Union Chapel celebrates Camp Quinipet Sunday on July 16, at 10:30 AM. The Rev. Matthew Querns, Quinipet’s Spiritual Life Coordinator, will preach at this outdoor interdenominational service.
Chapel Music Director Linda Betjeman and the Cottage Trio will provide music for the service. Quinipet staff members will serve as readers and ushers and might even sing a song.
Union Chapel and Quinipet share similar beginnings as Methodist camps, although Union Chapel became interdenominational about a decade after its founding.
“Union Chapel is honored to celebrate Camp Quinipet’s 77 years as a valued member of the Shelter Island community,” said Jay Sterling, chair of the Union Chapel trustees.
“They enhance the spiritual growth of thousands of campers and retreat visitors and offer their facilities to Islanders and off-Islanders alike.”
About Quinipet Camp and Retreat Center
In the early 1800s, the picturesque peninsula on the Island’s western edge, now home to Camp Quinipet, was the landing for ferry service to Southold.
By 1820, it was the home of the Jennings farm and, in 1850, the estate of the Stearns family. The latter’s legacy is reflected in nearby Stearns Point Road, which runs east from the camp through deep woods parallel to Shore Road.
Quinipet is mentioned in Union Chapel’s commemorative book, “All Are Welcome: 150 Years of Shelter Island’s Union Chapel in the Grove” by Carrie Cooperider.
She notes that a pamphlet from 1921 advertises “Quinipet Camp: A Salt Water Camp for Girls.” And “A Handbook of Private Schools for American Boys and Girls” from 1921-1922 describes Camp Quinipet as “a salt water camp opened in 1921 by Myron T. Scudder of the Scudder School on the estate of John Noble Stearns.”
At the time, Quinipet comprised three separate camps: Camp Thetis for the older girls, Camp Galatea for the younger, and Camp Neptune for adults. The following year, Quinipet became a boys’ camp.
The Rev. Theodore C. Boblin spoke at the dedication of Camp Quinipet as a Methodist Training Camp in 1947. He cited the five tenets of Christianity, chiseled into the rocks on the camp’s grounds: Courage, Honesty, Humility, Faith, and Love.
Boblin was the resident minister of Union Chapel and instrumental in getting the United Methodist Church to buy the Quinipet site.
“The relationship between the current Camp Quinipet and Union Chapel is strictly through Dr. Boblin,” Sterling explained. “The Methodists had nothing to do with the governance of Union Chapel after 1900.”
Today, Camp Quinipet is used by many different denominations and non-religious groups. It serves over 5,800 people annually. Led by Executive Director Brooke Bradley, the camp is owned and operated by the New York Conference of the United Methodist Church.
About Cottage Trio
Music at the Chapel service will be provided by the Cottage Trio, with violinist Ann Marie Chubet, her husband, James, on keyboard, and Jeannie Woelker on cello.
This is an outdoor service, so please bring a chair or blanket if possible. A reception catered by STARS CAFÉ follows.
The commemorative book is available for purchase after the service at Finley’s Fiction or by contacting Union Chapel Trustee Kathy Dinkel.
Next week: Community Sunday, honoring the Shelter Island Police Benevolent Association, with the Rev. Charles McCarron, rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
JoAnn Kirkland assists the trustees of Union Chapel in the Grove
