St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Sunbury welcomes new priest, Mother Dina Ishler

Ashlyn Walshaw

For The Daily Item

Dina Ishler grew up outside of Princeton, NJ, where she was raised in the Episcopalian faith of her father.

Some of her earliest memories are from church: the language, the prayers, the music, and the liturgy. Ishler also remembers wanting to go up and take communion before she was confirmed. It used to be a common practice in the Episcopal church that you couldn’t receive communion until you had been confirmed as a teenager.

“It has always been a big part of my life,” she said. “There wasn’t a time in my life when I worshipped somewhere else like some people do or felt that the church or my faith had abandoned me or left me. It has just always been a part of who I am, so that’s the foundation.”

Ishler attended school to become a music teacher. She did her undergraduate work at Lebanon Valley College and then attended Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY before returning to Pennsylvania to teach.

It was not until six years ago that Ishler really became aware that she was being called to something different.

“My mother had died,” she said. “She was a natural shepherd. She was always shepherding (people) in some way, feeding them or caring for them when they were sick. There was something about after she died and honoring her that I was paying attention to and it led me into some kind of shepherding ministry and it just kind of opened up into ordained ministry.”

Ishler’s sponsoring parish was Saint Edward’s in Lancaster, and she completed her field placement at Saint Andrew’s in Shippensburg.

Mother Dina said one of the things that she appreciated the most about Saint Edward’s and Saint Andrew’s was how open and kind they were.

She explained that the ordination process is a long, complicated road with unexpected turns and bumps to overcome, so the love and support of those congregations meant a great deal to her.

Ishler’s current position at Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Sunbury is her first as an ordained member of the clergy. The Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania and Bishop Audrey Scanlan assisted in pairing Mother Dina — as she is known — with the church. She explained that Scanlan and her staff help communities and clergy determine a good fit for both the member of the clergy and the parish.

Roy Casey of Sunbury is the junior warden and a member of the vestry at Saint Matthew’s.

He has been a member at St. Matthew’s for more than 30 years. He said the arrival of Mother Dina at Saint Matthews will benefit the congregation and the church.

“She’s very energetic,” Casey said. She seems to be having a positive effect, he continued. The weekly attendance is up quite a bit from where it had been.

“She’s interested in restarting a lot of programs that fell along the wayside when we didn’t have a priest and with the aftereffects of the pandemic.”

Mary Ann Loftus of Pillow, senior warden at St Matthew’s and a member of the church for 15 years spoke about what makes Mother Dina so special.

“There’s no limitation to her availability for any of the parishioners or even people who aren’t parishioners,” Loftus stated. “She will go above and beyond and be available for contact at any point in time. It just brings people all together.

Ishler has two goals that she hopes to accomplish as priest at Saint Matthew’s: inviting people to build a deeper relationship with God and helping the church to find ways to serve its community.

“I think the thing I would like everybody to know about the Episcopal church is that we welcome everyone,” Mother Dina said. “We believe all people are beloved and it’s our work as neighbors and fellow travelers on the way to love them and encourage them into a deeper experience of God’s love and wholeness.” She emphasized that there are no rules about who is “in” or who is “out” or someone needs to believe a certain way.

“We don’t do that. We are very welcoming, inclusive, and loving.”

Mother Dina moved from Lititz to Selinsgrove to accept the job here. She lives with her husband of 29 years, Patrick, a music teacher. They have a daughter Faith and two sons, Carter and Thomas. Ishler enjoys kayaking, as it is a great way for her to feel rejuvenated and to connect with God on a spiritual level.

Above: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 32 N. Front St., Sunbury. Left: Mother Dina Isler of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Sunbury

Photo provided