It was a wintry Easter Sunday — with Canada geese gathered outside St. Stephen’s to welcome all who came to “flower the cross.”
The Hoisting of the Hyacinths during the final Easter hymn is a St. Stephen’s tradition.
Music At St. Stephen's - Sunday April 26
Please join us for the next extraordinary star-studded concert on Sunday, April 26, 4:00 PM at St. Stephen’s Church
Our upcoming Music at St. Stephen's concert is on Sunday, April 26th at 4pm. The Terra String Quartet, winner of the Naumberg Competition in New York, will be performing. The hour long concert will be followed by a reception with refreshments provided by DeCicco & Sons, Armonk Wines & Spirits, and Beascakes Bakery.
Come enjoy such high level music right here in Armonk, in the stellar acoustics of St. Stephen's Church. All are welcome!
Tickets are $30 and can be purchased here.
Created by the internationally recognized artistic director Veronika Schreiber, the 2026 Music at St. Stephen’s Concert Series, funded by the Elzbieta and David Grove Foundation, offers mostly classical music, presented by world renown soloists. Audiences will have an opportunity to enjoy the rich sound of the Peragallo Pipe Organ, inaugurated in 2017, alone and in combination with various instruments and singers.
For additional information about Music at St. Stephen’s, including the final concerts in the 2025 series, artist biographies, and to purchase tickets visit www.musicatststephens.org.
Music at St. Stephen's
"Theme and Variations at the Organ"
Join us on Sunday, March 15 at 4:00 PM at St. Stephen’s Church for an extraordinary afternoon of organ music with internationally acclaimed organist Janet Yieh.
An innovative concert recitalist and sacred music specialist, Janet Yieh has been praised for her “expressivity and technical prowess” (The American Organist). Currently Director of Music at Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City, she oversees a dynamic music program and performs on the renowned 138-rank Austin Organ. She previously served as Associate Organist at Trinity Church Wall Street, and her international performance career has brought her to major venues including Alice Tully Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Washington National Cathedral, and Yale University’s Woolsey Hall, with appearances throughout Asia and across the United States.
Janet is also co-founder of the platform Amplify Female Composers, dedicated to expanding the voices heard in today’s musical world.
This concert features a compelling and wide-ranging program—from French Romantic brilliance to American spiritual reflections and contemporary works, including a brand-new 2025 composition.
Program
Louis Vierne - Carillon de Westminster, Op. 54 No. 6
Amy Beach - Prelude on an Old Folk Tune “The Fair Hills of Eire, O”
Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite (transc. Harvey B. Gaul)
Craig Phillips - Reflection on “Were You There?”
Sarah MacDonald - Fugue, Sicilienne, & Toccatina on “Jesu, Dulcis Memoria”
Rebecca Groom te Velde - Contemplation on “What Wondrous Love Is This”
Daniel Ficarri - Suite No. 2: Homage to H. T. Burleigh
Sunday, March 15 • 4:00 PM
St. Stephen’s Church
50 Bedford Road, Armonk, NY
We warmly invite you to join us for this inspiring afternoon of artistry, tradition, and musical discovery.
St. Stephen's supports Neighbors Link with $2500 for the Coat Drive
Our Mission & Outreach Committee member John Bernson presented a check to Neighbors Link for $2500 in December for their Coat and Boot Drive.
John is pictured here with, from left, Adrienne Vogel (Chief Development Officer), Katharine Dow (Volunteer Manager, holding the check), and Ciara Bowes (Volunteer Coordinator}.
CDO Katharine Dow wrote to us, “Thank you again for your generous support for Coat and Boot this year. We are grateful for all of our community partners who generously helped us with gently used coats or supplemental items like warm gloves or socks., but without the contribution of St. Stephen’s we would not have reached our primary goal of having one new winter coat or one new pair of boots for everyone.”
Interfaith partners of "The Pantry" meet
The Pantry held a morning coffee recently, inviting clergy from some of their interfaith partners, introducing their new branding and giving an update on achievements and challenges
St. Stephen’s supports The Pantry in other ways than financially, such as serving at food distributions…
delivering food to the homebound…
and volunteering at The Pantry’s booth at community events!
Treasures Thrift Shop gets Westchester Magazine recognition
Treasures is proud to be recognized by Westchester Magazine as one of the most exquisite thrift shops
in Westchester.
Visit Treasures for unique finds, great prices, and the opportunity to support seven local nonprofits. Thank you for helping us make a difference in our community.
Many Thanks to Kay Anderson for a generation of flowers!
After more than 15 years, Kay Anderson is "retiring" from planter duty --- Kay donated the planter on our portico in 2008, just after her father Max Winkler died, and has kept it filled with flowers in his memory. Kay is pictured doing a planting with her son Rob above.
Kay grew up across the street from St. Stephen's at her family's nursery. She said, "When service was on my father didn't allow any equipment to make any noise so as not to disturb the service. For many years he donated the large wreath and hung it for the church at Christmas. He also donated a large Ginkgo tree which was planted on the corner of Bedford RD and Maple Ave. Unfortunately when the sewers came thru they destroyed the tree and never replaced it."
Kay said, "I was very happy to plant the planter throughout the seasons, many times with my kids or granddaughter helping me. Now I feel it's time for me to pass it on to someone else who might want to plant it in the memory of a loved one. I would be willing to advise anyone as what plants I found grew best there. The sun really lays in that spot all day and it gets very hot and dry."
St. Stephen's is so grateful to Kay and her family for so many years of dedication, beautifying our church in all seasons. Many thanks to Kay and the Anderson family!
St. Stephen's honored by Hope's Door
At their annual fundraising gala, Hope’s Door, the local nonprofit working to end domestic violence, honored St. Stephen’s for our decade long support. Fr. Garrett attended, just hours after having a pacemaker installed (!) and is pictured with CarLa Horton, Executive Director of Hope’s Door (center) and Lauren Cardullo Thompson, St. Stephen’s member and Treasures Thrift Shop co-manager.
St. Stephen's presents $59,000 to essential local nonprofits.
Angele Petre, head of Mission & Outreach, praised our Treasures Thrift Shop volunteers for a successful year, allowing generous donations to local nonprofits: The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, which served 118,000 meals last year, the Emergency Shelter Partnership, hosting local homeless for the coldest weeks of the year, Hope’s Door, working to prevent domestic violence, Hudson Link, providing college programs to prisoners, the Hudson Valley Honor Flight, providing veterans a trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the memorials, and ReSET Westchester, successfully resettling and integrating refugees into Westchester,
So much good work pictured here — Our indefatigable Treasures volunteers posted with the nonprofit representatives!
St. Stephen's hosts Emergency Shelter Partnership
In the final weeks of cold weather, St. Stephen’s partnered with Armonk faith communities the Alliance Church, St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, and Congregation B’nai Yisrael, along with the local Scout Pack 94, to host the Emergency Shelter Partnership.
The ESP is a coaltion of faith communities in this area of Westchester who join forces to provide overnight shelter and warm nutritious meals to homeless adults during the coldest months of the year.
Easter 2025
It was a beautiful Easter service at St. Stephen’s.
The hoisting of the hyacinths, a tradition going back many decades, is always a highlight of our Easter service!
The Turner children were away at college, but they heard from their son on Easter:
Our first Music at St. Stephen's Concert
In March we hosted our first of four 2025 Music at St. Stephen’s concerts. The performance was a great success. The show was sold out, and the church was full. Musicians Aaron Tan and Jeffrey Grossman performed a varied program showing off the range of their instruments
The church was filled to capacity. We recommend buying tickets early to future concerts!
The reception following the concert featured refreshments generously provided by DeCicco & Sons, Armonk Wines and Spirits, and Beascakes. The crowd lingered to enjoy.
Reception for our Mission & Outreach Recipients
In May St. Stephen’s held a gathering to hand out checks totaling $60,000 in Treasures Thrift Shop proceeds to seven local nonprofits. Everyone in this photo is a representative of a nonprofit or a local volunteer who works at Treasures to raise the funds for these worthy causes.
Aren’t we blessed to have so much talent and dedication at work in our community!
These indefatigable Treasures volunteers sort and price and organize and sell donations every week, raising funds for all these good causes!
A representative of each nonprofit spoke about the work they do, so we learned about the successes of the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, Hudson Link, the Hudson Valley Honor Flight, the Emergency Shelter Partnership, Hope’s Door, ReSet (the refugee settlement organization), and Neighbors Link. So much good is accomplished by these groups, on small budgets and with volunteer support. St. Stephen’s is honored to work with them.
Easter at St. Stephen's
Easter at St. Stephen’s started with chimes…
…and ended with our St. Stephen’s tradition: the hoisting of the hyacinths!
Never miss our hyacinth hoisting Easter at St. Stephen's!
The Flowering of the Cross is another tradition, as the congregation adorns the cross.
After many years of hunting for Easter eggs himself, one of our youth is now a Hider of Easter eggs.
St. Stephen's supports the Emergency Shelter Partnership
Due to a last minute snafu, volunteers at St. Stephen’s had to scramble to take care of our ESP guests a week earlier than scheduled. We are so impressed with how our volunteers rose to the occasion!
Above, our Parish Administrator Julie delivers 40 lunches to the ESP with her friend Kevin. She even got a local business to donate Oat Stovies -- a unique Hudson Valley cookie!
The Blessing of the Animals!
In early October we take inspiration from Francis of Assisi, a saint famed for his simplicity of life and love for all living creatures. In honor of St. Francis, we offer a blessing to each animal brought to church.
The occasion brought out many dogs, and some were happy to attend the service!
Other pets were more comfortable outdoors.
A Celebration of James Turner's 21 years as Music Director
This month we celebrated James Turner's 21 years of stellar service to St. Stephen's as Music Director and Organist.
James led into the service with three beautiful preludes by Bach and Pachelbel.
Fr Garrett presented a video of appreciation with contributions from parishioners old and new….
...and he presented gifts of appreciation to James and Claire.
James, an accountant by day, reflected on the interesting path that led to his musical avocation, and his memories of decades at St. Stephen's.
It was both special and appropriate to have our two long-serving rectors who James worked with make an appearance -- Fr Nils was there in person along with Kelly...
...and Fr Harry made his appearance via video!
Thank you, James and Claire, for 21 years of outstanding musical contributions to St. Stephen’s!
A Warm and Touching Treasures Reception for Nonprofit Recipients
Lena Cavanna, head of our Mission & Outreach Committee, worked with Treasures co-managers Lauren Thompson and Sharon Stern, to hold our second annual reception for the beneficiaries of Treasures net proceeds. We donated $50,000 to these important nonprofit organizations.
St. Stephen's members and non-profit representatives had a chance to meet and mingle.
Barbara Turk of Hope's Door told about their essential mission to end domestic violence, offering 19 beds to shelter the survivors, and working to end the cycle of abuse by educating young people.
Sean Pica of Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison was inspiring, relating how his organization works with seven NY prisons to educate the incarcerated and prepare them to become positive members of their communities. With a typical prison recidivism rate of 60%, Hudson Link students have a rate of 2%. He expressed gratitude not just for the financial donation, but also for men's clothing donated by the shop, allowing their graduates to make good impressions as they re-enter the work force.
The non-profit representatives attending were, from left, Chet and Mary Edwards (Hudson Valley Honor Flight), Sean Pica (Hudson Link), Sharon Seidell and Trina Fontaine (Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry), Alison Leisawitz (Neighbors Link), JoAnne Hochstein (Emergency Shelter Partnership), and Barbara Turk (Hope's Door).
Our indefatigable Treasures volunteers were thanked for their hard work, yielding a banner year.
To top off the day, Fr. Garrett, Lauren Thompson and Sharon Stern delivered a framed print of the Wampus Pond gazebo, with a plaque of appreciation, to John DeCicco, to honor their continuing delicious provisions donated to St. Stephen's and the Emergency Shelter Partnership. We are so grateful to our generous neighbors, DeCicco's!
Acolyte Awards
St. Stephen's had three acolytes graduate from high school this year, Erica Kaiser, Dale Kaiser and Hester Turner. Fr Garrett presented each of them with the Bard Acolyte Award in appreciation of their many years of acolyte service.
Fr Garrett also wrote a letter to each acknowledging this milestone, and reminding them of God's presence on their journey. We wish them the best as they depart to attend college in the fall.
Trina Fontaine appointed as Food Pantry Executive Director
Trina Fontaine has been appointed Executive Director at the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, an essential local non-profit that St. Stephen's has supported for many years. Trina's wealth of non-profit experience gained as Senior Development Director at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation was followed by two years of serving as our volunteer Director of Treasures Thrift Shop 2.0, overhauling and restarting our shop after the COVID pandemic closure -- the happy results in increased donations, revenues and volunteerism speak for themselves!
Trina served on the Food Pantry board in 2010-11, and more recently offered them assistance with pro bono grant writing. We admire the synergy, and offer our congratulations to Trina as she starts her latest challenge, working to sustain and grow MKIFP, this essential resource to our community.
Trina acknowledged her appreciation to all the volunteers and donors to the Food Pantry from St. Stephen's, whose support over the years has been a boon to the organization.