the possibilities of being a Christian who works in the arts. The conference showed me the power the arts have to transform lives. iaM seeks to teach the Christian artist how to engage the world for Christ without making explicitly “Christian art.”

When i was younger i wanted nothing more than to become the president of the United States of america, but after some time in Duke Divinity School and this weekend in New York City, i believe my calling is to be an artist. The conference helped me listen to the voice inside of me that says that the theatre is the place where i can create transcendent art that reflects the face of Christ in the human condition. Theatre, with its incarnational nature, presents itself to us as no other art form can, just as Christ presents himself to us as no other God can: in the flesh. i learned that there is a power in art to reveal to us the face of Christ—the conglomeration of something human and divine. in the theatre, the actors embody deep human questions that demand our attention: Will you help me? Will you love me?

What the people at iaM teach is that art matters, for the Christian and the nonChristian alike. art is not an indulgence, as some have made it out to be. But an indulgence pleases without fulfilling; it contributes nothing and redeems nothing. art gives hope; art transforms; art takes

us into human suffering and then helps us to move through it. it helps us see that the pain and suffering we now endure is not the final word, and often does this without the need for words. i am grateful to Duke Chapel and to donors who give funds to artists like me, so that we can find our unique place in the artistic world, and help bring the salvific power of Christ to those who are willing to find him there.

— Tim McDermott D ’16

“I learned that there is a power in art to reveal to us the face of Christ — the conglomeration of something human and divine.”

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