Duke University Appoints New Dean for Duke Chapel
A fourth-generation Anglican scholar who is known for bringing "faith and intellect" together, will serve the Methodist-related school as the new dean.
The Rev. Canon Dr. Samuel Wells, Priest-in-Charge of St. Mark's Church in Cambridge, England, was appointed as the new dean of Duke Chapel in Duke University on Monday, March 21.
President Richard Broadhead of the Durham, N.C. university expressed his joy and confidence in the new dean.
"With his intelligence, humility, passionate spiritual commitment and depth of social concern, he will bring inspiration to Duke Chapel and will set a high example of wisdom, tolerance and service for the university at large," Brodhead said. "Sam Wells brings an extraordinary group of strengths to this important position."
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Described by the president as "a powerful preacher and an impressive writer," Wells has ministered in one of the most underprivileged neighborhoods in England as equally effectively as in a university-related congregation in Cambridge.
Wells, a 39-year-old fourth-generation Church of England priest, explained the reason for the excitement of his decision to work in Duke.
"The university as a whole is engaging with some of the most important issues facing the world. But it's not so surrounded by tradition that it can't move," Wells said. "It's an awesome institution, but it's still light on its feet. That makes it a very exciting university to be involved with."
"I have spent 14 years leading worshiping communities as they seek to embody a theological vision, and this role enables me to continue to do that in a wonderful way," he added. "It is great to be a pastor in an environment where continuing to write and explore the intellectual side of Christianity is so much encouraged and valued.
"To bring faith to intellect, and intellect to faith, on the kind of scale involved with this congregation and university community offers a prophetic opportunity that doesn't really exist in the U.K.," he said. "Once a community of this kind of size seeks not just to speak the truth but to embody the truth in practices of service and reconciliation, pretty much everybody starts to sit up and take notice."
According to a statment by Duke University, Wells is one of today's major theologians and writers in ethics.
Wells earned a bachelor of divinity in systematic theology from Edinburgh University, a master's degree in modern history from Oxford University, and a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Durham.
He also has published numerous books and articles, including "The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics," which he edited with Duke Divinity professor Stanley Hauerwas, and "Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics," published in 2004.
His next writing project will be the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book for 2007, a book of meditations for period of Lent commissioned by the archbishop each year.
For a period of 10 years in his 14-year ministry career at churches in Newcastle, Norwich and Cambridge, he has devoted himself to serving in economically deprived communities.
According to Wells, that's not expected to change when he comes to Duke. He also hopes his relationship with the Durham community to be based on "humility and conversation and a search for friendship."
The search committee, chaired by the Rev. Charles Michael Smith, a Duke trustee, comprised of faculty, students, staff and congregation members, conducted an international search and received about 150 nominations and applications.
It was Wells' combination of pastoral and scholarly work which left a remarkable impression on the selection committee.
"Sam Wells is a pastor and scholar of remarkable creativity. A gifted preacher and writer, he is emerging as a major figure in Christian life and thought. With a rich sense of the interplay of Duke's motto, 'Eruditio et Religio,' Wells will embody energy, wisdom and imagination as dean of Duke Chapel," said L. Gregory Jones, dean of Duke's Divinity School and a member of the search committee.
Wells' wife, the Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells, will also be joining the Duke community and will take the role of a director of Anglican Studies. She holds Ph.D. in Old Testament from the University of Durham and is one of the first female priests to be ordained in England. Currently she is a scholar and lecturer at Ridley Hall - a seminary in Cambridge - but formerly served as a dean of Clare College in Cambridge.
Wells, who is expected to assume his new post in August, succeeds the Rev. William H. Willimon, who became university minister in 1984 and dean of the chapel five years later. Willimon stepped down in August to assume leadership of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church as a newly elected bishop.
As the dean of Duke Chapel, Wells will oversee the operation of the chapel, with a staff of 12, a music staff of seven and a complement of interns, playing an integral role in connecting the academic and spiritual lives of the university's students, faculty and staff. In addition to overseeing planned worship, counseling and preaching, he will be serving as "a focal point" for ethical and theological discussions on campus on a wide range of pertinent issues.
Wells said that while he had been deeply formed by the Church of England and its institutional structure, in which he has spent his career so far, he had no reservations about entering a new and diverse religious culture.
"Duke Chapel is clearly a unique institution that is ecumenical in ethos and brings a variety of traditions in harmony," he said. His approach is "about being humble, about being open to learn and sympathetic to various traditions."
About the Duke Chapel
While the university is historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church, services at Duke Chapel are ecumenical. Although most of the former deans of the chapel have been Methodists, Smith noted that "one of the most beloved" -- the Rev. James T. Cleland -- was a Presbyterian from Scotland. Cleland served as university minister and dean of the chapel from 1949 to 1973.
Duke Chapel has hosted renowned visiting preachers such as Desmond Tutu, Billy Graham, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jesse Jackson, Barbara Brown Taylor, Tom Long, Peter Gomes and Samuel Proctor.
Duke Chapel has the largest congregation of any university chapel in the country and is also home to one of the most active religious life programs on a U.S. campus. More than 20 campus ministers and chaplains provide leadership to about 1,500 students involved in religious life on campus.
One of the largest Gothic-style churches ever built, Duke Chapel seats about 1,600 and features 77 stained-glass windows, three pipe organs and a 50-bell carillon. It was designed by architect Julian Abele, one of America's first prominent black architects.
