Students: Belong, Worship, Serve with Us
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Belong, Worship, Serve
Title Text:
Belong, Worship, Serve
Students, We would like connect with you! A Chapel minister or staff member will be in touch with you, if you take a moment to fill out this brief form.
The Chapel offers undergraduate and graduate students many ways to connect their faiths and learning at Duke. See below for ways you can belong, worship, and serve through the Chapel.
Religious Life Groups
There are twenty campus Religious Life groups, plus two Chapel Affiliate groups, from a wide range of religious traditions that offer worship services and belonging in a faith community. Working with these groups, the Chapel also provides opportunities for thoughtful, intentional interfaith engagement.
Chapel Scholars
Chapel Scholars is an ecumenical Christian program, which means that participating students come from a wide range of Christian traditions. Many Chapel Scholar students also participate in other Religious Life groups, and are encouraged to foster a sense of cooperation and hospitality across ministry groups. Applications to become a Chapel Scholar are due September 28, 2021.
Dean's Scholars
Dean’s Scholars are a select group of juniors and seniors, from any religious tradition, who have been engaged in meaningful and substantive ways with Religious Life at Duke and/or the Chapel throughout their Duke experience. Throughout the year, Dean's Scholars will meet with each other and with the Dean of Duke Chapel for a meal and a focused conversation on meaning, purpose, and vocation. Becoming a Dean’s Scholar will offer students opportunities and tools to reflect on their Duke experience, examine the intersections of faith and learning, and prepare for their future of life and work.
Chapel Worship Services
The Chapel is home to a long—and living—tradition of faithful preaching and inspiring sacred music. Join us for our ecumenical Christian worship services Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m. and throughout the week. Students are also invited to participate in the Chapel’s weekly services by serving as ushers, lectors, communion servers, scripture readers or also by leading prayers.
Chapel Choirs
Chapel Music aims to create high quality musical experiences, while giving glory to God and stirring the hearts and minds of all those it reaches. Duke students are invited to join one of the Chapel’s three choirs to learn music, form friendships, and be inspired. All students interested in singing are invited to audition at the beginning of each semester.
A Just Faith House Course
In this time of division, learning to respect one another's humanity while addressing our deep communal needs for dignity, housing, food, healthcare, and inclusion is vital. To promote that kind of learning, Chapel Scholar Lizzy Kramer will teach a half-credit house course in the Fall 2021 semester titled "A Just Faith" (HOUSECS 59.28), with support from Chapel Community Minister Rev. Breana van Velzen. In the course, students read academic work, engage with guest speakers, write analytical and reflective essays, and discuss topics such as human sexuality and activism across faith traditions. This class engages with thinkers and practitioners from multiple faith traditions, such as Thich Naht Hahn, Alice Walker, Howard Thurman, Lama Rod Owens, and Shadaab Rahemtulla, who connect their traditions’ theologies with social practice—or in many cases, selfless service and communal liberation. Students will have opportunities to explore and examine their own traditions and cultures around justice topics and movements, learn from one another, and learn from the greater Durham community through local practitioners.
Global Religious Literatures House Course
A student in the Chapel's Eruditio et Religio living-learning community, Akshaj Turebylu, is teaching a half-credit house course this semester titled "Litterae et Religio: Global Religious Literatures" (HOUSECS 59.17). Students in the class explore the many different representations of religious belief, emotion, and intellect that have populated the globe. Each week the class examines the origins (scripture and myths) of a religious tradition and how those fundamentals have been interpreted by those in the past (before modernity) and the present (closer to our time). Global religious literature is grasped as a continuous dialogue between and within traditions through an innumerable set of mediums and visions. The course was developed in consultation with Dr. Laura Lieber, a professor of religious studies at Duke, and the Rev. Kathryn Lester-Bacon, the Chapel's director of Religious Life.
Student Workers
The Chapel hires students for a variety of jobs from worship coordination to communications. See what student jobs are available.