A CONTEMPLATIVE conclusion to a lakeside retreat for ten young people ended up in a dunking for one priest of the Episcopal diocese of East Tennessee, in the United States, when her canoe sank halfway through a service on the water.

When the Revd Kat Chappell found that her aged canoe was taking on water during a eucharist on the lake, the realisation made her lose her balance and fall into the water. Surrounded by other kayaks, she was in no danger, and was soon rescued by the Bishop, the Rt Revd Brian Cole.

The service was taking place during a confirmation retreat for young people at Grace Point Camp in Kingston, Tennessee. A photo posted on social media afterwards showed Mthr Chappell, Associate Rector of St Timothy’s, Signal Mountain, who was at the camp as one of four chaperones for the young people, being towed back to dry land by a kayak steered by Bishop Cole.

The group had paddled out on to the camp’s lake for the Sunday-morning service, but after the sermon, Mthr Chappell’s canoe began taking on water. She then lost her balance and toppled into the lake.

She told the Episcopal News Service afterwards that she had struggled to swim back to shore because she was laughing so much. “I could not stop laughing,” she said. She said that she was picturing her brother, who had died unexpectedly that summer after years of serving at the youth camp, laughing at her flailing around in the water.

Before the unexpected dunking, she said that participants had experienced a “stillness and a peacefulness” in being on the water for the service.

One person wrote online: “And I thought she woulda just walked on it.” Another asked the Bishop: “Taking that whole ‘fishing for people’ thing a little too seriously Brian?”