Catcher Greg Jones Joins Duke’S Global Team

Duke University divinityspring 2010

dream catcher Greg Jones Joins Duke’s Global Team

also inside: the Old New Sanctuary Journey Proud to a Place of One’s Own In Haiti, Miracles beyond Miracles from the archives Helen Clark D’31 on Soochow University

Helen Clark D’31, who Our charming old city of Soochow, the Venice of Asia, has for centuries been famous served as dean of women at for learning; and today the boys and girls ... are fitting successors to the ancient tradition of Soochow University in China’s scholarship in Soochow. Jiangsu Province, filed a The courses which they have studied—and they really study—are very different, however, report (excerpted here) for from the rigid memorization of the Confucian Classics which was the main preparation for the the February 1937 edition of old imperial examinations. The Duke School of Religion … In some subjects you may find that the Chinese college student has a poorer background Bulletin. Soochow (now spelled than the American one—personally I believe that this is true in Western history (but what Suzhou) was founded in 1900 American college student knows anything about the history of the Far East?) and in geography; by Methodist missionaries from but in other subjects, … I’ll be surprised if you don’t find our students far ahead of American the United States and began college students. You may even find them ahead in English! admitting female students in But where does the missionary work come in? … I can’t pretend that our students are rush- 1928. Following the Communist ing to get into the church; the process of Christian nurture among sophisticated university takeover in 1949, Soochow students who are definitely committed to a philosophy of atheistic humanism or materialism is University closed. Alumni in as slow and as disheartening in China as in America. But in individuals of deep consecration Taiwan reestablished the school and in small groups who are earnestly seeking to make real the Kingdom of God in their own two years later in Taipei, where lives and in the life of their nation one finds an abiding satisfaction, and in the desperate quest it is still located. For more info, for something that will save China among all of the students of that troubled nation there is a visit www.scu.edu.tw/eng challenge that cannot but be heeded. spring 2010 Volume 9, number 3

Editor Elisabeth Stagg Associate Director of Communications CONSULTING EDITORS Wesley F. Brown D’76 divinity Associate Dean for External Relations cover Jonathan Goldstein Associate Dean for Communications 16 STAFF dream catcher Kate Rugani Communications Manager Dean L. Gregory Jones Thriving Communities Initiatives has been called to lead Sherry Williamson Duke’s global strategy Public Relations Specialist 6 ONLINE DESIGN Michelle Rudolph 22 Web Technology Coordinator

Divinity magazine is published three times during the academic year— fall, winter, and spring—for alumni and friends of Duke Divinity School. features departments

Duke Divinity School NewsMakers Alumni Association 16 2 National Council 2009–2010 the Old New Sanctuary Bookmark Burt Palmer D’90, Houston, Texas In house churches, an ancient model 32 President meets contemporary sensibilities Shelf Life Jim Bailes D’74, Knoxville, Tenn. 33 President-Elect Bookings Paul Phillips D’63, Mebane, N.C. 22 35 Secretary Journey Proud Shane Benjamin D’84, Creedmoor, N.C. From the streets to a place of one’s own 36 Gifts Harriet Bryan D’95, Clarksville, Tenn. Bob Bushong D’81, Winter Park, Fla. 38 Faculty & Staff Notes Lisa Fischbeck T’77, D’91, Carrboro, N.C. 28 David Hockett D’94, D’99, Salisbury, N.C. Class Notes Ross Kane D’09, Alexandria, Va. Miracles beyond Miracles 42 Courtney Krueger D’92, Pendleton, S.C. In Haiti, the boys at Trinity House look Molly D. Morgan D’90, Reidsville, N.C. forward to measuring hope in loaves of 45 Deaths Steve Morton D’83, Downingtown, Pa. fragrant bread David Ruth D’03, Kingstree, S.C. Ministry at Large Won Un D’89, Richmond, Va. 46 Kristin Adkins Whitesides D’05, Winchester, Va. 48 Financial Planner Wesley F. Brown D’76, Durham, N.C. ex officio End Quotes Wyman Fraser Davis T’87, D’95, Atlanta, Ga. 49 ex officio Debbie McLeod D’85, Jacksonville, Fla. ex officio

(2009-2010 Council was elected 10/09 to serve through 10/10)

Cover illustration: V.C. Rogers www.divinity.duke.edu/divinityonline newsmakers

A Matter of Degrees Study, Worship, Students will begin study for three new degree programs in the fall of Renew at Duke 2011, pending approval this summer by accrediting agencies. Study Leave for Ministry The degrees are part of the school’s updated strategic plan in response to Professionals is for Christian institu- the global economic crisis and the church’s need for a greater variety of educational leaders and pastors of all tional offerings from seminaries. traditions who want to spend a “The financial crisis accelerated our week immersed in learning and plans,” says Dean L. Gregory Jones, renewal through self-directed study, “but we would have faced many of the worship, and prayer on the Duke same issues without a recession. We University campus. were determined to respond mission- While on campus, participants have ally to the needs of the church.” full access to university libraries, com- Beginning in fall 2011, the school munity worship, and lectures. Special hopes to offer a master of arts in arrangements can be made to audit Christian studies (M.A.C.S.), a master courses or meet privately with Divinity of arts in Christian practice (M.A.C.P.), School faculty. and a doctor of ministry (D.Min.). Unlike traditional continuing educa- Two of the degrees—the M.A.C.S. tion, Study Leave allows each partici- and D. Min.—will combine courses pant to propose a topic for the five-day taken at the Divinity School with program. Past topics have included web-based learning platforms, a first church history, Scripture, worship, eth- for the school. ics, and preaching. “None of these degrees would Twenty hours of study are expected diminish the school’s commitment to existing degree programs, especially during the week, for a minimum award our core master of divinity (M.Div.) program for local church ministers, of 2.0 CEU. or to residential learning,” says Jones. “Rather, they are meant to fulfill For available dates during the 2010- needs of churches and individuals that we are unable to address with our 2011 academic year and registration current offerings.” information, visit http://bit.ly/9WqOOK

Divinity Sign Makes Prime-Time

Director of Financial Aid Sheila her to the game, her colleagues ral- Williams made the final stitch on an lied. In less than two hours, a recruit- impromptu “Duke Divinity School ‘loves’ ment table runner had a new message CBS” banner just in time to hand it off intended for prime-time: “Duke Divinity to middler Laura Steed for her afternoon School ‘loves’ CBS.” flight to Indianapolis, Ind., for the 2010 The banner and a more hastily drawn NCAA Basketball Championship game. sign (held by middler Megan Burt) Earlier in the day, the Admissions showed up twice during halftime. Office had e-mailed students challeng- “My husband said I was more excited ing any who were attending the game about the sign than I was about Duke to “hold up a Duke Divinity School sign winning the game,” says Williams, Duke Divinity School was in the house (behind Duke Blue Devil Nolan Smith’s mother, Monica that can be seen on TV!” When Steed, who had cut out the heart and CBS Malone) during halftime at the NCAA Championship who works as a student assistant in letters and stitched them in place. in Indianapolis, Ind., April 5, 2010. Students Laura admissions, offered to take a sign with “I was excited about both!” Steed and Megan Burt are holding the signs.

2 Divinity newsmakers

An Angel Named Kaos by Judith M. Heyhoe

Writing a novel at 18 was “as much very least, I could staple the pages and student releases about having fun as exploring the forces give them to my brothers to read.” of good and evil,” He took his first classes in creative says author Brad writing as a liberal arts major at Auburn No Part of You Acton, whose first University. Between those classes and Sarah S. Howell D’12 book, Kaos, was his studies in philosophy, history, and wrote both music and released in 2007. English, he continued revising his manu- lyrics for the four tunes The novel tells script. After completing a second draft, on this debut recording. a version of the he self-published a few copies of the Howell, a master of divinity student, Miltonic story of Satan’s rebellion and novel and gave them to his family and performs “World on Fire,” “In the Wings,” fall from grace, but from the point friends. Eventually, he sent “Stick Around,” and “No Part of You” of view of an angel named Kaos. “I the polished manuscript with Gary Mitchell. wanted to present spiritual warfare to a Christian publishing www.sarahhowellmusic.com and angels, but I wasn’t too concerned house and, in his senior about orthodox views,” explains Acton. year at Auburn, Tate Seeing God in Everything “Kaos is in many ways like Jesus; he is Publishing released Kaos. Godzchild Publications, 2009 an angel, but Christlike.” His undergraduate experiences A first book from Shaun V. In addition to Milton, the book’s liter- “pulled me out of my bubble a little Saunders D’10, who received ary influences include Tolkien, whose bit,” says Acton. “There was a healthy his M.Div. degree in May. ability to tell a story Acton admires, Christian subculture, but Auburn is www.godzchildproductions.net and Steinbeck, whose fiction provides a a secular institution, so I saw people model for characters who are palpably different from me.” Free for All: real and earthy. The strong visual nature By his senior year of college, he Rediscovering the of the prose makes this Christian fantasy knew he wanted to study theology, Bible in Community indebted to the graphics often found in and that Duke’s M.Div. program was Baker Books, 2009 contemporary computer games. his first choice. When he arrived on In this book, Tim Conder While Acton never intended for the campus, he kept his published novel and Daniel Rhodes Th.D.’12, novel to be a “vessel of orthodoxy,” quiet, but word eventually got out, and pastors of Emmaus Way, an he says he hopes that it manages to last February, Cokesbury Bookstore emerging church in Durham, convey some truth about God. And he invited him for a book signing. N.C., present a theology of readily acknowledges that the forces He originally considered an aca- Scripture for emergent Christianity. of good and evil are much grayer than demic career, but Acton has since www.emersionbooks.com he depicted them in Kaos. decided that his gifts and talents lie Acton was born and raised in a elsewhere. He and his wife, Emily, For the Beauty of the Church: Casting Baptist family in Birmingham, Ala., look forward to being confirmed at a Vision for the Arts where his interest in writing began, All Saints Anglican Church in Durham, Baker Books, 2010 and was encouraged by teachers at the N.C., and ordination now seems an W. David O. Taylor, who Presbyterian school he attended. When attractive possibility. And, of course, edited this book, served he received a laptop computer as a gift, he’ll continue writing. He’s currently as the arts pastor of Hope he began writing the rough draft of at work on a second novel . Chapel, Austin, Texas, what later became his novel. before coming to Duke “I didn’t really know how to write,” Judith M. Heyhoe is editor to the

Jud i th H e y h o (act n) for the doctor of theology program. says Acton, “but I figured that, at the faculty at Duke Divinity School. www.bakerbooks.com

spring 2010 3 newsmakers

State’s UMC Clergy Suffer More Chronic Disease

New research from the Clergy tion—those 35-64, chronic disease, the Clergy Health Initiative indicates that the white, employed, and Health Initiative is pre- health of United Methodist pastors in with health insurance. paring to repeat its sur- North Carolina is worse than that of They found that nearly vey of the state’s United the state’s overall population. 40 percent of United Methodist pastors These findings—to be published in Methodist pastors aged in August. a forthcoming issue of the research 35-64 are obese, a These findings, together journal Obesity—stem from a 2008 rate fully 10 percent with ongoing research, Clergy Health Initiative survey, higher than that of North are shaping the Clergy through which 95 percent of the Carolinians in the comparable subset. Health Initiative’s efforts to develop state’s United Methodist pastors The clergy also reported signifi- programs designed to help pastors reported their health histories. cantly higher rates of diagnoses of enhance their health, and to sustain Researchers compared the health diabetes, arthritis, high blood pres- them in their vocation. of clergy from the state’s two UMC sure, angina, and asthma. conferences against a comparable To learn more about why pastors Learn more at subset of the overall N.C. popula- are more likely to be diagnosed with www.divinity.duke.edu/programs/health

Broadway Redux ‘Our Sufficiency Is of God’

The fourth annual Broadway Revue attracted an audience of nearly 500 to Gardner C. Taylor, recognized the Carolina Theatre in downtown Durham, N.C., and raised almost $2,000 for as the “dean of preachers in America the Alliance for AIDS Services Carolina-Durham and ZOE Ministry. today,” received a Festschrift The April 21 performance featured tunes from Broadway hits including Spamalot; titled Our Sufficiency Is of God: You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; and The Sound of Music. Essays on Preaching in Honor View a slide show at www.divinity.duke.edu/news/spotlight/broadway2010 of Gardner C. Taylor Feb. 15 at i st o c kp h t .c om ( b l oo d pr essu r e g au e), f an k n go lden bro adwa y edux) Duke Divinity School. “Gardner Taylor captures the whole American experience in one lifetime,” said Richard Lischer, James T. and Alice Mead Cleland professor of preaching at Duke, who contributed to the volume. “He has not only seen enormous change; he was at the forefront of it.” Taylor, 91, served for more than 42 years as pastor of Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, N.Y. He received the Presidential Medal of

Freedom from President Bill Clinton she rry w i ll a m s o n (a r tw ork ) in 2000.

From left, Mykou Thao performs “We Go Together” from Grease; Maria Swearingen sings Hear or download audio of the “Maybe This Time” from Cabaret. presentation at www.divinity.duke.edu/ news/noteworthy/20100322taylor

4 Divinity newsmakers

‘Speak, Lord’ “ After Auschwitz, Hiroshima, ogy student who challenged artists to Tom Chappell Lewis D’13 for “The vietnam, Cambodia, consider both senses of end—as limit Incarnation,” a Post-It Note mosaic. and goal. Juror Courtney Reid-Eaton, exhi- rwanda, all the words sound “In continual pursuit of richer, more bitions director at the Center for hollow. What does one say nuanced, and more faithful forms of Documentary Studies at Duke, said after a televised beheading?” ministry it is imperative to recognize the prizewinners “generated an emo-

— Richard Lischer, the limits of words,” said Levens. tional response that was beyond The End of Words, 2005 “As every church service discloses, articulation. They were visually strong each word is spoken into a situation, and technically well executed.” “Speak, Lord,” a photograph by and every text lives within a larger She said that Lysen’s photograph first-year M.Div. student Laura Lysen embodied context. spoke to her immediately, and is “a D’13, took first-place honors at “Another sense in which words have deeply quiet, profound image. The End of Words, the Second Annual an end concerns their end goal, the “Laub’s drawing was like a slap Juried Art Exhibit, April 21–May 2, telos of words. What good are the in the face, a ‘bloodstained’ hand- at the Divinity School. words of a sermon if they do not carry print on a cross; and Scott’s art-quilt The exhibit, inspired by Professor us beyond all words to the reality of expressed the experience of Pentecost Richard Lischer’s 2005 book, The End the risen Jesus Christ?” in a surprising and tactile way. of Words, was directed and curated Second- and third-place awards “I saw the work of being in relation- by Laura Levens, a doctor of theol- respectively went to Julie Laub D’10, ship in Wise’s drawing, and while for her graphite and acrylic dialogue was implied, there was also a drawing “Psalm 151,” and great deal of emotional energy drawn to Bonnie Scott D’12, for her around the figures.” textiles appliqué “Tongues, as She said that adding a juror’s prize of Fire.” made it possible to acknowledge the An honorable mention was creative work of Lewis, who “used awarded to Fred Wise, spouse Post-It Notes and colored paper to cre- of Divinity School employee ate an arresting triptych that included Jami Wise, for his pen and ink the text ‘In the beginning was the drawing “Appalachian Alchemy.” Word,’ in Greek.” A new juror’s award for techni- The exhibit was in association with the cal skill and originality went to school’s New Creation Arts Group.

Share Your Feedback

Write: Editor, Divinity magazine, Duke Divinity School Box 90970, Durham, NC 27708-0970 Call: 919.660.3412 E-mail: [email protected]

she rry w i ll a m s o n (a r tw ork ) Please include a daytime phone number and/or e-mail address. Prizes went to Bonnie Scott’s quilt “Tongues, as of Fire,” Letters may be edited for clarity or length. Julie Laub’s drawing “Psalm 151,” and Laura Lysen’s photograph “Speak, Lord.” Online Option: You may post online comments to any Divinity feature. Follow the directions at the end of the article at www.divinity.duke.edu/divinityonline.

spring 2010 5 catcher

6 Divinity dream catcherGreg Jones Joins Duke’s Global Team

With a strong record of innovative leadership as dean of the Divinity School, L. Gregory Jones has been called to position Duke University’s global strategy

by Jonathan Goldstein and Elisabeth Stagg | Illustrations by V.C. Rogers

hen Greg Jones reaches back, way ing the players’ stats and taken to calling them out during back, one of his earliest memories is televised games. “That’s probably where I got my sense of of ivy-walled Wrigley Field and the the underdog—rooting for the Cubs,” he says. Chicago Cubs. Star shortstop Ernie Banks was among Jones’ favorite WAs the youngest child in a busy Chicago family, Jones players, but the position that intrigued him as a youth, and spent hours in front of the television, absorbing every still does, is catcher. He appreciates that the catcher knows word of iconic sportscaster Jack Brickhouse’s staccato all the players’ strengths and weaknesses, calls the pitches, color commentary. and serves as captain on the field. “My mom loved WGN with Jack Brickhouse because “Some of the best managers are former catchers,” Jones it was three hours of free babysitting,” recalls Jones D’85, says. “The catcher is the only person who sees the entire G’88. “And I loved it.” field of play from his position. I’ve always been drawn to Before he was four years old, Jones had begun memoriz- the big picture.”

spring 2010 7 timeline

Greg Jones earns Duke University President Terry Greg Jones M.Div.’85, An assistant professor a B.A. (1980) and Sanford, left, and Jameson Ph.D.’88 lines up with of theology at Loyola a master of pub- Jones, who served as the Divinity classmates for the May College, Baltimore, Md., lic administration School’s ninth dean from 1981 1985 1985 baccalaureate service. 1990 Jones publishes his degree (1982) at the until his death following a heart first book, Transformed

1980-82 University of Denver 1981-82 attack. “No one deserves more Judgment (University before coming to than Jameson Jones to be of Notre Dame Press). Duke to prepare for described as ‘irreplaceable,’” Embodying Forgiveness what he calls “the Sanford told mourners at the (Eerdmans) follows to family business.” July 21, 1982, memorial service. acclaim in 1995.

During 13 years as dean of Duke “ I feel significant continuity Divinity School—a tenure that ends July 1 when he becomes Duke University’s between … my work as dean vice president and vice provost for and this new invitation.... global strategy and programs—Jones focused on the big picture as few oth- there is a great deal at stake ers have. Colleagues and friends from in developing education across the university and the church describe him as a deep-thinking strate- globally in ways that nurture gist, a gifted leader who honors tradition life rather than replicate or even as he embraces innovation. They uniformly say that Jones, who became intensify brokenness.” dean in 1997 at age 36, has pushed the — greg jones from “Learning curve,” Divinity School to the forefront of theo- in the May 18, 2010, edition of logical education. The Christian Century. Read more “He’s always pulling the world He’s strengthened ties between at http://bit.ly/ce05DW in through his mind,” says Duke the Divinity School and the rest of University President Richard Duke University, especially the Fuqua theology, first traveled there to teach Brodhead, who approached Jones School of Business, Duke Corporate Hebrew in the summer of 2004. When about the global strategy position late Education, and the university’s Global she returned, she approached Jones last year. “He also, while being in per- Health Institute. Outside of Durham, about a partnership to send teachers fect accord with all of the traditional Jones has championed partner- of Greek and Hebrew, the top priority aims of the Divinity School, is a great ships and collaboration with schools, identified by the Sudanese educators. entrepreneur. He’s thought of things churches, and other Christian institu- “I was presenting Greg with a whole that the Divinity School could do to tions around the world. new thing,” says Davis. “I can’t think of extend its mission that someone else Among them is the Renk Visiting any other university seminary leader would never have thought of.” Teachers Program, jointly spon- who would have said, ‘This is great.’ ” New initiatives Jones led as dean sored by Duke Divinity School and For Jones, the opportunity to partner include the Institute on Care at the End Virginia Theological Seminary, at with a seminary in Southern Sudan was of Life, Center for Reconciliation, Clergy Renk Theological College in Southern full of potential to advance the role of Health Initiative, Youth Academy, and Sudan. Ellen Davis, Amos Ragan the university in international society. Leadership Education at Duke Divinity. Kearns professor of Bible and practical He has since told Davis that he learned

8 Divinity Duke University Jones and Martha Greg and Susan Jones The addition Duke University President Nannerl Goodson, widow of the and other administra- is completed announces a new Keohane installs late Bishop W. Kenneth tors check the progress in time for the Office of Global 1997 2001 2003 2005 L. Gregory Jones Goodson, break ground of the Divinity addition. 2005 Closing 2010 Strategy and Programs as the Divinity for Goodson Chapel As director of special Convocation; to be led by Jones, School’s 11th dean. and the Westbrook projects for the Divinity Susan Jones who travels to China Building following a School, Susan served as celebrates in late April for celebration of the project manager for the Eucharist in meetings about Divinity School’s $22 million addition. Goodson Chapel. Duke’s Kunshan 75th anniversary. campus (above).

much of what he knows about educa- During the seven-year Campaign With two older siblings, Jones began tion in international settings through for Duke, which ended in 2003, the honing his intellectual gifts at an early conversations about Sudan. Divinity School blew past its initial age. Before he turned 3, Jones was “Greg leads with a strong vision, but goal of $35 million, then exceeded an reading aloud the names of cities on he’s also able to catch someone else’s adjusted goal of $85 million, and even- airport signs—initially those with Major vision,” says Davis. “I don’t think many tually raised $102 million for faculty League Baseball teams—during family people are so nimble at both leading positions, student financial aid, new trips. By age 6, he had taught himself to and knowing the moment to step aside programs, and a host of other needs. play bridge with the rest of the family. and let someone else look ahead to a The campaign also included fund- “I evidently was pretty decent,” says larger vision.” raising for a major building addition. Jones, who remembers that fellow pas- Increased financial support for new The $22 million project included the sengers on a cross-country train trip programs, as well as growth in the Westbrook Building and Goodson were astonished to see him holding his school’s endowments for financial Chapel, which opened in 2005, adding own in games with his parents and sib- aid and professorships, reflects Jones’ about 50,000 square feet of space for lings, who were 11 and 13 at the time. gifts for sustaining relationships with learning and worship. Jones’ entrepreneurial bent surfaced individuals, the United Methodist At the same time, Jones continued shortly thereafter. During the sum- Church, and major foundations, includ- the work of his predecessors, building mer, he developed a two-page typed ing Lilly Endowment Inc. and The a faculty that is widely considered one newsletter about baseball and sold Duke Endowment. of the world’s best. it to neighbors and family friends. A Craig Dykstra, Lilly Endowment’s “Duke is now the standard for straight-A student throughout elemen- senior vice president for religion, theological education in the world,” tary school, he spent his free time describes Jones as “a public theologian says Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. organizing neighborhood games with and religious leader of enormous influ- Rowe professor of theological eth- friends. The game changed seasonally, ence and consequence. ics, citing an informal 2009 ranking in rotating among baseball, football, and “He brings profound theological, spir- First Things’ popular blog. Hauerwas, basketball. Any game was fine, as long itual, and practical wisdom to bear in his a mentor to Jones who also directed as it involved a ball. many efforts to strengthen local congre- his dissertation, himself was named Today, with the help of the latest gations, support excellence in pastoral America’s best theologian by Time in communications technology, Jones ministry, and to imagine new and better 2001. “Greg positioned the Divinity thrives on what many would consider ways by which denominations, theologi- School at Duke to represent the kind sensory overload. He has been known cal schools, and other agencies can work of generous orthodoxy that now seems to simultaneously watch television, together to do so as well.” to be the future,” says Hauerwas. work on a manuscript, play a board

spring 2010 9 game with one of his children, talk on Laceye Warner, who has worked David Odom, executive vice his cell phone, and check e-mail, never with the dean both as associate dean president and chief operating officer missing a beat. for academic formation and programs of Leadership Education at Duke “I used to say that Greg has the abil- and as associate professor of the Divinity, describes Jones as a leader ity to keep lots of balls in the air,” says practice of evangelism and Methodist with “boundless energy” who has Richard Lischer, Cleland professor of studies, says Jones’ laughter “lifts us strengthened both the Divinity School preaching and a member of the search all. We eagerly follow him, recognizing and the church. “Greg reads, imagines, team that recommended Jones. “But the difference his leadership is making integrates, and executes on more ideas it’s more than that. He has a vision of for the church, the academy, and in a week than I can count,” he says. the intellectual and spiritual architec- the world.” Soon after Jones became dean, ture of things that he is able to trans- As a scholar, professor, and adminis- Constance Fraser Gray, then chair of late into institutional realities.” trator, Jones has the capacity for simul- the Rural Church Committee of The Jones is a self-described morning taneously viewing things through both Duke Endowment, met him at an person who rises early, eager to begin wide-angle and telephoto lenses. While endowment dinner. Right away, she meetings with his key staff, often he prefers the wider angle, his powers says, she noted “his signature exu- before 8 a.m. Despite the hour, Jones’ of memory, evident since early child- berance about his faith, the Divinity resonant laugh greets his colleagues hood, help him to track details others School, and his vision of what’s pos- before they enter the room. might miss. sible in God’s world.

RICHARD HAYS TO BECOME DIVINITY’S 12TH DEAN

Richard Hays, one of the longest- serving and best-known scholars at Duke Divinity School, will become the school’s dean effective July 1. Hays, 62, is the George Washington Ivey professor of New Testament and has agreed to lead the school for two years, the remainder of Jones’ term, while a national search is conducted for a successor. Duke University President Richard Brodhead said that he and other university leaders quickly concluded that Hays would be an ideal candidate to keep the Divinity School on course. “Richard is a person of great accom- plishments and splendid qualities,” says Brodhead. “I’m confident that he will be a great leader.” Hays met with faculty and staff shortly after the announcement and said that his priority would be maintaining the school’s direction, much of which is spelled out

10 Divinity “He realizes that nothing exists Jones says, “that I am at my worst to go home, hoping his parents, who apart from God,” says Gray, who is the when I get bored.” attended a different church, wouldn’t current chair of the endowment’s gov- The United Methodist Youth ask about the sermon. He did get ernance committee. “He’s a catalyst Fellowship, where he formed close caught once, resulting in a weeklong for making things happen.” friendships and began participat- grounding. Even his junior high school But focusing his exuberance was not ing in mission trips, helped develop grades began to slip. always easy. In Denver, Colo., where his instincts as a fundraiser. When his His parents moved him twice to the family moved when Jameson youth group planned a car wash to different schools, hoping he’d find a Jones became president of Iliff School raise funds for a mission trip, it was better fit. By ninth grade, when Jones of Theology, Greg could barely sit his idea to ask for a donation. “People entered a Christian Brothers high through class. were very generous,” says Jones. “We school, he found the school’s speech Teachers struggled to hold the ended up getting much more than if and debate team a perfect match for attention of this boisterous child we’d set a price.” his restless intellect. who mastered their lessons—he had But sitting quietly through wor- He also discovered the writings of read Tolstoy’s War and Peace by fifth ship at University UMC, a neighbor- Flannery O’Connor, an author Jones grade—with so little effort. His mother, hood church he attended with friends, credits with shaping his Christian Bonnie, a musician who directed the often felt like torture. Some Sundays imagination. His high school teachers church choir and led frequent interna- he’d sneak out of the balcony to a and coaches set high standards, push- tional mission trips, recognized early, nearby bowling alley until it was time ing him to think creatively, and to ask

in a recently revised strategic plan. That Hays earned his M.Div. from Yale Divinity nary] in the country looks to us to provide plan, approved last fall, includes propos- School and his Ph.D. at Emory University. an example of what theological education als for three new degree programs—two He is an ordained United Methodist min- done right can look like.” master’s degrees and a doctor of ministry ister who has preached in settings ranging Like Jones, Hays is an enthusiastic sports degree. (See related article on p. 2.) from rural Oklahoma churches to London’s fan. His particular favorites include Duke “My task in my short, two-year stint as Westminster Abbey. basketball, the Atlanta Braves, and the dean is to water what Greg has Boston Red Sox. He and his wife, planted,” Hays says. “It’s God who “ My task in my short, Judy, also enjoy hiking, and Hays gives the growth. It’s finally the Lord’s two-year stint as dean spends much of his spare time play- work that we are doing here.” ing his Martin D-28 guitar. He and Hays came to Duke in 1991 from is to water what Greg fellow professors Joel Marcus and the faculty of Yale Divinity School. has planted. It’s God Thea Portier-Young pack the house His book The Moral Vision of the at the Divinity School’s monthly New Testament: Community, Cross, who gives the growth.” lunchtime talent shows during their New Creation was selected by occasional performances as “Peter, — RICHARD HAYS Christianity Today as one of the 100 Paul, and Mary.” most important religious books of the 20th A longtime friend and mentor to Jones, The Hayses have two grown children: century. His most recent books include Hays says that the school owes the dean Chris, who teaches Old Testament and The Art of Reading Scripture (2003, co- an enormous debt of gratitude for his ancient Near Eastern studies at Fuller edited with Ellen Davis), The Conversion of leadership over the past 13 years. “It is Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., the Imagination (2005), and Seeking the a remarkable place because of the vision and Sarah, a singer-songwriter and per- Identity of Jesus: A Pilgrimage (2008, co- Greg and Susan [Pendleton Jones] have sonal trainer in Nashville, Tenn. edited with Beverly Roberts Gaventa). brought here. Nearly every other [semi- —Jonathan Goldstein

spring 2010 11 big questions. statistics course, he encountered a In the spring of 1982, Greg chose “These were teachers who really midterm exam question that changed divinity school over public admin- stirred my imagination,” he says. “I everything: “How many tires in a istration. He accepted the Divinity wanted to be like them. And I wanted shipment would have to have defects School’s offer of a merit scholarship to know how to create more people before the entire shipment should be and began a summer pre-enroll- like them.” sent back to the supplier?” ment internship at Bethesda United “I really didn’t care about tires,” says Methodist Church in Welcome, N.C. Jones’ love of sports has remained a Jones, whose quote for his high school In this small community south of constant, although he’s more often a yearbook was “When I die, I would Winston-Salem, he preached, helped spectator than a participant. When rather people say, ‘He lived for the bet- with youth ministry and Vacation his schedule permits, he’s at Wallace terment of others’ than, ‘He was rich.’” Bible School, and visited church mem- Wade or Cameron Indoor Stadium, for His future, he realized, was not bers in the hospital. The demanding Duke’s home games, cheering on the in tires. schedule gave him a new appreciation Blue Devils. Instead, he earned a master of for the realities of a pastor’s life. During the many years he played public administration degree from the On a Sunday afternoon midway baseball, Jones’ coaches rotated him University of Denver, imagining that a through the summer, Jones got a among three positions—pitcher, career seeking “the betterment of oth- call from Paula Gilbert, the Divinity short-stop, and catcher. Each of these ers” lay in public service. But he was School’s director of admissions. positions fit him well until his early also struggling with a call to ministry. Jameson Jones had suffered a heart teens, when a rapid growth spurt led His mother’s father was a United attack, and Gilbert urged him to get to a series of knee injuries. He was Methodist pastor, as was his father. to Duke Hospital as soon as possible. diagnosed with dislocating kneecaps, Jameson Jones was widely known as His father had rarely been sick, and and had the first of what became many a Methodist youth leader and edi- had no previous indication of heart surgeries. He gave up baseball and tor of two national youth periodicals. disease. When Greg arrived at the basketball for tennis and track, but by Before becoming president of Iliff, he hospital, Gilbert was waiting outside. his junior year of high school, the long had worked on the staff of the UMC’s “I got out of my car and she said, ‘He postoperative recoveries had forced General Board of Education, and didn’t make it.’” him out of competitive athletics. edited Motive magazine. His mother Predictably, Jones didn’t waste the had always been a leader in the church The loss of Dean Jameson Jones, 53, time. He filled the periods of recu- as a diaconal minister, choir direc- stunned the Duke community, but it peration by reading books of all kinds, tor, and organizer of work teams, and was devastating for his family, particu- forming a habit that continues to serve his older brother, Scott, was a stu- larly for 21-year-old Greg. him well. “I became more reflective dent at Perkins School of Theology at The next few months both tested and serious,” says Jones. “And I became Southern Methodist University. and tempered his faith. The two much more aware of my own faith.” “I was interested,” he says, “but memorial services—one at Duke I thought I wanted to avoid the Chapel and another in Denver—were Jones continued on the academic fast family business.” excruciating. “At the service in track. At 17, he graduated from high He applied to several divinity Denver I was struggling with whether school, where his classmates voted him schools, including Duke, where his there was a God,” Jones says. “If there “most intelligent” and “most likely to father had been named dean early was, this didn’t seem like a good God.” succeed.” Two and a half years later, in 1981. Jameson Jones had quickly Kevin Armstrong, Jones’ seminary during his final semester as an under- become a popular preacher in Duke roommate and now senior pastor at graduate at the University of Denver, Chapel, remembers Rick Lischer, who North United Methodist Church in where he was a member of Phi Beta had joined the Duke Divinity faculty in Indianapolis, recalls the aftermath of Kappa and soon-to-be summa cum 1979. “He was blessed with an amazing Jameson Jones’ death. laude graduate, he enrolled in the memory and the gift of engaging his “Opening Convocation was espe- M.B.A. program. In the first-year listeners with timely insights.” cially difficult for Greg—to have

12 Divinity greg and susan pendleton jones: partners in ministry at the york chapel memorial service at the Divinity School, where she led the for Jameson Jones, the student who would building project from 2001 to 2005, and become Susan Pendleton Jones recog- is now director of field education. nized that the Joneses’ son Greg, a first- “I consistently have been inspired by year student, was sitting nearby. Susan’s ministry both in local congrega- “I found it very moving that he was so tions and here at the Divinity School,” Greg open about his grief,” recalls Susan. “It says. “Her wisdom and insight are catalysts was impressive that he didn’t seem to for all that I do.” care that the other students saw that.” Everything that she learned at Duke, The two met in a course that fall, and says Susan, who came to seminary eager Greg invited her to a performance at Duke to move beyond the fundamentalist faith Chapel of divinity professor Stuart Henry’s she’d known growing up in Virginia Beach, chancel opera, which Henry dedicated to Va., left her wanting to give back. Jameson Jones. They became engaged in “I hope that the creation of the the spring, and their wedding the follow- Westbrook Building as a place that ‘speaks’ ing October was scheduled during semes- of Scripture—through the limestone ter break. arches and the commissioned art—will be “We had a very romantic honeymoon of a reminder to all those who work and study two nights in the Greensboro Hilton,” quips here that a scriptural imagination is what Greg, who had to get back for classes the should shape our lives and ministries.” next day. The couple was later ordained The Joneses have three children: Nate, together at Lake Junaluska, N.C., begin- 23, Ben, 20, and Sarah, 15. Nate is a ning a lifelong partnership in ministry. 2009 graduate of Duke University and a Their complementary styles—he thinks rising middler at the Divinity School. He “big picture,” while she attends to details— co-founded Religio, a Duke undergradu- “helps me dream, while I try to keep his ate journal of Christian thought, and plans feet on the ground,” says Susan. They have to combine his love of music—he is a found numerous ways to share in each oth- baritone soloist—with ministry. er’s vocation, adds Greg, including serving Ben is a rising junior studying econom- in congregations and leading workshops and ics and Chinese at Duke, where he is head retreats. “We enjoy any opportunity to work student manager for the football team. An together and share in each other’s gifts.” accomplished marathon runner, he is cur- Greg credits her with helping to cast the rently studying abroad in Beijing. vision for the Divinity School, particularly Sarah, a rising sophomore at East All in the Family The Joneses’ for the Westbrook Building and Goodson Chapel Hill High School, shares the fam- wedding at Epworth United Methodist Church, Durham, N.C.; the new dean Chapel. After serving as United Methodist ily’s interest in music. She sings soprano and Susan with Nathan, 10, Sarah, 2, chaplain to Duke’s Wesley Fellowship, roles in genres ranging from show tunes and Ben, 7, following his installation Oct. Susan became director of special programs to opera. —Elisabeth Stagg 3, 1997; a March 2010 family portrait.

anticipated his father, as dean, wel- study ministry.” who would become his wife and partner coming us and that not being the case,” At the Divinity School, Jones was in ministry. The two quickly became a says Armstrong, who remains one of surrounded by those, like Armstrong, team, says Armstrong. “Susan helped Jones’ closest friends and is a mem- who stepped in to support him through Greg to see some of the beauty and ber of the Divinity School’s Board of his grief and anger. Among them was hope of life that most of us, in the midst Visitors. “In the context of such deep Susan (Pendleton Jones), a fellow stu- of grief, assume will never return.” grief, it was a difficult time for Greg to dent in the master of divinity program Jones, who earned his M.Div. summa

spring 2010 13 cum laude in 1985 and won the preach- The Joneses and their three young Episcopal House of Studies, a Hispanic ing award named for his father, was children were settled and thriving House of Studies, and a chair in eager to continue his study of theology. in Baltimore. Catholic theology to complement the He completed his Ph.D. in just three Yet it was hard to turn down an Baptist House of Studies and Office of years, working with esteemed faculty opportunity from Duke, which had Black Church Studies that had been members including Hauerwas, Geoffrey played such a large role in both Susan’s developed years earlier. Wainwright, and Thomas Langford, and Greg’s formation. All the while, Jones both practiced who also had served as dean and later As dean, he would be living into the and preached risk taking. When he became Duke University’s provost. questions that had long interested him, decided to pursue an addition to His dissertation, Transformed and which guided his teaching, writing, the Divinity School as part of the Judgment: Toward a Trinitarian and leadership: How do organizations Campaign for Duke, some worried Account of the Moral Life (University move forward in constructive and life- that the bricks and mortar would come of Notre Dame Press, 1990), grew out giving ways? What practices support at the expense of student financial aid, of Jones’ lifelong interest in under- the formation of people capable of another critical need. standing the formation of those men- leading others in what 1 Timothy calls “That was a real gut check,” says tors he had so admired in high school, “the life that really is life”? Jones, who had said support for stu- people who model high moral charac- When the job offer came, the dents was a top priority. “But we were ter and judgment. Joneses knew they should accept. out of space.” Ultimately, the school The doctoral work also moved Jones From the beginning, the new dean raised enough money for the building into a deep inquiry of the nature of began laying the groundwork for and exceeded its goals for supporting forgiveness, which became the sub- programs to support Christian lead- scholarships. In retrospect, says Jones, ject of his second book. Embodying ers, including Courage to Serve, about the addition “is a crucial sign of what Forgiveness: A Theological Analysis pastors of rural churches, and Pulpit & it means for the Divinity School to (Eerdmans, 1995), published while Pew, a research project that focused on have a continued vibrant presence in Jones was an associate professor of pastoral leadership. the university.” theology at Loyola College (now He also crossed disciplinary and Loyola University Maryland), won denominational lines. The Divinity Now Jones takes on a new challenge. outstanding book awards from both School eventually added an Anglican As Duke University’s chief global Christianity Today and the Academy of Parish Clergy. The book includes Initiatives & Centers insights from film and fiction, includ- From his first days at ing the Flannery O’Connor short story The Duke Youth Academy Duke Divinity School, Dean Jones The Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life “Revelation,” Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s collaborated with other faculty The Brothers Karamazov, and Toni and staff to create initiatives, Pulpit & Pew Morrison’s Beloved. centers, and programs to help Courage to Serve the school extend its mission in Sustaining Pastoral Excellence areas ranging from congrega- Late in 1996, Jones received an tional and Christian institutional The Episcopal Leadership Forum unexpected call. Professor Richard leadership to racial and tribal for United Methodist Bishops Heitzenrater, a member of the search reconciliation and clergy health. The Duke Center for Reconciliation team for the Divinity School’s 11th Among the programs he has The Anglican Episcopal House of Studies dean, explained that Jones was a finalist. championed in the last 13 years: Thriving Rural Communities Despite his love for Duke, Jones still associated the leadership of the school The Clergy Health Initiative with his father’s death. Susan had Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts begun a new position that she loved The Hispanic House of Studies as senior pastor of the 1,000-member Leadership Education at Duke Divinity Arbutus United Methodist Church. The Summer Institute

14 Divinity strategist, his job is to advance and other voices coordinate the university’s international engagement. That means, in part, finding common ground among faculty “Dr. Greg Jones has provided exceptional, imaginative members, students, and administrators leadership not only to Duke Divinity School, but also in dozens of schools and departments to the whole church. He’s asked new questions, offered with often disparate engagements with other countries. creativity, and brought hope....”

President Brodhead says Jones, — Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, Texas Annual Conference of who remains a divinity professor and the United Methodist Church a leader at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, possesses the right mix “The Divinity School is very clear about its support of of experience and understanding to help Duke achieve more coherence. the church, and Greg has helped to hone that vision. “Greg has an almost unique ability to the theological posture of the school, the formation compute and articulate the values of the university,” Brodhead says. “He under- of faculty and staff, and the stance toward the church stands the interests of the different are remarkable.” parts of Duke and how they can come — Justin Coleman D’05, lead pastor, Gethsemane Campus of together in high-level agreement.” st. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Houston, Texas Just three days after presiding over the Divinity School’s 2010 Closing Convocation in April, Jones flew to “Thank God for giving Dean Jones the vision for the Kunshan, China, to meet with munici- pal and educational leaders. Duke th.D. program.” University’s China initiative includes — Robert Ewusie Moses D’07 and current Th.D. student at a 200-acre campus in Kunshan, the the Divinity School first phase of which will be completed in December 2011, and collaborative programs with Shanghai Jiao Tong on the web University in Shanghai. Read more comments at www.divinity.duke.edu/othervoices Duke’s Fuqua School of Business will lead the first phase of the project, including an executive MBA and a master of management studies pro- we’re still thinking about building work, develop wise judgment, and gram. Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard says institutions and developing new ways hold themselves to the highest moral, that Jones brings a rare combination of of teaching, learning, and research ethical, and intellectual standards. gifts to the university’s global strategy. to address specific challenges and “My theological work—whether “He is driven, but wise; smart, but hum- opportunities in other cultural con- about formation and transformation, ble; a colleague, but a leader; trusted, texts,” he says. or habits of interpretation and virtue, but able to make the difficult decision,” He is excited by the ways this work or forgiveness, or leadership—has says Sheppard, “and he loves Duke.” connects with his early scholarship. In been about issues of education and Jones says his work with the Duke- fact, he’s pursuing the same end, or how we form people of character and Kunshan campus has important simi- telos, as Jones often puts it, that cap- wisdom to exercise significant leader- larities to what he’s been doing for the tured his imagination in high school ship,” he says. “I’m still thinking about last 13 years. and later fueled his dissertation: push- the larger horizons and purposes of “As with work we’ve done in Africa, ing people to reflect deeply on their education and formation.”

spring 2010 15 the Old New Sanctuary

16 Divinity In house churches, an ancient model meets contemporary sensibilities the Old New Sanctuary by Susan Wunderink

It’s 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon—time for

church. Two by two, 10 congregants come in through the back door

of a Durham, N.C., home, several carrying a young child in one arm

and a booster seat in the other. Once the children are settled to play

in the kitchen with two adults keeping watch, the others pull out

their Bibles and find chairs in the living room.

First there’s a presentation about the importance of keeping refrig-

erator coils dust-free. A young woman donates a cleaning brush for

the group to share, explaining that regular use reduces both electric

bills and a household’s carbon footprint. The discussion that follows

includes planning for the community garden, how to commit next

month’s offering, and where to meet for their Easter service.

The Rev. Todd Maberry, a 29-year-old Duke Divinity School alum-

nus, then leads worship, guiding members of the Refuge through

readings from the Gospels and a discussion about practicing confes-

sion as a spiritual discipline. Do nn Y o un g

spring 2010 17 The Refuge is a house church, part Whether the current Monica Trogdon and her husband of a movement with an ancient model wave of house churches had tried many Triangle churches with- and contemporary sensibilities. House out finding one where they felt com- churches, despite their independence, will have a significant fortable, and she was skeptical about have much in common. Topping off effect on the church in the idea of a house church at first. at about 35 people, they represent a America is unclear. When friends told her about the Christian variant of the current belt- Refuge, she remembers thinking, tightening, ultra-local, relationship- Barna Group found that between 3 “Clearly, these people are so strange driven zeitgeist. This model’s appeal percent and 6 percent of Americans they can’t be in a mainstream church.” is in its simplicity, efficiency, and sense polled described themselves as “part But after meeting the members and of community. of a group of believers that meets having dinner with Maberry and his “This is where the church began—in regularly in a home or place other than wife, Trogdon was reassured that this houses,” says Charles Campbell, pro- a church building. These groups are house church was what she’d been seek- fessor of homiletics at Duke Divinity not part of a typical church; they meet ing, and she began to attend regularly. School. While their particulars are typi- independently, are self-governed, and Now, she’s leading the church’s efforts cally quite different, house churches are consider themselves to be a complete to start a community garden. part of a movement that calls Christians church on their own.” These results Like many house churches, the to “do church” without buildings or full- roughly match up with a 2009 survey Refuge is connected to a denomination, time pastors, points out Campbell. by the Pew Forum on Religion and but loosely. They are registered under Maberry and fellow alumnus R.G. Public Life. the 501(c)(3) license of Maberry’s Lyons, both from the class of 2006, are supervisors in the Nazarene church. currently leading house churches com- Refuge Maberry, who donates his time to the mitted to building relationships across As host Dana Iglesias prepares rice and Refuge, appreciates that house churches racial and denominational lines, but the beans for the Sunday evening meal, she reverse the CEO model of church lead- similarities of their work stop there: explains that before moving to the area, ership. While the Refuge’s consensus- Lyons is a United Methodist elder who she belonged to another house church. driven decision making may slow things was assigned by the North Alabama She is a family physician studying for down, he and the members prefer lead- Conference to plant a church in a pre- a graduate degree in public health, ership that is less top-down and “more dominantly African-American neigh- and she has chosen to live in one of of a web.” borhood in inner-city Birmingham, Ala. Durham’s older, low-income neigh- He also praises the model’s low Maberry, ordained in the Church of the borhoods. Here she’s part of a small cost, which frees resources for mission. Nazarene, works weekdays as Duke intentional Christian community with a House churches aren’t strapped by Divinity School’s registrar and is the huge communal kitchen and long din- building or maintenance expenses, rely- part-time pastor of the Refuge, whose ing room table. ing instead on members’ hospitality. growing membership includes divinity Sally Whitaker and several other Each month, the Refuge chooses how students and mostly white, middle-class members joined the Refuge after leav- to share its offering, which they call couples with young children who live ing another church. “jubilee giving.” They consider both in Durham. “There were a lot of other couples global and local concerns, alternat- Whether the current wave of interest like us that had lost faith—not in God,” ing between the needs that seem most in house churches will have a signifi- says Whitaker, “but in our ability to do urgent. One month they helped a cou- cant effect on the church in America church right. So Todd [Maberry] and ple with the wife’s expenses for breast is unclear. Despite examples like the a few others said, ‘Well, let’s just do cancer treatment. Another month they Refuge and Lyons’ Community Church church together.’” without Walls, some observers are not For Whitaker, the Refuge provides The Rev. Todd Maberry D’06 leads wor- sure that house churches constitute a “community like no other” among ship, which concludes with Eucharist and is movement, let alone an influential one. members who are intensely serious followed by a communal meal. Lower left, Nonetheless, a 2009 survey by the about their faith. Megan Pardue. Do nn Y o un g

18 Divinity spring 2010 19 gave to a ministry in India that helps Despite the bleak outlook, mem- women who have been caught in the bership in the Community Church sex trade. without Walls, a network of five house “It’s not millions of dollars,” churches led by R.G. Lyons, has grown acknowledges Trogdon, “but the effects several times over. on individuals’ lives are significant.” Maintaining church buildings in a Through the Religious Coalition for place like West End, where there is so a Nonviolent Durham (RCND), the much need, can be “a very unfaithful group formed a relationship with a practice,” says Lyons. The Community young woman who had been through Church without Walls has close ties to the juvenile court system. They tutored Urban Ministry, a United Methodist her for a year, threw a baby shower for Church 501(c)(3) charity that operates in her, and still stay in touch. They also the inner city and houses Lyons’ office. paid for several members of a Durham The Community Church without halfway house to attend an Alcoholics Walls evolved from a youth Bible study Anonymous conference. in Lyons’ West End home to a house “We have people in our group church meeting there each Thursday who would not consider themselves evening. When the original group of Christians, and people who have a six outgrew his living room, members mystical understanding of faith,” says began to offer their homes for worship. Maberry. Seeing the consistent prac- Currently an average of 50 to 70 West tices of those who have been following End residents, about half of them teens, Jesus, he says, makes a difference for worship at one of the house churches newcomers. “For us, discipleship is not each week. A facilitator leads the ser- some class that we run for two hours vice, where a Bible study replaces the once a week. Discipleship is modeled usual sermon, and everyone shares a when those at different stages in their potluck meal. faith interact.” A primary influence has been the In January, the Refuge went through Church of the Saviour in Washington, the first of rites familiar to any church: D.C., which, as Lyons notes, “has been they buried a member and held a around since 1948. They were ‘emer- memorial service in Duke Gardens. In gent’ before anyone was using that June, their first couple will be married. terminology.” Maberry isn’t worried about not hav- Juliette Thomas is a lifelong United ing a building for these events. “We’ll Methodist, and this is her first experi- p a g es 20 & 21: Co u r tes y o f Comm un i t C hu ch w th ut W alls just be creative,” he says. ence in a house church. She hosts a group that meets on Friday evenings Church without Walls after youth group. “My house is called In downtown Birmingham, Ala.’s West Agape House,” she says. “When [con- End, unemployment hovers close to gregants] come in, they’re at church, 33 percent. Three United Methodist and they’re welcome. It’s their church; churches there have closed in the past it’s no longer mine, because God has two decades, unable to pay their rent. blessed me with this house.” Before the 1960s, West End was one of Birmingham’s most affluent neigh- The Community Church without borhoods, and its many churches were Walls in the West End neighbor- full on Sundays. During the civil rights hood of downtown Birmingham, struggle, Public Safety Commissioner Ala., has grown to a network of Bull Connor, who became notorious five house churches led by the for turning fire hoses and police dogs Rev. R.G. Lyons D’06.

20 Divinity From left, the poster for a West End Community Garden fundraiser; volunteers at work in the garden.

Atyam was a co-founder and president of the Ugandan Concerned Parents Association (CPA), which advocated for the on peaceful demonstrators, taught holding cooking classes with an empharelease- of allT childrenhe challenges abducted are different for the by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Sunday school in one of these churches. sis on healthy alternatives, and their fall Refuge, but the group will soon face Although many residents abandoned collard green cook-off has become a a defining choice: Should it follow the the neighborhood during that era, for popular neighborhood event. example of the Community Church the most part, the stately old churches The teamwork and sense of unity fos- without Walls and form a network of are still standing. Today, worshippers tered by the house church model makes house churches—or seek a regular from the suburbs or middle-class areas it “much easier to encourage and chal- location with space to grow? beyond West End drive in on Sundays, lenge each other,” Lyons says. The only No one wants to lose what the then return to their own neighborhoods. downside he has found is that there are Refuge has found, least of all Maberry. There’s a perception, says Thomas, fewer voices for singing. “You do miss “There is always the danger,” he that attending those big-steeple out on the power of corporate worship.” acknowledges, “that a house church churches requires an expensive set of could degenerate into a book club.” Sunday clothes. At the Community Moving forward It is nearly 6 p.m. when the group in Church without Walls, worshippers are House churches can be ephemeral, Dana Iglesias’ living room celebrates encouraged to come as they are, and the like any church plant. Despite mini- Eucharist, and then passes the peace. casual atmosphere draws them in. mal start-up costs, sustaining a house Everyone heads into the kitchen, “I think house churches are the church requires resources that are in where Maberry says grace, and the future. I really do,” says Thomas. short supply in neighborhoods like church members sit down together at “Because more people want to know Birmingham’s West End. the long dining table. Jesus. We’ve got all these people out The Community Church without The evening gathering is a mix of here walking the streets that don’t know Walls, now four years old, will soon informality and ceremony, ancient that. Once we tell them, they come in.” face its first drop in funding from and contemporary, always rooted in In response to the high incidence of the United Methodist Church, which personal connections and care for each heart disease and diabetes in the area, begins reducing annual support of new other. “Church doesn’t have to be a the Community Church members have church starts by 25 percent during the show,” says Sally Whitaker. “It doesn’t started a community garden. church’s fifth year. have to impress people. It’s just how “We’re not going to feed the entire “A goal of mine should be to work you love each other.” neighborhood,” says Lyons. “But I hope myself out of a job,” says Lyons, “so the garden will be an example of what that a salaried pastor is unnecessary. people can do, even in a small space.” I hope we’ll raise up indigenous more info At Easter, the entire membership leadership in the church, and also worshipped in the garden. They are also in the neighborhood.” www.communitychurchwithoutwalls.org

spring 2010 21 Charlotte and her mother spoke Oct. 22, 2009 at the United Nations hearing on human trafficking sponsored by the high commissioner for human rights. Je rry Ma rk at o s / i st c kp h t .c om ( A U nt C ri ig n)

22 Divinity Journey Proud: From the Streets to

a Place of One’s Own by PATRICK O’NEILL

GREENSBORO, N.C.—Twenty-five years of ministry on the streets confirmed for Frank Dew that there are myriad reasons why someone might fall on hard times. But he is certain about one thing: A place to call home can make all the difference in helping a person turn his or her life around. “We used to make housing an outcome,” says Dew D’76, a chaplain at Greensboro Urban Ministry and founding pastor of New Creation Community Presbyterian Church. “If you keep a job, if you stay clean and sober, then you can get a place to stay. “What we’ve realized is that if you have a place to stay, you’re more

Je rry Ma rk at o s / i st c kp h t .c om ( A U nt C ri ig n) likely to get a job, keep a job, stay clean and sober, stay on your meds, keep your family together, and so on. We’re really working to move toward this idea of housing first.” A family’s journey from this city’s streets might begin at Weaver House, the emergency shelter operated by Urban Ministry, followed by a two-year lease at Partnership Village, a community that offers well-maintained apartments for single adults and families for between $200 and $300 a month.

From left, Jessie Mack and Frank Dew D’76, following Sunday evening worship, above, at New Creation Community Church.

spring 2010 23 24 Divinity “ What we’ve realized is that if you have a place to stay, you’re more likely to get a job, keep a job, stay clean and sober, stay on your meds, keep your family together, and so on. We’re really working to move toward this idea of housing first.”

— frank dew

“This project is part of our contin- divinity degree, a question kept com- needed to be developed. Prejudices uum of care,” says Dew during a tour ing up: “If we are following Jesus, why had to be named. White privilege had of the like-new apartment complex, do we have so many friends among to be acknowledged, and vulnerability which opened in 1999 and features 32 the affluent? and community had to be embraced studio units for singles, and 12 two- “I was pretty sure that God had a as gifts. bedroom and 24 three-bedroom family wood-paneled office and country club A quarter century later, Dew’s apartments. In addition to housing, membership for me,” Dew wrote in leap into uncharted waters with New Partnership Village offers substance a draft for his book Improving Our Creation remains a work in progress. abuse counseling, parenting classes, Acoustics. “Little did I know what He situates the church in the reform credit counseling, Sunday school, and God’s true plans were for my life.” tradition, citing Francis of Assisi, Martin worship services. Dew works from a cramped office in Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, and “It gives us a chance to be with space New Creation rents downtown Clarence Jordan as reformers whose people for up to two years,” says Dew, at Greensboro’s First Presbyterian vision inspires his own. “I hope that we 58. “Things don’t get the way they are Church. Rather than invitations to the are part of that tradition,” he says. “The overnight, and they don’t change over- country club for golf outings, he gets spirit of reformation is ongoing.” night either.” calls from the local jail, sometimes Among Presbyterians, he admits, But getting people off the streets from members of his own congrega- New Creation is an anomaly. “Some and into a place of their own, Dew tion. Most days, he hangs out with the people look at us as a laboratory for a says, increases the long-term odds of homeless. He makes sure they know different way of doing church life, and overcoming poverty. In a best-case about Weaver House, where there is others see us as irrelevant because we scenario, a family might move from emergency shelter and other resources. are so different.” Partnership Village into a Habitat for He invites them to New Creation, Despite New Creation’s modest mem- Humanity home. the church he founded in 1985. From bership, the church pays annual rent of its beginnings, Dew envisioned a con- $8,000 to First Presbyterian, and last Following Jesus gregation that stretched itself beyond year contributed $10,000 to its presby- Je rry Ma rk at o s / i st c kp h t .c om (hands) When he began preparing for ministry, the bounds of traditionalism—a faith tery, one of five in North Carolina. Dew imagined leading a large congre- community that offered its members a gation of affluent Christians. But while new way to be church. ‘When things go bad’ at Duke, where he earned a master of Using Washington, D.C.’s Church of Arriving early for the 5 p.m. service the Saviour as a model, Dew had what on a Sunday in late March, Dew pulls he calls a “Matthew 25 vision of com- chairs off stacks and arranges them Frank Dew founded New Creation munity,” one that would go beyond into two tight ovals around a modest in 1985 based on what he calls “a the usual congregational disciplines wooden altar table draped in a Lenten Matthew 25 vision of community.” of tithing and charity. Relationships purple cloth.

spring 2010 25 Soon New Creation members Alan Forest University divinity students, like to try it on if you don’t mind. Wilson and Rick Tatum, both of whom who travel from Winston-Salem each Thank you for thinking about me.” have lived on the streets from time to Sunday, come in and chat with friends. Robinson says she joined New time, join Dew, working side-by-side Amy Robinson, a 42-year-old woman Creation because the folks there with a smooth familiar rhythm. Wilson, who joined New Creation in 1992, “walk the walk. They say, ‘You know whose bushy beard makes him look greets Wilson. we are Christians by our love,’ and lionlike, places a Bible in each chair. “Alan, I have a coat for you, and I I can see that in our congregation in Tatum rolls large round folding tables meant to bring it tonight,” she says. the things that we do.” into place for the simple meal that “It’s sitting on my bed, and I forgot. Three years ago, Robinson found New Creation shares after the service. Will 2X be too big?” herself in the intensive care unit at Soon, others arrive. Two Wake “It might be,” Wilson replies. “I’d Baptist Hospital. A life-threatening

Being There

Divinity students who intern with pursuing a dual master of social work at in that way.’ Later, Frank reminded me Frank Dew, chaplain of Greensboro (N.C.) the University of North Carolina at Chapel that it is not always about the words one Urban Ministry, often describe a new Hill and divinity at Duke, says Dew says, but more about the way one listens appreciation of the gospel message that helped her step outside her comfort zone and shows care. That will always be with “the last shall be first.” to engage those often ignored by the me in my ministry.” “The respect that Frank Dew extends wider community. Dew cautions students against attempt- to each person, no matter what situa- “Frank gently pushes us students to ing to become the be-all and end-all in tion he or she is in, is so affirming that it expand our concept of ministry by sitting people’s lives. can embolden others,” says Ellis Carson with and listening to hurting people with- “If I thought I was there to solve every- D’11. “It especially emboldens those who out judgment or superficial compassion, one’s problem or to fix every situation, I find that they need the services of Urban but with love—hearing an individual’s would have quit after two weeks, because Ministry, and those who are feeling their cry,” says Cuthbertson. there’s no way I can do that,” Dew says. way into the practice of ministry like I am.” During her summer placement with Dew, “But I can help people claim a new For Dew, who acknowledges that a United Methodist Sarah Locke D’10 found identity for themselves, which helps field education assignment with him is “a herself leading worship, serving in the empower them to solve their own prob- rather unique offering” at Duke, the first soup kitchen, and offering pastoral care to lems, and in the process to believe that order of business is to acquaint students parents and children at the family shelter there is a power greater that can help with the Urban Ministry philosophy. two afternoons a week. them deal with the difficulties they’re fac- “I say to them right off the bat, ‘You’ll “One day a client came wanting help ing every day.” see a very vital and real day-to-day and to get admitted to a substance abuse While most of his Duke interns serve in hour-to-hour faith in the people that we clinic, and Frank gave me the opportunity parish settings following graduation, Dew serve, and you will be taught a lot by to come along,” says Locke. “It was a says they take their experiences at Urban them. We are trying not so much to help privilege to hear him ask about this man’s Ministry with them, and that they will be [the homeless] to believe in God, but to family … and to see him show loving care better equipped for ministry. believe in themselves—to see themselves to someone who really felt like the world “It helps them to feel more comfortable in the light of God and to claim their wor- was caving in on him. in relating to the poor, and in welcoming thiness and their value.’” “I remember thinking, ‘I hope that I the poor into their congregations.” Shanitria Cuthbertson D’11, who is can find the words to care for someone — Patrick O’Neill

26 Divinity infection caused by flesh-eating bac- “The respect that Frank Dew extends to each person, no teria required 12 major surgeries in 21 days. She had to learn to walk and talk matter what situation he or she is in, is so affirming that all over again. it can embolden others.” “I don’t remember a whole lot about the surgery, but what I do — Ellis Carson D’11, who served a field ed placement at New Creation remember is waking up, and every time I opened my eyes there was somebody from New Creation there, as Hoping to remedy that, they began “You don’t do community without well as my family,” she says. holding worship at Weaver House on participation,” she says. “Unlike the New Creation flourishes, she says, Sunday mornings. The ties formed dur- churches of the past that I’ve gone to, under Dew’s leadership. “He always ing these services have been a bridge, where they were perfectly happy to shows us a sermon, and then preaches says Dew. “When someone needs God have you on the rolls as long as you it to us. He’s believable because of hourly, daily, to deal with substance sent a check in periodically, this church what he does with his life.” abuse, to deal with unemployment, demands presence, and that does Rick Tatum, 56, who has a grown son, to deal with health circumstances,” stretch you.” a stepson, and six grandchildren, agrees. he says, “they are teaching us about New Creation is trying to extend the “I know that at three o’clock in the dependence on God.” circle to involve more people in the life morning I can get an answer whenever In return, New Creation tries to help of the church, but at the same time to I got a problem. I got Frank [Dew] on those at Urban Ministry “see them- deepen relationships, says Dew, mak- speed dial. I got people I know I can selves as God sees them,” says Dew. “In ing them more peerlike. call. Sometimes that’s all I need. When the process of that exchange, we come “Trying to be in relationship with things go bad, I just need somebody to together, building bridges back and people who don’t know where their talk to, and they will always listen.” forth between the church and the poor.” next meal is coming from is not easy,” Anne McKee, 82, and her late hus- He acknowledges that the view from he says. “But I really believe we have band, Charles, spent years living as those bridges isn’t always flattering. deepened those relationships. I know missionaries in Africa, where church When members of New Creation’s we have, but there’s a whole lot more was nontraditional, something they sister church in Managua, Nicaragua, that I hope can happen.” liked. At New Creation, she says, “We came to visit, the contrast in lifestyles It helps, he adds, to recognize the have no edifice complex. We’re not was stark. reality of the neediness of all peo- putting money in building. We’re not “We had experienced going to live ple, however that need is expressed. putting money in stuff. We’re putting in their homes, but it was kind of weird “When we recognize that we are in money in people.” when they came to where we live,” need of God, that brings us together McKee is proud of the fact that he says. “It helped us to see ourselves on an equal relationship: as lots of my New Creation foots the bill for two through their eyes. We realized more friends like to say, ‘The ground is level black Presbyterian students from South and more the disparity between their at the foot of the cross.’” Africa to attend the University of standard of living and ours. We were North Carolina at Greensboro. “We just feeding them meals on disposable Patrick O’Neill is a freelance writer have a lot of hands-on stuff,” she says. plates. They were asking us, ‘Why are based in Garner, N.C. you throwing those things away?’” Seeing with New Eyes Gayle Wulk, 66, a retired profes- These stories of New Creation mem- sional and the mother of two adopted bers are balm for Dew. In the early Guatemalan children, ages 11 and 17, years, he says, “We weren’t connecting has worshipped at New Creation for with the people at Weaver House.” 20 years.

spring 2010 27 Miracles beyond Miracles As Haiti struggles to recover from January’s devastating earthquake, the boys at Trinity House look forward to a future measured in fragrant loaves of bread

by Debbie Selinsky

ally Bates was elated. to push that boulder up the hill,” says Word had just come Bates, who is the Divinity School’s from Haiti that the chaplain and serves on the board of commercial baking Raleigh (N.C.)–based Hearts with equipment intended Haiti. The next challenge was figuring for Trinity House out how to get the container of equip- boys’ home in Jacmel ment from the port to the southern hadS arrived and cleared customs at coastal town of Jacmel. Port-au-Prince. Just a day later, as word spread of Bates D’95 is a longtime supporter Haiti’s devastating earthquake, prog- of the St. Joseph Family, which includes ress toward the bakery was completely It was three weeks before she Trinity House and two homes in Port- forgotten. “We were frantic to find out inquired about the fate of the con- au-Prince—the St. Joseph Home for if everyone was all right,” recalls Bates. tainer of bakery equipment, says Bates, Boys and Wings of Hope. She was “Everyone” included all the children who has been visiting Haiti since 2002. eager to see 10 years of planning for living in St. Joseph’s three homes, and “It seemed so insignificant in terms of a commercial bakery, the first out- Bill Nathan and Walnes Cangas, director the devastation that had taken place. side the capital city, reach fruition. and co-director of the Home for Boys For all we knew, that container was at The donated equipment from Boston, in Port-au-Prince, who had participated the bottom of the harbor.” Mass., was the next step to creating a in the 2008 Duke Youth Academy for Again, good news came: the equip- i st o c kp h t .c om ( m a p /hands) bakery that would raise money for the Christian Formation in Durham, N.C.. ment was safe. “Our next question orphanage, produce a livelihood for Within three days, Bates learned that was, when would it be possible to have the boys, and create a steady supply everyone had survived, even though the road opened up enough to trans- of fresh bread in a region haunted two of St. Joseph’s three homes had port the container to Trinity House by hunger. been destroyed, and Nathan had been in Jacmel?” Bates says. After all, the “In January, I decided I was ready seriously injured. 20-foot metal container would have to

28 Divinity spring 2010 29 “ I want to lay hands on a loaf of bread baked in Nouvo Vi (Kreyol for new life) and celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It will give me great joy.”

— Sally Bates D’95

be transported through the mountains, Left, Sally Bates D’95, with Haitian-made where aftershocks continued to cause tiger mask; members of the St. Joseph Family. landslides that blocked passage. Opposite page, from left, Walnes Cangas and quake survivor Bill Nathan; damage at St. After learning more than she’d Joseph’s Home for Boys. ever thought possible about shipping, customs, and special fees for Haitian have a good relationship with a French officials, Bates was still worried. Once bakery in Port-au-Prince, and the head the container arrived in Jacmel, she baker has offered to help us. And we realized, “I had no idea how to get a just got an offer from a French bakery 60-quart Hobart in Boston, with whom we hope to part- mixer off the back of ner,” he says. “They are willing to have a shipping container. their top guy come and apprentice our But guess what? boys, and also to have them at the bak- They did it.” ery in Boston.” Confirmation Port-au-Prince. So there’s a huge mar- At the beginning, New Life Bakery came via e-mail from St. Joseph’s ket niche on the south coast.” will start with basics—fresh, nutritious founder Michael Geilenfeld, a Catholic Geilenfeld, who was in the bread to eat and to sell. “We’ll do the missionary who once worked with United States in March for a previ- best work we can with what we have,” Mother Teresa. “It said, ‘Bakery equip- ously planned tour by the homes’ Geilenfeld adds. “We ment arrived today—all accounted for Resurrection Dance Theater of Haiti, want to be the best and checked off, nothing broken. … concurs. Nouvo Vi, he says, will pro- bakery we can be.” Rejoice that dough will soon be rising.” vide jobs for children, often hidden in Bates first visited Geilenfeld, Bates, and the others shame, who might never get tradi- Haiti with Jacob in the St. Joseph Family consider this tional work, and Golden T’74, D’78, a nothing short of a miracle. mainstream those chaplain at Trinity School in Charlotte, “There was impediment upon imped- children with others N.C., who introduced her to the St. gr ace ca mb l o s ( b ates), c u r tes y f H ea ts w i th ha t p e op le ) iment and frustration upon frustration,” in the community. Joseph Family’s three homes for dis- Bates says. “But it was all for bread, the The bakery also placed children. staff of life. The bakery will be called will be a means of She was immediately intrigued. Nouvo Vi—Kreyol for New Life.” support for St. Joseph’s. “One of the “Haiti is a country of great contrast; The plan is for boys at Trinity House things we’re most pleased about is there are scenes of incredible beauty to apprentice as bakers, and for the that 20 percent of what it costs to run in the rural and mountain sections, but older, disabled boys at Wings of Hope our homes is self-generated,” he says. in the cities, there’s grueling poverty.” to handle some clear-cut tasks such as “We want to earn money; we teach As she experienced those contrasts bagging bread, putting on twist-ties, the children that we don’t want to get during her first visit, Bates came home and boxing bread to be sold. along simply by asking for donations. each evening “to an incredibly warm “The market for bread in Jacmel is We want to work. This will help us and inviting guesthouse.” Her hosts huge, since there is no bakery there,” increase the amount we earn to sup- fed her delicious food and introduced says Bates. “All the restaurants and port ourselves.” her to local art, music, and dance. supermarkets there have to get bread Now Geilenfeld is searching for bak- “The St. Joseph Family believes shipped across the mountains from ers to teach the boys their craft. “We in the role of the arts in helping us

more info

www.heartswithhaiti.org 30 Divinity embrace the beauty of life and God’s ‘Rising from the rubble’ goodness in each of us,” she says. “And no one is more hospitable and wel- On the afternoon of January 12, Bill Nathan, director of the St. Joseph Home for coming. That’s especially impressive, Boys in Port-au-Prince, went up to the home’s roof to watch the sunset before calling the given the extreme circumstances under children to prayers. which they live their lives—usually on When he arrived, he found five boys playing. “Run downstairs lickety-split — you have less than $2 a day, and with 80 percent chores to do before the bell rings,” he told them. A former child slave who had found unemployment.” refuge at St. Joseph’s, Nathan stayed behind, aware that the children might be tempted When Bates takes Duke Divinity to come back and resume their game. He had no idea then that by sending them down, students to visit the St. Joseph Family, he’d save their lives. she says, “We go to explore Mother Suddenly, he felt the building shaking. “It was going back and forth, like the waves on Teresa’s notion that Christ is present the ocean. I heard people screaming and saw them running, and I asked God, ‘God, to us in the faces of the poor and suf- what’s happening? Please help me — my life is in your hands.’” fering. Rather than build schools and As the building collapsed, Nathan was thrown from the 7th floor to a neighbor’s roof. repair roofs, we build relationships. We When he came to, he couldn’t move. “My whole body hurt,” he recalls. “I was lying on play with and tutor children with hand- broken bottles, rubble, and concrete.” He managed to roll himself off the roof to the ground, where he again lost con- c o u r tes y f H ea ts w i th ha t (ea thqua k e dest uct io n)/du un iv s p h ogr a ( N athan, can g as) icaps, and visit patients dying of TB and AIDS at hospices and hospitals. sciousness. He awakened covered in blood and in excruciating pain, but found that The ‘treatment’ we offer is the comfort his cell phone was working. He reached a friend, who got word to St. Joseph’s that he of our presence and our prayers.” was still alive. After years of visiting Haiti—“Haiti Several men, including the home’s co-director Walnes Cangas, found Nathan and car- chose me,” she insists—Bates taught ried him to an empty lot. There was no room for him at the hospital, but at a crowded herself Kreyol, which is similar to Baptist mission he was given a pain shot and left lying in the hallway. French and widely spoken in Haiti. Word of Nathan’s injuries spread quickly. Miles Wright of Raleigh, a longtime volunteer Though she was unable to take her with Hearts with Haiti, managed the next-to-impossible, arriving aboard a twin-engine usual group of students to Haiti over plane to bring his injured friend back to North Carolina for medical treatment. Helping spring break, she hopes to travel there Wright were a nurse and journalist E. Benjamin Skinner, who wrote about Nathan’s life in to reconnect with her friends this sum- his 2009 book, A Crime so Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery. Together mer, and will plan a student trip for they got Nathan to the airport, where, after a long wait, the group boarded the plane for spring break 2011. the United States. “I want to lay hands on a loaf of Despite injuries including several broken ribs, a bruised liver, a torn knee ligament, bread baked in Nouvo Vi and celebrate and cracked vertebrae, Nathan made quick progress after a month of recuperation and the Lord’s Supper,” she says. “It will physical therapy. An avid drummer, he was cleared to join a month-long U.S. tour of give me great joy.” the Resurrection Dance Theater of Haiti that was planned before the earthquake hit. (The drumming/dance group will return in the fall and perform September 19 at Duke’s Reynolds Theater.) Debbie Selinsky is a freelance writer who lives in Durham. She previously wrote In a phone interview from Georgia, Nathan expressed gratitude to be alive. “My Lord about the St. Joseph Home for Boys in the has kept me alive for a reason,” he says. “I’m going to go back home and work hard to Fall 2008 edition of Divinity. raise money to rebuild St. Joseph’s and Wings of Hope. I want to share my story with others. By God’s providence, I have risen from the rubble, and I can go on.” —Debbie Selinsky

more info

ABC News reports on Nathan’s trip to N.C. at www.heartswithhaiti.org spring 2010 31 Bookmark

World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age By C. Kavin Rowe, Assistant Professor of New Testament Oxford University Press, 2009, 300 pages, Hardcover, $65.00

Reviewed by Michael J. Gorman

ew books are truly paradigm- Not only is Rowe’s reading a convincing shifting or landscape-altering. Yet this new book from Kavin corrective to misreadings of Acts, its basic FRowe has the potential to argument has implications for church, be such a book—to, in effect, turn the world of scholarship on Acts upside politics, culture, and the missio Dei that down. (Or, better, rightside up.) More every pastor or theologian needs to engage. importantly, it is a book that can re- invigorate the contemporary church — DAVID burrell as we corporately continue the world- changing narrative begun at Pentecost, resurrection of Jesus offers human- Practicing Theological Knowledge,” recounted in Luke’s second volume, and ity the culture of God—a whole new, Rowe shows how the two perspectives deftly interpreted by Rowe. integrated, theocentric way of believ- in chapters two and three must be kept Rowe’s objective, then, is twofold. ing and living—that destabilizes the dialectically together and interpreted First, he seeks to overturn, through existing culture, even as it is not in the as the necessary consequence of three careful exegesis, what he takes to be a least seditious or interested in political early Christian practices: (1) confess- fundamental misinterpretation of Acts power. ing the resurrected Jesus as Lord that has reigned for nearly 300 years. World Upside Down takes its title of all, which leads to (2) a universal This misreading claims that Acts is an from a phrase in the NRSV text of mission, which in turn leads to (3) the apology “that articulates Christianity’s Acts 17:6, part of the narrative about formation of Christian assemblies of harmlessness vis-à-vis Rome”(4), Paul in Thessalonica in which his light, forgiveness, peace, and crucifor- and thus a rationale for the harmoni- mission is accused of cultural de- mity. “New culture, yes—coup, no.” ous coexistence of church and empire. stabilization (rightly, says Rowe) and Resurrection, yes—insurrection, no. Second, Rowe wishes simultaneously sedition (wrongly, says Rowe). The In each of these chapters Rowe to read Acts as “lively political the- book consists of five chapters. After a engages in careful and illuminating ology” (7) and a “culture-forming brief introductory chapter, the second exegesis. Furthermore, he constantly narrative” (4) that can provide both chapter, “Collision: Explicating Divine stresses the inseparability of religion a theological framework and various Identity,” examines several passages and politics, on the one hand, and of theological resources for issues we face from Acts in which the destabiliz- belief/knowledge and practice, on in the 21st century. ing effects of the gospel on Roman the other. In a final chapter, “The That may sound like a typical, religion, philosophy, economics, and Apocalypse of Acts and the Life of rather facile political reading of a New politics are narrated, along with the Truth,” he retains those same empha- Testament book: “critique of empire.” frequently dangerous consequences for ses and offers some significant herme- But it is not. Rather, Rowe offers a those who preach and believe that gos- neutical reflections about his argument carefully nuanced, dialectical, and pel. Chapter three, “Dikaios: Rejecting within the context of postmodernity’s theologically rich analysis of the nar- Statecraft,” looks at the encounters suspicion of metanarratives. Despite its rative texture of Acts, and its vision of with Roman officials in Acts to argue universal claims, Acts is not a danger- the church, that he summarizes in the that Luke does in fact portray the ous totalizing metanarrative, because phrase “new culture, yes—coup, no” church as innocent of sedition. its message and its Christlike way of (5, 91, 150). That is, the apocalypse of So which is it? Dangerous or not? life are inseparable. God in the life, death, and especially In chapter four, “World Upside Down: I spent a few weeks reading this

32 Divinity book before, during, and after lead- vincing corrective to misreadings of Roman Age and Our Own. Which is ing a study tour to the cities of Acts, its basic argument has implica- precisely what Rowe does so well, and Thessalonica, Corinth, and Ephesus tions for church, politics, culture, and invites us to do with him. that figure so centrally in Acts. The the missio Dei that every pastor or book (assigned as recommended read- theologian needs to engage. Michael J. Gorman is professor ing), the trip, Acts, and our group’s My chief criticism of this carefully of sacred scripture and dean of the theological discussions about many argued, elegantly written, and intellec- Ecumenical Institute of Theology at issues reinforced one another. Not tually challenging book is its subtitle. It St. Mary’s Seminary & University only is Rowe’s reading of Acts a con- should be Reading Acts in the Graeco- in Baltimore, Md. shelf life new releases

Friendship at the Margins: Discovering Mutuality in Dust and Ashes: Service and Mission Poems by Christopher L. Heuertz & Christine D. Pohl by James L. Crenshaw, Robert L. Flowers Resources for Reconciliation, IVP Books, 2010 Professor Emeritus of Old Testament 160 pages, Paperback, $15.00 Cascade Books, 2010 Authors Chris Heuertz, international executive director of World 70 pages, Paperback, $10.00 Made Flesh, and theologian Christine Pohl, professor of social ethics at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, In the wake of excessive evil and inno- Ky., describe how, in our often anonymous and dehuman- cent suffering—the Holocaust, genocide ized world, the simple practice of friendship is radically in Africa, tsunamis, terrorism, countercultural. This series is a collaboration between the earthquakes, and floods—must Divinity School’s Center for Reconciliation and InterVarsity Press. one surrender belief in a good God? The poems in this volume arose from the struggle to answer Hannah’s Child: A Theologian’s Memoir that question with an emphatic “No.” They by STANLEY HAUERWAS exhibit the tension that also exists in the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics Bible where the expression “dust and ashes” Eerdmans, 2010, 288 pages, Hardcover, $24.99 occurs. These poems chronicle the agony A loving, hard-working, godly couple has long been denied a family and ecstasy of one who refuses to abandon of their own. Finally, the wife makes a deal with God: if he belief in God despite much evidence that blesses her with a child, she will dedicate that child to God’s brings it into question. service. Surprisingly, this is not the biblical story of Samuel but the account of Stanley Hauerwas, one of today’s leading theologians in the church and the academy.

spring 2010 33 shelf life

new releases (continued)

Introducing Christian Ethics and the history of the early church, In this appraisal, Byassee contends By Samuel Wells, Research Professor Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, that the “church around the of Christian Ethics and Dean of Duke Frankfurt am Main. Leroy A. corner” occupies a particular Chapel, and Ben Quash Huizenga is assistant professor of New place in the divine economy, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010 Testament, Wheaton College. that it is especially capable 400 pages, Hardcover, $89.95; of forming us in the virtues, Paperback, $44.95 perspectives, and habits that make up The Christian Imagination: the Christian life. As a former pastor Theology and the Origins of a small church, Byassee knows both This comprehensive introduction of Race to the study of Christian the vices and the temptations to which by Willie James Jennings, ethics explores major small churches are subject and the Associate Professor of Theology and ethical approaches from particular graces they’ve been given, Black Church Studies three perspectives: uni- graces like the “prayer ladies,” those Yale University Press, 2010 versal (ethics for anyone); pillars of the congregation who, “when 384 pages, Hardcover, $35.00 subversive (ethics for the excluded); one told you she was praying for you and ecclesial (ethics for the church). In Professor Jennings delves deep it meant something. When one hugged doing so, it highlights the sharp distinc- into the late medieval soil in you, you remembered all week. When tions between ethical approaches that which the modern Christian one cooked for you the casserole are sometimes perceived as antagonis- imagination grew to reveal tasted like love. And when you were tic, while providing a balance between how Christianity’s highly around them you were in the presence description, analysis, and critique. refined process of socializa- of Jesus.” It also shows how ecclesial ethics is tion has inadvertently created and main- respectful of—and indeed, often pro- tained segregated societies. A probing Wesley, Aquinas, and foundly indebted to—other approaches study of the cultural fragmentation— Christian Perfection: An to ethics. social, spatial, and racial—that took root Ecumenical Dialogue in the Western mind, this book shows By Edgardo Colón-Emeric, how Christianity has consistently forged Assistant Research Professor of Reading the Bible Christian nations rather than encourag- Theology and Hispanic Studies Intertextually ing genuine communion between dispa- Baylor University Press, 2009 Edited by Richard B. Hays, G.W. Ivey rate groups and individuals. 330 pages, Hardcover, $49.99 Professor of New Testament, Stefan Using a bold and creative critique to Alkier, and leroy A. Huizenga imagine citizenship that transcends geo- This fresh reading of Thomas Baylor University Press, 2009 political, nationalist, ethnic, and racial Aquinas and John 310 pages, Hardcover, $49.95 boundaries, Jennings suggests new ways Wesley asserts that there is a “spiritual kinship” Reading the Bible Intertextually of imagining ourselves, our communi- between Catholicism and explores the revisionary ties, and the landscapes we inhabit. Methodism. At a time when hermeneutical practices many Methodists struggle to under- of the writers of the four The Gifts of the Small Church stand Catholicism and many Catholics Gospels and the distinc- By Jason Byassee, Director of the know little of Wesley and Methodism, tive ways each tells the Center for Theology, Writing & Media this stimulating work demonstrates story of Jesus through their different Abingdon Press, 2010 how the theologies of perfection of readings of the Old Testament. Stefan 128 pages, Paperback, $14.00 Aquinas and Wesley have significant Alkier is professor of New Testament messages for both groups.

34 Divinity bookings

PROFESSOR SMITH RECOMMENDS… As a church historian, Associate Professor of Historical Books on Tape Theology J. Warren Smith reads about the past for pleasure, Since listening as a boy to my father read as well as professionally, not to escape the present (or, not The Wizard of Oz, I have loved listening to always), but to gain a new perspective by comparing cultures a good story even more than reading one. present and past, ancient and near-modern. Reading that brings a story to life is an art form in itself. Some of the best are:

C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters NonFiction Classics Historical Fiction John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) Five classic works as readable for ama- Nothing compares to the literary license reading: Cleese is “your affectionate teurs as they are provocative for profes- of fiction to give contemporary readers Uncle Screwtape.” sional historians. insight into the past. Homer’s Iliad Africa and the Victorians Imperium Derek Jacobi’s dynamic reading of the by Ronald Robinson and by Robert Harris superb translation by Robert Fagles. John Gallagher The politics of republican Rome An account of how Britain ended up as seen through the eyes of Plato’s Symposium with African colonies that London Cicero’s secretary. www.audible.com never really wanted. Actors assume the parts of Plato’s Gates of Fire famous and infamous interlocutors, Battle Cry of Freedom by Steven Pressfield bringing the philosophical drinking by James McPherson A slave captured by Xerxes at party to life in all its ribaldry The best single volume on the Civil War. Thermopylae gives a penetrating and profundity. account of life in Sparta, Athens’ The Great War and Modern Memory military rival and cultural foil. Classic Just Discovered by Paul Fussell Anthony Trollope’s Phineas Finn World War I in the poetry and prose Fiction explains how to maintain one’s integrity of its literary participants, including Southerners pride themselves on in the world of political compromise. Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, being able to tell a good yarn. Here and others. are two lesser-known, but masterful, Perfect For Church Study Southern storytellers. Rowan Williams’ Where God Happens Broken Lights and Mended Lives: is the most profound book in the amor- Theology and Common Life in Cold Sassy Tree phous category of “spirituality” that I’ve the Early Church by Olive Ann Burns read recently. Using the wisdom of the by Rowan Greer A small town reacts when a prominent desert fathers and mothers, Williams This is the book that got me businessman and churchman marries shows why there cannot be a purely into patristics. a younger woman one month after the private holiness. death of his universally loved wife. Christians As the Romans Saw Them Perennial Favorites by Robert Wilken The Whisper of the River These are the books to which

du k e un iv r s i t y p h o ogr a How Roman intellectuals heard by Ferrol Sams I repeatedly return to raise the the gospel. A child prodigy’s coming-of-age soul: Augustine’s Confessions, story set in a Southern Baptist college Bonaventure’s The Soul’s Journey during the depression. into God, Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov, George Herbert’s Poems, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

spring 2010 35 gifts ...... Class of 2010 More Than Meets Its Match...... he Class of 2010 more than met The stronger the this year’s challenge from the Divinity Annual Fund’s sup- T School’s National Alumni Council. port from graduates The challenge: If 65 percent of seniors and friends, the bet- made a gift to the Annual Fund, the coun- ter equipped Duke cil would respond with a gift of $2,010. Divinity School is to In fact, 68 percent of the senior class support financial aid gave to support financial aid for students for men and women who will enter Duke Divinity School in the called to transform- fall. Combined with the Alumni Council’s ing ministry. And each alumni gift has an Online gifts in any amount may be match, the Class of 2010 boosted the impact measured in more than dollars for made at www.divinity.duke.edu/giving Annual Fund by $2,854. financial aid: every alumni donation raises To learn more about the Annual the school’s percentage of alumni giving. Fund or about options for planned It’s Not Too Late Foundations and others committed to giving, contact Wes Brown, Jami Moss All Annual Fund gifts support the future the best in theological education look Wise, or Betsy Poole at the Divinity leadership of the church by directly provid- to the percentage of alumni giving as a School by calling 919.660.3456. ing student financial aid. Gifts large and measure of graduates’ commitment and small received before June 30, when gratitude to their alma mater, which in the 2009-2010 fiscal year ends, make turn encourages further support. a difference.

At Duke my professors have pushed Hope “ me to do theology in service to the church, and my field ed has shown me how scripture, doctrine, and ethics a future are always about real life ministry. At the end of the day, the beating heart of Duke Divinity is the worship of the Triune God, and it shows in everything we learn. ” jim wallace (sen ior class, Hy lden) J ordan Hylden d ’10 c o u r tes y f k e vi n w rig ht

Give online at www.divinity.duke.edu/giving

The 2009–2010 Annual Fund ends June 30, 2010.

A. 2010.SpringJordan.DivMagad.in136 Divinity 1 &4/7/10 9:47:03 PM [ Giving Back ]

Kevin Wright D’08 by Betsy Poole

“Giving Back” recognizes Kevin Wright, who serves as a “Young Alumnus” on the Divinity School’s Board of Visitors. “I could absolutely not have attended Duke without the generosity of others,” he says. “Now life is about giving back.”

“Everything I have been given is a gift,” says Kevin Wright D’08. “It’s God’s grace.” Born and orphaned in South Korea, Wright is the adopted son of a Chicago Wesleyan minister and a teacher. The youngest of four—two other children were also adopted—Wright says his parents made sure he learned the practicalities of “loving thy neighbor” in a diverse community. As Wright put it in a recent interview with Charlotte Magazine, “If someone’s sick, you take them a casserole. If someone needs a ride, you give it to Kevin Wright, minister of missions at Myers Park UMC in Charlotte, N.C., them. How can you be around that prac- with students (from left) Eleson, Wilter, and Peterson in Bayonnais, Haiti. tice and not have it rub off on you?” Following graduation, Wright joined the work. Duke gave me the theological personally. Dr. Wacker’s kindness deeply Myers Park United Methodist Church in foundation and framework, the contours affected my personal and professional Charlotte, N.C., as minister of missions, in which I could discover myself and what development. I glance at the shelves in a position that involves both a local and it means to be myself in ministry.” my office, and they are filled with books a global focus. He’s worked closely with Wright first sensed his call to ministry from my courses and from recommenda- the city’s Urban Ministry, and led mission in high school, but it was a professor at tions by friends and teachers who said, groups to Liberia, Romania, Costa Rica, Indiana Wesleyan University who insisted ‘This book will change your life!’ These and Haiti. he consider attending Duke. “Todd Ream books are constant reminders of what’s He and a team of 11 volunteers were [D’96], a wonderfully tenacious teacher, been given to me and invested in me. in Haiti when the earthquake struck literally forced the application into my You feel the weight of those gifts, all January 12. The group was safely evacu- hands,” says Wright. Once here, he those people who have believed in you.” ated from the village of Bayonnais, and found an appealing mix of theological As this year’s graduates begin practic- just weeks later Wright returned to the exploration and praxis. ing ministry, Wright advises them to focus devastated island. In the small village of “When I am working with our ministry on humility. Bayonnais, where Myers Park sponsors a partners in Liberia, I am remembering “You may be placed in positions of school, he found 100,000 people strug- my class with Dr. Emmanuel Katongole,” leadership and authority,” he says. “But gling to survive. Myers Park UMC wired says Wright. “When I am faced with the never forget your job is to serve and to emergency funds to its Haitian ministry question, ‘What does it mean to love learn. The minute you think to yourself, partners and, in April, shipped a school my neighbor in Haiti, Brazil, Africa, or ‘Yes, I think I’ve got this under control,’ bus full of supplies. Charlotte?’ I think of Dr. Allen Verhey’s that’s when you will have problems.” c o u r tes y f k e vi n w rig ht “While I do feel overwhelmed at times, I course on the ‘Love Commandment.’” do not feel underequipped,” says Wright. Wright is also quick to acknowledge the Betsy Poole is associate director of “Among my teachers, fellow students, formative friendships he experienced at annual giving and alumni relations. and other Duke alums, I have access to Duke. “Professors Amy Laura Hall and the resources that I need to engage in Grant Wacker were very important to me

spring 2010 37 Faculty & Staff Notes

Abdullah T. Antepli delivered the at The College of William and Mary, Ellen F. Davis gave the key- opening prayer for Williamsburg, Va., Feb. 10. He preached note address at a University of the U.S. House of at Andrews Chapel UMC, Durham, Chicago conference, “The Prophetic Representatives in N.C., Feb. 7; and at Aldersgate UMC, Interpreter,” Feb. 19. She led the Washington, D.C., Durham, for a Lenten service Feb. 24. Clergy Study Day for the Anglican March 3. Antepli He preached and spoke at Mount Olive Episcopal House of Studies March 11, served as guest chap- College March 8–9; and led a daylong on the topic “Prophets and Prophetic lain at the invitation of Congressman retreat on the theme “Praying the Ministry: Biblical and Contemporary David Price, D-N.C. Video of the Psalms with Jesus: How to Praise and Perspectives.” She preached for the event is available at http://news.duke. Lament like God” for the deacons of Evensong service at King’s College, edu/2010/03/houseprayer.html. Watts Street Baptist Church, Durham, Cambridge, April 1 (Maundy Thursday); N.C., Feb. 27. and at Duke Chapel April 11. Tonya D. Armstrong published “Moving the Church to Social Action: Kenneth L. Carder taught on the Mary McClintock Fulkerson pub- Introduction to the Special Issue” topic “Punishment and Grace” at lished the chapter and “Radical Hospitality: Welcoming Union UMC, Irmo, S.C., Feb. 28; and “Feminist Theology” the Stranger” (co-authored with preached at a Lenten celebration for a in Liberation Amelia Roberts-Lewis and Amanda cluster of United Methodist churches Theologies in the Sackreiter, respectively) in Social Work in the Columbia District of the South United States: and Christianity (37.2, Summer 2010). Carolina Conference that evening. He An Introduction, She presented “Embodying Effective preached at Munsey Memorial UMC, edited by Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas Leadership of, for, and with Women” Johnson City, Tenn., March 14; at Amity and Anthony B. Pinn (New York for the AME Supervisors Retreat, UMC, Chapel Hill, where he also led University Press). She participated Cary, N.C., Jan. 14; delivered the key- a seminar on the church and prison on a panel celebrating the work of note address, “Relationship with God ministry, March 21; and for the “Festival feminist theologian Mary Daly at the across the Life Span,” for Reid Temple of God’s Creation” at Duke Memorial Mary Daly Fest, Duke University, AME’s “Strengthening the Black UMC, Durham, where he also shared Feb. 18. She presented “Redemptive Family” conference, Glenn Dale, Md., in the discussion of the Bishops’ Disruptions and the Potential Power Jan. 14–16; and presented “Spiritually- Pastoral Letter on God’s Renewed of Domestic Difference” at the con- Centered Holistic Hospice Care of the Creation, April 25. Carder spoke to the ference “The Household of God and Elderly with Advanced Illness” for the Southeastern Jurisdiction directors of Local Households: Revisiting the Community Home Care and Hospice United Methodist Foundations on the Domestic Church,” organized by the Medical Directors Conference, Myrtle topic “Prophetic Stewardship: Investing Ecclesiological Investigations Research Beach, S.C., March 12. in God’s Justice” at Duke Divinity Network, at the Catholic University School March 18. He preached the ser- of Leuven, Belgium, March 10–13; Jason Byassee published the mon for the Divinity School’s April 22 and was a panel responder at the book Gifts of the Small Church (see Closing Convocation. American Theological Society meeting p. 34), and “Prisons and the Body of on Christology, Princeton Theological Christ: Justice and Grace,” in Books & James L. Crenshaw published Dust Seminary, March 27. She continues to Culture (Jan./Feb. 2010). He presented & Ashes: Poems (Cascade). The volume, co-lead the Pauli Murray Project read- “Leadership as Prophetic Listening” edited by Katherine Lee, is from the ing group at Asbury Temple UMC, at the Mission to Ministers confer- series Art for Faith’s Sake. Crenshaw, Durham, with Leoneda Inge. ence, sponsored by the Finch-Hunt the Robert L. Flowers professor emeri- Institute for Homiletical Studies, tus of Old Testament, is currently writ- Charlotte, N.C., Feb. 2; and delivered ing a commentary on the book of Job. the lecture “Augustine and the Virtues”

38 Divinity Paul J. Griffiths published “The Dallas, Texas, March 7; and the Bishop’s the Wesleyan Tradition” for the three Nature of Desire” in First Things Lecture, “Sacrificing the Sacrifices conferences of The Methodist Church (December 2009); “Pray without of War,” at Birmingham-Southern in Singapore, in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, Ceasing” in Christian Reflection College, Birmingham, Ala., April 13. He April 7–9. (2009); “How My Mind Has Changed” was a panelist at the 2010 conference in The Christian Century (Nov. 3, of the National Association of College L. Gregory Jones published “You’re 2009); a review of Carlos Eire’s A and University Chaplains, “Religious Lonely, I’m Lonely” and “Learning Very Brief History of Eternity in First Pluralism: Engaging Other Religions Curves” in the Jan. 26 and May 18 Things (January 2010); and a review While Valuing One’s Own,” in Durham, issues, respectively, of The Christian of Gary Anderson’s Sin: A History in N.C., Feb. 21–23. Century. He gave the Westminster Commonweal (Jan. 29, 2010). He was Canterbury’s David F. Peters lec- the keynote speaker at the Christian Richard B. Hays published the ture, “Love Made Me an Inventor: Scholarship Seminar “Teaching, book Reading the Bible Intertextually A Christian Vision of Forgiveness, Learning, and Christian Practices” at (see p. 34), and “The Thorny Task of Leadership, and Hope,” in Richmond, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich., Reconciliation” in Studies in Christian Va., Feb. 15; led the workshop Oct. 29–31. He lectured on the subject Ethics (23.1, 2010). He delivered “Traditioned Innovation: Thinking of Augustine on the passions at the the plenary address “The Future of Strategically in the Power of the Spirit” “Faith, Rationality, and the Passions” Scripture” at the annual conference for the United Methodist Holston symposium, sponsored by the John of the Wesleyan Theological Society, Conference in Knoxville, Tenn., Feb. 23; Templeton Foundation, at Wolfson Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, and participated, with other Divinity College, Cambridge, Jan. 11–13; partici- Calif., March 5; “Not a Breach but School faculty, in the Duke-Cambridge pated in a seminar on the interpreta- an Expansion: The Holy Sonnets of Holy Week event in Cambridge, U.K., tion of the Song of Songs with Shalom John Donne” at a Duke Initiatives in March 27–April 3. Jones will begin his Carmy of Yeshiva University at the edi- Theology and the Arts event, Duke new position as Duke University’s vice torial offices of First Things, New York University, March 20; “The Drama president and vice provost for global City, Feb. 2; and spoke under the title of the Passion in the Fourth Gospel” strategy and programs effective July 1. “Desiring the Lord in a Secular Age: at the Duke-Cambridge consultation Discriminating the Senses of ‘Natural’ “The Arts, Scripture, and the Future Emmanuel Katongole presented in ‘Natural Desire’” at a conference on of Theology,” Cambridge University, “Following Jesus secularism and the natural desire to March 30; and “Knowing Jesus: Story, in Africa,” the know God at the Dominican House of History, and Truth” at the 19th Annual featured Lenten Studies, Washington, D.C., Feb. 20. Wheaton Theology Conference, “Jesus, Theology Lecture of Paul, and the People of God,” Wheaton St. Thomas Aquinas Stanley Hauerwas published a College, April 16. Hays preached the University Parish memoir, Hannah’s Child (see p.33), Ash Wednesday sermon, “As Dying, at the University of Arkansas, March and “The Pathos of the University: and See—We Live,” at Goodson 11. At the conference “Nurturing the The Case of Stanley Fish” in Debating Chapel, Duke Divinity School, Feb. 17. Prophetic Imagination,” Point Loma Moral Education: Rethinking the Role Nazarene University, San Diego, Calif., of the Modern University, edited by Richard P. Heitzenrater pub- March 24–27, he presented the open- Elizabeth Kiss and J. Peter Euben lished “Charting the Early Methodist ing keynote address, “A Voice Is Heard: (Duke University Press). He deliv- Pilgrimage: The Journal Letters of The Nature and Shape of the Prophetic ered the 2010 Joseph M. Carr Lecture, Charles Wesley” in a special issue Imagination”; delivered the student “Carving Stone, or Learning to Speak of the Journal of the John Rylands chapel message, “A Revolution of Love: Christian,” at Mt. Union College, University Library of Manchester. He Justice and Peace Have Embraced”; Alliance, Ohio, Feb. 3; “America’s led the quadrennial pastors’ school and participated in three panel discus- God” at the Church of the Incarnation, “Pastoral Formation and Spirituality in sions. Katongole has been promoted

spring 2010 39 Faculty & Staff Notes

to associate professor of theology and Randy Maddox delivered the lec- and Dying, edited by Lucy Bregman world Christianity effective July 1. ture “A Theology of Holistic Salvation: (Praeger); and “Racial and Ethnic Wesleyan Resources for Ministry Disparities in Pain: Causes and Andy Keck contributed “Andy Keck: Today” at Boston University School Consequences of Unequal Care” in The (introverted) church leader” to of Theology in February; served on a Journal of Pain (10.12, December 2009). Faith & Leadership’s Call & Response panel discussing canonical theism at the He delivered the lectures “Management blog and led a Holy Week footwash- Wesleyan Theological Society annual of Advanced Illness: Creating Sacred ing service in the Divinity School’s meeting in March; and offered the key- Spaces of Caring” and “Are You Good Goodson Chapel. note address “The Challenge of Darwin: Enough to Be Lucky? My Story” at the A Wesleyan Perspective” at Seattle Bon Secours Health Center, Richmond, WARREN KINGHORN, whose primary Pacific University in April. Va., Feb. 26; and “Emergency Medicine: appointment is in the Department Pain Management—Ethical and of Psychiatry in the Duke School of JOE MANN has been named an execu- Professional Responsibility in the ED” Medicine, will join the Divinity School tive director with Leadership Education at the NYSORA World Anesthesia faculty July 1 as assistant professor at Duke Divinity, where he will focus on Congress, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, of pastoral and moral theology. Dr. United Methodist strategy and initia- March 11. Kinghorn holds an M.T.S. from the tives, direct Course of Study programs, Divinity School and is currently and provide leadership for Convocation ELIZABETH “BETSY” POOLE has joined completing his dissertation for the & Pastors’ School. He retired recently the Office of External Relations as Th.D. degree. as director of the Rural Church Division associate director of Annual Giving and of The Duke Endowment. Alumni Relations. She served as direc- Richard Lischer contributed tor of the Trinity (Annual) Fund at the “Anointed with Dayna Olson-Getty published Trinity School in Durham before com- Fire: The Structure “On (Not) Praying for a Miracle” in ing to Duke. of Prophecy in the Conspire Magazine (Winter 2010). Sermons of Martin Anathea Portier-Young published Luther King, Jr.” Sujin Pak presented “Calvin, Luther, “Languages of Identity and Obligation: to the Festschrift and the Huguenots” to the Huguenot Daniel as Bilingual Book” in Vetus Our Sufficiency Is of God (Mercer Society of North Carolina at the Testamentum (60.1, 2010). She gave the University Press), a book of essays Carolina Club, Chapel Hill, N.C., April lecture “Apocalypse against the Empire: presented to Gardner C. Taylor at the 3. Pak is the faculty advisor of the Asian Theorizing Early Jewish Apocalypses as Divinity School in February. Professor Theology Group at the Divinity School, Resistance Literature” for the Trends of Lischer helped host the event in con- which recently hosted her father, Dr. Ancient Jewish and Christian Mysticism junction with Beeson Divinity School. David UhnKyu Pak, to give a talk seminar, University of Dayton (Ohio), In March, he gave the Edmunds entitled “Searching for an Indigenous Feb. 5; and presented “Joshua and Holy Lectures at Second Presbyterian Christian Worship in Korea.” Dr. David War” at Watts Street Baptist Church, Church, Roanoke, Va., preached at Pak is the former dean of the theology Durham, N.C., April 18. Palm Sunday service, and made a school and former professor of worship Holy Week presentation to Roanoke- and homiletics at Mokwon University, Peter Storey was among a group area clergy. He also preached twice Taejon, South Korea. of international leaders invited to during Lent in Triangle-area Lutheran join Karen Armstrong in Vevey, congregations. In April, he contrib- Richard Payne published “Paradox Switzerland, to draft the “Charter for uted “Five Books That Have Been of Medical Advances and Inequalities Compassion” (http://charterforcom- Important to My Pastoral Ministry” in Health Care: The African-American passion.org). In 2008, Armstrong’s to The Christian Century. Experience” in Perspectives on Dying proposal for such a charter received and Death, vol. 1 of Religion, Death, the TED Prize of $100,000. A former

40 Divinity Catholic nun, she is the author of Laceye Warner addressed the 2010 Lauren F. Winner addressed the many books on comparative religion, International Forum on Christian International Forum most recently, The Case for God. Higher Education, sponsored by the on Christian Higher Council for Christian Colleges, in Education, sponsored Timothy B. Tyson attended the pre- Atlanta, Ga., in February; the key- by the Coalition for miere of Jeb Stuart’s Blood Done Sign note address, “Witnessing to Christ Christian Colleges My Name, a motion picture based on through Confessing Communities: and Universities, in Tyson’s award-winning 2004 book of Evangelism and the Other,” at February. In March, she spoke on the the same title, at the Pan African Film Hendrix College, Conway, Ark., March politics of Sabbath-keeping at Andrews Festival in Los Angeles Feb. 10. Tyson’s 2; “Witnessing Church: Evangelism University and led a retreat and essay “Civil Rights Meets the Silver in Ecclesial Communities” at the preached at Christ Church (Episcopal) Screen” was published in the Feb. 18 Church World Service meeting, in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. In April, edition of The Wall Street Journal. The Duke Divinity School, March 10; she spoke at the National Episcopal New York Times published an article and “Spreading Scriptural Holiness: Preaching Conference at Kanuga about the book and the movie, “North Retrieving Wesleyan Evangelism” at (Hendersonville, N.C.); led the Diocese Carolina as It Was, Split and Seething,” the Foundation for Evangelism board of N.C. (Episcopal) School for Ministry in the Feb. 14 edition. Mike Wiley’s play meeting, Dayton, Ohio, April 29. She spring retreat at Trinity Center (Salter Blood Done Sign My Name, originally delivered the sermon “Confession Path, N.C.); and gave a lecture in New sponsored by Duke Divinity School and from God’s Perspective” at Hendrix Bern on the history of the church in based on Tyson’s book, appeared at the College chapel March 1; at Asbury early North Carolina. Temple Theater, Sanford, N.C., Feb. 5–7; College, Wilmore, Ky., March 21; and at and at the ImaginOn Theater, Charlotte, Asbury Theological Seminary chapel, Norman Wirzba published “Thanks N.C., Feb. 17. Tyson preached at the Wilmore, Ky., March 22. for the Dirt: Gratitude as the Basis for Chapel Hill, N.C., Martin Luther King Environmental Ethics” in Diversity Day service Jan. 18; and at Greenleaf Jo Bailey Wells preached at and Dominion: Dialogues in Ecology, Christian Church, Goldsboro, N.C., Feb. the ordinations of two Anglican- Ethics, and Theology, edited by Kyle S. 14. He spoke at the North Carolina Episcopal House of Studies alumnae, Van Houtan and Michael S. Northcott NAACP’s “HK on J” rally Feb. 28; Claire Wimbush and Sarah Kerr, in (Wipf & Stock). He made presentations at the Raleigh Human Relations Williamsburg, Va., and St. Petersburg, on food and sustainability for the Mere Commission annual awards banquet Fla., respectively, in January. In Christianity Forum, Furman University, Feb. 11; and at NAACP branches March, she led a Lenten retreat day Feb. 7–8; on the principles of creation across the state during the spring. in Hillsborough, N.C., for the Chapel care for a regional A Rocha meeting, of the Cross (Chapel Hill). Feb. 17; on Sabbath, at a retreat for pas- Geoffrey Wainwright traveled in tors awarded sabbatical grants with the February to Rome to participate in a Sam Wells published Introducing Louisville Institute, Feb. 22–24; and on symposium organized by the Pontifical Christian Ethics with Ben Quash (see Sabbath environmentalism at Mars Hill Council for Promoting Christian Unity p. 34). He was the keynote speaker at College, March 25. Wirzba organized with a view to “harvesting the fruits” the Transformative conference at King’s the April 16–17 biannual meeting of the of four decades of doctrinal dialogues College, London in January; and, in Society for Continental Philosophy and between the Catholic Church and the February, at the Beloved Community Theology, the theme of which was “The Protestant churches. In March, Dr. Symposium at Mercer University, Politics of Peace.” Wainwright took part in several ecu- Macon, Ga.; the annual conference of menical events surrounding the ordina- the National Association of College and Luba Zakharov published “Clyde tion of the new Roman Catholic bishop University Chaplains, in Durham, N.C.; Edgerton: Storytelling and story of Saskatoon, Canada. and the Holy Family (Chapel Hill) listening” in Faith & Leadership, parish retreat at Oak Island, N.C. http://faithandleadership.com

spring 2010 41 class Notes

s riage. She is the founder and execu- Herbert S.L. Zigbuo D’88, a mis- 50 tive director of the Resource Center sionary with the Methodist Church in Daniel Schores D’53 of Sherman, for Women and Ministry in the South, Liberia, continues as the coordinator Texas, was honored recently for his Durham, N.C. for the churches’ vocational training leadership as president of the Texoma unit there. Senior Foundation. Cynthia L. Hale D’79 published I’m a Piece of Work! Sisters Shaped by God Cary McMullen D’89, religion edi- s (Judson Press). Hale is the founder and tor with The Ledger 60 senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian of Lakeland, Fla., Herman E. Thomas D’66, D’69, Church in Decatur, Ga. was at the Divinity who was associated with the A&T School during April Four as a freshman in 1960, received s as a media fellow. He an “Unsung Heroes Award” from N.C. 80 focused on theology and the arts, popu- A&T State University at a celebra- Jason A. Barr Jr. D’83, senior pas- lar religion in parish life, and writing as tion of the 50th Sit-In Movement tor of Macedonia Church of Pittsburgh, a Christian practice. Anniversary in Greensboro, N.C. He Pa., is co-convener of the Black Church taught 31 years at UNC-Charlotte, then D.Min. cohort at Fuller Theological s was vice president for academic affairs Seminary, Pasadena, Calif. He was 90 at Shaw University, Raleigh, N.C., recently inducted into the Martin Shane Stanford D’94 has pub- before retiring in 2009. Luther King Jr. College of Preachers lished A Positive Life: Living with at Morehouse College. HIV as a Pastor, Husband, and Father s (Zondervan, 2010) and You Can’t 70 Sam Hamilton-Poore D’84 Do Everything … So Do Something Charles Terrell D’75 was named published Earth Gospel: A Guide to (Abingdon, 2010). He is senior pas- director of pastoral care at Cape Fear Prayer for God’s Creation (Upper tor of Gulf Breeze United Methodist Valley Health System in Fayetteville, Room, 2010). He and Terry Jo Church, Gulf Breeze, Fla. N.C., in March. Hamilton-Poore D’86 live in Mason City, Iowa, where she is the Greel Myers D’95 and his wife, Brian G. Gentle G’76 serves as pastor of First Presbyterian Church. Carrie, announce the March 2, 2010, executive director of the Academy for birth of Emma Grace, who joined Leadership Excellence for the North Todd Outcalt D’85, a United brothers Grant, 1, and Nolan, 6. The Carolina Conference of the United Methodist pastor in Brownsburg, Ind., family lives in Abilene, Texas, where Methodist Church. has published The Ultimate Christian Greel serves as executive director of Living (Health Communications, 2010). alumni development and major gifts at Vergel Lattimore III D’77 was McMurry University. elected director-at-large to the board Tom Stephenson D’86 is currently of the American Association of pastor of First Christian Church in Karen Albers Lane D’95, D’96 Pastoral Counselors. He is a professor Wilmington, Ohio, after more than 17 and her husband, Joe, announce the of pastoral care and counseling at the years as pastor of Central Christian June 2, 2009, birth of Makayla Marie. Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Church in Columbus, Ga. The Lanes live in Radford, Va., where located in Delaware, Ohio. Karen is a United Methodist pastor Sheldon Sorge G’87 has been and Christian educator. Jeanette Stokes D’77 published elected Pastor to Presbytery for the Hurricane Season: Living through a Pittsburgh Presbytery (PC-USA), Tiffney L. Marley D’96 and her Broken Heart (Words & Spirit, 2008), where he provides spiritual and husband, Randy Jones, announce the a book about the breakup of her mar- administrative leadership. Jan. 11, 2010, birth of twins, Randi

42 Divinity Elaina Marley-Jones and Jesse the YouTube video “In Search of Franklin C. Golden Jr. D’07 and Elliott Marley-Jones. They reside in Thin Places.” his wife, Martha, Hillsborough, N.C., and Tiffney is are the guardians of working part time with First Calvary Lisa M. Bowens D’04, D’05, a Thein Nei Mawi, 14, a Baptist Church in Durham. Ph.D. candidate in refugee from Burma, New Testament at who has joined s Princeton Theological siblings Davis and Lily. Franklin is 00 Seminary, won the the pastor at St. John’s Presbyterian John C. Nugent D’01, professor 2009-2010 Word and Church in Durham, N.C. of Old Testament at Great Lakes World Essay Prize, which includes a Christian College in Lansing, Mich., $1,000 award and publication in the Beverly Markham D’07 was edited Radical Ecumenicity: Pursuing summer edition. ordained on Palm Sunday, March 28, Unity and Continuity after John 2010, at Southminster Presbyterian Howard Yoder (Abilene Christian Laura Autry Dunlap D’05 and her Church (PC-USA), in Garland, Texas. University Press, 2010). husband, T. Judson Dunlap D’01, She has served as pastor there since both United Methodist pastors in the end of January. Jeremy I. Troxler D’02 and his Nashville, N.C., announce the Nov. 22, wife, Margaret, announce the Feb. 2009, arrival of Grace Elizabeth. Arthur Jones D’09 published 8, 2010, birth of Della Sharon. He “Institution vs. Innovation: Can Edgy is director of the Divinity School’s Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove Churches Grow and Thrive within the Thriving Rural Communities program. D’06 has published UMC” in Circuit Rider magazine. He The Troxlers reside in Mebane, N.C. The Wisdom of Stability: is interim director of church relations Rooting Faith in a for ZOE Ministry. Christy Watson Brookshire Mobile Culture D’03 and her husband, Matt, (Paraclete, 2010). Emily Dueitt Kincaid D’09 is the announce the July 7, 2009, birth associate minister at First United of their first child, Anna Ruth, in Deborah Knott Forger D’07 Methodist Church in Wetumpka, Ala., Asheville, N.C., where Christy is a served as a Lilly Endowment resi- overseeing children’s ministry and chaplain at Mission Hospital. dent-in-ministry at First Presbyterian Christian education. She and Brian Church of Ann Arbor, Mich., where Kincaid were married Nov. 21, 2009. Will Schanbacher D’04 published she lives with her husband, Daniel. The Politics of Food: The Global She is a Ph.D. student in Second Got News? Stay in touch with Conflict between Food Security and Temple–period Judaism at the your classmates! Use the postcard Food Sovereignty (Praeger, 2010), University of Michigan. inserted in this issue to share your which was written as his doctoral news, or e-mail [email protected]. dissertation at Claremont Graduate Update info or submit Class Notes online University, Claremont, Calif. at www.divinity.duke.edu/update

Bert Baetz D’05, assistant rector at SHARE YOUR WITNESS St. Mark’s Episcopal The Office of External Relations is developing a multimedia presentation for the Church in Austin, Oct. 11 Alumni Homecoming Luncheon, which follows N.T. Wright’s opening lecture Texas, who builds at Convocation & Pastors’ School. The office welcomes photos highlighting all aspects custom fly rods for his of ministry. Please e-mail photos (with brief captions) to [email protected]. business, Trinity Rods, edu by June 30. Be sure to include your year of graduation. was featured in the December 2009 REGISTERED for convocation & pastors’ school? Space is limited; edition of Texas Episcopalian and in don’t delay. www.divinity.duke.edu/cps/livingwitness/registration.html

spring 2010 43 class Notes

Lenten Confessions by Enuma Okoro

“Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” These words from the Gospel of John, etched boldly across the mirrored rear wall inside Carole Baker’s installation “The Confessional,” confronted visitors to the artist’s Lenten exhibit at Golden Belt Art Studios in downtown Durham, N.C. Once inside the 10-by-12-foot room of mirrors, gallery visitors encountered not just the text but a pile of large, heavy stones placed in the middle of the room. Baker says she hoped the installation, exhibited Feb. 16–March I enjoy the challenge of pushing thoughts to a concrete place 25, would provide “a context where people could be confronted where others can encounter, and join in, the conversation. If the- with the radical nature of forgiveness and the role that confes- ology is a communal task, then art is another means of participa- sion plays in that. tion in that task.” “I chose to create a room of mirrors because I envisioned a “The Confessional” was made possible by grants and donations space big enough for people to catch their multiple reflections from Duke Divinity’s Center for Reconciliation, Duke Chapel, and simultaneously,” she says. “There is an interconnectedness of individuals who contributed to the project. The labor for construc- sin and confession. The act of confession is one that has to be tion and some materials also were donated. Baker dreams about practiced to be at peace with ourselves and with others.” an eventual renewal of the tradition of patronage, in which faith What has always interested Baker most about the narrative of Jesus communities acknowledge that artists and their gifts are a crucial and the adulterous woman is the radical nature of his response. part of helping the church live into, experience, and embody the “Jesus knows the law and that the leaders are testing him to kingdom of God. Until then she continues to juggle her impulse to see if he will contradict it,” Baker says. “But he neither con- create art and her full-time roles as a research associate at Duke demns nor condones the woman, or her accusers. His response Divinity School and the mother of two young children. opens up this space where all are given the opportunity to reflect For her next project Baker plans to create a contemporary inter- and, hopefully, repent. pretation of a bestiary, a medieval catalogue of real and fictitious “I wanted to prompt the question, ‘If I were to pick up a stone, animals that served allegorical purposes. Her modern catalogue at whom would I be throwing it?’ Confession is choosing not to will include animals that are endangered, extinct, or artificially cre- pick up a stone and throw it at the mirror.” ated in labs. She hopes to accompany the images with theological Baker recognizes that the installation can be interpreted liter- reflections about the relationship between God and humanity and ally, as the cautionary maxim “People who live in glass houses humanity’s relationship to the rest of God’s creation. shouldn’t throw stones.” But that’s part of the point. She aimed for “a degree to which the work had to be accessible to the gen- Enuma Okoro D’03 writes from Raleigh, N.C. Her forthcom- eral public, while providing enough complexity to prompt people ing memoir, Reluctant Pilgrim: A Moody, Somewhat Self-Indulgent, to think, reflect, and question themselves in new ways.” Borderline Introvert’s Search for Spiritual Community, is scheduled Baker holds a B.A. in religious studies from Trevecca Nazarene for release in October 2010 with UpperRoom Books. She blogs at University and earned her M.T.S. at Duke in 2004. The pivotal http://reluctantpilgrim.wordpress.com point in her decision to become an artist came in an icon the- c o u r tes y f ca ro le b a k e ology class with Geoffrey Wainwright, Cushman professor of Christian theology. on the web “It affirmed my intuition that theology can be, and has been, expressed through material means in the history of the church. To learn more about Carole Baker’s art, visit www.carolebakerartist.com

44 Divinity

deaths

Howard Chadwick D’42 died Nov. Angeles, Calif. He had traveled to all 50 states the Duke Divinity School Alumni Association. He 11, 2009, in Charlotte, N.C. He served Moravian and to 48 countries. He is survived by his wife of is survived by his wife, Shirley S. Kyle, two sons, congregations during the first seven years of his 50 years, Jean Buckner Bennett. and three grandchildren. ministerial career, then Presbyterian parishes in Charlotte, Kansas City, Mo., and Orlando, Fla., Margaret P. Gandy D’60 died April David L. Blackwelder D’70 died during the next 30 years. He was founder and 8, 2010, in Tampa, Fla. She was a Christian Jan.13, 2010, in Millsboro, Del. He was a pastor executive director of the Outreach Foundation for educator in United Methodist parishes in North in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, international missions in the Presbyterian Church, Carolina and Alabama, an executive director with serving parishes over many years in Delaware U.S.A. He is survived by two sons, who are both the Girl Scouts in Florida, and, in retirement, a and Maryland. For 14 years he was a pastoral pastors, a daughter, and six grandchildren. beloved high school guidance counselor. Her counselor, clinical supervisor, and program husband of 50 years, William F. “Bill” director at Tressler Lutheran Services in Newport. Theodore E. “Ted” Perkins D’46 Gandy D’59, two children, four grandchildren, He was active in synod leadership, particularly died Jan. 14, 2010, in Greensboro, N.C. He was and a great-granddaughter survive her. with social service ministry, vocations, and a minister of the gospel in the Religious Society pastoral care. He is survived by his wife, of Friends who served as pastor with 10 different Henry W. Bray D’63 died Feb. Theda D. Blackwelder, four children, and meetings, as a public school teacher, and as a 23, 2010, in Burlington, N.C. He was a five grandchildren. librarian, including 21 years of service at Elon Congregational Christian pastor who served University. He was active in Quaker leadership churches across North Carolina, and a member John C. Mott D’70 died July 7, 2009, throughout his life, and was especially known of the steering committee that guided mergers in Wrightsville Beach, N.C. He was an as an expert historian and genealogist. He had to form the United Church of Christ. He was an Episcopal priest, and he is survived by his attended every North Carolina Yearly Meeting active Civitan and an advisory board member at wife, Myrtle A. Mott. session, except one, since 1939. He enjoyed vol- Elon College. His wife, Jolene C. Bray, and two unteer service and gardening in retirement. His children survive him. Miriam Walsh D’73 died Dec. 3, 2009, wife of 64 years, Eugenia Mae Echerd Perkins, in Baltimore, Md. She was a member of the order a daughter, two sons, seven grandchildren, and H. Lawrence “Larry” Bond D’61, of the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart in five great-grandchildren survive him. G’67 died Nov. 17, 2009, in Boone, N.C. Towson, Md. Two brothers, two sisters, and the He was a professor of Renaissance history at sisters of the MHSH community survive her. H. Kyle Nagel D’52 died Nov.18, 2009, Appalachian State University for 37 years. He in Houston, Texas. He served United Methodist was the pastor of the Linville Falls Community H.W. “Hobie” Burnside D’77 died churches in the Southwest Texas Conference, Church for 26 years, and was ordained in the Jan. 11, 2010, in Smithfield, N.C. He served as and later as a Unitarian Universalist pastor in Western North Carolina Conference of the United a pastor of United Methodist churches in West Massachusetts and ministerial superintendent Methodist Church. A proud member of the Virginia and North Carolina, preaching for more of the UU Convention of North Carolina. He was a American Cusanus Society and one of the world’s than 50 years. He is survived by his wife, Mary Mason, a Knight Templar, and a Shriner for more foremost translators of ancient Latin texts, he Jane Burnside, four children, nine grandchildren, than 50 years. He is survived by his wife, Barbara spoke and wrote in 13 languages. He was a and a great-granddaughter. Ann Dulany Nagel, a son, and four grandchildren. friend to the homeless and downtrodden, and an advocate for civil rights. Two daughters and Virginia L. “Ginny” Carlisle D’89 E. Fay Bennett D’54 died Nov. 9, 2009, two grandchildren survive him. died Dec. 23, 2009, in Springfield, Ohio. Her first in Lamar, Ark. He started the Baylake Pines career was in nursing and career counseling. Methodist Church at Norfolk, Va., served as a William R. Kyle Jr. D’67 died Feb. 10, Following graduation from Duke Divinity School, missionary in Mexico 10 years, and four years in 2010, while vacationing in Sydney, Australia. she was an associate pastor with the Miami the Dominican Republic. A professor at Columbia He retired in Williamsburg,Va., following a long (Ohio) Presbytery and a campus minister at Clark Bible College in Columbia, S.C., he was formerly career as a United Methodist pastor serving par- State Community College. Three sons and eight principal of Maria Christian School in Los ishes across Virginia. He was a past president of grandchildren survive her.

spring 2010 45 ministry at large

‘Jesus Will Find Us ...’ By Jamalyn Peigh Williamson D’03

Editor’s Note On Monday, Jan. 11, 2010, the day before Haiti’s devastating earth- it is the second coming, then Jesus will quake, Jamalyn Peigh Williamson and eight other United Methodist volunteers boarded a find us there?” flight in Miami for what was to be a weeklong visit at the Fatima Orphanage in the village As we climbed back to the road in of Fondwa. Williamson and her husband, Dave D’01, served as missionaries there from the dwindling light, we saw destruc- 2003 to 2005 for Family Health Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit in Durham, N.C. tion everywhere: one house after another lay crumbled. The guesthouse, eyes. I imagine they saw the same in which had been the centerpiece of A fter spending most our eyes, too. the Fondwa community, along with its I heard screaming, and then saw the medical clinic, meeting rooms, Internet of our first day work- wall surrounding the orphanage col- café, radio station, and co-op bank, ing in Fondwa at the St. lapse, sliding down the hillside away had collapsed into rubble. By the grace Antoine School, our mis- from the house. In a split second, the of God, all of our team members had children had disappeared in the same managed to get out safely. I found them sion team returned to direction. My initial thought was that on the road, unharmed physically, but the guesthouse to clean they had fallen off the mountain cliff. emotionally in shock. The 35 seconds that the initial shaking The masons working at the school, up and prepare for din- lasted felt like hours. Finally, someone whom we had talked with earlier in ner. Then, a little after 4 shouted, “It’s an earthquake!” the afternoon, were not as lucky. One p.m., four of us decided After the shaking ceased, I managed had gone home before the earthquake to stand up and run down the last few hit, but two others were killed as the to visit the children at the steps toward the house. As I went, I school crumbled. The fourth worker orphanage before dark. sent the children—hysterical or star- was pulled from the rubble with a bro- ing in disbelief—to sit with my friends ken clavicle, arm, and leg. Sister Oudel The orphanage sits at the bottom of on the path. I was desperate to find and 18-month-old Jude, one of the a narrow, steep, winding path. As you the babies, who usually napped in the orphanage children in her care, died in descend the path, the children can see house at this time of day. Miraculously, the section of the guesthouse that col- you approaching, and, normally, they the orphanage had not collapsed, and lapsed first. run to the gate to help you down the after a quick look inside, I found the Soon it was completely dark. Around last part of the descent. This is where we youngest children safe in the backyard 40 of us gathered on the side of the were standing, just a few steps from the with the older girls. road, which we hoped would be a safe children, when the earthquake struck. These young women were wailing place to spend the night. With us were As the children raced to greet us, we and waving their arms, shouting, “Jesu! families who had lost their homes and were waving and calling, “Bonswa,” Jesu!” The aftershocks had begun, those who feared their houses would Kreyol for “Good afternoon,” when and although the orphanage was still collapse during the aftershocks. We the ground began to shake. Not just a standing, I wasn’t sure that it wouldn’t were refugees—no water, food, shelter, c o u r tes y f j a m al n w i ll s little, but to the point that everything collapse at any moment. Finally, I told or blankets. Our group was blessed to blurred, and I was knocked off my the girls, “I don’t know for sure if this have a mat where the 10 of us crowded feet. I looked down at the children—a is the second coming, but it may also together in an effort to stay warm and stone’s throw away—and saw expres- be an earthquake. Why don’t we go up to get some sleep. sions of fear and confusion in their to the main road where it is safe, and if After a night of frightening after-

46 Divinity Dave and Jamalyn Williamson, holding their daughter Margaret, with friends at Fatima Orphanage in 2007; the damaged guesthouse following the earthquake; Jamalyn with children in Fondwa in 2004.

shocks, the sun rose and I saw everything for the first time. In just 35 seconds, the earthquake had changed everything. The school was completely crumbled—or “broken,” as the Kreyol word for the damage translates literally. One house after another—broken. And yet, I never felt that the spirit of the Haitians had been broken. Yes, they were shattered as they learned of the deaths of loved ones. Yes, they were in disbelief that all they had worked for was gone. But their spirit was not broken. Throughout the night, the families around us had called out in prayer, asking God to strengthen their faith and help them endure the days to come. What I never heard was “Why?” What I did hear was “Selman Bondye Konnen”—“Only God knows.” On Wednesday afternoon, as I wit- nessed the return from Port-au-Prince of Sisters Simone and Carmelle to find but God helped me go just a little bit well. It was the most beautiful singing I their beloved Oudel and Jude dead, further. And so, on Thursday morning, have ever heard. It is not the children’s I decided that I could not handle any I led prayers of comfort for the com- cries of distress that haunt me, but their more heartbreak. For six years I had munity on behalf of the Lord. God’s songs of blessing that stay with me, and worked with these leaders of the order grace overwhelmed me in a way I had call me back. and others in Fondwa—all people never felt. I physically felt the prayers whom I considered close friends—as of the thousands of people who were Jamalyn and Dave Williamson we tried to build a better future. Now, praying for us. serve at St. Luke’s United Methodist it all lay in rubble. The sisters’ cries and After that service, leaving Haiti for Church in Indianapolis, Ind., where they moans represented what I felt, but was good was not an option; it was too live with their two children, Margaret, 4, unable to express. Once I left Haiti this late for that. I had given the people in and Nathan, 21 months. Jamalyn returned time, I told myself, I would not return. Fondwa my heart, and they had given to Haiti May 3–7 to meet with engineers c o u r tes y f j a m al n w i ll s Then Sister Carmelle turned to me theirs. On Friday, we rose before assessing damage at St. Antoine School me and said, “Jamalyn, we have no dawn to begin our hike out of the val- and the Fatima Orphanage, which Family priest here, so you will be our priest. ley to the highway, where we would Health Ministries has committed to Tomorrow you will do the funeral for begin the next step of this journey. rebuild. For more information, visit Oudel and Jude.” Our departure was at 5 a.m., but the www.familyhm.org I was nearing the end of my rope, children rose to sing to us and wish us

spring 2010 47 financial planner

‘What’s in Your Wallet?’

by James G. Mentzer D’99

hat’s in your wallet? Fifty credit card rate based on payment with the highest interest rate. years ago, the answer to this records with other, unrelated credit One of the biggest changes Wquestion would be cash or issuers—will cease for existing credit applies to credit card issuance to pictures of the grandchildren. Today, card balances. And if a cardholder students. Consumers under age 21 most people would answer, “Plastic.” does trigger a higher default interest who cannot prove an independent According to the Federal Reserve rate due to late payment, after August means of income or provide the Bank of Boston, Americans carry on 22 of this year, the bank must restore signature of a co-signer older than average four credit cards and cur- the lower rate once the cardholder 21 will no longer be approved for rently owe more than $900 billion to demonstrates six months of consecu- a credit card, making it less likely that lending institutions. tive on-time payments. banks will offer free pizza on campus as In good financial times, these However, lending institutions can an enticement to sign up for one. numbers would be sobering. In the still raise rates at any time for any rea- The most noticeable change, though, harsh economic climate of the last 30 son on new balances with only 45 days will be on your monthly statement. months, such debt levels can paralyze. advance notice. This means cardhold- Banks are now required to disclose how And to make matters worse, credit ers will still need to read correspon- long it will take to pay off current credit card issuers have increasingly turned dence from their creditors. card balances if cardholders make to revolving credit lines to enhance Another key provision deals with only minimum payments each month. sagging corporate profits. New fees over-limit fees. Cardholders will no Further, issuers must provide informa- for consumer credit programs are longer be charged such penalties unless tion about how much cardholders will announced daily, while the average they elect to allow transactions that have to pay each month if they wish to interest rates for standard bank credit exceed their credit limits to go through pay off their balance in 36 months. cards have topped 19 percent. rather than be denied. And payments The Credit CARD Act brings needed Key provisions of the national received by the due date—or the next changes to deceiving credit card mar- Credit Card Accountability, business day if the bank doesn’t accept keting practices and outrageous fee Responsibility, and Disclosure mailed payments on the due date—will structures. However, it does not do (CARD) Act, which went into effect no longer trigger a late fee. away with the need for common sense: in February, seek to improve con- Unfair billing practices have also consumers will still need to live within sumer disclosures regarding credit come under review. The new law bans their means and pay what they owe. card interest rates and billing sched- double-cycle billing—the practice of That part of the equation will never ules, while ending the more offensive basing finance charges on both the change. If credit card debt remains a industry practices involving credit current and previous balances. Under problem in spite of this new legislation, cards. The act stops short, however, of this calculation method, banks could then “plastic surgery,” cutting up one’s capping interest rates and fees. charge interest on debt already paid cards, may be the only solution. For example, credit card issuers off the previous month. may no longer arbitrarily raise inter- Fairer payment allocations are also James G. Mentzer, CLU, ChFC, has est rates on existing balances unless a provided in this legislation. No longer been a financial planner since 1986. promotional rate has expired, a vari- can banks apply above-the-minimum He is currently direc- able indexed rate has increased, or a payments to lower-interest-rate bal- tor of planned giving for payment was received more than 60 ances first. The Credit CARD Act the United Methodist days late. This means that the practice requires that excess payments be Foundation of Raleigh, N.C. of “universal default”—raising one’s applied first to the credit card balance

48 Divinity end quotes

What Is Reconciliation? “Reconciliation is not an event or achievement but a journey that forms the fruits of the Holy Spirit in us—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control. Grace insists that segregation in the intimate places of our lives is not normal, inevitable, or acceptable—and that reconciliation is beautiful.” Chris Rice, co-director of the Duke Center for Reconciliation, in a March 26, 2010, essay in Christianity Today

New Film, Old Politics “We’re a long way from finished with the politics of black and white. We need to turn to each other and lean on each other. I think this film will be useful to people so they can see how to organize our public life to create a richer, stronger, more vibrant democratic society.” Timothy Tyson, visiting professor of American Christianity and Southern culture, quoted in the Feb. 24, 2010, issue of The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer about the release of the film version of his memoir, Blood Done Sign My Name Occasional Vegetarian “There’s no doubt about it—he followed a vegetarian diet from time to time. He never made that a requirement, and it wasn’t his consistent practice.” Randy Maddox, William Kellon Quick professor of theology and Methodist studies, on John Wesley as an occasional vegetarian, quoted Jan. 21, 2010, by United Methodist News Service Tribalism and Injustice “I think one of the most important things Rwanda has to teach us is that the tribalism that made the genocide possible in that country is just as great a risk in the West as it is in Africa. Wherever the blood of tribalism is allowed to flow more deeply than the waters of baptism, terrible injustices will arise.” Emmanuel Katongole, associate research professor of theology and world Christianity, quoted on forgiveness and the Rwandan genocide in the January/February 2010 issue of Prism magazine One Big Church “The interesting question is, have we hit a plateau or are we going to continue to see that [concentra- tion of worshippers into larger churches] increase? It can’t go on forever—we can’t all wind up in one big church.” Mark Chaves, professor of sociology, religion, and divinity, quoted in the Jan. 2, 2010, issue of The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.) on the continuing growth of the country’s largest churches

spring 2010 49 Divinity Magazine Non-Profit Org U.S. Postage Duke Divinity School PAID Box 90966 Durham, NC Durham, North Carolina 27708-0966 Permit No. 60 www.divinity.duke.edu

2010 Convocation & Pastors’ School October 11-12, 2010 • Duke Divinity School

The Living Witness: Tradition, Innovation, and the Church

How do we stay grounded in the Christian tradition and our vocation in this age of social networking and other rapidly evolving technologies? Join us this fall as we explore the future of Christian witness to God’s unfolding reign in the world with Duke Divinity School faculty and

Bishop N.T. Wright Andy Crouch Rob Bell Bishop Vashti McKenzie

For more information and online registration visit www.divinity.duke.edu/cps/livingwitness