A Service for the Worship of God and in Gratitude for the Life of the Rev. William C. Turner Jr., PhD, was held at Duke University Chapel on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026. Turner, the James T. and Alice Mead Cleland Professor Emeritus of the Practice of Preaching, died July 26, 2026 at age 78.

The service was officiated by the Rev. Dr. J Kameron Carter, the Archer Alexander Distinguished Professor of Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Reflections and remarks from the Duke community were offered by the Rev. Dr. Luke Powery, dean of Duke University Chapel; the Rev. Dr. Edgardo Colón-Emeric, dean of Duke Divinity School; the Rev. Dr. Clarence G. Newsome, trustee of The Duke Endowment and trustee emeritus of Duke University; and the Rev. Dr. Eric Lewis Williams, assistant professor of theology and Black Church studies at Duke Divinity School, who read an excerpt from Turner’s book, The Musicality of Black Preaching: A Phenomenology.

Additional reflections were given by academic and civic leaders, including Dr. Gary Brown, vice chancellor and chief of staff at North Carolina Central University; Dr. Olu Q. Menjay, president of William V. S. Tubman University in Liberia; the Honorable Valerie P. Foushee, the U.S. House of Representatives member for the North Carolina Fourth District; the Honorable David E. Price, former U.S. Representative for the North Carolina Fourth District and professor emeritus at the Sanford School of Public Policy; the Honorable G.K. Butterfield Jr., former U.S. Representative for the North Carolina First District; the Honorable Dan Blue Jr., North Carolina State Senator for District Fourteen; the Honorable William V. Bell, former mayor of the City of Durham; and Mr. Frank Davis Jr., co-founder and director of the Durham Striders Athletic Association. 

The Old Testament Scripture was from Ecclesiastes 12, a favorite text of Turner, read by his niece, Dr. Vanessa Starks. The New Testament selection was Luke 4:16–21, read by the Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. Music was provided by soloist Ms. Cindy Bolton; an ensemble with Ms. Courtney Bailey, Ms. Janina Jones, Ms. Tiffany Agerston, and Mr. Josiah Beatty; organist Mr. Chad Fothergill, chapel organist for Duke University Chapel; and four congregational hymns. The Rev. Dr. Braxton D. Shelley, George Washington Professor of Music, Sacred Music, and Divinity at Yale University, served as music director and pianist. 

The sermon was delivered by Bishop William J. Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach, founding director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign. Titled “The Gospel that Has a Quarrel with the World,” the sermon drew from the Scripture text in Luke 24:45–49. 

“The gospel is not a human invention. The gospel is not a political platform, or a trendy response to cultural shifts. It is an eternal decree. Jesus, in the text—Dr. Turner taught us—binds his suffering and resurrection directly to the message that follows. In other words, you cannot have the cross and the empty tomb without the subsequent demand of a global proclamation rather than a narrow nationalism. We preach because we got good news to proclaim.”