Shelter Island’s Union Chapel’s Homecoming and Heights Memorial

Everyone is welcome to the Union Chapel’s first service of the summer season on Sunday, June 15, at 10:30 a.m. 

Homecoming/Heights Memorial Sunday is a tradition, as is our speaker, Rabbi Dan Geffen of Temple Adas Israel, Sag Harbor. He said he’s “honored to once again join my friends at Union Chapel,” and will preach of “The Radically UnRadical Principle of Inclusion.” Basically Baroque returns to provide the music for the indoor service. An outdoor reception will follow, catered by STARS CAFÉ.

Remembering deceased Heights members

As the Chapel’s antique bell tolls, Lois Cohen, chair of the Shelter Island Heights Property Owners Corporation Board of Directors, will read the names of Heights members who passed away during the past year: Stuart Goldman, David Larsen, Joel Hoffman, Elizabeth (Betty) Hansel, Andy Reeve and Jane Evans Carreyrou.     

Rabbi Dan Geffen

Rabbi Dan was born and raised in New York City, where he attended the AJ Heschel School and the Fieldston School. He earned an undergraduate degree in history and two master’s degrees in Hebrew Literature and Jewish Education.

He was ordained by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in May 2014 and became the rabbi of Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor that year. He lives in Sag Harbor with his wife Lu (TAI Director of Community Engagement), their daughter, Eva and son, Emet.

Basically Baroque

Cellist Jeannie Woelker and flautists Jean Hendrickson and Bill Packard make up the trio. Bill and Jeannie co-founded Basically Baroque in 1994 with Arthur Swan and Virginia Jones. Jeannie, a teacher with 20 years of experience, studied music at Boston Conservatory of Music, CW Post College, and Stony Brook University. Jean studied at Oberlin College and at the French flute school and teaches ESL at Stony Brook University. Bill studied flute at the Eastern Suffolk School of Music. 

Wisdom from a 21st-century rabbi

Prior to the service, Rabbi Dan was asked what presently concerns him. “In these turbulent times, how one defines and relates to the word ‘inclusion’ has become something of a political litmus test — either as the cause of, or the solution to, all of our country’s ills,” he said. “The one thing both sides seem to agree upon is that it represents a radical departure from the ‘norm.’ But truth be told, the principle of inclusion is neither new, nor as radical as many have come to believe. I will share teachings from the Jewish tradition — ancient and contemporary — that I hope will help us, as a community, to reflect on the true nature of inclusion and to consider the inherent dangers of its antithesis: exclusion.”

Next week: Art Sunday, “Sailing Around Shelter Island.” Tom MacLeod, retired United Methodist pastor, will speak. Chapel Trustee Christopher Herman will play cello.