Reverend Yost to speak at Union Chapel Sunday

Camp Quinipet Sunday will be celebrated on July 12 at 10:30 a.m. at Union Chapel in the Grove. Reverend Arthur Yost, retired minister of the United Methodist Church and an executive coach in West Haven, Connecticut will speak. His sermon is titled, “Is Cleanliness Next To Godliness?”

Reverend Yost is a city boy from the Bronx who learned to love the camping experience, first at Camp Epworth in High Falls, New York and then at Camp Quinipet. He graduated from Hunter College with a major in sociology and went to Union Theological Seminary in New York City, graduating with a masters of divinity in 1970. He also has a masters in science in counseling from Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

He retired in 2007 after 40 years in pastoral ministry, the last 20 of which he served at a United Methodist Church in West Haven. He has been a camp program director at Quinipet a dozen times, first leading a senior adult camp and then adult retreats with members of his church. Major themes of his pastoral ministry include acceptance, grace, concern for the environment and spiritual health.

His wife Ann, a licensed pediatric social worker, has accompanied him to Camp Quinipet many times. They will celebrate their 30th anniversary this November.

Music will be played by chapel organist Linda Betjeman and cellist Karin Bennett. Ms Bennett has a masters degree in performance from the University of Illinois and has continued as a freelance and studio cellist on the East Coast. She currently performs with the Beach Road Piano Trio and lives on the Island where she is the senior programs manager for the Town of Shelter Island.