The Averette Lecture is an endowed annual lecture series at First Presbyterian Church. Each year a well-renowned preacher or scholar visits First Presbyterian Church for a weekend. In addition to offering a lecture, the Averette speaker preaches at Sunday morning worship services. This annual lecture provides the First Presbyterian Church family with exposure to issues outside of the Wilmington area and facing the Church today. In its early years, the Averette Lecture was a month-long, “theologian” in residence program that covered four Sunday mornings. Over time, the lecture series evolved to its present format.
Background: In 1984, Geneva Averette and other members of the extended Averette family, gave money to First Presbyterian Church to endow a lecture series in Christian Education in memory of Geneva’s husband, George, who had been a leader here in Adult Christian Education. When Geneva died in 2000, the extended Averette family agreed to continue what she had begun and so the Averette Lectures continue at First Presbyterian Church nearly forty years later.
The Averette Lecture Endowment has enabled the church to bring in noted scholars and leading preachers for over three decades.
View past lectures.
Past lecturers include:
Dr. John Leith,
Dr. Albert C. Winn
Dr. Isabel Rogers
Dr. James Smylie
Dr. Frances Taylor Gench
Dr. John Kuykendall
Dr. Tom Currie
Dr. Laura Mendenhall
Dr. Tom Are
Dr. Nora Tubbs Tisdale
Dr. Steve Eason
Dr. Craig Barnes and many others
Dr. Roger Nishioka
Dr. Richard Boyce
Local religious scholars and leaders:
Dr. Walt Conser
Dr. George Slaton
Dr. Sam Murrell
Dr. Joe Walser
Dr. Doug Vaughan
Dr. Ernie Thompson
The 2023 Averette Lecturer was Reverend Dr. Scott Black Johnston of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City.