The "Six Thousand Dollar Church" Story

St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Stone Harbor, NJ.

It was an ordinary day.  Talking to the organist at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Stone Harbor, New Jersey.  The 10:00 AM Sunday morning service had just ended and most of the parishioners and visitors to the service had exited the rear door.  My mission was to take a few photos of the inside of the church to post on my story I was planning.  

Entrance I used to enter the church.

As I entered I saw that most everyone was gone, but the organist was still sitting at the small organ, clearing his music and turning out the light on the organ.  I introduced myself telling him I was a member of St. James Episcopal in Lancaster, PA and asked if I was allowed to take photos.  We talked a short time about the church and he left while I began taking a few photos.  

Rear of the small church showing the beautiful windows.

The church is quite beautiful with resplendent stained glass windows allowing the light to filter through the glass, illuminating the inside of the church.  The symmetrical interior has enough seating for maybe 150 people and a very simplistic altar with organ pipes on either side of a wooden cross behind it.  The red mahogany seating and altar compliment the deep red seat cushions;  

One of the many colorful windows in the church.  The original
windows were made of an opaque gold colored glass to keep
the cost to a minimum, but eventually the current windows
were added to the church.

a place that would be easy to call home if you were a member.  The exterior is a cedar-shingled frame structure that was built in 1910 and dedicated on July 2, 1911; the cost ..... $6,000.  Originally the church was known as St. Mary's-by-the-Sea and was designed to be a summer mission overseen by a visiting priest.  Personally, the original name is really neat and seems perfect for a mission church along the Atlantic Ocean.  A year after the dedication, Grace Church in Philadelphia donated an organ to the fledgling congregation. For close to 40 years the church remained a summer-only parish, but in 1953 Elizabeth LoBue, one of the biggest advocates of the church by the sea, visited the Episcopal Bishop of New Jersey hoping to convince him that St. Mary's should be a year-round church.  

The altar of St. Mary's Episcopal Church.

Elizabeth knew she needed to add some incentive because of the added cost to the diocese so she told the bishop she would make the choir robes for the choir and feed the new rector at her own dinner table.  How could anyone refuse that offer, so in 1955 the church received its first vicar.  Nine years later the church once again appealed to the diocese to change their status from "mission church" to "parish" which happened in 1967.  The majority of the church's parishioners live on the Seven Mile Island, which is where Stone Harbor is located, but does have quite a healthy summer congregation.  The charming church-by-the-sea, under the inviting trees, is a treasure for Stone Harbor.  I felt at home from the minute I walked through the door.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.