As Duke University celebrates its Centennial, the Chapel is celebrating the fruit of J.B. Duke’s investment in training preachers by welcoming to the pulpit Duke alumni and professors who have earned reputations as potent and faithful proclaimers of the Gospel. All of these preachers will deliver their sermons during the Chapel's weekly Sunday service at 11:00 a.m. unless otherwise noted.
See the Chapel's calendar for a full schedule of worship services, including dates when Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery and other Chapel staff will preach. A recent archive of services is available on the Chapel website, and a podcast of sermons is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. For sermons before 2003, see the Duke Chapel Recordings collection on the Duke Libraries website. The Living Tradition online resource explores the rich and deep tradition of preaching at Duke Chapel through the expertise of Duke Divinity School faculty, research by Duke students, and the reflections of renowned preachers.
September 8 — Rev. Dr. L. Gregory Jones, D ’85, G ’88
The Rev. Dr. L. Gregory Jones is president of Belmont University, a position he has held since June 1, 2021. He was educated at the University of Denver (B.A. and M.P.A.) and Duke University (M.Div. and Ph.D.). Prior to serving at Belmont, Rev. Dr. Jones served in a variety of leadership roles at Duke, including two stints as dean of Duke Divinity School and as the Williams Distinguished Professor of Theology and Christian Ministry (now emeritus). He is known for an entrepreneurial mindset as well as emphases on character and purpose in higher education. He is the author or editor of nineteen books, and has authored more than 200 essays/articles. He is known for books on forgiveness (
Embodying Forgiveness and the co-authored
Forgiving as We’ve Been Forgiven), Christian leadership (the co-authored
Resurrecting Excellence), and social innovation (
Christian Social Innovation). His most recent book is the co-authored
Navigating the Future: Traditioned Innovation for Wilder Seas. An ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, he serves on the Boards of the John Templeton Foundation, the McDonald Agape Foundation, and the India Collective, as well as several boards in the Nashville community.
October 27 — Dr. Diana Butler Bass, G ’91
Dr. Diana Butler Bass is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and commentator on religion and contemporary spirituality. Dr. Bass holds a doctorate in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of eleven books. Her bylines include
The New York Times,
The Washington Post, CNN.com, Atlantic.com,
USA Today,
Huffington Post,
Spirituality and Health,
Reader’s Digest,
Christian Century, and
Sojourners. She has commented on religion, politics, and culture in the media widely including on CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, CBC, FOX, Sirius XM,
TIME,
Newsweek,
Rolling Stone, and in multiple global news outlets. In the 1990s, she wrote a weekly column on religion and culture for the
Santa Barbara News-Press, which was distributed nationally by the
New York Times Syndicate. Her work has received two Wilbur Awards for best nonfiction book of the year, awards from Religion News Association for individual commentary and for Book of the Year, Nautilus Awards Silver and Gold medals, the Illumination Book Award Silver medal, Books for a Better Life Award, Book of the Year of the Academy of Parish Clergy, the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for Church History, Substack Fellowship for Independent Writers, and Publishers Weekly’s Best Religion Book of the Year.
November 24 — Pastor Michael A. Walrond, Jr., D ’01
Pastor Michael A. Walrond, Jr. is the senior pastor of First Corinthian Baptist Church (FCBC) in Harlem, New York. Rev. Walrond—affectionately known as Pastor Mike—is quickly rising as one of the most prolific and sought-after teachers and preachers in the country. Within two years of his leadership at FCBC, the church experienced exponential growth, tripling its membership. Pastor Walrond is a board member of the National Action Network (NAN) and was appointed the first national director of the Ministers Division. He is the former chair of the Board of Visitors at Duke University Divinity School. He has received numerous honors, including induction into Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers as a “Distinguished Preacher.” Pastor Walrond is a graduate of Morehouse College, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. He continued his studies at Duke University School of Divinity as a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar and earned a Master of Divinity degree. He served Duke University as the university minister and director of the African American Campus Ministry for eight years. In 2023, Pastor Mike released his first book
Search For Agabus: Embracing Authenticity and Finding Your Way To You, and is the author of the forthcoming book,
The Way Of The Carpenter: For Those Who Can’t Stand Christianity, But Are Willing To Give Jesus A Try.
December 8 — Dr. Donyelle McCray, D ’14
Dr. Donyelle McCray serves as associate professor of homiletics at Yale Divinity School. A teacher, writer, and Episcopal layperson, her scholarship focuses on ways African American women and lay people use the sermon to play, remember, invent, and disrupt. She is the author of
The Censored Pulpit: Julian of Norwich as Preacher and a volume on sermon genre,
Is it a Sermon?: Art, Activism, and Genre Fluidity in African American Preaching. She is currently writing a book on the preaching and spirituality of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray. Before becoming a homiletics professor, Dr. McCray served as an attorney focusing on wills, trusts, and estates. This work raised existential questions that led her to seminary and then into ministry as a hospice chaplain. Human finitude, compassion, and interdependence remain central theological concerns in her scholarship.
