Rev. Lee van Rensburg to preach at Union Chapel
The Rev. Lee van Rensburg, retired senior pastor of Morrow Memorial United Methodist Church in Maplewood, New Jersey, will preach at Union Chapel at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, September 3. The title of his sermon is “For Goodness Sake.”
The service will be a memorial for Charles E. Crandall, M.D., longtime trustee of Union Chapel.
Rev. van Rensburg is a familiar face at Union Chapel, having visited and led services some dozen times over the years. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa and came to the States in 1975, serving in the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and retiring several years ago after serving Morrow Memorial UMC.
Since retiring Rev. van Rensburg has been traveling, lecturing and engaged in hospitality work for Educational Opportunities – a Christian travel company specializing in pilgrimages to the Holy Land, journeys of St. Paul, lands of the Bible cruises in the Mediterranean and Christian heritage tours such as John Wesley’s England and Martin Luther’s Germany.
Rev. van Rensburg is an adjunct member of the faculty of the Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies which allows him to lecture in the Galilee during his stay between January and Easter each year. During the Lenten season, some 2,000 guests visit through Educational Opportunities.
Guest musicians for the service will be Island Folk. The group has been keeping the spirit of traditional music alive on Shelter Island for many years and has performed at the Union Chapel’s end of summer service numerous times. Sunday’s program features Penny Kerr on guitar and vocals, John Kerr on upright bass, and Heather Reylek on tenor banjo, harmonica, and vocals. The music chosen for the program includes: “There Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down” by Claude Ely who recorded it on WCTW in Whitesburg, Kentucky in October 1953. They will also perform “Free the People,” composed by Barbara Keith and recorded by Bonny and Delaney in 1970.
Submitted by Union Chapel
