The Duke Endowment is celebrating 100 years of impacting healthcare, higher education, rural United Methodist churches, and children and families through their four focus areas.
Bishop Connie Mitchell Shelton invited the body to stand as she named organizations and initiatives where The Duke Endowment intersects with local churches. From hosting students in field education at Duke Divinity School to local building projects to the Summer Literacy Initiative, churches feel the investment of The Duke Endowment across the NC Conference. It was impressive to see the number of folks touched by the work of the endowment.
Rev. Rob Webb, Director of the Rural Church initiative for The Duke Endowment, came to the stage in the midst of a shower of balloons to share the story of Mr. James B. Duke and his 100 years of philanthropic influence in North Carolina. He said, “Mr. Duke’s fingerprint is all over the North Carolina Conference.”
Rev. Webb went on to share that, “Formation matters. How we gather and how we form matters. Mr. Duke said if it weren’t for his father and a Methodist minister, he wouldn’t amount to anything.”
He went on to describe how Mr. Duke created the endowment with the input of 10 of his closest advisors. When creating the endowment, Mr. Duke emphasized rural churches as the “bone and sinew of our country” and knew that “economic development would get communities to a certain point but philanthropy would be required to fill the gap.”
Rev. Webb concluded by saying, “Our roots are tied to your roots. How grateful we are to be in ministry with you. We give thanks for our partnership in ministry together!”