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Moderns that Matter

2024, Architecture Sarasota named Siesta Key Chapel as one of seven significant structures in Sarasota serving the religious needs of our community.

Siesta Key Chapel was nominated for inclusion on Architecture Sarasota’s “Moderns That Matter.” Moderns That Matter identifies the Sarasota landmarks – from iconic structures to everyday places – that give Sarasota its architectural character and distinct sense of place. A team from Architecture Sarasota came to visit Siesta Key Chapel in December, and SKC member Craig Holliday gave us all a personalized history of the design, construction and early history of the Chapel. The Architecture Sarasota team came away very impressed with what they saw that day.

“Designed by Frank Folsom Smith and James Holliday, both members of the church, Siesta Key Chapel is affectionately known as God’s Tree House. The Sanctuary is a beautiful, soaring space built entirely in wood. The windows, rather than stained glass, are clear and open up to our beautiful Florida habitat of palms and oaks. The space is restful and connects inside with the outside.”

Nomination by Sherry Davis

“We wanted a simple, rustic structure that would blend in with the trees, textures and colors of this beautiful wooded area. We made a strict rule not to cut a single tree if possible. We plan no concrete or asphalt on the grounds”

James Holliday for M.A. Fottler,
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, October 12, 1974

 Siesta Key Chapel opened on June 22, 1975. Over the years, Sunday School rooms, a nursery, meeting rooms, a fellowship hall with kitchen, and an office and study for the pastor were added. In 2008, an expansion was completed that included a larger outdoor deck.

 

Making his musical mark at the Chapel

Author: Ned Steele
March 29, 2024
“It was like a match made in heaven,” Conner Stigner says, without a trace of irony, about his job. It’s a fitting choice of words. Stigner is music director at Siesta Key Chapel, the beautiful Presbyterian church that calls itself “God’s Treehouse.”
Once a business major and government employee, Indiana born-and-raised Stigner shifted his career into music after the pandemic. Now he’s shifting the way music sounds in a church, introducing such styles as Dixieland and jazz to not only the chapel’s spring concert series but even into traditional liturgy.
Consider the approach he first innovated in 2022 to the upcoming Christian holiday of Pentecost. There’ll be all the traditional hymns – but accompanied by a nine-piece jazz band complete with drums, trumpet and saxophone. “ A Glenn Miller-Benny Goodman style,” Stigner said with a smile of anticipation. “Very Gene Krupa 1930s.”

And early Sunday mornings, it’s Chapel on the Beach – to the accompaniment of guitars. Then there’s the church’s spring music concert series, open to the public. They’ve so far had a Dixieland concert and a “contemporary” original Broadway musical-style production about Jesus composed by local artist Timothy Liam Smith. Coming up: a brass band on the beach, and a jazz concert. (There will also be a more traditional organ concert, on the chapel’s magnificent organ.)
It’s all part of Stigner’s view of how to present music.
“We’re broadening the scope of musical events – it’s not just string quartets – and we’re bringing in local residents and a wider range of styles,” he said.

The musicians Stigner has brought in include singers from Sarasota Opera, Florida Studio Theatre, Westcoast Black Theatre, and Florida State University. “We are very fortunate to have an abundance of arts groups here in Sarasota,” he said.
The new musical styles reflect Stigner’s personal favorite genres, but overriding the specifics is his belief that church music can be fun and enjoyable. As a student in high school and college in Indiana, he played piano in the orchestras accompanying musical theater productions. By his senior year, he was directing the performances. Still a student, he also gravitated to local community theater companies.

Realities of life led to his decision at Indiana University to go for a degree in business rather than music. “I loved musical theater, that’s what interests me. But I thought it would be practical long-term to pursue a degree in business,” Stigner said.
This led to his first career, in county government working for the board of elections in his home state. When COVID-19 happened he decided, like so many Americans, to reassess priorities. His love of music came to the forefront and he decided to switch careers. When a friend working at Florida Studio Theatre encouraged him to shift geographically as well, he landed a job with an educational role at Sarasota Opera.

After about a year there, the opportunity for the “match made in heaven” at Siesta Key Chapel came along, and Stigner jumped at it. He arrived in 2021, as the church and its program were building back from the pandemic. He started the Sunday morning beach service that same year. “It’s been very fruitful as a pathway to involvement” in the church, he said. The new ideas and styles have been unfolding ever since. 

Stigner is grateful for the church leadership’s support of his approach. “I am absolutely thrilled with the range of music that we’ve had,” he said. “I could never have gotten away with a Dixieland band at some of the churches I’ve worked at.”
The chapel has historically held its concert series on Sunday afternoons. This year, it is experimenting with other days and times. The remaining concerts are on April 20, May 19 and June 30 (a show to be held on the beach, featuring patriotic favorites).
Chapel on the Beach is on Sunday mornings, and described by the church as a “casual, contemporary, feet-in the-sand service.” It takes place on Siesta Key Beach at the intersection of Avenida Messina and Beach Road, near Beach Access 2.

‘Chapel on the Beach’ brings worship to the sand

Author: Hannah Wallace
December 26, 2023

Siesta Beach has always inspired spiritual descriptions — “serene,” “glorious,” “transcendent.”
Now, that divine glory can be channeled through weekly church services by the heavenly shores, hosted at Patriots Pier by the Siesta Key Chapel and its senior pastor, Ruth Smalt.
“I deeply appreciate the peace and renewal that come from such a glorious setting,” said Smalt. “People say to me, ‘I never knew that we could worship God with our toes in the sand.’”

Beginning Sundays at 9 a.m. during tourist season (8:30 in warmer months), the half-hour “Chapel on the Beach” services feature songs with guitar accompaniment, scripture readings, and a brief homily. Smalt tries to choose familiar Christian music and hymns and often caters her lessons and her language to be inclusive of attendees on any given Sunday, regardless of their backgrounds or denominations. (Siesta Key Chapel is officially Presbyterian.) “It will feel familiar to churchgoers and accessible to those who aren’t,” she said.

Planning for beach services first began late in 2020, not long after Smalt had been recruited to Siesta Key Chapel from her former church on Nantucket. While Chapel leadership had long been considering beachfront services, COVID-19 gave them a practical push to find alternatives to indoor gatherings. And Smalt brought her experience — and her calling — as an “island pastor.” “I grew up on a peninsula [in New York], served on the island on Manhattan, and had my first full-time call on the island of Nantucket,” she explained, adding that she’d also helped to create a beach ministry during her time in Massachusetts. “[Siesta Key] turned out to be a wonderful fit. It all came together in a beautiful way, guided by the Holy Spirit.”

Chapel leadership spent more than a year working on county permitting and parking solutions, trying to find the right location. Eventually Mike Cosentino, who owns Patriots Pier (aka Sunset Point) near the end of Avenida Messina, offered his location. Then they just had to figure out, as Smalt put it, “Who were we called to reach out to?” They experimented with sunset services, then worshiping on the beach on various mornings, at different times and in different seasons. They finally settled on monthly services on Sunday mornings.

“We started out with whoever might be walking by. It was literally a guitar and a couple of us singing,” Smalt said. “It’s not about numbers, but you want to have that sense of community.”
Soon enough attendance grew, and so did provisions. The first attendees just stood the whole time; then they began bringing their own towels and beach chairs. Then an anonymous donor funded the purchase of 100 LL Bean camp chairs. Leadership also organized the Frog Hop shuttle to bring worshipers — as well as chairs and sound equipment — from the Chapel parking lot to the beach and back.

To overcome the elements — “Wind is always part of the adventure,” said Smalt — amplification is necessary. But Smalt stays considerate of other beachgoers nearby.
“We invested in two small speakers and a couple of mics. They’re not blasting across the beach,” she said. “The people that gather will be able to hear the prayers and songs, and hear a homily. But we’re not taking over. [The sound system] is just for the size of folks that gather.”

By the start of 2023, the Chapel on the Beach services were so popular that they moved to weekly. When Chapel leadership suggested cutting back for the summer months, attendees pleaded that they continue.

“People were like, ‘No way, this is our church,’” said Smalt.
Attracting a completely different set of worshipers on the beach than she sees at the chapel, Smalt recognizes that the beach services aren’t just a temporary necessity during the pandemic or a frilly luxury to show off Siesta; they’re a matter of accessibility.

“Mostly people come to church because someone invites them,” she said, while beach worship allows passersby to ease their way in from a distance. “There are a lot of folks who just aren’t going to be comfortable in a physical church for all kinds of reasons. This brings the opportunity to joyously worship God to a different audience.”

Smalt hopes soon to invest in a roll-up beach mat that can accommodate mobility aids and service-goers who might struggle to walk in the soft sand. In the meantime, the services will continue on a weekly basis to accommodate lifelong worshipers as well as the mildly curious, Siesta residents as well as vacationers just in town for the weekend — and anyone else who happens to be on the shore on any given Sunday morning.
“We’ll be on the beach, with a guitar and some prayers and some song, for those folks who are walking by and feel the pull,” said Smalt.