RENSSELAERVILLE — The Rensselaerville Presbyterian Church will hold services every Sunday from July 5 until Sept. 6 at 11 a.m. in the historic church on Main Street in the hamlet. Everyone is welcome.

Each summer, guest preachers from different faith traditions are invited to deliver sermons on a common theme. The 2015 theme, “A Place At The Table,” will be addressed by these preachers:

— July 5: “What Is This Wisdom” by Rev. Holly Cameron, pastor of the New Scotland Presbyterian Church in Slingerlands, a communion service;

— July 12: “Love Built The Table” by Rev. Shaun Whitehead, associate chaplain at St. Lawrence University in Canton;

— July 19: “Nostra Aetate 50 Years Later: Our Dialogue With The Jews” by Father Dennis Tamburello, Order of Saint Francis, professor of Religious Studies, Siena College, Loudonville;

— July 26: “The Table Is Set And All Are Invited” by Rev. Dr. Jon Walton, senior pastor at The First Presbyterian Church in the city of New York;

— Aug. 2: “Whose Table And How Many Chairs?” by Rabbi Norman Mendel, rabbi emeritus of the Congregation Beth David, San Luis Obispo, California;

— Aug. 9: “Banquet Manners” by Rev. Richard E. Spalding, chaplain, Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, a communion service;

— Aug. 16: “The Tiger Under The Table” by Rev. Eric Jackson, pastor of Smith Memorial Congregational Church in Hillsborough, New Hampshire;

— Aug. 23: “Ice Chipping: Everybody Wants A Place” by Rev. Donna Schaper, senior minister at Judson Memorial Church, New York;

— Aug. 30: “Trying To Sell Popsicles” by Rev. Donna Elia, moderator, Albany Presbytery, Albany, a communion service; and

— Sept. 6: “Displaced” by Barbara G. Wheeler, rormer president, Auburn Theological Seminary in New York.

The tradition of summer-only services at the Presbyterian Church in Rensselaerville goes back more than 100 years.  For a short period in the second half of the 19th Century, the village was a lively industrial town as the first site of the Huyck Woolen Mills.  When founder and Presbyterian Church member F. C. Huyck Sr. moved his mill to Albany, he did not sever ties with the village or the church.

But as jobs left with the mill so did many of the village residents, leaving the church without enough members to maintain a year-round pastor.  However, the Huyck family returned each year to vacation and provided for a pastor during their stay.

It was F. C. Huyck Sr.’s granddaughter, Katharine Huyck Elmore, who in the middle of the 20th Century expanded the vision of the summer services to other faith traditions and invited ministers, rabbis, priests, and nuns to fill the pulpit.

The Rensselaerville Presbyterian Church is a nationally recognized example of Greek Revival architecture dating from the 1840s and is listed on both the National and State Registers of Historic Places.

More information about the church may be found on its website: www.rvillepres.org.

Editor’s note: Diana Hinchcliff is an elder in the Rensselaerville Presbyterian Church.