A place for everyone at Saint Luke’s Bazaar

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Sea Cliff is gearing up for its annual Bazaar, a chance for village residents and members of the wider Long Island community to head over to the church and grab some food, some homemade preserves, and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. The bazaar, which has been held every year for at least the last 40 years, also includes raffles, apple cider pressing, an array of vendors, and more. It will take place at St. Luke’s, 253 Glen Ave. on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Jesse Lebus, the pastor at Saint Luke’s, explained that the bazaar is in many ways the highlight of the church’s year. Parishioners and volunteers have spent the last seven months organizing, reaching out to vendors, and most importantly, hand-making a wide array of jellies, jams, marmalades and other preserved goodies.
Janette Heurtley, the co-chair of the Country Kitchen, which oversees the making of the preserved food, has been helping organize the bazaar for the last 34 years. She said that while the work takes a while, getting to see people come together and enjoy their food and time at the bazaar makes it all worth it.
“It’s delightful because having all of the homemade stuff sort of established a niche market,” Heurtley said. “We have customers that even come from the South Shore and out east. I always encourage people to buy a whole year’s supply.”
This year the volunteers for the Country Kitchen outdid themselves, Heurtley said. They made over 1,100 jars of food, including more than 30 varieties of different jellies.

Since the coronavirus pandemic, the bazaar has been held outside, and will be again this year. Lebus explained that while the idea to hold the event outside was initially borne out of necessity, it has since become a staple, as it further encourages people who may just be passing the bazaar in their car to stop and see what all the good cheer is about.
“The bottom line is that we had to figure out how to do the bazaar differently,” Lebus said. “We realized that it had to be outside, and it had to be earlier in the fall.”
Moving the event outside has given them more space to expand the bazaar as well, allowing new vendors and more participants to stop by. Heurtley said that in her years with the church the thing that has changed the most is the scope of the event, as well as becoming more open and casual.
The bazaar also features a live raffle, with one of the prizes being a hand painted corn hole set, and a white elephant table, which holds a collection of used items being sold in similar fashion to a garage or yard sale.
While the event is the most church’s most important fundraiser of the year, Lebus added that the bazaar is really about connecting with people, both in and outside of the church.
“It’s a precept of the church that you come together in faith, but you work together for the sake of the community,” Lebus said. “In that work, friendships are made. People learn about what’s going on in the community.”