Poetry Sunday at Shelter Island’s Union Chapel

One of the unexpected “gifts” of the pandemic for Union Chapel during the Summer of 2020 was the creation of Poetry Sundays in the Grove.

Because returning indoors was risky, Chairman Jay Sterling and the trustees came up with the idea to have outdoor services centered around poetry and the work of one poet.

Poetry Sundays proved to be immensely popular. It’s fitting, then, that Jay and the trustees decided to end the Summer of 2022, our 150th anniversary summer, with Poetry Sunday on Sept. 4 at 10:30 a.m.

The work of Irish poet, priest and mystic John O’Donohue will be highlighted. Returning as they have for many years, Heather Reylek and Island Folk are the guest musicians.

Our previous Poetry Sundays honored the work of poets who had deep spiritual messages by reading their poems and reflecting on their lives, including Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Mary Oliver.

This year, we will read selections from John O’Donohue’s “To Bless the Space Between Us.”

John O’Donohue was a poet, author, priest, Hegelian philosopher and scholar. A native Gaelic speaker from County Clare, Ireland, he was born in 1956 and died suddenly in 2008, of unknown causes.

During his lifetime, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology from the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, located in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and completed post-doctoral study of the 13th century mystic, Meister Eckhart.

Some of his best-known works include international bestsellers, “Anam Cara,” “Beauty and the Invisible Embrace,” “Eternal Echoes” and “To Bless the Space Between Us,” published posthumously.

His thoughts and works continue to be widely used in lectures and podcasts on religion and spirituality. Krista Tippett,  journalist and creator and podcast host of “On Being,” described his work as “a very Celtic, lifelong fascination with the inner landscape of our lives and what he called the ‘invisible world’ that is constantly intertwining what we know and see.” 

He was credited with popularizing Celtic spirituality and mysticism, and the beauty of solitude and self-discovery. “

When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you,” he wrote in Anam Cara. “Your forgotten or neglected wealth begins to reveal itself. You come home to yourself and learn to rest within. Thoughts are our inner senses. Infused with silence and solitude, they bring out the mystery of inner landscape.”

John O’Donohue offers this lovely blessing, a benediction, “For Equilibrium,” especially poignant for our lives in the beautiful place, on this beautiful island. Here’s an excerpt:

Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,

May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,

May your gravity be lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,

May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

Help us celebrate the final service of our 150th anniversary summer by joining us for Poetry Sunday on Sept. 4, outdoors in our leafy grove. Please bring a chair.

A reception, catered by Stars Café, will follow the service. In case of rain, the service will move indoors.