The Rev. Joe Harvard, pastor of First Presbyterian for the past 27 years, will be honored with the annual Samuel DuBois Cook Award at Duke University for his work to improve race relations in the Durham area. The award will be presented during the annual dinner Feb. 27 at the Washington Duke Inn.

Named for the first black faculty member at Duke University, the Cook Society was founded in 1997 to recognize and celebrate the black presence at Duke.

"Joe Harvard rises to the occasion every time," said Myrna Adams, founding member of the society and the former vice president for institutional equity at Duke. "That visibility, that commitment, is something that most people in the city know of. That's the way we know Joe."

For most of his 27 years in Durham, Harvard has been a leader in the faith community to build what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the beloved community," a society where discrimination, hunger, homelessness and poverty do not exist.

At various times, he and his church have been leaders in offering peaceful ways to discuss and resolve racial conflict. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the O.J. Simpson trial and, most recently, the Duke lacrosse case, First Presbyterian and other churches have held meetings and conferences to discuss race relations, equality in public education, domestic violence and other issues affecting the community.

"We have a responsibility for the quality of life and the community in which we live," Harvard said. "The color line still exists, unfortunately. The real challenge is to build a community that talks to each other and knows each other, community members that have relationships across the color line, people who interact with each other as human beings. That sense of understanding is what builds bridges."

Epiphany Eucharist

St. Joseph's Episcopal, one block from Duke's East Campus at 1902 W. Main St., will hold an Epiphany Eucharist at 5 p.m. Jan. 6.

Vicar Rhonda Lee will be the homilist. She came to St. Joseph's at the beginning of December as the interim vicar for the congregation, which split last Easter Sunday when Father Steven Clark left the Episcopal Church and took with him about half the members at St. Joseph's. The group under Clark's leadership organized St. Gregory's Anglican Church, a mission of the Anglican Church in America. Sunday liturgies are held at 11 a.m. in the chapel at Mount Sylvan United Methodist Church, 5731 N. Roxboro Road.

Lee and her husband, who teaches history at UNC-Chapel Hill, moved to Durham last July. She said this week that her appointment to St. Joseph's will be for six months, during which the congregation will work with the diocese and the bishop to find a new rector.

Epiphany, Lee said, is a major festival of the church, celebrating the coming of the light into the world in the form of Jesus. Lee previously served as assistant rector at Calvary Episcopal in Louisville, Ky. She attended seminary at both Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Seabury Seminary and holds a master of divinity degree.

"St. Joseph's is a small, but faithful people. It has a lovely building and a location that is close to Duke's East Campus. All of these are important things to remember as we look forward to the future," the vicar said.

Reformation

The Rev. Paul Scott, founder of the Durham-based Messianic Afrikan Nation, launched the African Reformation Movement on Tuesday, the first day of Kwanzaa.

Scott says that like the Reformation of the 17th century, the purpose is to remind the church of its mission to be the voice of the poor and oppressed, and in this case, to ask black churches to become more "afrocentric."

No special events were planned in Durham, Scott said this week, but he sent out announcements and press releases to his network of supporters across the country.

"Any time you have a national gang problem and police shooting black men and women, something is very wrong spiritually," he said. "Today you have black children who can sing an entire rap song but can't quote one Bible verse."

Scott, an activist, writer and speaker, has been an ordained Baptist minister since 1998.

St. Stephen's concerts

Concerts at St. Stephen's Episcopal will feature pianist Andrew Tyson, a Durham native, at 4 p.m. Jan. 7. at the church, 82 Kimberly Drive.

The program includes works by J.S. Bach, Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms and Frederic Chopin.

Tyson, a Durham Academy graduate, is currently studying with Claude Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music. Previously, he studied with Thomas Otten at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has performed as a concert soloist with the Guilford Symphony Orchestra at the Eastern Music Festival, the Durham Symphony, the Raleigh Symphony and the Chapel Hill Philharmonic.

There is no admission charge; however, donations will be accepted at the door.

36th year

Durham Congregations in Action will celebrate its 36th year of interfaith ministries in Durham during its annual meeting and dinner Jan. 16.

Keynote speaker will be James Speed, president and chief executive officer of N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co., with musical selections presented by the Heart of Carolina Chorus. New DCIA officers will be elected and installed, and the president, the Rev. Peebles Lindsay-Lucas, and the executive director, David Winer, will give brief reflections on the past year.

The cost of the dinner is $13, and reservations should be made by Jan. 8. A check payable to Durham Congregations in Action can be mailed to the office at 504 W. Chapel Hill St., or reservations can be made by calling 688-2036.

The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1902 Perry St.