The Advocate’s campus is 15 acres at the northeast corner of Homestead Rd. & Merin Rd. in north Chapel Hill. Our surrounding area includes the historic Rogers Road neighborhood, several new housing developments, a senior center, schools, transitional housing for men and women, and the human services center for the southern part of Orange County. Just south of our campus lies the Carolina North Forest – 750 acres of woodlands managed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which will someday house UNC’s North Satellite Campus to promote research for green technology and mixed-use infrastructure for environmental sustainability.
Within this context, the Advocate seeks to provide a place of radical welcome, with opportunities for prayer and worship, quiet contemplation, community gatherings, and cooperative social action. We seek to balance the creative tension between encouraging inner postures of rest and restoration, and inspiring active engagement with the needs of the surrounding community and the world.
We invite you to stop by anytime, to pray in our traditional gothic board-and-batton chapel, sit underneath the windchimes in our outdoor chapel by the pond, or take a walk through our wooded trails. Click here if you would like to meet with a clergy person during your visit.
Chapel & Parish House
Our chapel is an 1891 carpenter gothic style building that originally housed an Episcopal congregation in Germanton, North Carolina. In 2012, the Advocate moved the chapel 130 miles along back roads of the piedmont to Chapel Hill. This move was very much in keeping with the Advocate’s commitment to environmental sustainability, and also to our experience as a new old church, cherishing the past, while making it new for a new generation.
The Parish House is a ranch-style house that the congregation inherited with the purchase of the site. It houses the rector’s office (click here for information on office hours), our Sunday morning Christian formation, and other gatherings of the congregation.
Outdoor Chapel & Pond
The grounds of the Advocate center around our beautiful pond and host the Advocate’s outdoor chapel, where our 8:30am Simple Eucharist takes place during the warm months, and also where we gather after church for our regular Sunday lunch fellowship.
The pond is stocked with fish and serves as a fishing spot for the surrounding neighborhoods. Geese, ducks, herons, hawks, owls, woodpeckers, deer, squirrels, tree frogs, turtles, and several species of butterfly can be regularly seen (and heard!) while sitting near the pond or worshipping at the outdoor chapel.
Community Garden & Blessing Box
Our dedicated Advocate Gardeners grow vegetables and flowers in our 11 raised beds for the benefit of the entire community. Most of the food harvested from our garden is donated directly to the community market at the Interfaith Council for Social Services.
We also have a “Blessing Box” near the sidewalk on the corner of Homestead & Merin Rd., donated by the Johnson Service Corps cohort of 2020-2021. This box serves as a free community pantry, with nonperishable food and household items that are available for anyone in need. Donations are restocked monthly by the Daughters of the King at Chapel of the Cross, members of the Advocate, and other anonymous community members.
The Advocate Pavilion
Located just west of our pond (near the overflow parking lot) is The Advocate Pavilion, a place for play, retreat, and community gatherings. The Pavilion features a brick wood fire oven, which we use once a month to bake fresh pizza during our Sunday lunch gatherings. This site is also available to outside groups for weddings, birthday parties, family reunions, community gatherings, and other special events. Click here for rental information.
Affordable Housing: Pee Wee Homes
Since 2019, our property has been home to three tiny homes that provide housing to low-income residents, through the Pee Wee Homes Collaborative, an organization working to find creative solutions to the affordable housing crisis in Orange County. Click here to learn more about our Pee Wee Homes.
Walking Trail
Our neighbors and visitors are invited to walk the path around the pond and enjoy the wildlife and native flora that have been planted and tended as part of our ongoing commitment to stewardship of this land and the environment. Visitors are also welcome to explore the woods that comprise the rest of the property between Merin Road and the railroad tracks.
If you would like to donate your time, talent, or treasure to support the maintenance, upkeep, and future development of our property, please contact Ames Herbert.