US-CT-Enders+Island+Sea+Chapel


 * =Birding in Connecticut=

New London County
=Enders Island Sea Chapel= Stonington, Connecticut 06355 Enders Island Sea Chapel web site

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Enders Island Sea Chapel
Coordinates: 41.3228143, -71.9631958 eBird links: Hotspot map View details Recent visits My eBird links: Location life list Submit data

About Enders Island Sea Chapel
Enders Island is in Fishers Island Sound, at the mouth of the Mystic River. The eleven-acre island has been variously known as Barker’s Island, Dodge Island and Keeland’s Island. Although other islands in the vicinity were recorded and named from earliest times, the island now known as Enders Island was not mentioned in a survey made as late as 1847. Other surveys seem to show that Enders Island was once part of adjoining Mason’s Island. Today Enders Island is connected to Mason Island by a causeway and is easily accessible by car.

Born in Hartford, CT, Dr. Thomas B. Enders was the son of the president of Aetna Insurance Company. He attended Yale University and received his medical degree in 1892 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. During his honeymoon tour he and his wife Alys VanGilder Enders saw this small uninhabited island off the southern tip of Mason’s Island. Thomas made arrangements to purchase the island from the Sisters of Charity. In 1918 Thomas and Alys began to develop it as a private estate. Alys was responsible for designing much of the tile work in the main house, the grand and stately arts and crafts style home that serves as one of the central buildings on the Island.

As Alys was preparing her estate she contacted Bishop Bernard J. Flanagan of the newly created Norwich Diocese to discuss the gift of Enders Island to the Church. Bishop Flanagan knowing of the need for a new novitiate for the Society of St. Edmund, an order of priests and brothers headquartered in Vermont, which fosters spiritual renewal, evangelization, and social justice, put her in contact with Father Purtill, the Superior General of the Society of St Edmund, who had grown up in Pawcatuck, CT about 8 mile away from Enders Island.

In January 1954, seventeen (17) days before her death Alys gave Enders Island to the Church, by transferring the deed of her beloved Island to the Society of St Edmund. Alys’ intentions were that the Island would be used as a place of spiritual formation of those preparing for ministry in the Church and as a place for retreat for priests, especially priests from the Diocese of Norwich.

In the Fall of 1954, the Society of St Edmund, known as the Edmundites, began using the Island as their novitiate. The need for a novitiate waned in the 1960s, so the Edmundites began to hold retreats for those in recovery from addiction and for retreats for parishes as well as for priests and religious. In 1968 weekly 12 Step meetings and weekend retreats for the 12-Step Community became an important part of the activities taking place on Enders Island.

By the early 1980s this ministry developed into a diverse and dedicated ministry of spiritual renewal and healing. Programs grew to include directed, guided and private retreats for lay, religious, and clerical individuals and groups. In the 1990s the St Michaels Institute of Sacred Art was established to promote and preserve the beauty and traditions of Art in the life of the Church.

In 2003 the Society of St Edmund established Enders Island as an independent ministry with its own Board of Trustees which has assumed the role of being the stewards of Alys’ gift and which governs the ministry for the good of the People of God in the rich spiritual traditions and charism of the Society of St Edmund.

Today, our facilities include the early 20th-century mansion, several meeting rooms, overnight accommodations, and an exquisite chapel so reverent and magnificent that it has been called “a pilgrimage in its own right.” The Blessed Sacrament is reserved for veneration any time, day or night, both in this Chapel and in the intimate Fisherman’s Chapel in the main house. The gardens and the grounds are tranquil places for people to sit and pray and contemplate the richness of God’s creative genius. From Enders Island Sea Chapel web site



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