‘Our Little Piece of Heaven’: New Pastor Has Deep Roots with Our Saviour Lutheran and Stone Harbor
Eloise Shanley
When the time came for a change, Pastor Eloise Shanley did not seek relocation to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Saviour in Stone Harbor. The pastoral position found her.
Two classmates from her days at the United Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, Pa., now bishops, tried to help Shanley in her search for a new church. There were pastorate openings for her consideration in Virginia and Nebraska, far from a family member in Pennsylvania.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America’s Bishop Tracie Bartholomew of the New Jersey Synod overheard Shanley’s former classmates discussing her search for a new pastoral position during an ELCA gathering and spoke with them about the situation. Shortly thereafter, the call came from New Jersey for Shanley to interview at Our Saviour.
“I’m so excited about the move here,” says the widow and mother of two adult children, Katie Rose, 22, and Nick, 25. “I’m so excited!”
Our Saviour Lutheran’s new leader knew Stone Harbor well from annual visits over the years. As a youngster, Shanley came to town every year with her hometown church’s youth group for fun at the beach and services at Our Saviour. In her next role as that same youth group’s adviser, the leader led other children into town for fun, fellowship and worship.
During those years, she worked as an art teacher in the School District of Lancaster, Pa. Later, as wife and mother, Shanley and her family vacationed in Stone Harbor, where they always stayed at the Lark Motel. “My kids learned how to swim in The Lark’s pool,” the pastor reminisces.
These pleasant memories left her with a “vacation mindset” about Seven Mile Beach, says its new resident. Meanwhile, Shanley works tirelessly to familiarize herself with congregation members and the wider community in order to best serve their spiritual needs.
Shanley assumed her new role at Our Saviour Lutheran Church during Thanksgiving week. At that point, the parish’s process of transitioning from COVID-19 restrictive outdoor services in the summertime to optional indoor or outdoor services during warmer fall days, to indoor winter services, was in place.
Our Saviour Church services are also livestreamed, which is a blessing for local residents who are limited to staying at home. Streaming of services also offers spiritual sustenance to other parishioners, summer residents and visitors. “We have members in seven states,” Shanley notes. This mix in parish population provides a challenge “unique to the location.” The fact that part-time residents and vacationers have affection for and attachment to Our Saviour Lutheran reflects the welcoming ways of full-time-resident parishioners, she adds.
“You have to be creative,” the former art teacher says after describing the replacement of blue tape and scripturally encouraging signs with Christmas-seasonal red macramé cord to block off pews for safe socially distancing. “That creativity applies to ministry in general,” Shanley adds. “Today, one must find new and different ways … while remaining faithful.”
When the cleric delivered poinsettias and Communion to shut-in parishioners DoorDash-style at Christmastime, she discovered that half of her deliveries were in Stone Harbor and Avalon and half were in Cape May Court House. Shanley was pleased to learn that offshore parishioners were willing to travel to Seven Mile Beach for worship and fellowship. “I took that as a positive,” she says.
“Each ministry has a different setting,” notes the pastor who has served four churches in Pennsylvania and one in Ohio over the years. “One tries to lead by example in each one.”
In her most recent previous parish, St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church in Fayetteville, Pa., where Shanley served for 10 years, they fed 50 families a month via the church’s Food Pantry. “I wound up officiating at lots of funerals [and some weddings] for people who did not have a church connection. I became their church connection,” she says.
“Ministry is more than serving the people within the church,” Shanley asserts. “It’s also what you say and do in the community.” That’s why she wears her clerical garb – a black clerical shirt and white collar with black slacks – whenever in public, just as the pastor does at worship or while visiting parishioners. It’s important to “be a presence in the community so that people can make the connection” to the church, she says.
Church members and the wider community embraced Shanley and her family from the moment of their arrival. Thanks to a council member who rallied local support, 30 to 40 people showed up to help the Shanleys – and the minister’s brother, Eric Hummel, who moved them – unload the moving truck. “People here have been responsive, open and kind,” she says.
Shanley further reflects upon the fact that her participation and service in youth ministry, which first brought her to Seven Mile Beach, led to her calling into the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s ministry that now has her happily serving and living full-time in Stone Harbor. “Multiple kids from that youth group went into the ministry, too,” she notes with pleasure.
“It feels like the Holy Spirit led us here,” Our Saviour’s gracious pastor muses.
The Lark Motel’s Harry Otto, who is a parishioner, knew the Shanleys from their years vacationing there. When Shanley stayed at the motel late last year, and Otto spotted her in her clerical garb, he realized that she was interviewing for the pastoral position at Our Saviour.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much joy,” Otto says of Shanley when it looked like she might land the position. “The joy just emanated from her whole being!”
When moving to Stone Harbor became a reality, that bliss became contagious.
“Our family has long had a plaque that reads: ‘Our little piece of heaven … Stone Harbor,’ ” the minister notes. Upon arrival on moving day, she and her children dropped everything and went to the beach for a quick visit. As they stood by the sea, she recalls with delight, her children repeatedly said, “I can’t believe we moved to heaven!”
A fitting sentiment for a town dubbed “The Seashore at its Best”!
