At long last the new chaplain at the Episcopal Center at Duke, the Rev. Nils Chittenden, will begin his tenure May 1, 2010.  He has sent the following note of greetings and introduction: Hello! Almost exactly one year ago I wrote a message for this site. I wrote that on Sunday 13 April 2008 I [...]

For the Church year, Holy Week is the longest week of the year – or so it seems.  We invite you to come spend your week with the Episcopal Center and the people of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church as we begin our week, walking with Jesus into Jerusalem, palm branches waving on Palm Sunday.  A [...]

I share with you A Prayer Written for Haiti by the Rev. Lorraine Ljunggren, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Raleigh, NC: God of all, on the day of your Son Jesus’ crucifixion, the earth shook and the rocks were rent: We, your frail and finite creatures, cry out to you for help when the earth beneath [...]

“There is more to life than merely increasing its speed.” Gandhi A month ago I was at Costco.  I had to walk past Christmas trees to get to the food section! It seems that stores put out their Christmas decorations earlier and earlier every year.  I used to be surprised to see Christmas items right [...]

“Each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”   Ephesians 4:7 What is grace? Walter Brueggemann describes grace as God’s “transforming disposition towards the whole world.”  In the Gospel stories we read again and again the ways in which God invites people to faith and new life – often in surprising and unexpected [...]

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Episcopal Center at Duke in its current location at 505 Alexander Avenue!   We have been busy updating our physical space to provide a more welcoming place for students to come and relax.  The Center now has wireless internet, we have spruced up the inside, and the exterior has been painted.  Chairs [...]

The invitation to observe a Holy Lent according to the Book of Common Prayer includes “self-examination and repentance; prayer, fasting and self-denial; and reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.”    Until recent years I always thought of Lent as a time of darkness and denial.  I was supposed to give up something I enjoyed [...]

Why is Lent forty days? Lent actually occurs over a forty-six day period prior to Easter.  Only forty days count as the penitential season because the six Sundays are omitted.  The Church from the earliest times considered every Sunday as a Feast of the Resurrection and never a day of fasting!   The significance of [...]

“May Christ, the Son of God, be manifest in you, that your lives may be a light to the world.”    Thus begins the blessing for this Season of Epiphany, the season of the church year when we celebrate the manifestation of Christ to the world.  As we remember stories of Jesus’ early ministry, let [...]

My brothers and sisters in Christ, As we come to the end of Eastertide and the feast of Pentecost, we shift to an awareness of God present with us in Holy Spirit. The early church marked that gift as inspiration, fire, and language — the breath of ever-new life and the burning desire for ongoing [...]