Page 4 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • February 8, 2012 Ridgewood When Mary Stegink is ordained to the ministry at Ridgewood Christian Reformed Church on Saturday, Feb. 11, she will become the first woman pastor in the 134year history of the denomination’s regional body, Classis Hudson. Area clergy and lay delegates unanimously approved her for ordination after a Jan. 26 examination in Wyckoff. The 2 p.m. service and following reception are open to the public. The church is located at 271 Lincoln Avenue, Ordination is landmark for Christian Reformed Church Ridgewood, at the corner of West End Avenue. The next day at 10:30 a.m., Stegink will lead her first Communion service. The preacher at the ordination will be the Rev. Stanley Vander Klay, pastor of Northside Community Chapel in Paterson from 1960 to 1996. Jacqueline Kort, a member of the Ridgewood church since its founding in 1942 and former mayor of Glen Rock, will present the Scripture reading. The soloist will be Camille DeBoer, who sang with Stegink in the Opera Grand Rapids Chorus. The Christian Reformed Church opened the pastorate to women in 1995 following many years of discussion. During those years, the Ridgewood congregation pioneered in electing women to the lay offices of deacon and elder. The CRC’s Classis Hudson covers an area from Long Island to Sussex County in New Jersey. Stegink, 49, is a mid-career graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary, located in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She began studies there in 2005 after raising three children and nearly two decades working variously at a bookstore as co-manager, clerk, community speaker, and evaluator of intermediate and young adult fiction. Though this is Stegink’s first pastorate, she led a downtown Grand Rapids church as a seminary intern and has delivered dozens of sermons the past three years as a licensed substitute preacher. Her husband Jim worked in supply acquisition and maintenance with a Michigan auto parts manufacturer. Mary Stegink Joining them in New Jersey is daughter Robyn, a sophomore at Eastern Christian High School in North Haledon. Two adult children, Ryan and Andrea, both live in Whitinsville, Massachusetts. The Ridgewood Police Department has reported a rampage of burglaries against homes and cars. On Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m., a Wyndemere Avenue resident reported a burglary in progress. The police patrol responded and a K-9 unit from Bergen County was requested. The house was searched and the perpetrator was not located, Village police report multiple burglaries but the victim searched the bedrooms and reported that items had been taken. The Bergen County Sheriff’s crime investigation team has joined Ridgewood in the continuing investigation. Ridgewood police responded to an activated alarm on (continued on page 16)