East Tennessee priest falls into lake, is rescued by bishop after ‘canoe-charist’ goes awry

[Episcopal News Service] Episcopal clergy pledge at their ordinations to pattern their lives after Christ’s example, but no one expects priests to walk on water. The Rev. Kat Chappell demonstrated that mortal limitation the hard way, at a weekend “canoe-charist” in the Diocese of East Tennessee.  

By the end, she was all wet – and laughing with joy – after East Tennessee Bishop Brian Cole paddled her to shore. 

A photo posted to the diocese’s Facebook page shows Chappell in the water and hanging onto the back of Cole’s canoe at Grace Point Camp and Retreat Center in Kingston. The Eucharist on water was intended to conclude a diocesan youth confirmation retreat.

“Despite falling in the lake, I would do it again,” Chappell told Episcopal News Service.

Chappell, who serves as associate rector at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Signal Mountain, was one of four chaperones for the 10 young Episcopalians at the confirmation retreat. They were excited to welcome Cole, who traveled to the retreat center Sept. 7 for his first visitation after returning from a sabbatical.

It had rained the day before, so when Sunday dawned with perfect weather, one of the other chaperones suggested a “canoe-charist” – just like it sounds, a paddle-required worship service out on Watts Bar Lake. Chappell told ENS she initially was reluctant but embraced the novel experience after learning that Cole was on board with the idea.

The group split up to climb into the centers’ canoes and kayaks, and Chappell and another adult found that they had been left with a canoe in a sad state of disrepair, decorated with duct tape.

Out on the lake, the participants pulled their boats together for the service. But after the sermon and before the group turned to the Liturgy of the Table, Chappell realized something was amiss. Her feet were getting wet.

“I think we need to go back. This boat is taking on water!” she said.

As the canoe began sinking, Chappell lost her balance and fell into the lake. She tried to swim to shore but was consumed with emotion: not fear, but hilarity.

“I could not stop laughing,” she recalled. “I was just laughing so hard.”

She told ENS that her emotions in that moment might have been mixed with grief, as her brother had died suddenly in July. He had served as a retreat center staff member in past seasons and loved the experience, and she thought of how he would have seen the amusement in his sister flailing in the water just off the retreat center’s cove. Somewhere, she thought, he must be laughing with her.

Thankfully, the group was not far from shore, and everyone was wearing life jackets. They soon made it to dry land and concluded the Eucharist at the retreat center’s outdoor altar.

Aside from her canoe sinking, Chappell thinks the service on the water was the perfect culmination of the retreat. “There was a stillness, a peacefulness to being out there,” she said, and the youth participants were able to be fully present in the moment.

As for the offending canoe, it received a ship’s equivalent of last rites – decommissioned, disposed, never to dunk a priest again. 

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.