In reflecting Tuesday evening on his seven years as dean of Duke Chapel, Sam Wells said his own faith was strengthened during his tenure and he hoped he pushed the chapel to engage more fully with the rest of campus and surrounding community.
“I’m the kind of person who discovers my faith through articulating it,” Wells said during a 90-minute “Exit Interview” conversation with WUNC Radio’s Frank Stasio. “So I’ve been deepened in faith.
“I have particularly, I think, grown in confidence about the trustworthiness of the Christian gospel in the face of the intellectual and moral and social challenges of our day,” he said to an audience of about 150 in the chapel’s main sanctuary and those who watched the live webcast of the event.
Wells has been appointed vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, a parish with a reputation for ministering to people without homes. He and his family leave for England this summer. He preaches his final sermon as dean on Sunday, May 6.
In response to a question about the chapel’s purpose in a pluralistic campus community, Wells said, “I think the key word for me is blessing.
“My aim when I came here is that for the chapel in general, and me more narrowly, to be seen as a blessing to the whole campus.”