Salary is negotiable based on experience, per diocesan guidelines.

Our liturgical style is fairly traditional and might be called Broad Church. Sunday services at the Chapel follow Book of Common Prayer Rites I and II. During a typical month, there are two Sunday services, one at 8:00 a.m. (Rite I, no music) and one at 9:30 (Rite II with service music and four hymns). For the last Sunday of each month, we bring together the congregations for a single service at 9:00. Parishioners find comfort in the familiar rituals, prayers and songs, but remain open to dialogue around change. We also like to be flexible to meet the needs of the community or circumstances of the day, such as when we organized outdoor services on the lawn in the late Spring and Summer of 2021, or when folks are invited to bring their pets to church in October for Blessing of the Animals.

The Chapel has a structured Parish In-reach Committee whose goal is to strengthen ties of love and compassion that help define our church community. Examples include delivering flowers to shut-ins, providing rides to appointments, and coordinating a parish directory. We also have a Pastoral Care Committee for trained and licensed members to deliver Holy Eucharist and provide a higher level of spiritual care during our clergy transition. We work diligently to maintain attractive, safe, and welcoming buildings and grounds to create a suitable ambiance for worship and fellowship. All our activities occur within a family-like environment of genuine care and respect that is increasingly important as members age and are more dependent upon others for support. This sense of family is especially evident in weekly coffee hours in the adjacent parish hall where congregants gather to socialize after church. As this service-to-need ratio evolves toward people in need, we are challenged to identify and engage new community members who bring new energy and talent to the process of care.

One way we are preparing for the Church of the future is by seeking a priest who is flexible and forward-thinking, willing to investigate possibilities for helping us deal with what we are and what we need to be.

Ours is a small and aging population, but we do our best to make it possible for everyone to participate. We organize a weekly server schedule for lay eucharistic ministers, ushers, readers and presenters. We have an active pastoral care group, Altar Guild and small adult choir. There is currently no Sunday school. In the past we have hosted movie nights, holiday bazaars and plant-based dinners, and all are invited to make our fellowship events successful. Church and community members engage in our missions: organizing donations to the local food pantry and bringing soup to local fishermen. We have the potential to be “vectors” for building our Christian community, but we are short on capacity and we worry about parishioner burn-out. We pray for spiritual leadership to lend energy and direction to our growth.

The Chapel is beautiful and well maintained, in a lovely setting near the coastline. Parishioners are warm, engaged, and truly care for one another. They are bright, capable, and responsive.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew, Canon to the Ordinary

401-274-4500 x232 dena@episcopalri.org