Members Make It Work—

St John’s Will Celebrate Fifty Years Of Pancake Suppers

St John’s Episcopal Church in Sandy Hook will host its 50th Anniversary Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper this month.

The traditional meal of pancakes with homemade corned beef hash, country sausage, applesauce, and beverages will be served on Tuesday, February 20, from 5 to 7:30 pm, in the church undercroft. Donation is $8 for adults and $3.50 for children ages 3–10. Takeout orders are available.

For additional information contact Cheryl and Bruce Moulthrop, 426-3112.

The tradition of a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper has been continued without interruption for 50 years. Mrs Moulthrop believes that the church may have even had a run of similar suppers during the 1930s and 40s, but they were interrupted during the war years.

“I’ve heard since my childhood that Shrove Tuesday — or Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, etc — taking place on the eve of Ash Wednesday, pancake suppers to celebrate the last day before the beginning of Lent, has been a longstanding tradition in the Episcopal church,” said Mrs Moulthrop. “My husband tells me that they were held at his childhood hometown church — Christ Church in Watertown — as well as many surrounding towns.

“Here at St John’s the tradition of a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper … was begun by the Ladies Afternoon, and then later, the Evening Guild,” she added. Among those members were Rose McClannahan and her daughter, Doris Schoonmaker (one of the original batter mixers and who also flipped pancakes during the first few years); and Eleanor Hanlon, Anna Johnson, Judge Ed Knapp, Kate Knapp, Emma Peterson, Sadie Peterson, Bessie Robinson, Jean Stempel, and Pearl Tilson, among others. (“I know that I will leave someone out, so I will not even try to name everyone,” Mrs Moulthrop wrote in a history of the pancake supper ten years ago.)

Mrs Schoonmaker, now the church’s oldest member, may not be able to work in the kitchen any longer but she is planning to attend the pancake supper this month.

Among those who will be missed this year is Hazel Tilson, a lifetime member of the church and the cashier for the first 49 pancake suppers. Miss Tilson passed away in October. Flora Story, another longtime church member dedicated to the pancake supper, also passed away within the past year.

Also, longtime church organist and pancake supper kitchen helper Marilyn Thompson has retired and while she still lives in nearby Danbury, she is wintering in Florida.

But the church has plenty of longtime members and its younger generation to count on this year and, Mrs Moulthrop believes, for upcoming pancake suppers. Bruce Moulthrop and Jack Hornak will be back in the kitchen, flipping the pancakes once again. Mr Moulthrop has been involved with the pancake supper since 1982, while Mr Hornak has been involved since at least the early 1990s.

“New members have joined us and some of our youth — like Jackie Hornak, now an NHS junior, and Steve Moulthrop, a commuting SCSU student — will still be serving,” said Mrs Moulthrop. “Younger children like Cleo Conk and Erica and Elyse Knapp are now old enough to step up to the task.”

Mrs Moulthrop is one of dozens of people who have grown up in St John’s, and has moved through the ranks of the pancake supper. She, like many others, started as a “cleaner-upper,” moved into waiter and waitress status, and has “graduated” to working behind the counter in the kitchen. Other pancake supper veterans — including Mary Fellows Conk, Joanne Hornak, and Janet Knapp — will also return to greet guests, pour coffee, and help where needed.

“[The Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper] is one of the many things about St John’s that has always been a part of our tradition,” she wrote. “It is a fundraiser, but more than that it speaks to what St John’s is all about: community, fellowship, family, friendship.”