Rev. Soller to preach at Saint John-on-the-Lake this Sunday

MEREDITH — Saint John’s-on-the-Lake will welcome Rev. Robin Soller, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Meredith, to its pulpit on Sunday, July 21.

Communion will be celebrated, and there will be vocal music by Robyn Piper.

Rev. Soller has served Trinity Episcopal Church since 1995, after graduating from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1989 and serving churches in Wappingers Falls, New York, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. She lives in New Hampton with Jon, her husband of 18 years.

Robyn Piper grew up in Meredith and is now a resident of Moultonborough. She spent a short stint living in Maine near the ocean, but the "lake girl" in her was restless to return, so she and her husband, Michael, moved into what had been her grandparents' cottage on Winnipesaukee in 1998. Her last visit to St. John's was almost 30 years ago, when she sang for a service at which her grandfather, Rev. J. Charles Pelon, preached and performed a baptism. She is looking forward to visiting the island again after so many years.

Saint John’s is a picturesque stone church, built in 1927 under the auspices of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire and the leadership of Rev. Kenneth Ripley Forbes of Birch Island. The Diocese purchased the land on the highest point of Bear Island where a 60-foot-tall observation tower was already standing. The tower, erected in 1898 by E.C. Mansfield, a summer resident of Bear Island, was included in the new church building. The birch altar and the stained glass windows add to St. John’s charm, as does the antique pump organ.

St. John’s is an ecumenical chapel whose mission is to serve the summer residents of the island. Services are each summer Sunday at 10 a.m. The church is a short walk from the docks in Church Cove (Deep Cove) on the west side of Bear Island. There is a “taxi” service from Cattle Lancing and Brown’s Boat Basin. To use the shuttle, email bear.island.church.ferry@gmail.com.

Sturdy shoes are recommended. All are welcome, as are well-behaved dogs. For more information, visit www.stjohnsonthelake.com.