Paul Basham, who makes appearances as the resident Insider naturalist, recently attended a religious service held at an island on Squam Lake. He wrote about the experience and shared it with us. Thanks, Paul!
On a recent weekend, my wife and I attended a worship service in a majestic cathedral, an outdoor chapel on a remote island in the middle of Squam Lake. Seated on rustic benches looking out on the water, we were surrounded by stately pines, with their discarded needles from seasons past providing a soft carpet on the forest floor.
The service was held on Chocorua Island, better known as Church Island, which is the site of America’s first resident boys’ summer camp, in operation from 1881 to 1889. Religious services were an important part of the camp’s activities, and after the camp closed, the Chocorua Chapel Association was founded in 1903 to continue conducting religious services on the island every summer. The last service for this year is on Sept. 6, although wedding ceremonies are occasionally performed there.
Everyone in the chapel had arrived by boat or canoe. An estimated 400 people were in attendance. We came on a boat operated by the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center of Holderness.
The Rev. Harold Lewis from Pittsburgh, Pa., led the service.
The white clouds drifting above were reflected from the lake, which is bordered by mountains on the distant horizon.
Guest musicians, playing a violin and an English concertina, were accompanied by the breeze blowing through the tree branches overhead. During the singing of the second hymn, the sun was shining directly on us. A damselfly alighted on my hymn book and I marveled at the delicate veins in its translucent folded wings.
In my meditation, I visualized which peoples of different cultures had visited this island in centuries long past. The Native Americans of the Abenaki Nation had called this lake, “Kees-ee-hunk-nip-ee,” meaning Goose Lake in the Highlands. Early European settlers shortened the name of the lake to Asquam, the Native American word for water. Eventually, the lake was called Squam, first appearing on maps in 1816.
Over the passing years the island’s natural architecture, with its altars of stone and pine tree steeples, has undoubtedly been a sanctuary of peace and a cathedral of inspiration for all who are in tune with the grandeur of nature.
Dorothy Pease in her book, “Altars Under the Sky,” quotes a verse by Avis French:
“I sought a winding forest trail as lonely as could be,
and listened to the silence that quietly encompassed me.
I bowed my head in reverence, for then I understood that God has spoken to me in the silence of the wood.”
