St. Stephen's An Episcopal Church 50 Bedford Road Armonk, NY (914) 273.3812 ststephensarmonk.org
Weekly Services: Wednesdays 12:00 pm Sundays 10:00 am and 5:30 pm A 10:00am Family Service. With Choir, and Sunday School for children ages 4 - 13 years of age. Babysitting is available for younger children. Please join us for coffee hour after the service.
Church of St. Patrick in Armonk
A Roman Catholic Community
29 Cox Avenue PO Box 6 Armonk, NY (914) 273.9724 Mass Sunday, 8:30AM, 10:30AM Weekdays, 8:30AM Saturday, 5:30PM Sunday, 12 Noon Holy Day, as announced
Sunday Worship Service and Sunday School 10:30 am Weekly
Nursery Care available ~ Handicapped Accessible
“An Historic Church with a Contemporary Witness”
We are rethinking church with Open Hearts, Open Minds and Open Doors
3 Bedford Road Armonk, NY 10504 (914) 273-8296
Meet Reverend Jennifer Pick of Armonk United Methodist Church
Nov. 8, 2011 Reverend Jennifer Pick, a new member of the Armonk Community, is also the new reverend for the United Methodist Church in town. Pick is originally from Texas, where she was raised Methodist. She fondly remembers the church as part of her childhood upbringing, saying, "I was there all the time; the doors were always open.”
But as a young woman she had very different plans for her life. She was an International Studies major as an undergraduate, hoping to become a nuclear nonproliferation specialist. While in school, she went on a trip to India in 2000 to study their nuclear facilities and capabilities. While there, she stayed with families and focused on getting to know the people of the region. It was during her stay in India when Pick became interested in religion as a possible vocation.
"In India, I just felt like a walking faux pas and I knew that I needed to connect at a deeper level; what brought me there was the spiritual side of things. Even though there weren't many Christians, there was still a deep undergirding of spirituality that I could connect with people," Pick explained. Returning to the States, she took some religion classes, in hopes, as she said, “learning is the intellectual part was still calling to me as much as the spiritual part." As it turned out, it was, and she decided to minor in religion. After graduation she wanted to get a taste of working in a church, while still unsure if being a pastor was truly her calling. She worked as the music minister for two years at Crowley United Methodist in a suburb of Fort Worth, Texas. The experience was rewarding, but it just stirred her interest. "I realized music is a great gift that I have from God, but it wasn't exactly where I was called to be. I needed a little more education,” she explained.
After her Texas experience, Pick attended Saint Andrews in Scotland to obtain a Masters in Literature and Biblical Studies. "I actually graduated with Prince William," she laughed. Pick also attended summer school at Cambridge, England, studying Biblical Archeology. Clearly a passionate traveler, she went to Greece and Turkey about the same time to continue studying Biblical Archeology.
“I think that traveling and encountering other cultures, seeing the humanity that is everywhere, and fitting a face and a name with people of different cultures and different frameworks really opens up and broadens horizons” Pick said. She added that she has been able to travel mostly through grants, and is very thankful for these opportunities. She calls traveling and experiencing new cultures "a good basis for what I do, because I connect what's going on in Biblical stories to our own life stories. You're sort of rewriting the Bible through your lenses, so every time you read it it's a different encounter and it comes alive. Being in those places and leading a congregation to take that mental journey there helps everyone realize these are real people with real faces and real names, not just stories. They can teach us something and come alive. It's the reason I really like to do things that are very tactile. When I preach I don't just stand up and talk. If I'm preaching a parable about seeds, I'll give people seeds and say go sow these! Go and actually do something with what you've been given. I love hearing and tasting and touching and feeling the gospel, instead of just sitting back and thinking what a nice story that was,” Pick said.
She continued her education after returning to the States, studying at the seminary school at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Pick explained that to be ordained in the United Methodist Church, a Masters of Divinity is required. "I had a Masters in Biblical Studies, but not a Master of Divinity; the latter is much broader. It gives you some psychology and church history. It includes Bible, but it also gives you church, society and pastoral care and counseling. All of those topics are included, whereas my first semester's degree from Saint Andrew's was only in Bible. I was fortunate to have the privilege of studying just Bible for a year, and learning those ancient languages."
Pick studied at Drew from 2006 to 2010, where she also met her husband, a pastor at Lake Mahopac United Methodist. For her last two years of school, she was appointed to West Brookville United Methodist in the Catskills, before she was appointed to her positions in Armonk and Rye. Pick described the appointment process. "One thing that sets the United Methodists apart from other congregations is that most churches try out ministers. They say come to our church, preach a sermon and let's see if you're good for me. For the United Methodist, the bishop looks at the gifts and graces of the pastor and the gifts and graces of the church and asks who is going to be the best fit. And then you are sent, instead of called. It's very different from other congregations, and it's one of the reasons we have so many women who are able to be in the ministry. In many churches, women can't quite get a foot in the door, especially women ministers. Every United Methodist seminary, of which there are 13 in the US, has more women involved than men. Each year the bishop tells you if you are staying or going.
Reverend Pick is excited to be working in Westchester and she has several goals. One of her goals is to help the congregation "to grow spiritually and to give them a living, breathing example of what the gospel can be." Another goal is to make "a more open and welcoming community of faith that has strong ties to one another. The group that is there now has that kind of relationship, but I'd like to especially reach out to the younger families of Armonk. There's a good group there now, but the numbers are beginning to dwindle; hopefully, with a new voice and some new blood and fresh eyes, we can find ways to serve the community. That is one of the things that we're supposed to be about: service."
With service in mind, the United Methodist had a "backpack blessing" at the beginning of September where "kids going back to school and people going back to work came in and got whatever pack they had blessed." The church is also collecting school supplies and backpacks to give to children at local schools. For the tenth anniversary of September 11th, Pick had a special memorial service. She spoke of being aware of tragedy and having moments to remember people lost, "remember and honor, but also let's go into the New Year with joy and a blessing. It's really to say life still happens, and it's a good thing." As a former International Studies student, she still follows politics and is "very interested in disarmament and peaceful resolutions to conflicts."
Pick spoke of how our country is still experiencing economic hardships and involved in world conflicts, influencing her belief of the importance of having "a message of hope" in worship. "I think that hope is one of the most beautiful words in the English language and that everyone needs more of it." Pick sites music as one of the best ways to physically embody hope, and she brings her musical background in church into play. "Singing each other songs is one of the best ways to come together. It doesn't matter if you can sing or not, just that breath, which is the spirit of God; that intake of breath is saying I am breathing with you and then we are singing together as one. It's a show of unity and also a demonstration of how we can go through dark times -and we have been through some dark times- and we can still come together and be one and be joyful in the face of that tragedy." Methodists are known for their beautiful music, "great hymnody and great singing", and Pick spoke so fondly of the United Methodist's organist, Sara Della Posta, also a French Hornist, who often plays in New York City.
Pick is also proud that in the United Methodist there is "the ability to span the theology spectrum. There are people who are very conservative and there are also people who are extremely liberal. We're not a creedal church, meaning we don't have to subscribe to one particular creed. This gives us the freedom to have many different theologies that are in concert with one another. And every four years there is a worldwide conference where we get together as a global church, thousands of delegates, and we discuss our theology to understand if it's current; if it is not, we have the opportunity to change it. It's something unique about who we are." She describes the Armonk and Rye congregations as "progressive, open and affirming and welcoming. They're open to change."
Pick works two days a week in Armonk, she preaches Sundays at both churches. The Armonk United Methodist Church service is 9am on Sundays.
"I'm working on starting a new service. It doesn't have a sermon, it's just a time to unplug and be in the presence of one another and God, so we do some chanting and we are in silence for a while. I'm working on that service with my organist." Jennifer Pick is one woman filled with so many ideas and a real passion for her calling
The best way to contact Reverend Pick is to call the church office at 273-8296 or email armonkumc@aol.com.
Houses of Worship
Congregation B'nai Yisrael
2 Banksville Road PO Box 7 Armonk, NY (914) 273.2220
