Duke Chapel Annual Report | 2022–2023

Annual Report 2022–2023

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We are blessed by a global community of supporters

Visits by People to Duke Chapel

With the financial support of Duke University and faithful donors, Duke Chapel pursues its vision of responding to God’s all-inclusive love at Duke, in Durham, and beyond. Gifts to Duke Chapel come from supporters from around the United States.

4,603

People Participated in Chapel Tower Climbs

11,254

People Participated in Pastoral Services (Weddings, Memorials, Baptisms)

34,708 Your Support 550+

Social Media Followers

Students Participated at Least Once in a Chapel Program or Service

Matters

10,911

People Attended University Ceremonies

9,924

Students and Recent Graduates on Email Lists of Religious Life Groups

3,330,477

Minutes of Online Chapel Videos/Livestreams Watched

The dots on the map represent the places throughout the country where our supporters live.

Additionally, the Chapel received support from people in nine countries: Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

2022–2023

1,195

Chapel Supporters

2,031

Gifts From Donors In

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States and

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Countries

Letter from the Dean Dear Friends, In the liturgical year of the church, Christmas and Easter are rightly seen as significant times for celebration and praise, but another day is arguably just as important and that is Pentecost. On this day, we celebrate the birth of the church, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the great reunification of humanity. As I look at this most recent year (2022–2023) in the life of Duke Chapel, I see a “Pentecostal” year of renewal, dynamism, and the Spirit working through people.

The signs of renewal and renaissance at the Chapel are everywhere.

The Easter Sunday service is back to being shoulder-to-shoulder in the pews; the Chapel Choir headed to Ireland and Scotland for its first international tour in seven years; and campus Religious Life groups are back holding a robust offering of services and programs.

At Pentecost the Spirit does a new thing—new possibilities are envisioned—and that is what we are seeing at the Chapel. The Theology Underground discussion series launched this year to explore intersections among faith, race, and culture with students. In worship services, we debuted original compositions by students, staff, and partners. And, we began new programs to support graduate students.

The Chapel window depicting the Day

The Spirit works powerfully at Pentecost—“like the rush of a of Pentecost and events surrounding it. violent wind” (Acts 2:2)—empowering the people it touches in their own diversity, giving them the ability to understand one another in their own languages. This is the vision I see emerging at Duke Chapel. From the music of Choral Evensong to the art of Marc Chagall to the voice of gospel artist Yolanda Adams, the Chapel unites people while also celebrating human difference.

One other way that the Spirit moves at Pentecost is to prompt people to be generous. They share their lives and their resources. As someone who shares their resources with the Chapel, I see that kind of Spirit-filled generosity in you. You are not required to give to Duke or Duke Chapel. Almost all of our programs are offered free-of-charge. And yet, there is something here, in this place and in our vision and mission that prompts you to give your time, your treasure, and your talents.

Finally, while people play an important role in the drama of Pentecost, God is always at the center.

Together as students, staff, donors, worshipers, visitors, singers, and ministers, we are stewards of the life and spirit of the Chapel. For almost 100 years, faithful people have worked and prayed and worshiped in the Chapel. And while we cannot know all that God will do in the next hundred years, I do know that God will be here. I have faith in God and the ongoing inspiration of Pentecost.

With deep gratitude for sharing in the journey of faith with Duke Chapel,

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

A Generous Hospitality Toward Diverse Religious Traditions

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Student Engagement

he first article of Duke University’s bylaws says that an aim of the university is “creating a rigorous scholarly community characterized by generous hospitality toward diverse religious and cultural traditions.” Duke Chapel plays a significant role in shaping this type of posture on campus as the convener and administrative overseer of Religious Life at Duke.

This year, the twenty-one campus Religious Life groups provided belonging, guidance, and spiritual nourishment to their combined 1,800 student members.

Working with Religious Life leaders, the Chapel increased the visibility of, and infrastructure for, individual groups, while also helping these groups to collaborate with one another and campus partners. A new Religious Affairs Advisory Council, convened by Chapel Dean Luke Powery, draws on the wisdom of a group of chaplains, faculty, and administrators to promote a vibrant culture of spiritual and religious understanding, curiosity, and exploration on campus.

The Chapel worked with university leadership to revise the ceremony of the Baccalaureate Service, which this year included representatives from six religious traditions who offered prayers, music, and sacred readings. New university funding has been designated to support Hindu Life and the Buddhist Community. With the full endorsement of Residence Life and Student Affairs, the Chapel laid the groundwork for a new program that will strengthen the QuadEx

Members of the Duke community gathered on February 9, 2023, for a vigil to respond to a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

residential system by identifying six chaplains who support students in specific quads. Another new umbrella of programs called “Say the Thing,” developed in partnership with the Kenan Institute for Ethics, will launch in earnest in the fall after multiple rounds of prototyping and student ideation. It will help give students, as well as Duke staff and faculty, an opportunity to wrestle with life’s most ancient and persistent questions using innovative technology.

There were also events, led or coordinated by the Chapel, that brought together students from different religious backgrounds. At the Crop

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Chapel Scholars

Drop event at the start of the fall semester, eighty students, community members, and Religious Life leaders bagged 30,000 pounds of potatoes to be delivered to people in need. In response to the terrible earthquake in Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, Chapel ministers worked with campus partners to quickly organize a vigil on the Chapel steps, attended by more than seventy people; at the vigil, students and staff spoke of how they and their families had been personally

affected by the earthquake and suggested ways for others to help with recovery efforts. Also in the spring semester, in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Religious Studies and Duke Health, the Chapel hosted a talk by Pravrajika Divyanandaprana, a member of a Hindu monastic community, which drew an audience that filled Goodson Chapel and has since been viewed online more than 11,000 times.

In another campus collaboration, the Chapel was a co-sponsor with the Forum for Scholars and Publics of an online discussion of “Christianity and the LGBTQ Community.”

A Revival of Christian Formation Programs With many more opportunities for in-person engagement this year than the previous year, the Chapel’s student programs for Christian formation experienced a revival. The Chapel Scholars program grew to sixty-four students with thirty-five of them being first-year and sophomore undergraduates.

Chapel Scholars promotes fellowship among students from different Christian denominations through dinners and shared experiences. They also deepen their faith through book studies, times of prayer, and relationships with Chapel ministers. This year, the scholars read books together, met with authors and scholars, climbed the Chapel tower at sunrise, and shared meals at the homes of Dean Luke Powery and Assistant Dean Bruce Puckett.

Chapel Scholar Students at the commissioning of new scholars on October 16, 2022.

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Pravrajika Divyanandaprana, a member of a Hindu monastic community, speaking in Goodson Chapel on March 31, 2023.

In addition to the Chapel Scholars program, other ecumenical Christian initiatives provided opportunities for growth. More than 100 students served in Chapel worship services, including first-year student Erin Dickerson, who was this year’s Student Preacher. In the Sunday morning service on March 5, 2023, she continued the Student Preacher Sunday tradition, which dates back at least three decades, when she delivered a sermon titled “Resting in the Lord.”

Twenty-five students received a total of $12,300 in funding from the Chapel for service and educational trips during academic breaks.

These students grew in their faith at conferences, shared filters for clean drinking water, and built a high school, just to name a few projects. Chapel ministers and staff also supported two campus Christian student music groups, United in Praise and Something Borrowed, Something Blue. Each of these groups sang in a Sunday morning worship

Student Members of Campus Religious Life Groups

Graduate students on retreat, March 11, 2023.

Accompanying Graduate Students

Chapel Scholars at a welcome event on October 12, 2022.

service and gave a joint concert in the Chapel in the fall. The Rev. Racquel Gill, the Chapel’s minister for intercultural engagement, serves as the advisor for United in Praise, one of the oldest continuous student groups at Duke.

A new student program called Theology Underground explored the intersection of culture, race, and Christian faith traditions.

Rev. Gill organized the series of conversations in collaboration with campus and community partners. In its first year, the program held discussions with thirteen emerging and experienced theologians and practitioners, which were attended by seventy-five students. The topics ranged from “Native and Indigenous

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Students in Chapel Choirs

The United in Praise student gospel group performing in the Chapel on October 23, 2022.

Theologies and Spiritualities” to “The Theology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” to “Womanist Theological Ethics and Black Feminism.” In an article in the (Duke) Chronicle, Rev. Gill explained the value of the program: “God is also at work in a lot of cultures and a lot of identities and a lot of communities that are sometimes not centered in our normative discourse.”

The need to support graduate students in their faiths and spirituality has become increasingly clear in recent years. In response, the Chapel has opened many of its groups, including Chapel Scholars, to graduate students. It has also developed programs specific to the needs of graduate students. The Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon, the Chapel’s director of Religious Life, led an interfaith retreat for graduate students to explore connections between different faiths and the land. On the retreat, the students spent a day in conversation and reflection at the Respite in the Round farm and retreat center. In the fall, Assistant Dean Bruce Puckett took a group of graduate students to the Christian Community Development Association national

conference in Charlotte where they gathered with many types of Christians to learn about ways to live out their faith in everyday life.

Graduate students are also a regular part of the life of the Chapel as student workers; eight graduate students served as interns and student workers, working to welcome visitors, coordinate worship services, livestream services, photograph events, and assist with administration.

Another way that the Chapel serves and connects with graduate students is through courses at the Divinity School taught by Dean Luke Powery. This year, Dean Powery taught “Introduction to Christian Preaching” and “Balm in Gilead: The Spirituals as a Homiletical Resource.” A Divinity student from one of his previous classes, Craig Glover, gave an introduction to the Chapel’s inaugural Few Lecture on “Seeking Justice and Redemption in the Public Square” (see Community Engagement section). Another Divinity student, Sarah Lapp, composed an original hymn last year in a course on hymnody taught by Chapel Music Director Zebulon Highben, which then debuted this year in a Sunday morning service. And, graduate students served on the Chapel’s National Advisory Board to ensure their perspective is included in our long-range planning.

“It is always about the little things: the nature, homemade food and collective feeling of love, being cared for, and warmth. Thank you for having us here.

It is good to feel healed after so long.”

—Kuntal Kuwar, engineering graduate student, about her experience of the Chapel’s daylong retreat Sacred Earth: Land as Spiritual Practice

Christian Worship Gathering for Worship

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t this year’s 11:00 a.m. Easter Sunday service, every seat was taken as the liturgy began with a joyful procession up the center aisle to the hymn “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.” The service not only marked a return from the pandemic to people sitting elbow-to-elbow in the pews, it also served as a reminder of how God draws together all sorts of people for worship. Chapel services are intergenerational, gathering people with deep ties to Duke as well as first-time visitors. A survey this year spanning seven Sundays in December and January found that students make up a significant percentage of the people attending Sunday morning services (12%) along with Duke faculty and staff (8%) and members of the Congregation at Duke Chapel (21%).

One reason the Chapel draws such a crosssection of worshipers is the diversity of cultural expressions in its services. Choral Evensong

“I love the way God shows up and the authenticity of faith that drives the heart of the worship experience.”

—Emily Summers, Duke Divinity School student

Above: Dean Powery preaches on Easter.

Right: Ushers welcome worshipers, October 16, 2022.

services, held on alternating Sunday afternoons, draw upon the English cathedral choral and organ traditions dating to the sixteenth century, while Jazz Vespers services, held each semester, feature gospel music and interactive “jazz prayers.” A collaboration with the Divinity School’s Office of Black Church Studies brought Grammy-winning gospel artist Yolanda Adams to the Sunday morning service on April 16, drawing a full congregation on a typically “low Sunday” after Easter. Even on a Sunday without a guest musician or preacher, the music, prayers, and preaching draw on ecumenical texts, compositions that span continents and centuries, and literary allusions from George Herbert to Toni Morrison.

The vibrancy of Chapel services has been drawing not only people to the pews but also students and volunteers to serve in the many

This is done first and foremost by modeling excellence in preaching. Dean Luke Powery not only preaches regularly at the Chapel but is also a sought-after guest preacher at pulpits from Howard University’s Rankin Chapel to Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland to Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas. In turn, Dean Powery invited

Above: Gospel artist Yolanda Adams sings, April 16, 2023. Right: Students serve communion, February 5, 2023.

roles—visible and behind the scenes—that are necessary to make the services happen. These range from ushers to lectors who read scripture lessons to altar guild members who prepare for communion.

This year, more than 100 students served in worship and, with the implementation of a new volunteer database, the number of community volunteers in services rose to thirty-eight.

Training Preachers As the university prepares to celebrate its centennial next year (2024), there is renewed attention to James B. Duke’s indenture of trust that provided for the funding that would transform Trinity College into Duke University.

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some of the country’s most respected preachers, representing a breadth of ecumenical traditions, to the pulpit at Duke Chapel. This year’s twentyfour guest preachers included: scholars with international audiences, such as Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor and Bishop Peter Storey; the past two deans of Duke Chapel, the Rev. Dr. Sam Wells and Bishop William Willimon; six Duke Divinity School faculty and staff members; and two Duke students.

The Chapel also contributed to the scholarly study of preaching, the field of homiletics. Dean Powery’s book Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race, with a chapter on preaching and race, received the 2023 Book of the Year from the Academy of Parish Clergy.

He also gave ten lectures and keynote addresses at academic conferences and clergy retreats, ranging from the Hampton University ministers

Above: The John Brown Little Big Band plays at a Jazz Vespers service on November 11, 2022.

Below: The Rev. Bruce Puckett prays at the Sunday morning service on February 5, 2023.

That indenture reads in part: “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.” Nearly 100 years later, the Chapel is still playing a vital role in the training of preachers.

Cumulative Attendance at Chapel Worship Services

conference to the annual Festival of Homiletics.

Through the Divinity School, he taught a course on “Introduction to Christian Preaching” as well as a directed study on “Theologies of Preaching.” As a resource for homiletics scholars, the Chapel continues to develop, in partnership with the Divinity School and Duke Libraries, the Duke Chapel Sermons podcast, Duke Chapel Recordings digital archive, and the accompanying

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Online Views of Chapel Worship Services

Living Tradition online preaching resource. This year, the podcast had 15,908 streams and the websites received 52,740 page views.

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Streams of the Duke Chapel Sermons Podcast

Digital Connections In addition to being attended in person by 1,000 people, the 11:00 a.m. Easter Sunday service has been viewed online more than 3,000 times. One of those viewers was the British poet Malcom Guite, whose poem “Easter Dawn” was sung in the service by the Chapel Choir with a musical setting composed by Chapel Music Director Zebulon Highben. “It is a joy to hear my poem so beautifully set and sung,” Guite wrote in the comments of the YouTube

The Rev. Robin Arcus offers a prayer at the Blessing of the Animals service on October 9, 2022.

Worshipers at the All Hallows’ service.

livestream. This cross-continental connection was just one of the many ways that the Chapel’s online and broadcast infrastructure extends the reach of its worship services.

A survey of Chapel audiences this summer found that forty-six percent of the respondents watched Chapel services online at least monthly.

This is a strong indication that there is a “virtual congregation” that maintains a connection to Chapel services via livestreams, radio broadcasts, community cable, and the Duke Hospital TV system.

The importance of the quality and reach of the Chapel’s online and broadcast capabilities has led to an initiative to improve the AV infrastructure.

This effort has had some early successes with the installation of cameras and microphones in the carillon tower and the implementation of a listenassist app that users can download to their phones to tap in directly to the in-house sound system.

Expert consultations in audio recording, video production, and lighting design have yielded a pathway for adopting broadcast AV standards over the coming years.

Taking Sacred Music to the World

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his summer the Duke Chapel Choir went on its first tour in seven years. The group of seventy-seven singers sang in two services and five concerts at historic chapels and cathedrals in Ireland and Scotland. They performed repertoire ranging from the Latin anthem “Psallite Domino” by the sixteenth-century English composer William Byrd to the Black spiritual “Every Time I Feel the Spirit” arranged by William Dawson to “Endless Radiance,” a piece composed this year by Duke graduate student and choir member Chris Williams. On an outing to visit the sixth-century Glendalough monastery in Ireland, the choir spontaneously performed “The Spirit of the Lord,”

“Singing in the Chapel Choir, I connect with my community and my faith in such a beautiful space.”

—Anna Cambron, graduate student and Chapel Choir member

composed by Chapel Music Director Zebulon Highben, in the ancient St. Kevin’s Church.

The choir’s international tour was not only a rewarding experience for its members, it also typified the Chapel music program’s mandate to “take our sacred music to the world.” At the heart of that initiative is the music offered

Sacred Music & the Arts Above: The Chapel Choir at Whitefriar Street Church in Dublin. Left: The choir performs Handel’s Messiah.

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Cumulative Attendance at Chapel Concerts Catholic Center that has enhanced the entire Chapel Music program.

In addition to performance, Chapel Music pursued its goal to “fill the world with beautiful choral music” (see the Chapel’s Strategic Plan) by supporting and creating new sacred music compositions. At the forefront of this effort is the Music from Duke Chapel publication series, produced in partnership with ECS Publishing Group/MorningStar Music. It now totals twentyone compositions from seventeen composers with sales over 30,000 copies; eleven of these new pieces have debuted in Chapel concerts and

Above: The Jason Max Ferdinand Singers performing on October 7, 2022. Right: Organ Scholar Daniel Jacky rehearses on the new Bösendorfer grand piano.

every Sunday morning in worship services by the Chapel Choir—now at ninety members strong—Chapel organists, and guest choirs and musicians. In addition to Sunday morning services, the Organ Recital, Carillon Recital, and Bach Cantata series contribute to the campus arts culture with free performances of sacred music masterworks.

The much beloved Messiah by G.F. Handel returned to full strength with three sold-out concerts in December followed by the Spring Oratorio, jointly performed by all of the Chapel’s choirs, in April. Complementing this repertoire were multiple concerts: by the Chapel’s own

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Members of Chapel Choirs

Vespers Ensemble, Evensong Singers, and Schola Cantorum; the young artists of the Chorworks summer program; and a special October concert by the Jason Max Ferdinand Singers. A dedicatory recital in the spring by pianist Cole Burger celebrated the Chapel’s new Bösendorfer 225 Grand Piano—an instrument resulting from generous donations to the Chapel and Duke

services. Additionally, the Chapel commissioned a new hymn text, “Holy Wisdom, Holy Word,” by the writer and Lutheran pastor Susan Briehl, which debuted in a Sunday morning service.

And, the choral anthem “A Christmas Carol,” composed by Dr. Highben, received the 2023 Weiger Lepke-Sims Family Sacred Music Award from the American Harp Society.

Establishing the Chapel as a Center for Music Education At the Sunday morning worship service on September 25, 2022, Chapel Organ Scholar Daniel Jacky sat next to Interim Chapel Organist Chad Fothergill at the Bösendorfer Grand Piano as the two jointly accompanied the Chapel Choir in singing the anthem “Praise Ye the Lord” by Emma Lou Diemer. Their combined four hands move synchronously up and down the piano’s white

Participants in the Chorworks summer program performing on June 27, 2023.

and black keys. The moment was a kind of picture of the musical training at the Chapel—a younger musician working side-by-side with a more experienced musician, performing on a world-class instrument at a service attended by hundreds of people. It is an effective model: Jacky came to the Chapel in August through the American Guild of Organists’ inaugural AGO Organ Scholar Program, and in the fall, he will enroll in the master’s program at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University.

19,039 Online views of Chapel Concerts

On a larger scale, the Chapel organized, hosted, or contributed to four significant sacred music gatherings. The Chorworks summer workshop, led by the Chapel’s conductor-in-residence Dr. Philip Cave, trained twenty talented, early-career singers in early music repertoire, culminating in three public performances. The Royal School of Church Music in America, which has a national partnership with the Chapel, has returned to holding at Duke its Carolina Summer Choral Residency for choristers and adult singers. In the fall, the North Carolina chapter of the American Choral Directors Association held its annual conference at the Chapel, bringing hundreds of musicians and students to campus for two days of performances and workshops. In the spring, the Chapel partnered with the Divinity School in hosting the annual conference of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music with the Chapel’s Schola Cantorum presenting a concert titled

“Lord, Hear My Cry: An Evening of Spiritual Songs” and Chapel Dean Luke Powery giving a keynote address.

The Chapel Choir continues to be an important vehicle for teaching music with twentynine student members—several of them taking choir as a half-credit course. The rich ecosystem of theory and practice produced two original student compositions that were sung in Sunday services this year: “Endless Radiance,” a setting by musicology graduate student and choir member Chris Williams of a poem by the Persian poet Rumi, and “Look at the Trees,” a hymn text and tune by Sarah Lapp, a Divinity student.

Faith and the Visual Arts In the spring, first-year student Zev van Zanten wrote a review in the (Duke) Chronicle of the exhibition then on display in the Chapel of prints from the modernist artist Marc Chagall. “I found the exhibit both enjoyable and educational, as I got to see alternative takes on stories from the Hebrew Bible while getting access to part of my culture which is usually inaccessible,” van Zanten wrote about Marc Chagall and the Bible, an exhibition presented in collaboration with the

A visitor views the exhibition Marc Chagall and the Bible.

Graduate student Shiraz Ahmed speaks about his exhibition The Beards of Muslim Men on April 25, 2023.

Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts that featured etchings and lithographs with biblical themes. “For those who are not Jewish or not from another Abrahamic faith, the works are interesting and compelling on the basis of the skill and talent of the artist who made them,” van Zanten said.

His article, “Chagall at the Chapel: Beautiful and powerful,” spoke to the compelling intersection of faith and visual art that the Chapel is offering to the campus and surrounding community.

Another exhibition this spring was created

by Shiraz Ahmed, a graduate student in Duke’s Experimental and Documentary Arts program, who was selected as this year’s C. Eric Lincoln

Fellow in Theology and Arts. His exhibition, The Beards of Muslim Men, explored how and why local Muslim men wear beards through a series of photographic portraits on stylized backgrounds.

A third exhibition this year saw the return during Holy Week of Stations of the Cross by artist Margaret Adams Parker. Her series of fourteen paintings depicts Christ’s journey to the cross with contemporary figures rendered in muted browns and is accompanied by a devotional booklet of traditional prayers for the Stations of the Cross.

Having purchased this set of panels last year, the Chapel is able to repeat the exhibition annually or lend it to churches for display.

Community Engagement

A Faithful Voice in the Community

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n September 21, 2022, people filled the Chapel’s nave to hear the author and lawyer Bryan Stevenson in a public conversation with Chapel Dean Luke Powery. The hour-long discussion touched on how Stevenson’s faith and a sense of shared humanity have provided insights and motivation for his work in criminal justice reform. At the conclusion of the event, Dean Powery repeated some of Stevenson’s words—“As you leave

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remember these words: ‘People are not crimes,’” he said—and then the audience burst into a standing ovation. The event, which was viewed live online by an additional 600 people, was the inaugural William Preston Few Lecture, a lectureship that takes its name from Duke’s first president who articulated a vision of education promoting the courage to seek the truth and the conviction to live it.

The Few Lecture is just one way that Dean Powery and the Chapel have sought to center voices for faith, justice, wisdom, and mutual understanding. Another important vehicle this year was Dean Powery’s new book Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race, which contrasts a view of humanity that sees race as essential and values some bodies over others with a theological understanding of humanity, shaped by the biblical account of Pentecost, that sees the diversity of human bodies as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The book was the focus of conversations about race, shared humanity, and God’s gift of diversity, including: Above: Dean Powery records an interview for the Left of Black webcast show. Right: Dean Powery holds a public conversation with the author and lawyer Bryan Stevenson on September 21, 2022.

People Viewed the Inaugural Few Lecture, in Person or Live Online

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People Attended a Docent Tour of the Chapel

an interview on the Left of Black podcast with Duke Professor Mark Anthony Neal, a seminar held at Trinity Avenue Presbyterian in Durham, the Duke Chapel Reads program for Chapel Scholar students, and an online Bridge Panel conversation with scholars from Duke and Yale.

For the first time this year, Dean Powery taught a course, “Balm in Gilead: The Spirituals as a Homiletical Resource,” at the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina, to a class comprising Divinity School students and incarcerated students. On campus, he offered prayers and reflections at major university ceremonies, and his biweekly column in the (Duke) Chronicle received an average of more than 500 views per essay. In selecting Dean Powery for its “Chron15:

People walk the labyrinth on March 29, 2023.

Leaders,” the Chronicle wrote, “For his guidance on matters of race and ethics and his constant spiritual support for the entire University, Powery embodies what it means to be a leader at Duke.”

Marking the Moments that Matter In the aftermath of yet another mass shooting in America—this one on February 13, 2023, at Michigan State University—Chapel carillonneur Mitchell Eithun, a Divinity School student and alumnus of MSU, decided to make a gesture of solidarity. During the regular 5:00 p.m. carillon recital, he played MSU’s fight song and alma mater. The symbolism was noticed on campus and online via the livestream of the recital. A tweet by an MSU alumnus sharing a clip from

Above: Students attend Baccalaureate on May 12, 2023. Right: Docent Lois Oliver speaks with visitors.

the recital and expressing appreciation went viral, racking up nearly 800,000 views. “Ok, why did that make me teary?” one person commented.

“Thank you, Duke. Great tribute,” said another.

That recital was an example of the many ways the Chapel marks important moments in the life of the campus community. This year, fiftyseven couples from the Duke community were married at the Chapel. 4,603 students and staff climbed the stone spiral staircase to gaze out on campus and beyond from the top of the Chapel tower. Eleven families held baptism services.

And, fifteen times this year, members of the Duke community gathered in grief for memorial services celebrating the lives of loved ones.

With people visiting the Chapel more than 257,787 times this year, they are received by the beauty of the building’s soaring ceilings and

masterful masonry. They are also welcomed by a hospitality team comprising ten staff members, twelve volunteer docents, and six student ambassadors. In addition to countless informal interactions, this group led 1,784 people on ninety-two tours explicating the Chapel’s rich history and architecture. At the end of the year, the Chapel celebrated the outstanding contributions of Lois Oliver, who is stepping down from her role as head docent after more than twenty years of service.

Building New Bridges This summer two Duke students and three students from North Carolina Central University lived together in the Chapel’s PathWays House in Durham’s West End neighborhood. They worked at internships ranging from computer coding to counseling services and also learned together about how matters of faith shape the way they might live lives of purpose. Their experience comes through the Chapel’s new Bridge Internship program, a partnership among the Chapel and NCCU’s Wesley Campus Ministry and its Office of Spiritual Development and Dialogue. The program is emblematic of the Chapel’s bridge-building approach to community engagement in Durham.

Building bridges in the community requires an understanding of the history of Durham.

That is a goal of the Durham Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope. This year, the Chapel brought

“The Bridge Program serves as a reminder that by working together, we can transform our communities and the world in unimaginable ways.”

—The Rev. Gloria Winston, North Carolina Central University Wesley Campus Minister

Jacquelyn Blackwell (center) and Drew Woten (not pictured) received this year’s Humanitarian Service Award.

Congregation at Duke Chapel members participate in a Habitat for Humanity house blessing on January 14, 2023.

thirty-two students and community members on two of these pilgrimages to find connections among Durham’s story, the biblical story, and the stories of individual participants.

With the university preparing to look back to 1924 and James B. Duke’s indenture of trust, a project funded by the Chapel looks at one aspect of the legacy of that trust. The “Counting It All Joy!” initiative aims to better understand and to make more visible the narratives of generations of Black people who have attended one of the four schools funded by the Duke Endowment The inaugural Bridge Interns (from left): Will Lieber, Aryan Donikena, Sydney Wilkins, Rachel Garrett, and Ka’Niya Willingham.

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Given to Local and International Nonprofits (Davidson College, Duke University, Furman University, and Johnson C. Smith University). So far the research team, with representatives from each of the four universities, has interviewed fifty-two people for an oral history archive and publication in a forthcoming book.

We give THANKS OFFICE OF THE DEAN

ADMINISTRATION

Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery

Amanda Millay Hughes

Dean of Duke Chapel

Ava West

Director of Development and Strategy

Rev. Leah Torrey

Director of Business and Facilities

Assistant to the Dean Director of Special Initiatives

MINISTRY Rev. Bruce Puckett Assistant Dean

Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon Director of Religious Life

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

Angela Flynn

Worship and Ministry Coordinator

MUSIC Dr. Zebulon Highben

Director of Chapel Music

Dr. Philip Cave

Conductor-in-Residence

Dr. Robert Parkins University Organist

Chad Fothergill Chapel Organist

John Santoianni

Ethel Sieck Carrabina Curator of Organs and Harpsichords

David Faircloth

Program Coordinator for Chapel Music

Katelyn MacDonald Staff Specialist

Mitchell Eithun

Chapel Carillonneur

Chase Benefiel

Chapel Carillonneur

Daniel Jacky

Organ Scholar

Ann Hall

Visitor Relations Assistant

Shawn Proffitt

Visitor Relations Assistant

Emerson Cobbs

Visitor Relations Assistant

Kenyon Davenport

Visitor Relations Assistant

Benny Edwards

Visitor Relations Assistant

Joni Harris

Prerana Deshpande

James Todd

Larry Efird

Jeff Compton Nelson

Oscar Dantzler

Aaron Canipe

Beverly Jordan

Communications Manager Associate Director of Development Communications Specialist

Nathan Dove

Communications Specialist

Visitor Relations Assistant Visitor Relations Assistant University Housekeeper University Housekeeper

CHAPEL ADVISORY BOARD

Jimmy Paton

Grace Lee, T ’79

Lisa Best

Dr. T. Walker Robinson, T ’00, G ’01, M ’09

Accounting Specialist and Office Coordinator

Vice Chair

Erica Thomas

D. Michael Bennett, T ’77 John A. Bussian III, T ’76 Rev. Dr. M. Keith Daniel, T ’90, D ’05, D ’16 Dr. Ellen F. Davis Thomas Felgner, T ’94, B ’95 Rev. Dr. Cathy Gilliard, D ’97 Elizabeth Grantland, T ’20 Zach Heater, T ’17 Sara Elizabeth H. Jones, T ’89 Southgate Jones III Dr. Kenneth Lee, T ’74 Carole Ann Klove, N ’80 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 Kathryn Watkins, T ’19

Development Marketing Specialist

Staff Assistant for Development

HOSPITALITY Mark King

Hospitality Coordinator

David-Michael Kenney

Wedding Coordinator and Visitor Relations Assistant

Blanche Williams Wedding Director

Nancy Freeman

Wedding Director Karen Jones Wedding Director Leslie Ballew Wedding Director and Visitor Relations Assistant Nikki Manderico Interim Wedding Coordinator and Visitor Relations Assistant Binta Watkins Wedding Assistant

Chair

Members

Emeritus Member

William E. King, T ’61, G ’63, G ’70 Chapel staff and National Advisory Board members during the 2022–2023 fiscal year.

OUR VISION

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

OUR MISSION

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

919-681-9488 dukechapel@duke.edu