SPIRITUAL LIFE
Sunday Services
MVCMA services are held 9:30AM on Sundays in July and August.
Services are interdenominational and all are welcome.
Want to watch, but not on island? A LIVE stream is also available and accessible below.
We traditionally pass a collection basket, but are also making online donations available for your convenience. We appreciate your contributions! Monthly options are available.
We hope you will join us!
Bible Study Schedule
July 1, July 2
Rev. Dr. Linda Forsberg
"Living an Easter Life"
Monday: Road to Emmaus
Luke 24:13-35
Tuesday Breakfast in the Beach;
John 21:1-25
July 9, July 11
Rev. Dr. Mary Jane O'Connor-Ropp
Tuesday: Creation Care
Thursday: Creation Justice
July 16, July 18
Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III
Tuesday: The Cost of Discipleship
Thursday: Salvation
July 23, July 25
Rev. Dr. Michael Price
"Rhymes, Reasons, and Writers"
Tuesday: Book of Psalms
Thursday: Book of Psalms
July 30, August 1
Rev. Dr. Denise Smartt Sears
Tuesday: Ephesians 3
Thursday: John 6
August 6, August 8
Rev. Dr. Nancy Kraft
Tuesday: Times that Transform
Thursday: A Wider Circle
August 13, August 15
Father Raymond B. Malm
Tuesday: Nonviolence
Thursday: Nonviolence
August 20, August 22
Rev. Don Bliss
Tuesday: TBA
Thursday: TBA
August 27, August 29
Rev. Dr. Marvin Anthony Moss
Tuesday: TBA
Thursday: TBA
Guest Preachers
Summer 2024
June 30th
Sunday Service
Rev. Joanne Hus
United Methodist Church of Martha's Vineyard
Reverend Joanne Hus worked for over forty years as a visual artist, illustrator, and graphic designer before earning her Master of Divinity degree from Boston University’s School of Theology. In June 2023, she was commissioned as a provisional elder in the New England Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, where she also serves on the Commission on Religion and Race. She was a member of the inaugural cohort of graduate research affiliates at the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, founded by Ibram X. Kendi. She is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Ministry degree at BU STH. Her research centers on developing effective and theologically informed methods of antiracist practice.
July 1st, July 2nd
Bible Study
Rev. Dr. Linda Forsberg
Church Beyond the Walls Pastor
Rev. Dr. Linda Forsberg is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. She graduated with a BA from Brown University (Religious Studies), a Masters of Divinity from
Harvard University (New Testament), and a Doctorate from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia (Spirituality). For the past 26 years she served as the pastor at First Lutheran
Church of East Greenwich, RI, stepping down in 2023 to serve full-time as the Assistant Director of Retreats and Discernment at the Mercy Center for Spiritual Life at Salve Regina University in Newport, RI.
July 7th
Sunday Service, Bible Study
Rev. Dr. Mary-Jane
O'Connor-Ropp
United Methodist Church
An ordained elder in the New England Conference of the United Methodist
Church, Rev. O’Connor-Ropp served several churches in Massachusetts before
being appointed to Trinity UMC in Oak Bluffs in 2002. She retired from ministry in
2007 and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico with her husband Steve. After nearly five years of desert living, they happily returned to beautiful New England and settled in a retirement community for UMC clergy in Wells, Maine. In retirement,
she has continued to serve churches in Massachusetts and Maine on a part-time
basis.
July 14th
Sunday Service, Bible Study
Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III
Congregational Church of Canton, MA | NACCC
Rev. Dr. John Tamilio has been the pastor of the Congregational Church of Canton, Massachusetts since September, 2012. Previously he served UCC churches in Wakefield, NH, Prairie Village, KS, and Cleveland, OH.
July 21st
Sunday Service, Bible Study
Rev. Dr. Michael Price
Disciples of Christ
Born and raised in West Virginia, Rev. Dr. Michael Price holds four degrees from four universities, including West Liberty University (WV), West Virginia University, Brite Divinity School (Texas Christian University), and The George Washington University. In addition, he has been an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for over 30-years and has served churches in Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.
Dr. Price is currently a retired Disciples of Christ Pastor, while serving as an Adjunct Professor at Mt. Olive and North Carolina Wesleyan University. Dr. Price is also a published Author of several books, including; How to Manage Money Like a Minister, Murder on the Disoriented Express, Backfill, The Season That Was, and 17 Days That Changed America.
July 28th
Sunday Service, Bible Study
Rev. Dr. Denise Smartt-Sears
Director of Leadership Development & Accountability
In addition to her Directorship of Leadership and Accountability in the United Methodist Church’s General Commission for the Status and Role of Women, the Rev. Dr. Denise Smartt-Sears
previously served as the Director of Connectional Ministries for the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Dr. Smartt-Sears set a precedent as the first Black Woman in history to receive this title. Dr. Sears had also previously fulfilled the roles of District Superintendent (DS) of the Metropolitan District and Chaplain for the New Rochelle Police Department.
August 4th
Sunday Service, Bible Study
Rev. Dr. Nancy Kraft
Transitional Pastor at Trinity-St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
The Rev. Dr. Nancy Kraft grew up in Hamilton, Ohio. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from Bowling Green State University, a Master of Divinity from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, and a Doctor of Philosophy in religion and education from the University of Pittsburgh.
Kraft has served as a parish pastor for Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregations in North Dakota, Ohio, North Carolina, and Maryland, as well as Assistant to the Bishop in the Northeastern Ohio Synod.
After retiring in 2022, Kraft moved to New York City (Queens), where she lives with her daughter, son-in-law, grandsons, and tuxedo cat, Father Guido Sarducci.
August 11th
Sunday Service, Bible Study
Father Raymond B. Malm
Salve Regina University Chaplain
Father Raymond Malm was born in Providence and attended local parochial and diocesan schools. After attending Pope John XXIII Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts, Father Malm was ordained a priest on Nov. 6, 1976, and assigned to St. Joseph Church as an assistant pastor. In September 1983, he was transferred to St. Michael the Archangel Church in Providence, the parish of his youth, where he remained as administrator of the ministry team for 25 years.
Father Ray is currently serving as the University Chaplain at Salve Regina University. On campus, he promotes nonviolence, caring for AIDS patients and advocating for the rights of undocumented migrants in the Newport area. He has been the recipient of countless philanthropy based awards in Rhode Island.
August 18th
Sunday Service
Father Robert Joerger
Father Robert Joerger is a Catholic Priest of the Passionist Congregation. Ordained in 1977, he has served as Director of Saint Gabriel's Youth Retreat in Shelter Island NY, as counselor to the Passionist Superior General in Rome, and as Provincial in the Eastern United States, Canada, and parts of the Caribbean.
August 20th
August 22nd
Bible Study
Rev. Don Bliss
East Freetown Congregational-Christian Church
Reverend Don Bliss has served the East Freetown Congregational-Christian Church since 2001, having formerly served churches in Boston, Hyannis, and Wareham, Massachusetts. As a consultant in Educational Ministry, Rev. Bliss has helped various denominations, churches, and Christian publishers. He teaches Advanced Theology for the Lay Ministry Training Program of the National Association of Congregational-Christian Churches. He is married with two children, three grandchildren, and a dog.
August 25th
Sunday Service, Bible Study
Rev. Dr. Marvin Anthony Moss
Pastor at St. Mark United Methodist Church
A native of Goldsboro, North Carolina, Rev. Dr. Marvin Anthony Moss graduated from Hampton University and the Naval Chaplains Reserve Officers School. He also holds a Master of Divinity Degree from Gammon Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Drew University.
Rev. Dr. Marvin Anthony Moss has been serving as the pastor of Salem United Methodist Church since 2014. In his short tenure, he has worked diligently to return Salem to being a beacon of hope in the village of Harlem and ensuring its path to returning to its status as a vital congregation.
Previously, Dr. Moss served as Senior Pastor at St. James United Methodist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia until 2006, and was the Senior Pastor of Atlanta’s prominent Cascade United Methodist Church through 2014. Dr. Moss has also been a frequent guest of President Barack Obama’s National African American Clergy Leaders Group and has testified on Capitol Hill before a Senate Hearing Committee on the long term effects of unemployment.
September 1st
Sunday Service
Rabbi Benjamin Weiner
Spiritual Leader for the Jewish Community of Amherst, MA
A 2008 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Weiner is now in his sixth year as the spiritual leader of the Jewish Community of Amherst.
While in rabbinical school, he also served as a chaplain for adults with mental illness, Jewish elders, and terminally ill hospital patients. In addition, he was an intern in the RRC archives, analyzing the Hebrew and Yiddish letters of Mordechai Kaplan and at the Institute for Christian-Jewish Study in Baltimore. Prior to his occupancy in Amherst, he served for three years as half-time rabbi and education director at Mishkan Ha'am, a Reconstructionist community in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. Rabbi Benjamin Weiner is also a writer, a scholar of Yiddish and Irish literature, a musician, and a homesteader.