About LCOS

Interim Pastor

Roger Berner

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Pastor Roger Berner came to us from Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC. He studied history at St. Olaf College in Minnesota and continued on at Luther Seminary in St. Paul. While at seminary he organized a “summer internship” outside of Phoenix, doing youth work and going door to door, inviting people to “Come and See!” the new mission church. He also served as “the Vicar” at Zion Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, New York for his seminary training, to learn how it really works in the parish. Those two places were very different, but both were filled amazing, wonderful, and faithful members who were also my teachers.

Pr. Berner was ordained in January at his home congregation in South Dakota, it was -27 degrees (-69 degrees wind chill factor), and no one even suggested postponing the service. St. John Mark Lutheran Church in Homestead (Pittsburgh), PA called him as their Pastor, where he served there for 9 years. Then he was called to Trinity Lutheran Church in North Bethesda, MD, where he served for 28 years. Both were places of faith, hope, love, and great joy. After a year of retirement, the Interim Bishop of New York asked him to serve as the Interim Pastor of Emanuel Lutheran Church, Pleasantville, NY – a delightful experience to share the good news of Christ in Westchester County with a wonderful congregation, even through the challenges and learning opportunities of the pandemic. Then, after a little break, he has joined us at Lutheran Church of Our Savior to shepherd the congregation with the proclamation God’s gracious Word and administration of the Sacraments, and to guide the congregation through this time of prayer and discernment for reaching out to love and serve the people of Port Washington, New York, and to the ends of the earth.




Director of Music

Federico Teti

Federico Teti is currently living in New York City and he serves as Director of Music at the Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Port Washington, New York, where he plays the organ and the piano for all services, conducts and accompanies the choir, and makes music together with vocal and instrumental soloists for special celebrations.

As background, Mr. Teti studied Piano, Choral Conducting, Organ and Composition in Rome at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music where he graduated with the highest honors.  He won the First Prize of the Competition for Young Organists “Rome 1981” and his performance given at the “Prize Winners’ Concert” was broadcasted on Italian National Radio (RAI). Since then, Mr. Teti has given solo recitals in his native Italy, the United States, Germany and Japan, and participated in Music Festivals and Competitions in Italy, France, Denmark, England, Scotland and Lithuania. Among his teachers and coaches are Daniel Roth, Ewald Kooiman, Giancarlo Parodi, Hedda Vignanelli Illy, Elio Solimini, Giorgio Carnini, Klemens Schnorr and Peter Westerbrink. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the “Accademia Musicale Chigiana” of Siena, Italy and a European Community Scholarship to study at the Academy of Italian Organ Music of Pistoia, Italy and he furthered his musical studies at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome, where he took courses in Organ and Gregorian Chant.

An active church musician, he was organist of the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in the historical center of Rome, where he played on an early 19th century Italian organ for the Sunday Latin Mass, enriched by the singing of a Gregorian Schola.

Mr. Teti attended the Juilliard School in New York City, where he completed advanced studies in Organ Performance under the direction of Dr. John Weaver and pursued his conducting studies with Judith Clurman, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Eduardo Browne and Isaac Karabtchevsky. While at Juilliard, he also studied Harpsichord with Lionel Party and Improvisation with Dr. Gerre Hancock. He made his Lincoln Center debut playing the Theodore Kuhn tracker organ in Alice Tully Hall and made his conducting debut at Juilliard Paul Hall, Lincoln Center, conducting the Chopin Piano Concerto No.1. Mr. Teti conducted in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, and at The Riverside Church Theatre, the Cantata for solos, choir and orchestra “The Children’s Requiem” by Judith Fleisher, and has been the conductor of the School for Strings Orchestra in New York. He has performed, among other venues, at the Cathedral of St. Patrick and at Saint Thomas Church in New York City and has given recitals in Japan at the Toyota City Concert Hall, at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art and in Nagoya. He has also performed in a benefit concert in Japan to help people of the area stricken by the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.




Parish Administrator

Sue Waiter

Sue joined Our Savior's staff in 2022 as Parish Administrator, assisting the Pastor and Church Council with the administrative side of church operations.




Use of Church Building and Facilities

Linda Murphy

As a member of the congregation, Linda donates her time and effort to manage and oversee the use of our facilities, coordinating their use for all members and outside groups. Anyone interested in using any of the Church building facilities should contact Linda Murphy only through her mobile phone at 516-242-0459(c).




Church Council

2023 Church Council

Officers

Denise DePalma,  President  

Richard Marra, Vice President

Richard Ertel, Treasurer   

Nikos Andreadis, Recording Secretary 

Martha Schweitzer, Financial Secretary

Members-at-Large

Robert Carpentier

Janice Crawford

Noreen DeSalvo

Randall Fairhurst

Fabiola Knight

Jeff Stone

Laura Boehm Warnke