“What a gift Duke’s Summer Institute has been for me and my students!  God’s Spirit used this timely gathering to refresh our souls, engage our minds, sharpen the skills of our hands and deepen our hearts’ commitment to God’s call to reconciliation.” — Peter T. Cha, Associate Professor, Pastoral Theology Department, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Summer Institute Schedule (pdf)

This program is intended for:

• Christians with a hunger to deepen their ministry in peacemaking, justice, and reconciliation
• Grass-roots ministers and Christians living and working among people who suffer or are marginalized
• Pastors with a desire for their congregations to become communities that live out alternatives to the destructive conflicts and social divisions that fragment our world
• College, university, and seminary faculty and administrators training young Christians to live in the way of the Kingdom
• Denominational and organizational leaders seeking to guide their organizations into new practices and structures that enable the flourishing of communities living out God’s vision of peace and justice
• Every follower of Jesus Christ seeking to become an ambassador of God’s healing and wholeness

Daily Design

• Morning & Evening Prayer
  Participants begin and end each day with vibrant Christian worship, held in Duke Divinity School’s beautiful Goodson Chapel.
• Morning Common Journey
  All participants gather to learn from and dialogue with plenary speakers about a theological vision and practice of reconciliation.  
• Afternoon In-Depth Seminars
  Participants select one afternoon seminar for the entire week, going in-depth with one or two faculty members and a small group of peers in a format of rich teaching and interaction.

Other Activities

Shared meals, one-on-one conversations with faculty, some free evenings, some evenings with community-building events, and access to the many gifts of Duke University’s campus.

Faculty and Focus

Our focus on reconciliation is grounded in a distinctively Christian vision and a framework that is richly practical, contextual and theological. Rooted in the Duke Center for Reconciliation's mission to form and strengthen Christian leaders in the ministry of reconciliation, the Summer Institute draws on the strengths of a faculty of world-class scholars and practitioners.

“The components of Christ-based reconciliation go beyond strategies of peacemaking or conflict resolution…A Christian vision of reconciliation is not just another program to help us get along with our neighbor. It is an invitation to enter a new reality that God has created, another vision of life where we are called to be God’s new creation.”  (Chris Rice and Emmanuel Katongole, Spring 2012 Divinity Magazine)

“[Summer] Institute was a week of learning and inspiration.  The leadership was outstanding. The participants represented a world-wide network deeply committed to a myriad of reconciliation initiatives.  I left the Institute awakened to the hope and the pain of the reconciliation journey and armed with stories, contacts, and resources to enrich my church’s commitment to the Beloved Community.”— Gene Graham, congregational lay-leader, Houston, Texas

Each day of the Summer Institute includes a plenary talk given by preeminent scholars and practitioners in the field of reconciliation. Plenary talks use scriptural interpretation, theology, and story-telling to weave a rich tapestry of reflection that is theological, contextual and practical.

The teaching team of the Summer Institute also includes afternoon seminar leaders, who unite in-depth teaching with small group reflection around a particular theme issue, or context in reconciliation

2013 Faculty Members

Abdullah Antepli is the Muslim Chaplain and Adjunct Faculty of Islamic Studies at Duke University. he completed his basic training and education in his native Turkey. As the Muslim chaplain at Duke University, he is one of only a handful of full-time Muslim chaplains at U.S. colleges and universities. He engages students, faculty, and staff across campus to provide a Muslim voice and perspective to the discussions of faith, spirituality, social justice, and more. As part of this work, Chaplain Antepli serves as a faculty member in the Divinity School and at DISC (Duke Islamic Studies Center), teaching courses on Islam.  He has worked on a variety of faith-based humanitarian and relief projects in Myanmar (Burma) and Malaysia.  He is the founder and executive board member of the Muslim Chaplains Association and a member of the National Association of College and University Chaplains. Before coming to Duke, he served as the first Muslim chaplain at Wesleyan University and was the associate director of the Islamic Chaplaincy Program & Interfaith Relations, as well as an adjunct faculty member, at Hartford Seminary. 

• Article featuring Abdullah Antepli in Divinity Magazine

Abdullah Antepli will co-teach a seminar with Ellen Davis called “Listening Together: Muslims and Christians Reading Scripture”

Peter T. Cha is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he has served since 1997. Peter earned the Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago, the Master of Divinity and the Master of Theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and his Doctor of Philosophy from Northwestern University. Between 1985 and 1999, Peter was involved in a number of different ministries, including youth and young adult ministry in Korean immigrant churches, campus ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and church planting. He is currently a board member for Catalyst Leadership Center (an Asian North American Christian Leadership organization) and of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, USA. Peter is a coauthor of Following Jesus without Dishonoring Your Parents: Asian American Discipleship and Growing Healthy Asian American Churches. He has also contributed chapters to Telling the Truth: Evangelizing Postmoderns, Korean Americans and Their Religions, This Side of Heaven: Race, Ethnicity, and Christian Faith, and Honoring the Generations: Learning with Asian North American Congregations.

• Interview with Peter Cha in Faith & Leadership: My Own Jerusalem

Peter will be teaching a seminar called “Transforming Academic Institutions for Reconciliation.”

Edgardo Colón-Emeric is Assistant Professor of Theology at Duke University and senior strategist of the Hispanic House of Studies at Duke Divinity School, which was established to assist the North Carolina and Western North Carolina Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church and Duke Divinity School in supporting and strengthening ministries to and with Hispanics and Latinos in North Carolina. He is an ordained elder in the North Carolina Annual Conference. His ecumenical study of Wesley, Aquinas and Christian Perfection received the 2008 Aquinas Dissertation Prize from Ave Maria University and is published by Baylor University Press. His research interests focus on the intersections of dogmatic theology and Hispanic questions.

• Sermon by Edgardo Colón-Emeric in Faith & Leadership: The Hope of Your Calling
• Article by Edgardo Colon-Emeric in Divinity Magazine: The Mestizo Symphony of Heaven

Edgardo Colón-Emeric will teach a seminar called “Introduction to Reconciliation."

Ellen F. Davis is Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke University Divinity School.  The author of eight books and many articles, her research interests focus on how biblical interpretation bears on the life of faith communities and their response to urgent public issues, particularly the environmental crisis and interfaith relations. Her most recent book, Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible, integrates biblical studies with a critique of industrial agriculture and food production.  Her other publications include Wondrous Depth: Old Testament Preaching; Who Are You, My Daughter? Reading Ruth through Image and Text, an annotated translation accompanying woodcuts by Margaret Adams Parker; Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament; and The Art of Reading Scripture, co-edited with Duke Divinity School Dean, Richard Hays. She has long been involved in inter-religious dialogue and is now cooperating with the Episcopal Church of Sudan to develop theological education, community health, and sustainable agriculture.

• Reflection by Ellen Davis in Faith & Leadership: A future of hope
• Sermon by Ellen Davis in Faith & Leadership: Radical trust
• Sermon by Ellen Davis in Faith & Leadership: Learning to believe
• Lecture by Ellen Davis in Faith & Leadership: The holiness of place
• Article by Ellen Davis in Faith & Leadership: Leadership in a time of war

Ellen Davis will co-teach a seminar with Abdullah Antepli called “Listening Together: Muslims and Christians Reading Scripture.”

Dr. Curtiss DeYoung has served since 2002 as Professor of Reconciliation Studies at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., where he helped to launch a B.A. degree in reconciliation studies in the fall of 2005. He is an author or editor of ten books on reconciliation and social justice, including Radical Reconciliation: Beyond Political Pietism and Christian Quietism, with Allan Boesak; and Coming Together in the 21st Century: The Bible's Message in an Age of Diversity. Prior to his current position, Curtiss served for 17 years in urban multicultural settings in Minneapolis–St. Paul, Minnesota as the president of the Twin Cities Urban Reconciliation Network (TURN), the executive director of the City Gate Project, and the senior pastor at a multiracial congregation. He also served congregations in Washington, D.C, and New York City, and worked at the Covenant House Times Square shelter for homeless and runaway youth in New York City. He is an ordained minister in the Church of God (headquarters in Anderson, Indiana). Curtiss earned an Ed.D. from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., and an M.Div. from Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, D.C.

• Interview with Curtiss DeYoung in Faith & Leadership: The Early Church of Reconciliation
• Interview with Curtiss DeYoung on Duke On Demand

Curtiss DeYoung will co-teach a seminar with Cheryl Sanders called “Shaping Congregations for Faithfulness across Divides.”

Dr. Mary Nelson was for 30 years the founding President and CEO of Bethel New Life, Inc. Bethel has earned a national reputation for innovative and effective urban ministry, with programs that promote the social, economic, and spiritual welfare of children, families, and seniors. Since her retirement from Bethel in 2006, Mary helped to develop a Loyola University/SCUPE graduate degree (Master’s in Social Justice and Community Development), is on the faculty of Asset Based Community Development Institute (ABCD), chairs the Board of Sojourners, and is currently the interim Executive Director of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions.  She also consults, speaks and does workshops in a variety of settings. She wrote the recently released Empowerment Workbook for CCDA. Mary has an earned Ph.D. from Union Graduate School, six honorary PhDs and numerous other awards.  She lives, works and worships in her west side community. 

• Interview with Mary Nelson in Faith & Leadership: Embracing God’s vision for community

Mary Nelson will teach the seminar “Building Beloved Communities of Justice and Advocacy with the Poor.”

Dr. John M. Perkins is a sharecropper’s son who grew up in New Hebron, Miss., amidst dire poverty. Fleeing to California at age 17 after his older brother’s murder at the hands of a town marshal, he vowed never to return. However, after converting to Christianity in 1960, he returned to Mendenhall, Miss., to share the gospel of Christ. While in Mississippi, his outspoken nature and leadership in civil rights demonstrations resulted in repeated harassment, beatings, and imprisonment. In Mendenhall, Perkins and his wife founded Voice of Calvary Ministries. In 1989 he co-founded the Christian Community Development Association, which represents 6,800 individuals and 600 churches, ministries, institutions, and businesses in more than 100 cities and townships across the country.

• Interview with John Perkins in Faith & Leadership: Empowering Communities

John Perkins will be a plenary speaker.

Abi Riak has been with the Center for Reconciliation at Duke University since 2011.  As the Manager for Operations and Programs, she is responsible for leading the team in the development and expansion of relationships, networks, systems, and processes that will contribute to the long term durability of the CFR.  She has worked for 15+ years in the field of international development, peace-building, and organizational development supporting programs in a variety of countries and organizational contexts.  Before coming to Duke, Abi worked with World Vision for 13 years.  Most recently she was in South Sudan as the Director for External Engagement, Resource Development and Program Quality.  She also worked with the World Vision US office in several roles including the Director for Operations and Program Effectiveness. A trained facilitator, Abi has strong skills in facilitating large group processes, asset mapping, appreciative inquiry, mediation, consensus-building, stakeholder analysis, small group dialogue, strategic planning, and business process development.  Abi has taught classes and led trainings and workshops around the world in organizational effectiveness and conflict sensitivity. Abi has a BA from Bluffton University in Economics and History and a MA in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a member of the International Association of Facilitators and the Organizational Development Network.

• Interview with Abi Riak in Divinity Magazine: A “Child of Exile” Pursues Reconciliation

Abi Riak will co-teach a seminar with Chris Rice called “Pursuing Reconciliation Institutionally.”

Chris Rice serves as Director of the Duke Divinity School Center for Reconciliation. Chris grew up in South Korea, the child of Presbyterian missionaries.  A turning point in his life was living and working for 17 years in an inner-city neighborhood of Jackson, Miss., with Voice of Calvary, an interracial church and community development ministry. Chris came to Duke Divinity School in 2000 to pursue ways for the academy to serve the world of Christian activism and helped launch the Center in 2005 as a founding co-director. His books Reconciling All Things and More Than Equals each won book awards from Christianity Today magazine, and his book Grace Matters was named a Best Adult Religion Book by Publishers Weekly. Chris has received the Distinguished Service to Mankind Award from Belhaven College. He serves as Lausanne Senior Associate for Reconciliation. Chris and his wife Donna have three children, and Chris is an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). He blogs at http://reconcilers.wordpress.com/

• Article by Chris Rice and Emmanuel Katongole in Faith & Leadership: Recovering Reconciliation as the Mission of God
• Article by Chris Rice and Emmanuel Katongole in Divinity Magazine: A Christian Vision of Reconciliation

Chris Rice will be a plenary speaker and will co-teach a seminar with Abi Riak called “Pursuing Reconciliation Institutionally.”

Dr. Cheryl J. Sanders has been Senior Pastor of the Third Street Church of God in Washington, D.C. since 1997, and is professor of Christian ethics at the Howard University School of Divinity, where she has taught since 1984. She has published more than 100 works including several books: Ministry at the Margins (1997); Saints in Exile: The Holiness-Pentecostal Experience in African American Religion and Culture (1996); Empowerment Ethics for a Liberated People (1995); and Living the Intersection (1995). She is a contributing guest editor for Leadership, a journal for pastors. She is a graduate of the Sidwell Friends School, Swarthmore College (B.A. in Mathematics), and Harvard Divinity School (M.Div., cum laude and Th.D. in the field of Applied Theology). In 2002 she was awarded the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. She received a second honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Anderson University in 2007. She is married to Dr. Alan D. Carswell, and is the mother of two adult children, Allison and Garrett.

• Interview with Cheryl Sanders in Faith & Leadership: Finding Identity in the World

Cheryl Sanders will co-teach a seminar with Curtiss DeYoung called “Shaping Congregations for Faithfulness across Divides.”

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a writer and speaker and serves as a leader in the New Monastic movement. He is a native of North Carolina, where he lives with his family and other friends at the Rutba House, a new monastic community that prays, eats, and lives together, welcoming neighbors and the homeless. Jonathan is an associate minister at the historically black St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, and is engaged in peacemaking and reconciliation efforts in Durham, N.C. Jonathan directs the School for Conversion, an alternative seminary that hosts courses around the country. He is editor of the New Monastic Library Series (Cascade Books) and associate editor of the Resources for Reconciliation Series (InterVarsity Press). He is the author of several books, most recently The Awakening of Hope, Rule of St. Benedict: A Contemporary Paraphrase, God’s Economy, The Wisdom of Stability, and Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals.

• Interview with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Shane Claiborne in Faith & Leadership: God’s counterculture
• Articles by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove in Faith & Leadership:
  • Writing and Reconciliation
  • Leadership in God’s economy
  • Mr. Miyagi and Dorothy Day
  • Jesus does not assume scarcity

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove will teach a seminar called “Everyday Practices for Reconciliation Where You Are.”

"The Center is one of the most exciting and fruitful things I see happening in North America universities [and] a constant reminder that reconciliation is at the heart of our faith.  One of the early Christians spoke of the cross as a symbol of reconciliation, pointing out that the cross has a vertical dimension reconciling people to God, a horizontal dimension reconciling people to each other, and is deeply rooted in the earth reconciling all things to creation and shalom.  I see the Center for Reconciliation at Duke doing all of these -- and being holistically, wonderfully, and radically true to the cross." – Shane Claiborne, author, activist, and lover of Jesus

Introduction to Reconciliation
Edgardo Colón-Emeric
At the heart of the gospel is the invitation to the ministry of reconciliation. It is a ministry that remembers creation’s original goodness and harmony, wrestles deeply with how sin causes that harmony to be distorted, and anticipates the day when every tribe, tongue, people and nation will sing in symphony with the Triune God. By reflecting on God’s ministry of reconciliation as revealed in Scripture, interpreted in Christian tradition, and lived in community, we will better understand the significance of diversity in the world. This course hopes to stir a holy restlessness in the participants so that we will “run with perseverance” the race set before us in tune with God’s call in ever changing, diverse, and multicultural societies.

Everyday Practices for Reconciliation Where You Are
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
“An awakening of hope is happening in local communities across North America today,” says Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove.  Diverse in form, these new experiments in reconciliation draw on a rich tradition of stories about the saints who’ve gone before us.  This group will attend to particular stories, draw lessons from their wisdom, and ask how the same Spirit that has moved in other places might move where you are today.

Building Beloved Communities of Justice and Advocacy with the Poor
Mary Nelson
This seminar will focus on shaping beloved community in under-resourced community settings, using interactive sharing. Under the leadership of Mary Nelson, a pragmatically-oriented, experienced activist and developer in a faith-centered framework, the group will consider God’s vision for beloved community, the opportunity for faith-centered approaches, empowerment, and neighborhood development while addressing issues of justice.

Shaping Congregations for Faithfulness across Divides
Curtiss DeYoung and Cheryl Sanders
Diversity is increasing, unavoidable, and defining for congregations in the twenty-first century. Discover how to transform your congregational life in ways that will enable you to flourish in the new reality. Come engage with the best of practice and scholarship wherever you are on the journey.

Living in the Tension: Human Sexuality in the Time between the Times
Andrew Marin and Tracy Merrick
This seminar has been cancelled due to low numbers of applicants.

One of the most divisive issues in the American church today centers on faithful Christian discernment concerning issues of sexual orientation and practice, both within and beyond the church. This seminar will seek to reframe the conversation about sexual orientation, gender identity, and Christian practice in a way that allows for an honest and thoughtful discussion of differences, pursued with theological care and seriousness.  Our goal is to provide participants with a context for learning to engage this theologically and ethically significant conversation without acrimony or demonizing one another.  Rather than changing participants’ convictions or taking sides in a debate, we intend to foster deep listening and new relationships across differences of practice and conviction, and to explore how we might live more faithfully within the tensions created by our deep differences.

Transforming Academic Institutions for Reconciliation
Peter Cha
How can Christian higher learning institutions grow in their capacity to nurture and equip future Christian leaders who can effectively engage in God’s mission of reconciliation in today’s fragmented world?  This seminar is designed to assist leaders in higher education to think theologically and strategically about transforming the institutional culture of one’s school by embracing certain practices and values that promote reconciliation.  Participation is limited to administrators and faculty of colleges, seminaries and universities, and doctoral students.

Pursuing Reconciliation Institutionally
Chris Rice and Abi Riak
This seminar is designed for leaders and staff from medium to large-sized Christian faith-based institutions (denominational, parachurch, academic, etc.) for whom themes such as community development, justice, peace, shalom, and reconciliation are important to their mission.  Over the past 30 years a number of influential Christian institutions (both national and international) have gained significant traction in engaging these themes.  What can we learn from these case studies and their journeys about institutional faithfulness in pursuing God’s mission in these areas, as well as from organizations who have declined or performed poorly?  What does it look like to think and work at once institutionally, theologically, and strategically?

Listening Together: Muslims and Christians Reading Scripture
Ellen Davis and Abdullah Antepli
The chief aim of the course is to help participants begin to map out their own journey through the still largely uncharted territory of Muslim-Christian religious conversation. Through the method of cross-tradition study, focusing on topics central to both traditions and using texts from Bible, Qur’an and Hadith, students will begin to learn the basic elements of another scriptural tradition, as well as gaining new insight into their own. The course will help students begin to acquire intellectual, spiritual, theological, exegetical and hermeneutical tools to engage in ministry in a pluralistic culture and in pluralistic settings (e.g., hospitals, prisons, campuses, larger communities), and to consider the theological significance of interfaith work in the twenty-first century.

Funding for this seminar is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

“The Institute offered me the most important continuing education experience I have had in my 15 years of ministry.  The combination of outstanding lectures from experienced leaders, the conversations I had with a very diverse group of individuals, and the extraordinary worship all challenged me and renewed my determination and hope in the work of reconciliation and justice in my own community.  I thank God for the experience.” — Rev. Chip Edens, Pastor, Christ Church, Charlotte, NC

Registration fees for the 2013 Summer Institute will be $950, which includes the cost of meals.

Lunch and dinner will be served buffet style each day at Duke’s Great Hall, Tuesday–Friday, with the exception of Thursday dinner, which is on your own. Monday’s dinner and Saturday’s lunch are also included in the meal plan. A light continental breakfast will be provided each morning, Tuesday–Saturday. Additional options for purchasing a casual breakfast will be included in your participant packet.

All Summer Institute participants are responsible for making their own lodging arrangements. We have arranged for a special rate at the Millennium Hotel, a full-service hotel located 1.25 miles from the Duke Divinity School. Participants in the Duke Summer Institute will be eligible for the rate of $63 (plus 13% sales and occupancy tax) per night for a single room (1 king bed) or a shared room (2 queen beds). To make a reservation, call 1-800-633-5379 or book online by May 6, 2013. If you make a reservation by phone, be sure to mention that you are a participant in the Duke Summer Institute. The Millennium Hotel offers:

• Complimentary in-room high speed internet access
• A hot breakfast buffet for a special rate of $7.95 per day
• Several complimentary meeting spaces for informal or prearranged evening conversations and meetings among Summer Institute participants
• Exercise room
• Indoor pool
• Complimentary shuttle service to and from Duke Divinity School
• Free parking at the hotel
• Airport shuttle (for an additional charge of $35 per person each way)
• Luggage storage for those departing after noon on June 1

If you would like to share a room with two queen beds (reducing your housing costs to $31.50 per night per person plus tax) but do not have a roommate, please contact us at dolsongetty@div.duke.edu.  We will gladly put you in touch with other participants who are seeking a roommate.

Travel

Air Transportation

The nearest airport is the Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), a 20-minute drive to Duke University. Many area hotels offer shuttle service to and from the hotel. There is now Super Shuttle Service from RDU airport to Duke University and the surrounding area. You can make a reservation online prior to your arrival to Duke (provided you have a credit card). There will also be taxi cabs waiting outside each terminal of the airport.

Rail Transportation

The Durham Train Station offers Amtrak service to and from Charlotte, Raleigh, Washington DC, and New York City and points in between. Make reservations in advance online or by phone.

Ground Transportation

Directions to Duke University

We will accept admissions and scholarship applications on a rolling basis, while space and scholarship funds are available, until April 30, 2013.

Scholarship priority will be given to leaders who are actively involved in reconciliation ministry and who have both financial need and significant influence, or to emerging leaders with financial need.

Successful scholarship applicants will have a concrete plan to share what they learn at the Summer Institute within their circles of influence. We are also particularly interested in applicants who have secured some funding from an outside source other than their personal funds.  You will be given the option of applying for scholarship funding when you apply to the Institute.

Scholarship recipients will be eligible for reduced registration fees of $300 to $600. Please note that we do not offer any full-fee scholarships or financial support for travel or lodging.

We are no longer accepting applications for the 2013 Summer Institute.

We will begin accepting applications for the 2014 Summer Institute (June 2 – 7, 2014) in mid-December 2013.

For more information:

Summer Institute
Center for Reconciliation, Duke Divinity School
Box 90968
Durham, NC 27708-0968

dolsongetty@div.duke.edu
(919) 660-3578