St. Stephen’s Celebrates 125 Years
September 20, 2023
Last Saturday St. Stephen’s celebrated 125 years as a parish! St. Stephen’s purchased a house and stable in Westborough in 1898, and the stable was converted into a church. Thus, the humble beginnings of St. Stephen’s began.
Our church has made a lot of history over the past 125 years, but as parishioners who gathered for our celebration shared memories, one theme became clear: St. Stephen’s is a church family. We share the joyous, the laughable and the precious moments of life together, and we are also there for each other when needed during the tougher times that arise. Best of all we are always happy to welcome new parishioners into our fold.
Our Quasquicentennial celebration was held in Fay Hall, at church, and a full crowd was in attendance for the dinner and celebration. Long time parishioners, former parishioners and new parishioners all gathered together to celebrate. A wonderful feeling permeated the evening. The festivities included a catered dinner, and Sharon Philcox read letters from former St. Stephen’s priests and also one from the bishop, congratulating us on our 125th year.
Marla, our faithful organist, led us all in a hymn sing. We sang hymns from various decades between 1898 and today. Included were: “I Can Hear My Savior Calling” from 1898, “The Old Rugged Cross” from 1913, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” from 1932, “He’s Got the Whole World in His hands” from 1958, “Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God” from 1972 and “Ring the Bells” from 1993.
Mo. Mary shared the story of unearthing our time capsule, which was buried after our last celebration in 1998. She, Dean Yankee and Bob Deysher dug for hours to no avail. Mo. Mary then asked all in attendance to “picture in your mind what you would expect a time capsule to look like.” She then told us that they did find a time capsule. She proceeded to retrieved it for us, and brought out a PVC pipe that measures about 5 feet tall! This was met with laughter, especially when she shared that Bob had told her, “Fr. Jarry liked to do things BIG.” Fr. Dennis Jarry was our priest in 1998, and oversaw our 100th celebration, and it was big!
The majority of the contents from the time capsule were on display for all to look through. There were photos, a newspaper, a church directory, letters from the youth group and the acolytes of the time, one of the Christmas ornaments we had made to commemorate the event and more. There was also a letter from Fr. Dennis. Mo. Mary read the letter to us, and it was so touching to hear his voice coming through the letter to each of us.
There was also a table for parishioners to place things to add to the time capsule, as it will be reburied. Mo. Mary assured us all that she would label the time capsule in large letters, so it wouldn’t be mistaken as a drainage pipe in the future!
The evening closed with Mo. Mary sharing a special memory she has made here at St. Stephen’s and she then invited anyone who wanted to share to come forward and do so. We heard stories how people found St. Stephen’s, we heard funny memories of past events held here and we heard stories of challenging times and how our church family help support our fellow parishioners through.
It was an evening full of many emotions, and new memories we made for sure, but one that I will always remember (well, besides Mo. Mary’s time capsule story) is just taking the time to look around at all the familiar smiling faces, and being happy to be there in that moment with them.
Stephanie Borgia-Lundberg
