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Memorial service for yacht club members at Union Chapel

COURTESY PHOTO | Union Chapel
COURTESY PHOTO | Union Chapel

Signal flags and vintage burgees will fly from the rafters of the historic Union Chapel in the Grove as a procession of officers and trustees of the Shelter Island Yacht Club, celebrating its 130th year, join the chapel on Sunday, July 17 at 10:30 a.m. for the annual combined service of interdenominational worship. 

Commodore William J. Mills III and other flag officers of the club will participate in the memorial service, which honors members who have died in the past year. All are welcome at a reception in the Grove hosted by the Yacht Club immediately following the service.

The Chapel welcomes the Reverend Jill Staples Vogt. Her sermon is titled “Plain Foolishness.” She has a bachelor’s degree from Denison University and a Master of Divinity from Harvard. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree with Acadia Divinity School, which she anticipates completing this year. An ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, Jill is currently serving as co-pastor of the Moravian Church congregation in Herrnhut, Germany together with her husband, Dr. Peter Vogt. She also works as a chaplain at the Zinzendorf Moravian High School in Herrnhut and represents the denomination on the German Council of Churches.

Jill and her husband have two children, Anna, 20, and Christian, 16. She has spent a part of every summer on Shelter Island in one of the original camp meeting houses that has been in her family for over 100 years. Music for trumpet and organ will be presented by Chapel organist Linda Betjeman and trumpeter Nelson Bogart. Mr. Bogart is a member of the Shelter Island Yacht Club and is in his fourth career, working now as a full-time music composer. A trumpet and guitar player, he has been a studio musician, lawyer and a professor.

Submitted by Union Chapel