Church of the Week: SFOT Chapel, Suffern, NY

This week's Church of the Week here on the Desperate Pastor no longer exists.

From 1978-1980, the lovely Robin and I worshipped almost daily in this chapel at The Salvation Army's School for Officer's Training in Suffern, New York. The chapel was housed in a former Catholic home and school that The Salvation Army had purchased a few years earlier, thus the large marble altar behind the pulpit.

We were blessed by numerous "spiritual days," many conducted by our training principal, Lt.-Colonel David Baxendale. We profited from the ministry of Brigadier Bernard Ditmer, Major Eva Shannon, Lt.-Colonel Damon Rader, General Arnold Brown, General Frederick Coutts, General Clarence Wiseman, Dr. Tom Hermiz, and more. We knelt frequently at the altar in the front. And tried to keep Rhonda and Robin from talking too much during meetings (a lost cause).

Since then, however, that venerable old mansion in which the chapel was housed was torn down and a new main building constructed, with a new chapel. But the location is still there, on Lafayette Avenue in Suffern, New York.