Union Chapel celebrates 145 years
Historic Union Chapel will celebrate the 145th anniversary of the chapel and Shelter Island Heights at a homecoming service this Sunday, June 18 at 10:30 a.m. The chapel bell will toll for members of the Shelter Island Heights community and chapel trustees who passed away over the last year: Charles Crandall, M.D., Susan Gross, Betty Luntey and Michael Zavatto. The names will be read by Lois Cohen, chairwoman of the Shelter Island Heights Property Owners Corp.
At the service, Union Chapel will welcome back Father Philip Dabney of Boston. This is Father Dabney’s second time preaching at a Sunday service at Union Chapel. He is a first cousin of the late Dr. Larry Zarchin of Wesley Avenue. Father Dabney married the Zarchins’ three daughters at the chapel in and presided over Dr. Zarchin’s funeral at Our Lady of the Isle in 2015.
Father Dabney is a Redemptorist priest, presently serving as the associate pastor at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston. The church, one of the city’s largest, is commonly referred to as the Mission Church and is located on Mission Hill, close to many of the city’s medical institutions. The church was the site of Senator Edward Kennedy’s funeral in 2009 and Father Dabney was a concelebrant at the service. The Mission Church is the home of the Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon and the destination of many pilgrims and other visitors.
Father Dabney is an authority on the history and meaning of the shrine and was a major participant in the 150th Anniversary of the Redemptorist’s guardianship of the icon last year. Father Dabney is a frequent leader of Marian devotions on the Catholic Television Network. He was also a seminary classmate of Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the new Archbishop of Newark.
Father Dabney was ordained in 1978. A gifted speaker and educator, Father Dabney spent the first 30 years of his career teaching in seminaries and leading vocational training. He has been a parish priest at the Mission Church since 2008.
Music for the service will be performed by Joan Osborne, guest organist, and Jeannie Woelker, cellist. Ms. Woelker will play two pieces by Bach for unaccompanied cello.
All are invited to a reception in the Grove following the service.
Submitted by Union Chapel
