2022 Memorial Day Issue

18
Betty Holick leads Rev. Archie Palmer
during the closing procession.
One of 10 stained-glass windows at St. Peter’s.
Above: One of
the Stations of
the Cross plates.
Left: Joyce
Anderson reads
during service.
LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Memorial Day 2022
A recent Bible study meeting.
Congregation Feels Like
Family at St. Peter’s
Story by BONNIE-LYNN NADZEIKA
Photos by KAREN FUCITO
There was no stately pipe organ. There
was no choir with embroidered
matching robes. Yet that did not mean
beautiful music wasn’t to be heard inside the
historic walls of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church
in Mount Arlington.
On a Sunday morning in early May, the
small electric organ was played by Anne
Puskas, 81, who was baptized in the church.
The dozen or so attending service that
day—many former choir members
looking forward to reestablishing the
choir post-COVID—joined their
voices in harmony.
Each person took different vocal
parts to create a homophonic
sound—a single melody accompanied
by harmonic parts. The resulting
music was every bit as rich as a full
church choir.
Area residents and summer visitors
have been taking
Terry Beatty rings
the church bells.
part in services at
the small stone
church with its
single tower since
the late 19th
century.
In 1888, the
cornerstones of
two churches were
laid in the Breslin
Park section of
Mount Arlington one
month apart. Our Lady
of the Lake was first,
followed by what was
originally known as the
nondenominational
Union Protestant
Chapel.
The churches were
created to serve both
the influx of summer
residents and the
smaller population
that lived in the area
year-round. Both are
officially part of the
Mount Arlington State
and National Register
of Historic Places.
The Union Protestant
Chapel was located
near the 300-room
Breslin Hotel and the magnificent summer homes
of silent screen actress Lotta Crabtree and Mount
Arlington’s first mayor Howard Frothingham.
At a cost of $2,500, the Union Protestant
Chapel’s stone building was built by Cyrus Cook
on land donated by local resident Robert Dunlap.
Money was raised by hosting “entertainments”
and soliciting friends for donations, according to a
passage in the book, “Mount Arlington: A Pictorial
History: The First 100 Years.”
In 1892, Dunlap paid off the remaining mortgage
and the church was donated by the Breslin Park
Association to the Episcopal Diocese of Newark
and renamed St. Peter’s.
At its peak in the 1990s, membership at St.
Peter’s numbered around 100 to 125 and included
all ages, said Puskas. The church has room for about
125 people. There used to be weddings (the last one
was in 2013) and baptisms (the last of these was in
2019).
Today, membership is hovering around 40, most
of whom are well beyond child-bearing age. “We
can’t seem to keep young people in the church,”
Puskas said.
One reason, she said, is because the church has not
had a full-time priest since September 2008. Since
then, the Diocese has assigned Priests in Charge or
Long-Term Supply Priests. “That definitely hurts
us,” Puskas said, adding that except for a few years,
the day-to-day running of the church has been led
by laypersons.
The interior of the church features dark
wainscoting, oak pews, a beefy coffered ceiling
and 10 stained-glass windows. A striking brocade
fabric—that’s been there for a least 50 years—hangs
behind the pulpit and covers the altar.
The picturesque windows were purchased in the
early 1980s through donations by church members
and replaced windows that were plain diamond
patterned stained-glass. Many of the new windows
were donated by family names familiar to longtime
residents including Chabon, Lee, Decker and Wiss.
The window known as “Jesus’ Birth” was given by
Michael and Dina Cabot in memory of their son,
William Roger Cabot, who died in a car accident.
In this traditional nativity scene, a likeness of
Cabot’s face has been added to portray a shepherd.
One unique feature of the church decor is the
Stations of the Cross, which serve to visually remind
churchgoers of the stages of Jesus’ final sufferings
and his death and burial. Typically, the Stations are
sculpted or carved out of stone, wood or metal. At
St. Peter’s, the 14 Stations of the Cross are large,
round platters that have been hand-painted.
The brainchild of Pat Mueller, 65, a church
warden, vestry member and longtime parishioner,
the clay plates were painted by children in Sunday
school in the mid-2000s. Mueller, now a retired art