The Rev. Alden Besse, pastor, sailor, president of the Martha’s Vineyard Peace Council and spiritual leader of the Vineyard Crop Walk, died on Dec. 13.
Years ago, in Whitinsville, the Rev. Alden Besse was asked to participate in a Memorial Day parade. “I thought, what can I carry? Lots of people carry guns and I’ll carry a pruning hook,” he recalled.
To many of the summer residents of Martha’s Vineyard, Union Chapel services have become as much a part of their lives as the Vineyard itself. Each year new visitors attend the chapel and become dependent upon it for their Sunday devotions.
The new Methodist Tabernacle was formally dedicated Wednesday forenoon, in the presence of a goodly number of the clergy and an immense congregation. Rev. Dr. Morrison had the general charge of the exercises, which opened with singing, followed by scripture readings by Revs. Messrs. Brown and Hamlin. Prayer was the offered by Rev. L. B. Bates, followed by singing, after which Bishop Foster arose and commenced his sermon, taking for his text Ephesians IV, 30: “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”
The Rev. Dr. Leo Christian had found a welcoming community in his new position as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Vineyard Haven and the Gay Head Community Baptist Church in Aquinnah.
As the faithful chronicler of important events affecting the welfare of our Island, you will give space, I know, to a brief notice of an occurrence which took place on the 6th inst. On the morning of Wednesday we broke loose from the seclusion of home, and the pressure of care, and leaving the roar of old ocean behind us, we journeyed across hill and dale amid the luxuriant beams of a genial sun, to the retired but picturesque village of West Tisbury.
From Maundy Thursday to Good Friday and Easter Sunday, church services take place at houses of worship, on beaches and in parish houses around the Island.
Hospitality Homes, a system of homeless shelters hosted and organized by Island churches, is nearing the end of its first year, with administrators, coordinators and volunteers declaring success.
