September 1, 2005
By Pat McCaughan

The Rev. Teddra Bynes says officiating at one summer Sunday morning service at the Wade H. Chestnut Memorial Chapel is every bit as wonderful as spending a week rent-free at the North Carolina shore.

She was able to do both this year at the seasonal Episcopal chapel, which is open summers only and historically has been served by visiting clergy, some from as far away as New Hampshire.

"It's a wonderful, transient community of vacationers from all over the country," located in Ocean View, a barrier island 2,600-miles long just north of Wilmington.

"You're given the parsonage to stay in for a week if you celebrate a Sunday morning service," said Bynes. For the South Carolina native, it reprises youthful memories of crabbing, fish fries, family and relationship.

"My two sisters and I spend time together there every year to reconnect and to deepen our relationship," said Bynes, 50, a chaplain at Voorhees College.

The chapel also has special significance for the local African American community, says Fannie Chestnut Hairston, 60, because it pre-dates the Civil Rights movement and was the first opportunity for Blacks to own beach property in then segregated North Carolina.

"Edgar Yow, a white attorney in Wilmington, bought the land on the beach and asked my father and uncle and others if they wanted to invest in a one-mile stretch of the property," she recalled. The chapel was named after her uncle, a local developer, who managed sale of lots to other blacks. It was the location of Camp Oceanside, created in 1955 to offer a summer camp for African American youth.

"There were a dorm for girls and one for boys," recalled Hairston, who spent summers there as a teen. "Spending time there was a wonderful experience. There were counselors from different churches, time for the ocean, for arts and crafts, for Bible study. I made some lasting friendships there."

Bynes also recalls summers at Camp Oceanside.

"As a young Black woman growing up in the East Carolina diocese, Camp Ocean View offered a way for Black kids to go to camp. It was an Episcopal camp available for kids during the 1960s and 1970s, and later was dismantled."

In 1985, Camp Oceanside merged with Camp Leech, a nearby camp for white youth, and was christened the Trinity Center. The chapel, built in 1957, continued as a mission of the Diocese of East Carolina and as a summer worship space for vacationers.

"Priests just hear about it and want to come, so we always have more than we need," said Hairston, a vestry member. Visiting clergy agree to officiate at an 11am Sunday service and, in exchange, get to stay in a two-bedroom rectory adjacent to the chapel rent-free for a week. The island itself has an interesting history, said the Rev. Ralph Fogg, a part-year resident who hopes to serve as advisor to the chapel's vestry.

"It was used by the Navy at the end of World War II to test ground-to-air missiles," he said. It is also one of the fastest-growing areas in the country. "It currently has more building permits issued than any island on the coast of the U.S. from Maine to Florida. Property values have escalated. At Serenity Point, where I live, my condo has more than doubled in value in five years," he said.

The chapel closes for the season Labor Day. Plans are in the works to spruce up the chapel and convert it to a year-round worship space, possibly even by next year, Fogg said.

The white wooden chapel seats about 60 people comfortably and has historically attracted an eclectic congregation of people from all denominations.

That's what makes it so wonderful, Bynes said.

"The people there really seem to be about developing their faith. They make a way even on vacation to worship on Sundays. And this is not acommunity that gets together during the week-there are different folks every Sunday, which sometimes makes it a challenge to come up with a sermon that inspires them. But the hospitality is wonderful," she added.

So is the ambiance.

The chapel's baptismal font consists of a giant salmon-colored Conch seashell discovered in a backyard, attached to a metal stand, Bynes said. Its cross was constructed from the anchor of a naval ship.

"It's a beautiful, quaint chapel. I go there sometimes even when I don't have to preach, just to be still and listen to the ocean and listen to God."

Episcopal News Service
The Rev. Patricia McCaughan is senior correspondent for the Episcopal News Service and associate rector of St. Mary's Church in Laguna Beach, California.