St. John’s on the Lake welcomes Rev. Jay Hutchinson for a Sunday service

LACONIA — Rev. Jay Hutchinson will wrap up the season at St. John’s-on-the-Lake on Bear Island  on Sunday, Aug. 24.

Hutchinson has just finished his first year as chaplain at Holderness School where he teaches theology, ethics and morality, English, and world religions.  From June through August of 2025, he is serving as the interim summer priest-in-charge at Trinity Church in Meredith.  

Prior to answering the call to ordained ministry, Hutchinson taught and coached at Canterbury School, St. Mark’s School, St. Andrew’s School and Choate Rosemary Hall, as well as serving as the chaplain in the Phillips Andover summer session.  He is passionate about the connection between faith and service and volunteers regularly with Got Lunch, the Bridge House in Plymouth and New Hampshire Adaptive sports programs.  Recently he led a group of students to Poland with the Common Man Ukraine to work with children who have lost their parents in the war.  At Holderness, Hutchinson coaches the boys’ JV lacrosse team. 

He and his wife, Whiz, who has retired from her work in schools, live in Holderness year round. Their son, Jack teaches at Kents Hill School in Maine. He is an Episcopal priest who served at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and as the interim rector at St. Peter's Church in Londonderry. He received his master of divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School.

St. John’s, an historic building, is located on the highest point of Bear Island. Services are held at 10 a.m. The chapel is reached by a well-marked footpath from the church docks in Church Cove near Dolly Island. For the free taxi boat, email bear.island.church.ferry@gmail.com. For more information, visit

stjohnsonthelake.com.