It was news last June when the Rev. Haywood Holderness, a popular Durham pastor for 33 years at Westminster Presbyterian, made his retirement official. But Holderness hasn't put a rocking chair on his back porch or taken a break from going to the office every day.

These days, he's just going to a different office.

One might say that the suite on the fifth floor of University Towers is mighty upscale digs for a preacher man, but the office -- complete with a receptionist to answer his phone -- was a gift from a church member who understood the law of probability.

Retirement would turn out to be nothing more than a slight shift in Holderness' ongoing ministry.

"Mary [Rev. Haywood Holderness' wife] tells me that I have flunked retirement," he said this week.

"My new office is a lot nicer than the one I left," he said. "It overlooks Sam's Club and I can see the steeple at Westminster over there on Old Chapel Hill Road."

Does he ever feel a wave of sadness when he drives by?

"No, because I feel so good about the future of the church," he said. "And one night before Christmas, the whole choir and a mob of children came and sang Christmas carols at our house. Mary cried."

In addition to continuing to volunteer with such organizations as Urban Ministries, Housing for New Hope, the Food Bank of North Carolina and Durham Congregations in Action, Holderness said he's been doing a lot of weddings and traveling to unique places to conduct them, like Rochester, N.Y., (on the Erie Canal, he said), Thailand, Rutherfordton, Linville and Chapel Hill. But he and his wife usually spend Sundays in town, affording them the opportunity to visit a variety of churches.

"These are churches and pastors that I have loved, but never got to go to their services," he said.

His newest job is a part-time gig in development with Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va. As a graduate of the seminary, Holderness said he never really promoted it much before, but he thinks the institution needs better visibility.

This work, however, will not mean a move for the Holderness family. "We're dug in, in Durham," he said.

Recently, Holderness turned his ability to raise money to helping Durham Congregations in Action accumulate $100,000 for a new ministry, "YO: Durham," a program for teens that is set to begin next summer.

Holderness, who is aware of his reputation for having a special gift with fundraising, says his approach comes straight out of the Bible.

"Ask and you shall be given," he said. "I get to know people well enough to know where their hearts are, and then I ask them to give to a cause that meets the needs of their hearts."

Chance meeting proves a blessing for program

In October, Duke Chapel extended its ministry into Durham's central city in a new way. Four recent graduates of Duke University and a community pastor moved into a renovated and refurbished house at 1115 W. Chapel Hill St.

The Duke folks did not come into the central city with an organized program of any kind, but came on invitation from the West End Community. The intent was for the new residents of the house to live and share life with neighbors in the central city.

The recent grads live in the house and work in ongoing ministries and nonprofits around the city. The Rev. Abby Kocher, who is the first community pastor, has an office in what is now known as the PathWays House. It's the one with the bright yellow front door and red shutters.

Kocher has spent her first months on the job getting to know folks in all of Durham's greater West End neighborhoods, she said recently. She and her husband, the Rev. Craig Kocher, assistant dean of Duke Chapel, moved to Burch Avenue, just a few blocks away, this past summer.

"We have a lot of wonderful neighbors," she said. "These are people who are committed to lives of service and advocacy, people who know that caring for your community means getting your hands dirty and not being afraid to get involved."

She tells a story about meeting folks who used to live in the PathWays House when it was a boarding house and had a reputation for harboring drug dealers and persons with substance abuse problems.

Some are now recovering and making a new life for themselves. Kocher tells about one woman who came by.

"This fall, we had a house blessing and prayed through each room, including the basement, that this would be a place of hospitality, community and friendship. As we gathered, a woman walking by on the sidewalk inquired about what we were doing. 'I used to live here and do all kinds of things I shouldn't have done,' she said, 'but now I've been clean for five months and I'm celebrating that today.'"

Kocher said the woman stayed and prayed through every room, remembering her former life and thanking God for the positive changes currently taking place.

"I found it significant that God gave us the opportunity to include a stranger in our house blessing as a way of preparing us to receive new neighbors, strangers who would become friends," Kocher said.

Living in the neighborhood means she gets to know children she meets in the after-school program at the West End Community Center, she said.

"They are the same kids who live on my street. I see them around the neighborhood, walking home or going to the store, waiting for the bus or worshipping in a neighborhood church on Sunday morning.

"One of the most important things I do is simply stopping to talk to them, lingering past a short 'hello.'"

Keynote speaker named for MLK event

The Martin Luther King Steering Committee has announced the keynote speaker for the annual religious service to be held Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. at Union Baptist Church, 917 N. Roxboro St.

The Rev. Cynthia L. Hale, founding and senior pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Atlanta, leads the work of a congregation of about 3,500 that she organized 21 years ago. She is a native of Roanoke, Va., and earned a bachelor's degree from Hollins College in Virginia.

She holds a Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School and a Doctorate of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Ohio.

Among the honors and awards marking her service are her membership in the African American Biographies Hall of Fame and the Martin Luther King Board of Preachers.

She is a member of the South Dekalb Church Coalition, the board of Beulah Heights Bible College, City of Hope Ministries, the board of Hollins University Alumnae and co-chair of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference.