Helpers
The residents of Stone Bridge Farm are supported daily in our work by a group of caring, faithful, hardworking, and hopeful people, some of whom have lived on, loved, and visited this farm for decades. The old adage says that “many hands make light work,” and we have found this to be true not only in the manual labor of clearing ground, building furniture, and tending the land, but also in the spiritual work of discernment and prayer. Below are just some of the many people who are sharing their time and talents with us as we live into this next chapter in the story of Stone Bridge Farm.
Mark and Kathy Hoyer
Kathy was raised at Stone Bridge Farm by her parents, Kay and Art Kleindienst, and is a source of knowledge and guidance, particularly for our animal aspirations! Whether it comes to finding the best spot to house goats, or how to acclimate barn cats, Kathy fields our inquiries with good humor and good sense.
Kathy’s husband Mark was an enthusiastic student of his father-in-law Art, and a constant support to his mother-in-law Kay, particularly after Art’s passing in 2011. When things go awry on the farm, whether with heavy machinery or farmhouse functioning, Mark is our first phone call for advice, referrals, and sometimes a tow!
Mark and Kathy are parents to our Farm Administer, Katie Hoyer.
Al and Diana Greene
Family friends of the Hoyers and fellow parishioners at Christ Church in Newton, Al and Diana Greene have been manual and spiritual co-pilots in our farm journey.
Diana is a concert pianist and the organist at Christ Church, and the leader of the Christ Church Women. A gifted lay leader and spiritual seeker, Diana has been a prayer partner on walks in the back woods and chats on the front porch.
Al is a retired commercial pilot and former captain in the United States Air Force. He is a regular volunteer with us and has put his hand (and engineer’s keen eye!) to all manner of projects around the farm; from clearing out old garden beds to constructing new garden fences, chopping up fallen trees, teaching chainsaw lessons, and more.
Donna and James Sweeting
Donna and James Sweeting have been cheering us on in this farm leap of faith. Donna is a VTS graduate who currently works with Lifelong Learning on a Lilly grant to study and support Episcopal parishes that desire to better form their parents and children in faith. James has been a public defender in Baltimore for decades.
Francie Thayer
Francie Thayer is a seasoned spiritual director. She was called by her Bishop to repurpose a closed parish and parish hall into a Retreat House. Over a few years, Francie brought her remarkable spiritual gifts of leadership, prayer, discernment, and vision. Francie’s experience with establishing and leading growth in a retreat project is a gift of God! She is our genius for diocesan-mission plant work.
Kim Arakawa
Kim Arakawa is a dear friend and powerful disciple who works on the Lifelong Learning Team at VTS and lives in Hawai’i. She is active in her diocese and a leader on the diocesan deputation to General Convention, 2022 and 2024. On many of her trips to the continent for work, Kim has generously made time to come up and help out around the farm with everything from building beds to picking colors and more.
The Rev. Altagracia Perez-Bullard, Cynthia Bullard-Perez, and Immanuel Alvarado
The Rev. Altagracia Perez-Bullard, Ph.D. and her wife, social activist and faithful parish leader Cynthia Bullard-Perez live and teach with us at the Seminary. They are our family and their love and prayers have spurred us on in dreaming with God. Their daughter Immanuel Alvarado is currently studying for an MA at Union Theological Seminary. Immanuel was a co-editor on the Thirty Days devotional with Tricia and Katie, and has spent her time on the farm helping out with projects big and small.
Lorna Lyons
Lorna Lyons, Tricia’s joyful and loving mother, has been a supporter of this farm adventure from the beginning. She has refinished multiple pieces of furniture found around the main house.
Jim Kleindienst
Jim was raised on Stone Bridge Farm with his sister Kathy Hoyer (née Kleindienst) by their parents Kay and Art Kleindienst, as well as their paternal grandparents, Herman and Henrietta Kleindienst. Starting in 2011 after his father’s passing, he worked tirelessly alongside his mother Kay for four years to place the land of Stone Bridge Farm into New Jersey’s Farmland Preservation Program, ensuring that the natural beauty of the land will never be exploited for profit or development. In 2021, he was the primary representative of the Kleindienst family in the sale of the farm to Lisa and Tricia, and worked extensively with them on the transfer of documents, knowledge, and local connections. In 2022, he retired from a decades-long career with the National Resources Conservation Service (an agency of the USDA that supports the owners of privately held lands in conservation efforts) and moved to live closer to his own daughter and granddaughter, to provide the loving care and support that he received from his own grandparents and parents at Stone Bridge Farm, first as a child, and later as a young parent raising his own children. He has kindly continued to provide guidance by phone to his niece, Farm Administer Katie Hoyer.
Kay Kleindienst (1936-2024)
In the two years from when Kay sold the farm to Lisa and Tricia until her passing, she was a source of advice, encouragement, memory, and history, and a companion in prayer. This photograph was taken in front of the Easter Cross used at Christ Episcopal Church in Newton, which was made from a fallen tree sourced from Stone Bridge Farm and donated to the church by her late husband, Arthur Kleindienst (1930-2011).
Kay and Art were church planters as well as tillers of the earth, and their loving faithfulness defined Stone Bridge Farm as a beacon of hospitality, friendship, care for the vulnerable, and so much more for their six decades living on the farm. The love and goodwill that they engendered in their communities is profound, and we have been deeply moved by the support and generosity that our neighbors have extended to us in memory and honor of Kay and Art.
we gather together
Farm Administer Katie Hoyer shares: “Although I technically lived in other houses (only a five-minute’s drive away), I came to the farm every day growing up. I remember it as a hub of activity, where people who called one another ‘family’ — whether or not they were actually related — were constantly coming and going, laughing and crying, living and dying together. I can think of no greater way to honor my grandparents and their legacy than to be a part of fostering and nurturing this new generation of ‘family’ on the farm — knit together in faith, love, hope, and a shared sense of mission and vision; the deep belief that something beautiful is growing in this holy ground, which we are all called to tend together. Every day, I see new fruits of God’s dream for this place; fruits that we who steward it are privileged to share with our neighbors, and with the world.”