Office of the Chaplain
The Office of the Chaplain provides spiritual support to the Divinity School community through pastoral care and community worship. Contact the Office of the Chaplain at (919) 660-3459.
Pastoral Care
The life of a student (both residential and hybrid) can be filled with a variety of anxieties, stresses, and hardships. The chaplain is available to be a source of encouragement and advisement (or simply a listening ear) to students in a variety of areas, including spiritual concerns, vocational discernment, and anxieties about school, family, or relationships. Chaplain support ranges from crisis intervention and assistance navigating institutional structures to one-on-one meetings that are focused on spiritual development and care. The chaplain also maintains a list of spiritual directors and therapists (many with theological training) in order to make referrals as necessary. Students may drop by the chaplain’s office or make an appointment for in-person or virtual appointments.
Community Worship
Community worship is a vibrant part of the Divinity School’s life together—a gift of both pause and space to encounter and serve the Triune God. The community gathers at midday on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for an array of services that include faculty, staff, and student preaching, weekly Communion, and expressions of prayer, praise, and contemplation. There are a range of musical traditions represented and celebrated within Goodson Chapel worship, including traditional hymnody, global music, contemporary Christian music, and gospel music, as well as a variety of liturgical practices—from gospel processions with incense to charismatic/extemporized prayer and song.
The chaplain plans worship with a team of students and staff under the canopy of the associate dean for vocational formation. Students, faculty, and staff share in the leadership of the services, and student groups collaborate with the advisement of the chaplain’s office to plan worship services that mark events in houses of study as well as church, academic, and cultural calendars.
As an act of hospitality and ecumenism, Goodson Chapel also hosts daily morning prayer and weekly Eucharist services by the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies, weekly masses and liturgies led by the Duke Catholic Center, as well as ceremonies for the wider University and Health System, and other Durham-based groups.
The Divinity School enjoys a particularly close relationship with Duke Chapel. Duke Divinity School administrators and faculty are often among the guest preachers at Sunday morning worship services in Duke Chapel. Divinity School students have the opportunity to participate in chapel worship, either by reading scripture, serving communion, or singing in one of the Chapel choirs, which provide choral leadership for the chapel’s weekly services, as well as special music programs throughout the academic year, including an annual Advent performance of Handel’s Messiah and a spring performance.