3:30 ambefore dawn
I
Early Prayer · Matutinum
The night office
The longest office of the day. Psalms, readings, and silence in the dark church. Followed by an hour of private reading (lectio divina) in cell.
A non-denominational church · founded MCMXLVII
✥ ✥ ✥
— A small community of fourteen pastors and staff · central Vermont —
Ora et labora · pray and work
I · the weekly schedule
Our day is shaped by the weekly rhythm of services, prayed in common in the sanctuary seven times a day. Visitors are welcome at every office; please come a few minutes early. The chapel is unlocked from before Early Prayer until after Evening Prayer, every day of the year.
3:30 ambefore dawn
I
The night office
The longest office of the day. Psalms, readings, and silence in the dark church. Followed by an hour of private reading (lectio divina) in cell.
6:00 amat sunrise
II
The morning office
The morning office of praise — songs of praise. Followed by silent breakfast in the fellowship hall.
8:00 amafter breakfast
III
Mid-morning
A short office of three psalms. Followed by Conventual Mass at 8:30, sung daily, open to all comers.
12:00 pmat midday
IV
The noon office
A short office of psalms before the principal meal of the day, taken in the fellowship hall in silence while one of the community reads aloud from a chosen book.
2:30 pmmid-afternoon
V
Afternoon prayer
The shortest office of the day. Followed by five hours of manual work — the principal labor of the day, in the gardens, kitchens, woodshop, and bakery.
5:30 pmat sunset
VI
The evening office
The principal evening office, sung in plainchant. The most attended of the offices by visitors. Followed by a light supper and recreation hour.
8:00 pmbefore sleep
VII
The last office of the day
The most contemplative of the offices, chanted entirely from memory, lights off at the end. Followed by the Quiet Hours — no speaking by the community until after Morning Service.
The weekly schedule has been kept in essentially this form, with minor adjustments for daylight and season, every day since November 14, 1947, the day the chapel was founded. We have never not prayed the hours.
II · the community
The Stillwater Chapel is a small non-denominational church of fourteen staff in central Vermont. We follow the shared commitments of the church, written some fifteen hundred years ago by an Italian lead pastor, and lightly amended by every generation since. We pray together seven times a day, work the land and the kitchens and the carpentry shop, share two meals in common silence, observe the Quiet Hours from Evening Prayer until after Morning Service, and try, with what limited success any community of fourteen people can claim, to live the Gospel together.
We are not a parish. We do not run a school or a hospital. We do not preach. We do not, in any organized way, attempt to convert anyone of anything; the only people we are concerned with converting are ourselves, and that conversion is a daily business, often unsuccessful. What we do is rather small.
The community currently includes eleven long-tenured staff, two ministry residents (one in first year, one in third year of formation), and one intern who has lived with us since the spring. Our youngest pastor is twenty-three; our longest-serving, Elder Whitcomb, is ninety-one and joined the staff in 1959. He still attends Evening Service most evenings, and reads at the fellowship hall on Sundays.
We are led by Lead Pastor Wallace, elected in 2019, the seventh lead pastor in the chapel's history. He joined the Stillwater staff in 1988 and served as associate pastor under his predecessor for twelve years before election. A lead pastor is called by the congregation, normally for a term of seven years, by the long-tenured staff of the community, and confirmed by the regional moderator of the association of partner churches.
If you would like to visit the chapel, see the section below — guest house information, including dates and costs. If you would like to consider joining our team, please contact Pastor Wallace or Pastor Brennan, the intern coordinator. We do not respond to inquiries about joining our team by email, but we will gladly respond by post.
14
staff in
the community
7
offices prayed
each day
78
years since
foundation (1947)
280
acres of forest,
fields, & orchards
III · visiting the chapel
Following the shared commitments of the church — "all guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ" — the Stillwater Chapel maintains a small guest house. The guest house has eight single rooms, each with a desk, a small wardrobe, and a window. Bathrooms are shared, men and women on separate floors. There is no television, no wifi in the rooms, and no radio. Meals are taken with the community, in silence, in the fellowship hall.
The guest house is open to men and women of any faith or none. We ask only that guests respect the silence of the chapel, attend at least one office a day (any one will do), and assist with light housework once during their stay. We do not ask about your beliefs; we will gladly answer questions about ours if asked.
Stays range from one night to two weeks. The suggested offering is $80 per night, including all meals; nobody is turned away for inability to pay — please write and explain. Long retreats (over a week) require a brief conversation with the Hospitality Coordinator first.
IV · the history
— the principal events in the chapel's history, since the foundation —
MCMXLVII
The chapel was founded by four pastors from Crosswater Fellowship, central Vermont, on a farmstead willed to us by a benefactor in 1944. The four lived in the original farmhouse for the first three years; the sanctuary was dedicated in 1952.
MCMLII
The current sanctuary — a Romanesque design by the architect Quinlan O'Mahoney — was dedicated by the founding pastor on the February 1, 1952. Built almost entirely by the community itself, with local stone from a quarry six miles east.
MCMLXVII
Stillwater was raised from a satellite ministry to a full independent church by an inter-church council in 1967, twenty years after foundation. Pastor Whitlock, the founding pastor, served until 1965.
MCMLXXII
Construction of the present guest house was completed in 1972 under Pastor Whitlock, on the south end of the property near the orchard. The original eight-bedroom design has not been changed, except for the addition of central heating in 1988.
MM
A significant addition to the chapel library — funded by a single benefactor — was completed in 2000, doubling the shelf capacity and adding the current study hall. The library now holds approximately 38,000 volumes, primarily in patristics, church history, & medieval studies.
MMXIX
Following the resignation of Pastor Hartfield in May 2019, the community elected Pastor Wallace as the seventh lead pastor of Stillwater. He had been associate pastor under Pastor Hartfield for twelve years and joined the Stillwater staff in 1988.
MMXXV
The community at present consists of fourteen staff. Two ministry residents joined in 2023 and 2024, and one intern since the spring. The current lead pastor is Pastor Wallace; the associate pastor is Pastor Brennan; the intern director is Pastor Marcus.
V · get in touch
The chapel responds to inquiries by post only — not by telephone, email, or social media. We do not use any of those. Please write; we will respond, generally within two weeks, in writing. The Hospitality Coordinator, intern coordinator, & Lead Pastor's office all receive mail at the address below.