Choir Sunday at Union Chapel
The Union Chapel summer choir has performed on the first Sunday in August for more than 20 years. Members of the Shelter Island community are invited to participate. The rehearsal will be at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 3, at Union Chapel. This year the Choir will perform “God, We Praise You” by Haydn under the direction of Linda Shelton Betjeman, chapel organist and music director.
The Rev. Samuel T. Clover of the Reformed Church of Bronxville will preach about “The Power of Song.”
Reverend Clover was ordained in the Reformed Church in America in April 2014. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary with a master’s in divinity in 2013. His call to ministry came after working for more than 10 years as an arts and culture journalist at a number of small magazines and newspapers in New York City. A graduate of Lafayette College (B.A., English and History), he also holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from The New School, and earned a diploma in spiritual direction from San Francisco Theological Seminary, where he is now studying for a doctorate in ministry.
An avid singer (and sometime trombonist), Rev. Clover has sung with a variety of choirs, including Marble Collegiate Church’s Festival of Voices and Community Gospel Choir, which performed at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Harlem’s Apollo Theater, among other venues. He currently sings bass/baritone with the New Choral Society in Scarsdale, N.Y.
He is a board member of “c,” a network of clergy, church members and congregations in the Reformed Church in America. According to Rev. Clover, the network “supports LGBTQ people and allies across the denomination, as well as advocates for a radically inclusive welcome and affirmation of the full spectrum of God’s people in all aspects of congregational and denominational ministries.”
Rev. Clover recently married Jen Doerr, the Marble Collegiate Music Department Manager and an accomplished singer.
Choir director Linda Shelton Betjeman celebrates her 27th year as organist and choir director for Union Chapel. She has been Shelter Island Presbyterian Church’s minister of music since 2007 and is director of the Shelter Island Community Chorus.
She is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, New York City, where she received a master’s degree in organ performance and choral conducting. During her 50-year career in church music, she served in congregations in Manhattan, Westchester County and Long Island.
Ms. Betjeman was a recitalist at concert series in Manhattan, Westchester and Rockland counties, and performed as a soloist in England and Italy (including St. Peter’s in Rome). She was a keyboard soloist on organ, harpsichord and piano with the Broadway Bach Ensemble of Manhattan and performed with the Chappaqua Chamber Orchestra and Mimosa Chamber Ensemble of Manhattan. She taught on the music faculty of Sarah Lawrence College, the Walden-Lincoln and Trevor Day School in New York City and the Riverdale Country School.
