Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs opens it doors for the summer season this Sunday, June 26, with Rev. Dr. Betty Deas Clark in the pulpit. Reverend Clark is the senior minister at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. She took over the leadership of the church at a pivotal time in the life of that church and in America. On June 17, 2015 there was a mass shooting at the church, which claimed the lives of nine church members including the senior minister, Clementa C. Pinckney.

On July 3, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Hon. Jeh Johnson, will take to the pulpit. The rest of the season will include both returning and new visiting preachers.

First timers include Rev. Heidi Neumark of Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan; Rev. Dr. Jonathan L. Walton of Memorial Church and Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University; and Rev. Dr. Emilie Townes, Dean of Vanderbilt School of Religion in Nashville, Tenn.

Among those returning are Rev. Otis Moss 3rd, from Trinity Church in Chicago; Rev. Susan Sparks from the Madison Avenue Baptist Church in New York city; Rev. Matthew Laney from Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Conn.; Rev. Burns Stanfield from Fourth Presbyterian Church in South Boston; Rev. Brandon Thomas Crowley of Myrtle Baptist Church in West Newton; and Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts from the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York city.

Union Chapel is a non-denominational church and is located at the intersection of Circuit, Kennebec and Narragansett avenues. The organ prelude begins at 9:40 a.m. and worship begins at 10 a.m.