Duke Divinity Celebrates Centennial Year at Opening Convocation

Celebrating the start of its centennial year, Duke Divinity School welcomed 251 new students at the Opening Convocation service on Friday, Aug. 28, in Duke University Chapel.

Opening Convocation marks the beginning of the new academic year and serves as a welcome to entering students. The Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric, dean of Duke Divinity School and Ruth and A. Morris Williams, Jr. Professor of Theology and Christian Ministry, preached to kick off this year's "Our Calling to Fulfill" centennial preaching series.

The Rev. Dr. Sangwoo Kim, associate dean for vocational formation and senior director of the Methodist House, presided over communion.

Communion during Opening Convocation 2026

This year's incoming student class included students from states across the country and several international locations, representing a number of denominations and church traditions.

The Master of Divinity program gained 132 new students, both residential and hybrid. The Master of Arts in Christian Practice enrolled 18 new students; the Doctor of Ministry, 30; Master of Theology, 10; Master of Theological Studies, 44; and the Doctor of Theology welcomed two new students to campus. The Certificate in Theology and Health Care welcomed five residential students to campus and seven in the hybrid program.

You belong to God. When you pass through the waters, God will be with you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. Your name is written in the gold filigree of God's presence. You shine with God's presence. You, our students, are our greatest centennial gift."

During the service, Colón-Emeric reflected on Duke Divinity School’s 100-year history and its calling as it enters a second century.

Drawing from the centennial theme, “A Calling to Fulfill,” and the Book of Acts, Colón-Emeric described Duke Divinity’s calling as “broadly catholic, stubbornly ecclesial, and irreducibly supernatural.”

Edgardo Colón-Emeric preaching at Opening Convocation 2026 — Edgardo Colón-Emeric preaching at Opening Convocation

He challenged the Divinity School to continue its commitments to ecumenicism, UMC roots, Duke University, and the world, particularly amid polarization and rapid technological change.

“Duke University needs Duke Divinity School,” he said. “The Divinity School has a mission to the wider university" to help people embrace the mysteries of being human and discover their callings in God's world.

At the heart of that mission, he argued, is the church. The church remains “the people of God, the Body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit" called to pay attention to people on the margins.

“Look around you,” Colón-Emeric said. “A hundred years of Duke Divinity, I believe, teaches one thing: This community is turbocharged with grace here.”

Addressing students directly, he closed by reminding them of God’s words to Isaiah. "You belong to God. When you pass through the waters, God will be with you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. Your name is written in the gold filigree of God's presence. You shine with God's presence. You, our students, are our greatest centennial gift."

As the school begins its second century, he said, its calling will be fulfilled through its students.

“And for that,” he concluded, “I give God all the praise.”