2026 Summer Services

For a special outing, boat to Church Island on Squam Lake for an ecumenical service by The Reverend David DeSalvo
Chaplain, St. Andrews School, Middletown, Delaware. 

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Transportation to Church Island services is available to the public through a pontoon boat shuttle provided by Squam Lakes Natural Science Center.  The cost for the round trip is $10.00 per person and leaves from their launch on RT 113 across from the Science Center parking lots.  Park in designated lots and walk to Lake Cruise Headquarters using pathway.  ** Leaves promptly at 9:30 a.m.  Reservations and payment should be made in advance by purchasing tickets online at http://www.nhnature.org/.

A limited number of wheelchairs, specifically configured for the rough natural terrain, are available on the Island by request.

Personal boat transportation is available by launching at the Public Boat Launch Ramp, monitored by the NH Dept. of Safety, Marine Patrol Division, with limited trailer parking.  The launch is located at the same launching point of the Science Center Boat at the junctions of RT 113 and RT 3 in the Village center (Boat launch is off of RT 113).

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In the event of rain, services are held in the Playhouse at
Rockywold-Deephaven Camps. If the weather is uncertain, please
call 603-968-3313 after 8:00 AM for information. Informationj will also be posted at https://www.churchisland.org/2017-service-schedule/.

In this presentation, we will discuss why American public school academics continue to slide, yet we will not adjust. More time for english and math is not showing results, as children are too unhealthy to learn. The solution is simple: do not let students lose their "physical identity" which every animal is born with, but is now often lost in the age of increased screen time and ultra-processed foods.  I look forward to the congregation's input on this vital topic. 

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Daniel Fulham O’Neill, MD,EdD, is an Orthopedic Surgeon, Sports Medicine Doctor, Sport Psychologist, and author. As a physician he has worked with diverse patients including the U.S. Alpine Ski and Ski Jumping Teams. After appreciating the importance of mental preparedness and rehabilitation in the world of sports medicine, Dr. O’Neill furthered his education to become a Sports Psychologist so he could better help his patients heal—both in body and mind. Dr. O’Neill is devoted to raising awareness about the link between children’s loss of what he has coined as their “physical identity” and the onset of obesity, illness, and depression. His latest book, Survival of the FIT: How Physical Education Ensures Academic Achievement and a Healthy Life from Teachers College Press empowers readers with a better understanding of the global obesity crisis and offers concrete yet simple solutions for creating healthier and happier children.

Award-winning poet and teacher Liz Ahl will read a selection of poems from her recent and older work, share tips about reciting poetry, and answer questions about her work and about poetry generally.

Liz Ahl is the author of Beating the Bounds (Hobblebush Books, 2017) and A Case for Solace (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022), which won the 2023 New Hampshire Literary Award for Poetry. Her most recent of several poetry chapbooks, A Stanza is a Place to Stand, was published in 2023 by Seven Kitchens Press. She has been awarded residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Jentel Artist Residency Program, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, the Playa Artist Residency Program, the Desert Rat Residency, and Dorland Mountain Arts. She is Professor Emerita of English at Plymouth State University, where she taught poetry and creative writing for 25 years. You can read and learn more about her work at https://lizahl.com/

Youth are experiencing severe pain and disconnection at alarming rates, which is reflected in the increase of mental health issues, substance use, bullying, violence, self-harm, and suicidal ideation. As a society, we can no longer afford to perpetuate disconnection and separatism while our children suffer the consequences. Instead, we need to teach them how to love themselves and to develop healthy connections inward and outward. Join Dr. Jessica Dutille for this conversation that explores research on love-based practices, such as mindfulness and meditation, and how these can be applied in not only transforming our children’s lives but also our own.    ​

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Dr. Jessica (Jess) Orf Dutille (she/her/hers) has over twenty years of experience working in education and nonprofit leadership. She graduated from Plymouth State University in 2003 with her B.S. in Marketing, in 2004 with her MBA, and in 2020 with her EdD in Learning, Leadership, and Community.

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Jess served as the Executive Director of the Pemi Youth Center in Plymouth, NH for twelve years where she was a catalyst for building a unique empowerment program for middle school and high school youth. During that time, she developed strong mentoring relationships with hundreds of youth participants and college staff members. “At the Pemi Youth Center, love is always the answer, because cultivating a deep sense of connection and belonging is the foundation for a culture of compassion,” Jess explains. She continues to serve as the Board President for the organization.

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In 2006, Jess co-founded The Faith, Hope, And Love Foundation (FHL) along with fellow Plymouth State University alum, Laura Brusseau. The Foundation has met the needs of children and youth throughout the state by awarding thousands of dollars in scholarships and grants. “It is important to me that youth understand their inherent worthiness, and it was an honor to serve alongside the incredible human beings involved in the FHL Foundation over the years.”

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Jess is a Teaching Lecturer and the Executive Director of Student Life & Community Impact at Plymouth State University, where she develops meaningful and reciprocal community engagement experiences that provide students opportunities to discover their passions and make a positive impact on the campus and broader communities. As a former member of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women on campus, she has collaborated with colleagues in hosting the NH Young Women’s Conference for middle school and high school youth.  

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Jess co-hosted the Pemi-Baker TV show, Happiness Quest, with Dr. Maria Sanders. She is a member of the Central NH Public Health Advisory Council, a member of the CADY Inc. Restorative Justice Advisory Council, and the Granite United Way Central Region Community Impact Committee. Most recently, Jess co-founded The Stress, Love & Leadership Institute along with fellow alumni, Dr. James Noyes and Dr. Lisa Ranfos. This institute provides professional development experiences that support authentic human-centered leadership. 

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Jess has received recognition by the New Hampshire Union Leader as one of the 40 Under Forty upcoming leaders in 2007 and received a proclamation from Governor Maggie Hassan in 2013 for her work throughout the Plymouth community. Plymouth State University recognized Jess with the Alumni Award of Excellence, Outstanding Social Work Field Instructor Award, and the Patricia Storer Award. In addition, the Plymouth Rotary also recognized her as the Citizen of the Year in 2016, and CADY Inc. with the John W. True Award for Excellence in 2018. Jess lives in Plymouth with her partner, Bryan, and their four children. When asked what she views as her greatest accomplishment, Jess explains, “Though I am passionate about my work, I am most proud of my children.”

The New Hampshire Music Festival's 74th Season of classical orchestra, chamber music, and chorus programs proudly celebrates the richness and diversity of American artistry in honor of the USA's 250th Anniversary, placing it in vibrant conversation with music from around the globe. Taking place July 7-30, 2026, this season honors heritage, embraces innovation, and reminds us that music is the ultimate journey — one that connects us all.


For this free Music in the Mountains concert at Starr King Fellowship, NHMF musicians will share two chamber music masterworks - Brahms' Sonata for Viola and Piano and Beethoven's String Quartet No. 5.  Featured musicians include Bernard Di Gregorio, viola; Leslie Amper, piano; Jonathan Sturm, violin; Julie Fox Henson, violin; René Reder,  viola; Andrea Di Gregorio, cello.

Trails Network – Hub for the Americas

Drawing inspiration from the work of anthropologists Dennis and Barbara Tedlock and their conversations with K’iche’ Maya spiritual leaders in Guatemala, When Mountains Shine explores trails not simply as routes through the landscape, but as pathways of relationship, perception, and meaning. In K’iche’ thought, shining mountains, mirrors, and woven textiles are all mediums of knowledge—ways of understanding the world that join the visible and invisible, memory and movement, spirit and place.

The reflection also considers resonances between these Maya ways of knowing and traditions closer to home, including the Quaker idea of “inner light”: the belief that illumination and truth emerge in lived experience. Like a mirror touched by breath, our understanding of the world is never perfectly clear or objective, but shaped by our participation in it.

Seen this way, trails are threads that connect landscapes, communities, histories, and ways of knowing: a kind of textile. Through stories from the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the cloud forests of Costa Rica, and emerging trail networks stretching from Alaska to Patagonia, Nat Scrimshaw reflects on the vision of Pan American Trails: a continental network of pathways linking people not only to places, but to one another and to the larger living world. Blending ecology, anthropology, trail stewardship, this reflection invites us to consider how walking the land can become a practice of attention, relationship, and shared understanding.

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Nathaniel “Nat” Scrimshaw is a trail steward, educator, and nonprofit leader with more than 50 years of experience in trail design, construction, alpine stewardship, and international trail collaboration. He serves as Executive Director of World Trails Network – Hub for the Americas (Pan American Trails), where he works to advance a continental-scale vision of connected trail systems that support conservation, community development, and human well-being.

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Nat’s connection to trails began in childhood with the Waterville Valley Athletic & Improvement Association (WVAIA) in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where he joined volunteer trail crews at age eleven. He later helped found the Sandwich Ranger Conservation Association, one of the region’s early multi-club trail crews, and has spent decades working on trail restoration and stewardship throughout the White Mountains. For more than twenty years he has served as an adopter on the Franconia Ridge Loop, helping steward one of the Northeast’s most iconic and heavily used alpine trail systems while advancing integrated approaches to alpine stewardship, recreation ecology, and visitor use management.

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Nat also spent many years living and working in Costa Rica, where he served as Executive Director of the Monteverde Institute and was a co-founder of the Sendero Pacífico, a long-distance community trail linking the cloud forests of Monteverde to the Gulf of Nicoya through the Bellbird Biological Corridor. His work in Costa Rica deepened his interest in trails as cultural and ecological connectors linking conservation, local livelihoods, education, and cross-cultural exchange.

The program will focus on 6 well known Black Spirituals all of which can be sung using just the black keys on the piano which form what is known as a pentatonic scale (5 distinct notes). After a group warmup, we'll sing together these 6 in their simple pentatonic form. After each, Joe will sing and play a special concert classical piano accompaniment arrangement by composer, singer and pianist Harry Burleigh. Same tune, completely different effects. 

The pentatonic tunes are: 

Swing Low Sweet Chariot 

Deep River 

Go Tell It On De Mountains 

Steal Away 

Were You There 

Ev'ry Time I Feel The Spirit 

Harry Burleigh (1866, Erie, PA 1949, Stamford, CT, age 82). His grandfather, a slave from Maryland discarded when he became blind, sang him spirituals as they wandered the streets of Erie. After graduating high school, Harry became an established singer in the Erie Episcopal Church. Donations from Erie music lovers enabled him to study music in NYC at the early version of the Juillliard School where his teachers included the famous Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. He introduced Dvorak to many pentatonic Black Spirituals such as Swing Low Sweet Chariot. Dvorak used one of those melodies in his well known New World Symphony (No. 9). In 1894 Burleigh was accepted as a baritone at the St. George's Episcopal Church choir where he remained for 52 years. He joined the Temple Emanu-El choir in 1900 and remained there for 25 years. He sang in Hebrew, Latin, Italian, French and German as well as English. He coached famous singers such as Caruso, Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson. Harry wrote sophisticated piano/vocal arrangements for many gospel songs, elevating songs of simple origin to high concert art. 

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Joe Heise was organist and choir accompanist at Moultonborough United Methodist Church (NH) from 2005-2020. From 1994-2005, he was organist and choir director at the Hillsborough Reformed Church in Millstone NJ. Before that, he held the same position at St. James R.C. Church in Pennington, NJ. for 8 years. Joe studied organ and harpsichord with noted early music interpreter Gavin Black at the Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, NJ. He also has been a voice student of Jane Olian, Kevin Deas, George Gray and Kristofer Johnson. Joe has sung bass with Princeton Pro-Musica, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Singers Chorale (formerly resident chorus of the Philadelphia Orchestra), Concord Chorale and the Pemigewasset Chorus. He also sang bass with NH Master Chorale for 6 years. In 1994 he co-founded Mostly Motets, a 16 voice a cappella group focusing on early and modern music. The group is still active. Joe started his experience as a choral singer in high school (St. Joseph’s Prep, a Jesuit High School in Phila.), through college (Georgetown Univ. Glee Club) and during his time in Calif. (Ohlone Community Chorus of Fremont, CA). He has sung with Opera Orchestra of NY with the Princeton Pro-Musica Opera Chorus at Carnegie Hall in 7 different operas in Italian, French, German and Russian. 

Joe's earliest musical experience was at the age of 7 when he began piano studies (in Phila.) with Beverly Cohn, then working with her teacher, Charles Engel. He studied and performed repertoire from Bach and D. Scarlatti to Ravel, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev (and all major composers in between). He remains active as a performing chamber musician. He was active in Calif. as a jazz pianist. Recently, he formed a male quartet that specializes in singing a cappella modern 4-part Chants from the Taize Community in France, as well as unison Gregorian Chant using Medieval notation that was the precursor of modern notation, but where the staves only had 4 (vs. the modern 5) leger lines. 

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In 1992, Joe commissioned harpsichord builder Philip Tyre to build a two-manual, extended range, transposing, north-German style harpsichord with buff stop. Since its completion in 1995, it is maintained on a regular basis by noted harpsichord builder Willard Martin. Joe's harpsichord continues to be used for solo and baroque chamber music performances as well as continuo work accompanying singers. It has been used for 2 seasons by the New Hampshire Music Festival, including a chamber music performance at Plymouth, NH's Starr-King Unitarian Fellowship in the summer of 2025. 

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Mr. Heise's other professional life centered around computer programming and system design, using the APL2 programming language. He worked on critical systems for Lockheed Missiles and Space, Intel's corporate planning system, Winklevoss and Assoc. Actuarial Systmes and lastly, Mobil Oil Corp., taking early retirement in 2001. Before programming, Joe was a Ph. D. candidate in mathematics (Finite Simple Groups) and teaching assistant at the University of California at Santa Cruz (1974-77). From 2006-2020, he was an adjunct math professor at NHTI in Concord, NH, as well as for several years at SNHU in Manchester, NH. In retirement, he's returned to mathematical research in the areas of Galois theory, modular forms and most recently, vertex algebras. 

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Joe and his wife Mary Edith live in Campton, NH. He enjoys kayaking, swimming, bike riding, walking, playing chess and myriad word games. Joe reads/studies extensively political theory, sociology, psychology and philosophy. He certified PADI/NAUI scuba diving in 1978 in California. 

What is it to become an Earthkeeper? Why is this important, especially during these times?

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Cynthia and Norman will offer insights from their recent trip to the Sacred Valley in Peru and share what they learned from the Q’ero Shamans in the Andes about becoming an Earthkeeper. Included will be a visual montage, music, sacred sounds, and a guided meditation journey to receive wisdom from Mother Earth (Pachamama) and the four primary animal archetypes of the Q’ero Shaman Medicine Wheel.

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Bio: Norman Scrimshaw and Cynthia Scrimshaw are caretakers of Awakening to the Heart Mountain Sanctuary at their home in Thornton, NH, where they have built a 25’diameter yurt, a 40’ fieldstone labyrinth and a large sacred fire circle. They lead and host a variety of heart-centered events, including weekly open sangha and group meditation, yoga and sound healing, labyrinth walks, Kirtan, other workshops and small retreats during the spring, summer and fall seasons. More information is found on their website: www.awakeningtotheheart.com

Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to be everywhere today. It provides summary results for our Internet searches. It offers to improve our emails. It provides recommendations for books and movies and TV shows we might like. But what is AI? And, in particular, what is generative AI? In this presentation, Dr. Cathie LeBlanc will explore the history of AI, the different types of AI, how AI works, and why it seems to be everywhere at the moment. She will also discuss the pros and cons of AI use in a variety of contexts.

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Cathie LeBlanc is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Florida State University with a BA, MS, and PhD in computer science. Her first encounter with artificial intelligence came in 1984 at Dartmouth, the birthplace of AI. Her graduate work focused on developing AI tools for use in molecular biology applications. She taught computer science, digital media, and game design at Plymouth State University for 28 years before retiring in January, 2026. She lives in Campton, NH, with her cat, RBG.

This program looks at how dog sledding developed in New Hampshire and how the Chinook played a major role in this story. Explaining how man and his relationship with dogs won out over machines on several famous polar expeditions, Bob Cottrell covers the history of Arthur Walden and his Chinooks, the State Dog of New Hampshire. 

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Bob Cottrell holds an MA from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture in Delaware. The founding director of the Remick Country Doctor Museum in Tamworth, he is now the curator of the Henney History Room at the Conway Public Library, a board member at the Conway Historical Society, and president ex-officio of the Tamworth Historical Society. He serves as an independent history and museum consultant.