Early-morning sun dappled the leafy grove of the Union Chapel when 80 people attended the first outdoor service in years. The antique bell tolled in welcome. White circles painted on the grass surrounded people in beach chairs: women wearing straw hats and summer dresses, men in linen shirts and bright pants. Everyone wore a mask.
This is Union Chapel in the Grove during the time of COVID-19. Some came for the first time because they wished to pray outdoors, in the fresh air, away from the enclosed spaces of churches. Others, like Union Chapel Board Chairman Jay Sterling, have attended for 40 years.
The chapel returned to its roots last Sunday, following in the tradition of its history as a Methodist open-air camp, started in 1872 by Brooklyn churchgoers fleeing the heat of the city.
New faces and familiar ones
Trustees attended virtual meetings for two months to plan for reopening. They decided the best way to protect and safeguard the health of the congregation was to move the service outdoors. The trees provided welcome shade in the spacious grove.
There were new faces and familiar ones. Old friends greeted each other — from a distance — after a winter apart. Trustees sat with families, husbands with wives, people alone or with a friend. Under their mother’s watchful eye, two little girls in matching pink gingham dresses colored pictures with their brother, while a younger brother watched from his father’s lap.
A dog across the street barked and was quickly shushed. People rode by on bikes. The waking-up Heights neighborhood, with its Victorian homes seemed washed in quiet, the chapel and its stained glass windows a beacon of sacredness in a prosaic world.
Socially distant but joined together in worship, the congregation recited prayers, listened to “The Wednesdays,” a duo comprised of Katie Herbst and Jill Yoo, singing soft harmonies and playing guitar. Music Director Linda Betjeman moved her harpsichord/organ outside while Trustee Dave Ruby acted as sound engineer. Sterling led the service standing at a simple lectern that was draped in a cloth embroidered with an anchor. Blue hydrangeas in full bloom flanked the chapel — no need for formal floral arrangements or an altar.
The scene was both serene and nostalgic, this gathering of people of different faiths, joining together in worship on a Sunday morning.
It could have been 50 or 150 years ago, though the masks made it apparent that it was 2020.
There was a sense of community, of coming together after a long and trying time that wasn’t over yet. Prayers for the living, for the departed. Hymns normally sung were chanted or hummed. Prayers whispered.
Celebration of July 4th
Betjeman played patriotic hymns in honor of the Fourth of July. Instead of a homily, Trustee Duke Reich read excerpts from Reverend Phillips Brook’s “The Candle of the Lord” sermon, delivered in Westminster Abbey on July 4, 1880.
The famous orator spoke of the “simple truth that to all true men the birthday of a nation must always be a sacred thing. For in our modern thought the nation is the making-place of men. Not by the traditions of its history, nor by the splendor of its corporate achievements, not by the abstract excellence of its Constitution, but by its fitness to make men, to beget and educate human character, to contribute to the complete humanity … by this alone each nation must be judged.”
During the month of July, services will remain informal, with prayers, guest musicians and a lesson. By August, depending on health protocols, the services may move indoors, back to a more traditional format of guest preachers and speakers from many faiths. Or the trustees may decide to continue the new tradition they’ve begun. Revitalizing the old one.
Sunday, July 12
Everyone is welcome to Sunday morning service at 10:30; no gathering will be held in the event of rain. On Sunday, July 12, baritone Thom Milton will sing.
Bring a chair and an open heart.
Visit the chapel website at unionchapelinthegrove.org. Follow Union Chapel on Facebook and Instagram.
JoAnn Kirkland is an assistant to the Trustees of Union Chapel in the Grove.
