Duke Chapel Guest Preachers 2022–2023

Spring 2023

January 1

The Rt. Rev. Anne Elliott Hodges-Copple is the bishop suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. She is the Diocese's sixth bishop suffragan and its first female bishop; she was consecrated bishop in a service in Duke Chapel in 2013. A graduate of Duke University, Bishop Hodges-Copple focuses on campus and young adult ministries, racial justice and reconciliation, the ordination process for deacons, global partnerships for mission, interfaith collaborations, and the pastoral care of retired clergy. In her work beyond the Diocese of North Carolina, she has led pilgrimages to the Holy Land and served in a number of leadership roles for the national Episcopal Church’s executive council and general conventions. Before being consecrated as a bishop, she served in the Diocese of North Carolina as a parish priest and as campus minister for the Duke Episcopal Center. Photo courtesy of Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.

January 15

The Rev. Dr. Gary V. Simpson is the leading pastor of the Concord Baptist Church of Christ in Brooklyn, New York, where he has served since 1990. Under his leadership, Concord Baptist was one of a handful of churches across the country serving as a teaching congregation for pastors through a pastoral residency program supported by the Lilly Endowment. In addition to his pastoral role, he is also an associate professor of homiletics at Drew Theological Seminary. He has also taught and lectured at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, Harvard Divinity School, Yale Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Candler School of Theology. He has served on the leadership boards of Denison University, the National Grid Foundation, the Association of Theological Schools, and the American Baptist Home Missionary Society. He currently chairs the Ordination Council of the American Baptist Churches—Metro New York.

February 5    

The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor is a best-selling author, teacher, and Episcopal priest. Her first memoir, Leaving Church, won an Author of the Year award from the Georgia Writers Association in 2006. Her next three books earned places on the New York Times bestseller list. Rev. Taylor has served on the faculties of Piedmont College, Emory University, Mercer University, Columbia Seminary, Oblate School of Theology, and the Certificate in Theological Studies program at Arrendale State Prison for Women in Alto, Georgia. Her latest book, Always a Guest, was released in October 2020 from Westminster John Knox Press. She was named to the TIME 100 list of Most Influential People in 2014 and has also been awarded Georgia Woman of the Year and the Emory Medal from Emory University, among many other distinctions and honorary degrees. Photo by Kenny Simmons.

February 19

The Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings is associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale University Divinity School. A graduate of Duke University, Dr. Jennings is a systematic theologian who teaches in the areas of theology, black church, and Africana studies, as well as post-colonial and race theory. The author of a number of books, he wrote The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, which has become a standard text read in colleges, seminaries, and universities. He is the recipient of the 2015 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his groundbreaking work on race and Christianity. His recently authored commentary on the Book of Acts won the Reference Book of the Year Award from The Academy of Parish Clergy. He is also the author of After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, which won the 2020 book of the year award from Publisher’s Weekly and was selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in the Constructive-Reflective Studies category. In addition to being a frequent lecturer at colleges, universities, and seminaries, Dr. Jennings is also a regular workshop leader at pastor conferences.

March 5

For this Sunday service, an undergraduate student will be selected to be this year’s Student Preacher.

March 26

After pastoring local churches for nearly thirty years, the Rev. Eugene Cho is now president and CEO of Bread for the World, a collective Christian voice including individuals, churches, non-profits, and other partners, who work together to urge our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and around the world by changing the policies and programs that allow hunger to persist. Rev. Cho’s passions involve leadership, justice, the intersection of faith and public life, and the pursuit of God’s Kingdom here on this earth. He travels throughout the world to encourage churches and nonprofits, pastors and leaders, missionaries, and justice workers. He is also the founder and visionary of One Day’s Wages (ODW), a grassroots movement of people, stories, and actions to alleviate extreme global poverty. The vision of ODW is to create a collaborative movement that promotes awareness, invites simple giving (one day’s wages), and supports sustainable relief through partnerships, especially with small organizations in developing regions.

April 2 (Palm Sunday)

The Rev. Dr. Sam Wells is vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, a unique configuration of commercial, cultural, and charitable initiatives rooted in a vibrant congregational life. He is also a widely known preacher, pastor, writer, broadcaster, and theologian. He co-founded the HeartEdge movement and co-authored the Being With course. He has served as a Church of England parish priest for twenty-five years. He also served for seven years as dean of Duke University Chapel. Rev. Dr. Wells is a visiting professor of Christian ethics at King’s College London. He has published forty-four books, including academic studies and textbooks in Christian ethics, and explorations of liturgy, preaching, faith, welfare, apologetics, and mission. Among his most recent books is Humbler Faith, Bigger God.

April 6 (Maundy Thursday)

Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

The Rev. Meghan Feldmeyer Benson is the chaplain of Duke Divinity School. Originally from Colorado, Chaplain Benson is an ordained elder in the Mountain Sky Conference of the United Methodist Church. She has degrees in religious studies and psychology from Southern Methodist University and an M.Div. from Duke Divinity School. Prior to becoming chaplain, she worked for nine years as director of worship at Duke Chapel, having previously served as the executive assistant to Duke’s CIO.

April 7 (Good Friday Stations of the Cross)

Friday at 11:30 a.m.

The Rev. Gloria Winston is the executive director of the Wesley Campus Ministry at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). She has over thirty years of professional experience providing pastoral care, grief and trauma-informed ministry, spiritual formation, and mentoring to individuals and special needs groups. A graduate of Duke Divinity School, Rev. Winston is an ordained elder in the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC). As a minister, she has served as a college chaplain, hospital chaplain, mentor for ministry candidates, and lead pastor of several local churches. She currently serves as the spiritual formation director for Faith Matters Network and is also on the national board of the Association of Chaplaincy in Spiritual Life and Higher Education. She previously worked as the director of NCCU’s Office of Spiritual Development and Dialogue. She has received a number of awards, including the Outstanding Leadership Award from Strengthening the Black Family, the Anne McDougall Memorial Award for Women’s Studies from Duke Divinity School, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce Heroic Valor Award, the North Carolina Crime Commission’s Outstanding Crime Prevention Award, and the Community Collaborator Award from NCCU Division of Student Affairs. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry in Transformative Leadership with a concentration in Peace Building and Interfaith Dialogue at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School.

April 9 (Easter Sunrise)

Sunday at 6:30 a.m. in Duke Gardens (weather permitting)

The Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric is dean of Duke Divinity School, Irene and William McCutchen Associate Professor of Reconciliation and Theology, and director of the Center for Reconciliation. Dean Colón-Emeric’s work explores the intersection of Methodist and Catholic theologies, and Wesleyan and Latin American experiences. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he was the first Latino to be ordained as an elder in the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church and was founding pastor of Cristo Vive United Methodist Church in Durham. He became founding director of the Hispanic House of Studies at Duke Divinity School in 2007 and joined the Divinity School faculty in 2008. Since 2010, he has served as the director of Central American Methodist Course of Study, which trains Methodist pastors who have not earned a formal master of divinity degree in such places as El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. He is also director of the Duke-Peru Theological Initiative, a partnership between the Methodist Church of Peru and Duke Divinity School. He became director of the Center for Reconciliation in 2018. Dean Colón-Emeric serves on the United Methodist Committee on Faith and Order and on both national and international Methodist-Catholic dialogues. He is the author of Wesley, Aquinas, and Christian Perfection: An Ecumenical Dialogue, which received the 2008 “Aquinas Dissertation Prize Winner” from the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal at Ave Maria University and Óscar Romero’s Theological Vision: Liberation and the Transfiguration of the Poor, which received first place in the 2019 Catholic Press Association award for books about newly canonized saints.

April 23

The Rev. Dr. Sarah Jobe is a prison chaplain at North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women through Arise Collective. She also co-directs Duke Divinity School's Prison Studies Program and the Prison Engagement Initiative at the Kenan Institute for Ethics. An ordained Baptist minister, Rev. Dr. Jobe has served on a nationwide study through the Association of Theological Schools and a statewide NCDPS Commission on Post-Secondary Education in Prison; both commissions are dedicated to advancing opportunities for incarcerated people to pursue their educational goals. She served on the Advisory Committee of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and the Professional Advisory Group of the Clinical Pastoral Education Program at the Durham Veterans Affairs. She is the author of Creating with God: The Holy Confusing Blessedness of Pregnancy. She is a graduate of Duke Divinity School, having earned master of divinity and doctoral degrees from the school.

May 7

The Rev. Dr. Curtis W. Freeman is a research professor of theology and Baptist studies and director of the Baptist House of Studies at Duke Divinity School. His research and teaching explore areas of Free Church theology. His most recent book is Pilgrim Letters: Instruction in the Basic Teaching of Christ, and his book Pilgrim Journey: Instruction in the Mystery of the Gospel is set for publication in fall 2023. His earlier books include Undomesticated Dissent: Democracy and the Public Virtue of Religious Noncomformity, Contesting Catholicity: Theology for Other Baptists, A Company of Women Preachers: Baptist Prophetesses in Seventeenth-Century England, and Baptist Roots: A Reader in the Theology of a Christian People. He is an ordained Baptist minister and serves as editor of the American Baptist Quarterly and serves on the Baptist World Alliance Commission on Doctrine and Christian Unity.

Fall 2022

October 9

Bishop Peter Storey is the Ruth W. and A. Morris Williams Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Christian Ministry at Duke Divinity School. In the 1960s, Professor Storey was chaplain to Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners on Robben Island. Later, he and the then Bishop Desmond Tutu led the South African Council of Churches in the church struggle against the apartheid regime. In the 1980s, he was presiding bishop of the nation’s two million Methodists. Soon after, he became chairperson of the National Peace Accord intervening in political violence in his region and after liberation was involved in the selection of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. His memoir, titled Protest at Midnight: Ministry to a Nation Torn Apart, was published this year in the United States.

October 23

The Rev. Dr. Karoline M. Lewis is the Marbury E. Anderson Chair in Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota, where she has taught since 2007. Rev. Dr. Lewis is the author of A Lay Preacher’s Guide: How to Craft a Faithful Sermon; Embody: Five Steps to Leading With Integrity; SHE: Five Keys to Unlock the Power of Women in Ministry; and John: Fortress Biblical Preaching Commentaries, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Her forthcoming book is Belonging: Five Keys to Unlocking Your Potential as a Disciple. She was one of the 100 religious scholars in the United States to be a part of the Values and Voices Campaign 2016 and again in 2021. Ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Rev. Dr. Lewis holds degrees from Northwestern University (B.A.), Luther Seminary (M.Div.), and Emory University (Ph.D., New Testament Studies and Homiletics). She is the Program Director for the Festival of Homiletics, a contributing writer for Working Preacher, and co-host of the site's weekly podcast, Sermon Brainwave. She leads conferences, workshops, and retreats internationally on the Gospel of John, the New Testament, interpreting the Bible, preaching, leadership, and women in ministry. Learn more about her ministry on her website.

October 30

Dr. J. Ross Wagner is an associate professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School. Specializing in Paul’s letters and in Septuagint studies, Professor Wagner seeks to contribute to the recovery of theological exegesis through careful investigation of the ways scriptural interpretation shaped early Jewish and Christian communities. His publications include Heralds of the Good News: Paul and Isaiah in Concert in the Letter to the Romans, Between Gospel and Election: Explorations in the Interpretation of Romans 9–11 (co-edited with Florian Wilk) and, most recently, Reading the Sealed Book: Old Greek Isaiah and the Problem of Septuagint Hermeneutics. His current project, a book-length treatment of the Old Testament in the New, aims to show that theological reflection on the meaning of Jesus’ life has, from the very beginning, required Christian interpreters to wrestle with the textual and linguistic plurality of the scriptures in their witness to God’s actions in Jesus the Messiah. Professor Wagner serves on the editorial boards of The Catholic Biblical Quarterly, The Journal of Theological Interpretation, and Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. An Anglican priest, he serves as volunteer clergy at All Saints Church in Durham and takes an active part in the Divinity School’s Anglican-Episcopal House of Studies.

November 13

Lisa Sharon Harper is the founder and president of Freedom Road, a consulting group that crafts experiences that bring common understanding and common commitments that lead to common action toward a more just world. Ms. Harper is a public theologian whose writing, speaking, activism, and training has sparked and fed the fires of re-formation in the church from Ferguson and Charlottesville to South Africa, Brazil, Australia, and Ireland. She is the author of several books, including Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican...or Democrat; Left Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics; Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith. Her book The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right was named 2016 “Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books. Her latest book is Fortune: How Race Broke My Family And The World--And How To Repair It All. A columnist at Sojourners Magazine and an Auburn Theological Seminary senior fellow, Ms. Harper has appeared on TV One, Fox News Online, NPR, and Al Jazeera America. In 2015, The Huffington Post named Ms. Harper one of fifty powerful women religious leaders tocelebrate on International Women’s Day. In 2019, The Religion Communicators Council named a two-part series within Ms. Harper’s monthly Freedom Road Podcast “Best Radio or Podcast Series of The Year.” And in 2020, she received The Bridge Award from The Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation in recognition of her dedication to bridging divides and building the beloved community.

November 27

The Rev. Rhonda Parker serves Duke Divinity School as the senior director of ministerial formation and student life. Her work focuses on the intersection of human, spiritual, and vocational formation with an  emphasis on creation care. Raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, Rev. Parker studied sociology at Duke University, theology at Duke Divinity School, and higher education leadership at Appalachian State University. Prior to joining Duke Divinity, she served in a wide variety of educational contexts including government, church, and nonprofit organizations. She has visited, taught, and preached in many settings around the world where Duke Divinity students serve, and she especially enjoys designing and teaching about environmental stewardship and practices of faith. She is an ordained elder in the North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

December 4