Ministers

Hello to Parishioners of Island Chapel, Upper Saranac Lake , NY. 

 With hope and joy Island Chapel, Upper Saranac Lake, NY will be opening this summer 2025.    Church services will begin at 10 am with a selection of ecumenical services, each Sunday a different clergyman.  It is truly a special place of peace.  Know we are thinking of you, and we hope you are of us. We look forward to another great year at the chapel for summer 2025 Season.   Thank you and Peace be with you!

Ministers for the 2025 Summer Season

June 29, 2025 Rev. Eric Olsen ELCA

Rev. Eric W. Olsen was ordained by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in 1988, and is currently serving as the Interim Priest at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Saranac Lake NY. In the past he served as Pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Saranac Lake, Redeemer Lutheran Church in Plattsburgh, and the First United Methodist Church in Saranac Lake. He had a career as an Army Chaplain which culminated in his role as State Chaplain for the NYS Division of Military and Naval Affairs, retiring at the rank of Colonel. He also served as a Chaplain for the NYS Department of Corrections. He grew up in New York City but settled in Saranac Lake, where he and his wife Susan have raised two sons.  

July 6, 2025 Rev. Dr. Colin Tuggle

Rev. Dr. Colin Tuggle pastors the Tupper Lake United Community Church. He is also the founder and executive director of ADK Mission: a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works across denominations to strengthen local churches and ministries (ADKMission.org). Colin was born and raised in southeastern New York, and his family has owned property outside Tupper Lake for nearly 60 years. He served in the military and business before transitioning to full-time vocational ministry in 2006. Colin and his wife, Lisa, have lived with their children in Saranac Lake since 2013.

July 13, 2025 Rev. Bruce McCulley

Pastor- High Peaks Church

Bruce has lived in the Saranac Lake region most of his life.  In 2012, after a 31-year career at Whiteface Mountain Ski Center, he started his second vocation and was ordained as Pastor of High Peaks Church in Saranac Lake, where he currently serves. Bruce has also ministered to the body of Christ in prison for over 20 years. The joy of assembling with the church to worship Christ is his great passion.  Bruce and his wife Zoe enjoy mountain biking, skiing and outdoor recreation. They have one college age son Micah.

July 20, 2025 Derek Hansen

Rev. Derek Hansen and his wife Becky met at family church camp as junior-high students and have been serving in ministry together for over 15 years. They have three children – Liam, Sam, and Hollis. Pastor Derek is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and currently pastors Adirondack Community Church in Lake Placid and First United Methodist Church of Saranac Lake. He loves preaching and teaching, leading the church in mission, and seeing people’s lives transformed by God’s grace. Pastor Derek is a Western New York native and long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan. He enjoys spending time with his family, watching and playing sports, playing video games, and walking in the woods with the family’s energetic springer spaniel.

July 27, 2025 Dr. Elaine James

Elaine James is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. She is the author of An Invitation to Biblical Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2021) and Landscapes of the Song of Songs: Poetry and Place (Oxford University Press, 2017). She enjoys hiking with her family, especially in the Adirondacks.

Aug 3 ,2025 Mary Travers

Mary serves as a Chaplain at Inova Women’s and Children’s Hospital outside of Washington, D.C., where she offers spiritual and emotional support to patients navigating complex healthcare situations. Since receiving her Masters of Divinity from Yale Divinity School in 2021, Mary has been especially passionate about supporting patients through their reproductive healthcare journeys and during perinatal losses. Mary has grown up spending summers on Upper Saranac Lake and visiting Chapel Island with her family. She is excited to gather in a spirit of prayer with friends and strangers alike in this beautiful Chapel Island home. 

Aug 10, 2025 The Rev. Dr. Renée Tembeckjian

The Rev. Dr. Renée Tembeckjian is the Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, New York. Prior to this, she served on the bishop’s staff as Diocesan Director of Spiritual Formation, as well as Pediatric Chaplain at Golisano Children’s Hospital.  Renée is a licensed psychologist in longtime clinical practice, and frequent presenter on topics in psychological and spiritual health.  A Manhattan native, her personal interests range widely in the arts, sciences. and baseball!   Renée lives in Manlius with husband, Thomas Zino, and they have two sons, James, William, and new daughter-in-law, Murui!   

Aug 17, 2025 The Rev. Dennis Lowe

Dennis has served Ukrainian Orthodox, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and independent churches in the American South and in Northern New York, as well as being trained in the Episcopal Church.  He currently serves Lake Clear (Adirondack) Presbyterian Church.  He and his wife moved to the Potsdam area when she finished her doctorate and became professor of bassoon at the Crane School of Music, nearly 20 years ago.   He is also a musician, playing professionally since 1977, including two enlistments with the US Army as a multi-instrumentalist, playing trombone, guitar, bass, euphonium, and as a vocalist.  This has come in handy on rare days when Lake Clear’s organist can’t make it to church Sunday morning, due to the weather.  He and his wife share their home with two dogs and three cats.

Aug 24, 2025 Rev. Amanda Cash Nazarene

Rev. Amanda Cash has been a pastor in the Church of the Nazarene since 2004, and was ordained in 2009. She studied at Asbury University and Nazarene Theological Seminary, and has spent time in youth ministry, church planting, and senior pastoral leadership in the local church. She and her husband, Daniel, moved to the Adirondacks with their two older children in 2012 and their third child was born right here in Saranac Lake in 2015. Amanda is currently serving in ministry at Adirondack Community Church in Lake Placid as the Director of Discipleship. When not serving the church, Amanda and her family love to be active outdoors mountain biking, skiing, and enjoying all the Adirondacks have to offer.

Aug 31, 2025 Rev. Joann White PCUSA

Joann White is a writer, pastor, spiritual director, and enthusiast of wild places. She is a graduate of Colgate University, McCormick Theological Seminary, and the Institute for Spiritual Leadership in Chicago. Since 2005, she has pastored the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake. When she isn’t at church, you might find her wandering the local trails with her husband Duane Keith Gould and their Corgi Gybi. Her 2021 book Blest Be the Tie: Fables of Faith from the Far North is available now from Amazon, Wipf and Stock, and area bookstores. She is currently a doctoral candidate with Pittsburgh Seminary’s Creative Writing and Public Theology program.

Jack VanYperen

 Minister Coordinator