Practice & Presence: A Gathering for Christians in Health Care

September 12-13, 2025

Friday, September 12, 2025 | 2:00pm -

Saturday, September 13, 2025 | 5:00pm

Registration for Practice & Presence is open! Early registration pricing is available through July 13, 2025. Reduced rates are available for students, trainees, and clergy.

In-person For Alumni For Clergy For Medical Professionals Credit Offered

About Practice & Presence

Are you a Christian in health care who longs to connect your work with your Christian commitments? Do you believe that the church should matter for modern health care? One weekend each fall, nurses, physicians, therapists, chaplains, and other health care practitioners gather together with students and alumni of Duke Divinity School to:

Tune our eyes and hearts to see how God is present in our work in healthcare
Engage scripture, theology, and Christian history—open to how our imaginations and practices might be transformed
Grow in friendship with each other in the context of shared meals, conversation, prayer, and worship
Rest, reflect, and respond to God’s love for us and the world.

Practice & Presence 2025

The Theology, Medicine, and Culture (TMC) Initiative at Duke Divinity School was established in 2015 to bring theological formation to those with vocations to health care, hoping that doing so would inspire lives and practices that joyfully display God’s healing ministry.

This year's Practice & Presence gathering marks ten years of learning and growing together. As we reflect on this milestone for TMC, we look back with gratitude and forward with hope, seeking the renewal of our vocations and bearing witness to the ways the church enacts Christ’s healing work in the world.

Join us September 12-13, 2025 to celebrate how God’s presence has shaped our journeys and how Christian faith continues to inform and transform the practice of health care.

Friday, September 12, 2025

2:00 p.m. – Registration

3:00 p.m. – Worship & Welcome

3:30 p.m. – Plenary 1: Moral Formation in Medical Training

4:45 p.m. – Break

5:00 p.m. – Dinner & Fellowship

6:30 p.m. – Plenary 2: Food & Faith Panel

8:00 p.m. – Adjourn

Saturday, September 13, 2025

8:30 a.m. – Coffee & Light Breakfast

9:00 a.m. – Morning Prayer & Worship

9:15 a.m. – Plenary 3: TMC Alumni Panel

10:30 a.m. – Morning Break

11:00 a.m. – Breakout Session 1

12:00 p.m. – Lunch

1:15 p.m. – Breakout Session 2

1:45 p.m. – Break

2:00 p.m. – Beakout Session 3

3:00 p.m. – Break

3:30 p.m. – Afternoon Prayer & Worship

3:45 p.m. – Plenary 4: Friendship in Health Care

5:00 p.m. – Adjourn

This agenda is subject to change. Updates will be reflected on this page as they are made. Check back often for updates.

Share Your Gifts at Practice & Presence

During Practice & Presence, workshops and paper presentations are offered by the TMC community. Breakout sessions will be held on Saturday, September 13th. Presenters will be assigned to present either during the morning or afternoon breakout session.

This year, we are soliciting proposals for three breakout session types: workshops, panels, and paper presentations.

- Workshops are 60 minutes long and should offer hands-on engagement for attendees.

- Panels are 60 minutes long and should involve 3 or more presenters, with conversation centered on a cohesive theme.

- Paper presentations are 30 minutes long, providing opportunities for one to two presenters to share original research or work with attendees.

Proposals are due May 16, 2025. Abstracts will be reviewed after the proposal deadline and presenters will be notified of the committee's decision by June 14, 2025. Accepted workshop and paper presenters will receive a discount code for 50% off their registration.

Submit a Proposal

Lodging at the JB Duke Hotel

This year, we have a limited number of rooms reserved at the JB Duke Hotel for Friday night, September 12th, 2025. Please contact the hotel directly to book a room in the Practice & Presence 2025 room block at the special contracted rate of $254 per night. Reservations can be made online or by calling the Hotel Reservations Department at 919-660-6400 (Group ID #1129531). If you wish to extend your stay, please call to make your reservation. Remember to mention Practice & Presence if calling to book. Bookings must be made by 5pm on August 13, 2025.

Cancellations

We know that sometimes, plans change. If you can no longer attend Practice & Presence, you may cancel your registration by emailing duketmc@div.duke.edu by 8/29/2025 for a full refund, less a $30 processing fee. Cancellations made on or after 9/1/2025 are non-refundable.

I love attending Practice & Presence -- it is the one non-negotiable conference in my CME schedule each year. There is no other space I inhabit that so beautifully merges the dual vocational streams of medicine and Christian faith that are so vital to my self-understanding and ministry of healthcare.

Plenary Speakers

Additional speakers will be announced in the coming weeks. Check back often for updates!

John Swinton, BD, PhD, RMN, RNMD

Chair in Divinity and Religious Studies at the School of Divinity, History, and Philosophy, University of Aberdeen; Consulting Faculty, Duke Divinity School

Emmy Yang, MD, MTS

Resident Physician in Internal Medicine, University of North Carolina Health System

Warren Kinghorn, MD, ThD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center; Esther Colliflower Associate Professor of the Practice of Pastoral and Moral Theology, Duke Divinity School; Co-Director, Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative

Mari Lowe, CRNP

Nurse Practitioner at Christ House, Washington, DC

Danielle Ellis wearing a navy blazer and gold earrings

Danielle Ellis, MD, MTS

Chief Surgical Resident, Massachusetts General Hospital

Brett McCarty, ThD

Assistant Research Professor of Theological Ethics & Associate Director of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative, Duke Divinity School; Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences, Duke University

Victoria Yunez Behm, MS, MTS, CNS, LDN

Ph.D. Student, University of North Carolina; Fellow, Program on Integrative Medicine, UNC School of Medicine; Program Coordinator, Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative, Duke Divinity School

Farr Curlin, MD

Josiah C. Trent Professor of Medical Humanities, Duke University Medical School; Co-Director, Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative, Duke Divinity School

Register for Practice & Presence

Early registration pricing is available through July 13, 2025. Reduced rates are available for students, trainees, and clergy.

Practice & Presence: A Gathering for Christians in Health Care

About Practice & Presence