Union Chapel in the Grove invites all to attend Closing Sunday, the last of the interdenominational services for 2021, at the seasonal chapel. The Rev. Katharine Henderson will deliver a sermon entitled “What Lies Beneath.”
In a 2017 Tedx talk, “Letting God Out of the Box,” Henderson says she decided to become a minister when she was a 16-year-old, self-proclaimed “nihilist.”
“Nothing really mattered,” she said, of her teenage beliefs, even though her father was a seminary professor and a minister, and her family, “serious, earnest, church-going folk.”
But she was visiting Germany as a high school student and had an “in-your-face” conversation with a Catholic monk in the doorway of a Benedictine monastery. When she asked him if she could receive Communion, even though she wasn’t Catholic, his answer was: Yes, she wouldn’t be turned away.
“He chose my humanity over his rules of exclusion,” she said during the Tedx talk. “He welcomed me in when he could’ve set up barriers,” she said. She never even knew his name, but “he led me on the way to the minister I am today, and I have never looked back.”
That sense of inclusion is what Union Chapel in the Grove has delivered in services open to throughout the summer — some indoors, some outdoors. On September 5 at 10:30 AM, our last service of the season will be outdoors (or inside the chapel if weather dictates). In keeping with a Labor Day weekend tradition, Island Folk will provide music.
About Rev. Katharine Henderson
Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Rev. Katharine Henderson is president of Auburn Seminary. The seminary, founded 200 years ago by Presbyterians, describes itself as “a leadership development and research institute that equips and convenes leaders across the multi-faith movement for justice.”
Author of “God’s Troublemakers: How Women of Faith are Changing the World,” she is an internationally known speaker, featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, MSNBC, NPR, and more. Henderson is currently writing her second book, “Fighting for the Heart of America: How the Prophets of our Time are Bringing Our Nation’s Future to Birth.”
Among other accomplishments, she:
- Was named co-recipient of the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize for her “lifelong passion to create spaces for authentic interfaith engagement”
- Serves on the Advisory Board of Duke University’s Islamic Studies Center and the Multi-faith Leadership Advisory Board for New York University
During the civil rights movement, Henderson was raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and accompanied her parents on many marches. She earned a Master of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary and Ph.D. at Teachers College, Columbia University.
When asked about lessons learned during the pandemic, Henderson shared these thoughts by email:
“We continue to go through a season of multiple pandemics, related to and compounding one another: the COVID virus that continues to ravage the lives of families and communities and bring our healthcare workers and systems to the brink; racial injustices that live in minds and hearts and systems and structures; polarization and divisions that threaten violence and the corrosion of democracy.
“This pandemic moment can teach us a lot if we take the time to learn and absorb its complex and often contradictory lessons that:
- We carry a deep hunger for the presence, intimacy, and touch of those we love, and that solitude provides deep nourishment
- The technology that provides a deep network of connection can also isolate us from others, nature, and even ourselves
- Interdependence is a global reality–we belong to one another. Through technology and the inscrutable brilliance of a virus, boundaries no longer exist
- American individualism can actually threaten to undo us without a powerful commitment to the common good and the communitarian spirit that moves people beyond the self
- God and Spirit, known by many names, continue to sustain us with boundless hope, joy, courage, and love”
Henderson and her husband, Charles — also a Presbyterian minister — are good friends with many Chapel trustees and have preached eight times at the Chapel, according to Chairman Jay Sterling. They are avid sailors and often stay aboard their boat when visiting the Island.
About Island Folk
Our guest musicians, Island Folk, have kept the spirit of traditional music alive on Shelter Island for years, performing at the Union Chapel’s Labor Day service many times. The group consists of Penny Kerr on guitar and vocals, John Kerr on upright bass, Heather Reylek, guitar and vocals, and Wendy Clark, banjo and vocals.
Please join us outdoors for Closing Sunday on September 5 at 10:30 AM with the Rev. Katharine Henderson. Please bring a chair. In the case of inclement weather, the service will move indoors.
JoAnn Kirkland is an assistant to the Trustees of Union Chapel in the Grove. Learn more about the historic chapel on its website, unionchapelinthegrove.org.
