Pastor Glenn Leaves the Pulpit: Retires after 35 Years at Our Saviour Church
Pastor Glenn Schoenberger has led the congregation and welcomed people of all faiths to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Our Saviour of Stone Harbor for 35 years. Come October, the ecumenically minded man of God will retire from that position after 40 years in the ministry.
The preacher and his wife, Kathy, a former elementary school teacher and the Christian religious education director at Our Saviour Church, will initially keep their distance from the church to allow room for a new minister to lead the congregation in his or her own manner. Still, there’s comfort for church-goers and others who are saddened by Pastor Glenn’s retirement and his family’s relocation from the parsonage. The couple moved one block away.
Little did Bethlehem, Pa., native Glenn Schoenberger know what his future held while visiting Germany to study its culture years ago as a Moravian College student. The first stirrings that would lead him into ministry occurred during a visit to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, he says. Schoenberger keeps a framed black-and-white photograph of this landmark handy. Bombings by Allied forces during World War II nearly destroyed the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which dates back to the 1890s. Thanks to preservation efforts, the church’s original west Tower, dubbed the “hollow tooth,” remains standing as a ruin. The new building includes a modern church with an octagonal hall and a bell tower.
Our Saviour’s pastor clearly recalls being “moved by the music,” especially Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, the “Ode to Joy,” while inside the Kaiser Wilhelm church building. That, and visiting the Dachau Concentration Camp site near Munich led Schoenberger to the ministry, he says. Further conversations with a cousin who was a pastor, and his home minister “who listened and did not push,” helped him discern his calling to serve the Lord.
A chance opening in the pastor’s position at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, along with Kathy’s family history, led the Schoenbergers to their residency in Stone Harbor. Kathy’s parents, Jack and Janet Whiteside, built a house on 86th Street in 1954. Having spent summers there, the minister’s spouse knew the island well.
Stone Harbor would also prove to be ideal in terms of family, both DNA-related and otherwise. “Our church family is our family, too,” Kathy notes.
“We love it here,” Glenn says. “Our kids [Lauren, 32, and John, 29] grew up here.” Plus, Kathy’s parents retired in Stone Harbor in 1986. So three generations had the pleasure of one another’s company until Jack died in 1989 and Janet in 2005.
“It was God’s plan!” Kathy says.
Because that plan worked so well, the Schoenbergers see no reason to leave Seven Mile Beach. “We’ve been very happy here, very blessed,” Kathy says. “I want my children and grandchildren to have a house at the shore as I did.”
Gretchen Sorensen, a parishioner of 30 years, knows the Schoenbergers as friends and neighbors. Sorensen and her three children lived in Cape May Court House when they first attended services at Our Saviour. The Sorensens eventually moved to a home cattycorner to the church. So the Schoenberger and Sorensen children grew up together.
“I can see the parsonage from my home,” Sorensen says. “I’ve been treated to many good meals there,” she adds after noting that Glenn is the cook in his family.
Sorensen mentions more of the pastor’s attributes, things he does not say about himself.
“Glenn is very willing to embrace all faiths without losing his commitment to Lutheran theology,” Sorensen says. His dedication to the church, the Stone Harbor and the Cape May County community is endless. Plus, Our Saviour’s pastor “is always available to congregation members 24/7,” she says. Moreover, Schoenberger never cancels church services due to circumstances like occasional flooding that halts day-to-day living on the island. Services at Our Saviour proceed whether two or 200 people show up, Sorensen adds. If even one person wants to hear the word of God, Schoenberger is happy to accommodate that individual.
Larry Kratzer, a member of Our Saviour’s Church Council, agrees. First and foremost, this preacher practices ecumenicalism, Kratzer says. Schoenberger does not hesitate to participate in services, like funerals, in churches of other denominations. “Glenn is very interested in people and always willing to help,” says Kratzer. “He is very concerned about individuals, not just church members. Glenn stops and talks to people all over town.”
In fact, the minister has a remarkable way with words, Sorensen says. “Glenn is an excellent writer who loves history. You often hear that in his sermons,” she adds. “He brings the real world into his sermons by tying in history with biblical teaching.”
Not only that, Our Saviour’s pastor has a passion for music. He sings bass. Both Glenn and Kathy are choir members who attend weekly rehearsals, says Sorensen. During services in Our Saviour Church’s lovely stained-glass windowed, dark-wooded sanctuary, the cleric simply moves into his spot among choir members when it’s time to sing.
To quote Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven …” Now it’s time for retirement and new leadership at Our Saviour. “I am looking forward to retiring,” Schoenberger says. “I want to go out in the good graces of the congregation.”
Upon retirement, Glenn and Kathy will continue to take that two-hour drive, twice a week, to Chester County, Pa., in order to assist their working daughter by caring for their beloved one-year-old granddaughter, Allie. Kathy will see what develops for her in the way of Christian educational opportunities. Eventually, Glenn will help other ministers by filling in when they take their vacations. The congenial clergyman smiles as he ponders the possibility of volunteering at the Cape May County Zoo. He might also seriously consider assisting with some sort of a support group.
As he prepares to leave Our Saviour Church, Pastor Glenn recalls a remarkable moment during his ministry, one he applied to a sermon about reconciliation and forgiveness. The congregation gathered at the table or altar rail where Lutherans receive Holy Communion. A church member, a World War II veteran who came ashore during the Allied invasion of Normandy on D-Day in 1944, stood side-by-side with a man and a woman, German natives who mysteriously came to the United States by way of South America.
“Where else could this happen except before the altar around the body and blood of Christ?” proclaims the holy man whose ministry began at a sacred World War II memorial.
