Celebrate Lives Dedicated to Duke During Memorial Service

Join the Nov. 20 service in Duke Chapel or online to honor late staff and faculty

The interior of Duke Chapel shows a stained glass windows behind an altar beneath a Gothic arch
Duke University Chapel and Duke Hospital Bereavement Services will host the annual Service of Remembrance on Nov. 20. Photo courtesy of Duke Chapel

Duke University Chapel and Duke Hospital Bereavement Services will host the annual Staff and Faculty Memorial Service Nov. 20 to honor the lives of staff and faculty who have died in the past year.

The 30-minute service, which begins at 3 p.m. in the Chapel’s main sanctuary, includes music, candle-lighting, poetry reading and a recitation of the names of those who have died. The Chapel bells will ring once for each name read.

The service will be streamed live and available on demand on the Chapel’s YouTube channel.

Artie Hendricks, Senior Clinical Administrative Chaplain at Duke University Hospital, said the annual service is an important one to allow staff, faculty and their friends and family to honor those who have devoted some part of their lives to the university or health system.

“Everybody who works here contributes a portion of their lives to this place to make it what it is,” Hendricks said. “Duke is the people, first and foremost, and we want to honor that.”

The service is part of Grief Awareness Week Nov. 18-22, and aims to increase awareness of issues about grief and loss in the workplace and promote strategies for healthy grieving and self-care.

Hendricks stressed that “not all losses are death,” and said people can experience grief for a variety of reasons.

“This is an effort to normalize grief,” Hendricks said. “We all experience this natural kind of human response to loss and there's not something wrong with you if you're feeling this way.”

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