Contact: Crystal Drake, Office of Strategic Communications
Tuskegee University was filled with a sense of hope and good news Saturday during the installation ceremony of Rev. Dr. Cecil Andrew Duffie as the university’s 12th Dean of the Chapel.
Rev. Duffie, who began his tenure last summer, was celebrated by more than 500 guests including his parents, his siblings, and dozens of members from his home churches in Florida, in the University Chapel.
After a processional including clergy from across the country, academic leaders, Dr. Mark A. Brown, president and CEO, members of his cabinet, and Rev. Duffie, Dr. Mark Brown offered words of welcome to those in attendance and via
livestream.
“This is sacred ground,” Dr. Brown said of the university chapel, which was originally built in the late 1890s. The original chapel was designed by Robert R. Taylor, director of the Department of Mechanical Industries and the first African American graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and constructed almost entirely by students using 1,200,000 bricks they made from red clay on campus. The old chapel was destroyed by fire after being struck by lightning.
During the ceremony, bricks were also used as a powerful metaphor for the work already done to build a new, inclusive and thriving chapel culture on campus, one that is highly student-centric, inclusive of all, and deeply grounded in faith.
“Booker T. Washington mentioned the word ‘faith’ 40 times in his autobiography
Up From Slavery because he knew – as we know today – that education without moral training in not enough,” said Dr. Brown. “The formation of character matters at Tuskegee University and we are here today to celebrate Dean Cecil Duffie, as a faithful steward of the harmony between faith, intellect and purpose-driven leadership that remains at the center of this chapel.”
From soaring, pitch perfect notes to hushed, delicate punctuation of hymns including Be Still My Soul, Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand, In Bright Mansions, and Total Praise music was rendered by the renowned Tuskegee University Golden Voices under the direction of Dr. Wayne Barr, accompanied by Dr. Yi Chang.
Rev. Dr. Niechelle Guidry, Dean of Sisters Chapel at Spelman College, and Rev. Dr. Bernard L. Richardson, Dean of the Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel at Howard University, served as Installation Ceremony Officiants. Rev. Dr. Richard served as Rev. Duffie’s Dean while he was a student at Howard making this a full circle moment for them. More than 10 other ministers and spiritual leaders joined the program as speakers, including two former Tuskegee University Deans of the Chapel, Rev. Dr. Edward Wheeler and Rev. Dr. Gregory Gray who led The Holy Communion.
Across all speakers’ words of encouragement and praise was a constant theme around the provincial timing of Rev. Duffie’s role at Tuskegee, because of the unique combination of attributes he brings to it: zeal for Biblical scholarship, skills as a consensus-building connector and trusted counselor, and the fresh and inclusive perspective he brings to the role at 37 years old.
The Rev. Dr. Antoine Hutchins, Senior Pastor of Christian Unity Baptist Church in Waldorf, Maryland, and mentor to Dean Duffie, delivered the installation message.
In his remarks, Rev. Hutchins focused on the Prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:9-10) as a prophetic analogy for what Rev. Duffie’s elevated role means for him, urging him to be both humble and bold, undeterred by the weight of the responsibility, and to always remain true to himself in this new opportunity to care for and shape the lives of so many in service to God.
“When God gives you what you ask for, you must do the work and plow the expanded fields you’ve been given and dig up some things no one has dealt with before,” said Rev. Hutchins. “You must also plant seeds – seeds do not plant themselves! You must feed the soil and sow the right seeds into those who seek you, with a larger perspective to manage all that has come to you.”
The installation ceremony also included a “laying on of hands” for Rev. Duffie was prone at the altar in prayer. Every member of the clergy in the chapel was invited to come forward to surround and embrace him and for several minutes the chapel fell still.
As Rev. Duffie stood up, weeping and deeply in thought, he turned to the audience and raised his hands in worshipful praise.
Rev. Duffie says that in that moment, he felt both humbled and excited about what lies ahead for the chapel in Tuskegee’s Renaissance Era. He added that he was also remembering a fourth grade homeschool field trip with parents and his twin to cities in the South that had been central to the Civil Rights movement. On that trip, he visited the Tuskegee University campus and the very chapel he has now been called to lead.
“In that moment, I was so completely filled with gratitude,” said Rev. Duffie. “To receive the mantle to serve Mother Tuskegee in this way, and to be surrounded by my family and friends, Tuskegee students, faculty and staff, and so many of the transformational leaders who have helped me to get to this place, was a beautiful praise to God.”
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