A Parish in the Lattingtown Countryside
St. John's of Lattingtown stands at 325 Lattingtown Road, where the road leaves Locust Valley and bends past open lawn and old stone walls toward the villages of Lattingtown and Mill Neck. The stone church, with its richly carved interior, has been the gathering place for this stretch of the North Shore for more than a century. Worshipers come from Locust Valley, Glen Cove, Bayville, and the surrounding communities, drawn by a parish that places the Holy Eucharist, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Anglican musical tradition at the center of its life.
The clergy, staff, and people of St. John's describe their work with a single sentence: to understand and receive God's love and grace through worship, music, education, and outreach. Sunday morning is the heart of that work, but the parish also runs a year-round schedule of midweek prayer, a thrift shop called The Barn, an annual Country Fair that is the oldest continually run fair on Long Island, and a partnership with Alcoholics Anonymous.
Sunday Worship at St. John's
Two services of Holy Eucharist are held on Sunday. At 8:00 AM, the parish gathers for Holy Eucharist Rite I, the traditional language liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer. At 10:30 AM the principal service is sung as Holy Eucharist Rite II, with hymns from the blue hymnal in the pews and a sermon grounded in Scripture.
During the summer months, through Labor Day, the 10:30 AM service moves to 9:30 AM while the early service remains at 8:00 AM. Bulletins are handed out at the door to help newcomers follow the service. Ushers, greeters, lectors, intercessors, acolytes, and Eucharistic ministers all serve at the liturgy, and newcomers interested in any of these roles are welcomed.
All are welcome at St. John's regardless of church background. Visitors from other traditions are encouraged to take part in the service and to ask any questions about Episcopal practice.
Music at the Heart of the Parish
Music is described by the parish as the heart of its life. The Ministry of Music is overseen by Ruaraidh Sutherland, an experienced choirmaster who previously directed music at Christ Church in Rye, New York. The program includes a children's choir, an adult Schola Cantorum, a Choral Scholarship Program for high school and college students, and a seasonal Festival Choir drawn from volunteers across the North Shore.
The Parish Choir sings at the 10:30 AM Sunday Choral Liturgy and at special liturgies through the year, including Advent and Lenten Services of Lessons and Carols, the Triduum of Holy Week, and a Solemn Requiem on All Souls' Day. The choir is unique on Long Island in having boys and girls in grades three through eight singing the soprano line alongside adult singers. Children are trained on the Royal School of Church Music's Voice for Life curriculum and receive a small stipend.
Evensong, drawn almost entirely from the Bible, is sung several times a year by the Schola Cantorum, with a casual reception following each service in the medieval-inspired Parish Hall. Compline is sung weekly during the summer. The Festival Choir performs two large works with professional orchestra and guest soloists each year; recent offerings have included Handel's Messiah in December and a March performance of Mozart's Requiem.
The organ currently in the church was designed and installed in 2014 by the Sebastian Gluck Organ Company of New York. It consists of twenty ranks over two manuals and pedal, set inside the original oak casework from the 1920s. The case was carved in Edinburgh by William and Alexander Clow, the brothers who completed the carved figures in the Chapel of the Knights of the Order of the Thistle at St. Giles Cathedral in 1911, and was a gift of Mr. and Mrs. John Pierpont Morgan.
A Building Carved by Morgan
The first Union Chapel on this stretch of road was built in 1859 on the north side of what was then called Pudding Lane, across from the John E. Aldred estate. A New Union Chapel was begun in 1912 on the present site under the auspices of St. Paul's, Glen Cove, with funds and native stone contributed by the William Guthrie family and the Weir family, at a total cost of about $30,000.
After disagreement over whether the chapel should remain interdenominational or become an Episcopal parish, the chapel was incorporated in 1915 as the independent Episcopal parish of St. John's of Lattingtown, with the Rev. Charles E. Hinton as its first full-time rector. The new building was consecrated on June 11, 1916 by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Frederick Burgess, Episcopal Bishop of Long Island.
The wood carvings that fill the interior were financed by J. P. Morgan and installed in November 1923, a project that required closing the church for four months. The interior was also lengthened to add room for two more pews, the entrance was moved to its present position on the southeast corner, and a limestone floor was laid. In 1957 the building was expanded to its current size; the stained glass windows were carefully removed, numbered, and rebuilt under a higher roofline. The Cloister was dedicated in 2002, providing a Guild room, a modern kitchen, and a large classroom beneath the church.
Children and Families
The children of St. John's have been called the happy heart of the parish since 1915. The Sunday School meets at 10:30 AM. A staffed nursery is offered for children from birth through age three, and Sunday School classes are provided for children age three and older through the elementary years. Programming is built on the conviction that the community is stronger when families worship and learn together.
Children participate in many of the great liturgies of the year. At Christmas Eve they present a children's pageant; on Good Friday there is a special service for children; and on Easter Sunday an Easter egg hunt follows the principal Eucharist. Older children who love to sing may also join the Parish Choir, where they are trained vocally and in musicianship by professional staff.
The Barn at St. John's
Adjacent to the church is The Barn at St. John's, a thrift ministry that opens its doors on Sundays from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM between Easter and Christmas. Volunteers, known in the parish as the Barn Cats, accept gently used clothing and small household items and offer them at modest prices. Donations are received only during open hours, and proceeds support the parish and its outreach.
The Barn is also a place of fellowship. Visitors find conversation alongside the clothing racks, and Sunday mornings there have the feel of a small village market. Volunteers are needed both to staff the shop on Sundays and to pick up furniture from donors during the week.
The Country Fair
Each September the parish hosts its annual Country Fair, the oldest continually run fair on Long Island. The weekend opens on Friday evening with an Opening Night Party, continues on Saturday with shopping, family activities, and a popular $10 Stuff-a-Bag sale, and concludes on Sunday with Mass on the Grass and another Stuff-a-Bug sale on the lawn. Grants from the fair's proceeds are awarded each year to local ministries and non-profits, including past grantees such as COVE Animal Rescue, the WaterFront Center, the Glen Cove High School Select Chorale, the Glen Cove High School softball and baseball teams, the Grenville Baker Boys and Girls Club, and the Sage Foundation.
The fair is supported by individual and corporate sponsors at four giving levels, from Hay Stacker to Barn Raiser, and by many volunteers from the parish and the wider community.
Through the Church Year
The liturgical year at St. John's is marked by services that draw the parish into the great seasons of the Christian calendar. Advent brings a Festival of Lessons and Carols, with scriptural readings interspersed with choral hymns. Christmas Eve includes a children's pageant and a Eucharist with carols; Christmas Day brings a quieter celebration of the Nativity. Ash Wednesday is observed with both traditional prayer book liturgies and a special service for children. Palm Sunday includes the procession of the palms, and Holy Week is observed with the Triduum liturgies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil, along with a children's service on Good Friday. Easter Sunday brings a large children's Easter egg hunt. Pentecost, the Blessing of the Animals in October, and the September Mass on the Grass round out the year.
Reaching Out Beyond the Parish
St. John's serves the wider community through partnerships with local ministries and non-profits, supported in part by grants from the Country Fair. The parish also opens its buildings for two open meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous each week, on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 PM and Saturday mornings at 9:30 AM.
For funerals, the Memorial Garden on the church grounds offers burial plots, in addition to the Easter liturgy the parish offers as a funeral rite. Baptisms, weddings, and confirmations are all scheduled through the parish office, and those coming from other Christian traditions may be received into the Episcopal Church by the bishop with the laying on of hands.
Becoming Part of St. John's
Newcomers are invited to fill out a Connect Card and to check the areas of ministry that interest them, whether Youth and Family, Music Ministry and Concerts, Outreach, Adult Education, or Sunday Morning Volunteering. Members of St. John's include anyone who participates regularly in the life of the church; baptized persons who worship at St. John's for twelve months and contribute to the parish during that time are qualified voters at the annual meeting.
The parish office and church are open Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, when the building is available for prayer, rest, and reflection and the parish library is open. After hours, an emergency line reaches a member of the clergy.
Parking is available in the large grass lot across Lattingtown Road, with additional spaces along Old Tappan Road and handicapped-accessible parking on Old Tappan Road in front of the church. Drivers from the Long Island Expressway take Exit 39 north; travelers from Manhattan can take the Long Island Rail Road's Oyster Bay Line to Glen Cove or Locust Valley, about an hour from Penn Station with a change at Jamaica.
Financial support may be given online, by mail, or by text. Gifts may also be directed to the parish's Endowment Fund, which is managed by Focus Partners International and supports ministry, education, outreach, and the restoration of parish facilities. Those wishing to remember or honor a loved one may do so through the Endowment Fund, and the parish can be named as a beneficiary in wills, life insurance policies, and charitable trusts.
Weddings, funerals, and baptisms can be arranged through the parish office, and the Great Lawn, Parish Hall, and Cloister are available to rent for gatherings of up to eighty guests. The country fair, the choirs, the Barn thrift shop, the Sunday School, and the Sunday Eucharist all welcome newcomers ready to join the life of the parish.