Lydia preaching on Sunday, April 12.
Lydia Harrison was told she should be at Blacknall on Aug. 13, 2023, but she didn't know she was supposed to be there.
Three separate recommendations had already put Blacknall on her radar, so on her first Sunday in Durham, she showed up. And the very first song she heard, “Dawning Light of Our Salvation,” sealed it. Arranged by Wendell Kimbrough and Bruce Benedict, the connection ran deeper: Bruce had been one of the people who encouraged her to visit. Lydia knew him from her undergraduate years at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, and he’s a friend of Director of Music & Worship Wen Reagan.
“It was when the credit slide for that song came up — I just knew,” Lydia said. She didn’t need to visit any other church.
Lydia arrived in Durham that summer to pursue a Master of Divinity degree at Duke Divinity School. Her first time in Blacknall’s Sanctuary has turned into nearly three years worshiping here, including two academic years serving as a seminary intern in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026. She graduates May 10 and after some traveling, plans to return to Durham — and to Blacknall.
“There’s a gift in trusting that my life and story are not meaningless or arbitrary — that there’s purpose in what God is doing,” Lydia said. “I walked into Blacknall that first Sunday expectant and hopeful it would be good. Then I felt such peace because it clearly was, which let me invest wholeheartedly right away. I knew that was where God wanted me to be.”
That investment came quickly. Within weeks, she joined a women’s Bible study group. About a month later, Wen invited her to play cello with the worship band. During her first year as a seminary intern, she helped shape the Evening Prayer Service alongside Parish Associate Chris Blumhofer and Wen, and she’s continued to help form its liturgy and structure ever since.
“There’s a particular kind of intimacy with Christ that’s cultivated in quiet spaces, and in a noisy world, quiet can be hard to cultivate on your own,” Lydia said. “Part of the power of our Evening Prayer Service is the way it helps disciple us in quiet when we don’t know how to do that for ourselves.”
Lydia leading discussion during a Young Adult Fellowship gathering during Blacknall’s Sunday School.
That space became one of the defining parts of her time at Blacknall. She helped develop Holy Saturday services over the past two years rooted in Lectio Divina, a contemplative and meditative way to read Scripture. She also led Sunday School for high school students and young adults and served in different ways during Sunday worship — playing with the worship band, offering calls to worship and confession, and preaching in January 2025 and April 2026.
Along the way, she picked up on different ways to serve as a leader. She saw it in Wen’s clarity and enthusiasm in planning Sunday worship, in working with Pastor Goodie Bell and Director of Youth Ministry Kat Burgett as she prepared sermons, and in a staff culture marked by collaboration. It all provided tangible examples of what it means to share in a mission to care for Blacknall’s congregation.
“The collective offering is so much greater than what any one of us could do alone,” she said.
That sense of community is what she carries with her now that her time as a seminary intern has come to a close. Among all her experiences, one moment stands out: serving communion after preaching, remaining at the front of the sanctuary and sharing intimate moments with people.
"Some people came forward in tears, some in joy, some maybe just a little tired," she said. "And Jesus knows each person so intimately, His grace touches each person so particularly.”
In those moments, the calling became clear. “Oh, this is what I want to do,” she said.
“Christ doesn’t need me to offer His ministry of grace. He’s perfectly capable of doing that without me,” Lydia said. “But somehow He chooses to invite me into that anyway, and I serve Him by loving His people. That's a really precious honor.”