Paul E. V. Shannon

Last updated May 01, 2019

Paul Eugene Virgil Shannon (March 25, 1898 – May 23, 1957) was a bishop of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, elected in 1957.

A bishop is an ordained, consecrated, or appointed member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight.

The Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) was an American Protestant church formed in 1946, by the merger of the Evangelical Church and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. The United Brethren and the Evangelical Association had considered merging off and on since the early 19th century because of their common emphasis on holiness and evangelism and their common German heritage.

Birth and early life

Shannon was born in Mountville, Pennsylvania, the fifth child of the Rev. Absalom Lincoln and Linnie (Erb) Shannon. He was named for the Apostle Paul and for Eugene Field, whose writings his parents enjoyed. Fifteen years later, his mother added Virgil to his name. His parents hoped that Paul would become a minister in the Church they loved and served.

Mountville is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,444 at the 2000 census. The original Charles Chips potato chip factory was located here.

Eugene Field Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He was known as the "poet of childhood".

Before Paul was three years of age, however, his father died of diphtheria just twelve days before Christmas. Leaving meager financial resources, his mother worked at whatever jobs were available to support her six children. The long hours away from home and the care of the children proved too much. Four of the children were placed in other homes. Only Paul and his invalid sister, Lois, remained with their mother. One brother and sister were in fact the first residents of the Quincy Orphanage in Pennsylvania.

Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae. Signs and symptoms may vary from mild to severe. They usually start two to five days after exposure. Symptoms often come on fairly gradually, beginning with a sore throat and fever. In severe cases, a grey or white patch develops in the throat. This can block the airway and create a barking cough as in croup. The neck may swell in part due to enlarged lymph nodes. A form of diphtheria that involves the skin, eyes, or genitals also exists. Complications may include myocarditis, inflammation of nerves, kidney problems, and bleeding problems due to low levels of platelets. Myocarditis may result in an abnormal heart rate and inflammation of the nerves may result in paralysis.

Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ observed on December 25. as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night; in some traditions, Christmastide includes an octave. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season centered around it.

Their hand-to-mouth existence meant there were days without food. Lois, who suffered from a heart ailment, died while still a young teenager. One month before Paul's High School graduation, his mother died. Paul wrote,

"I was called into the room and there was my mother drawing her last breath. She had laid down her life for us as the Good Shepherd did. Worldly separation is cruel, yet we can be thankful that we can not fully realize our loss. I immediately placed my heart in God's will and said, 'They will be done.'"

This marked his decision to enter the Gospel ministry.

Education

His parents had planned for Paul and his brother Carl to attend Lebanon Valley College, where their parents had met. Obviously, their deaths cast a shadow over such dreams. Paul and Carl lived together following their mother's death. And when they inherited a little money from an aunt, they both enrolled. Paul was a student there 1914-1918, and at Hillsdale 1917-18.

Lebanon Valley College is a private college in Annville, Pennsylvania.

In order to attend college, it was necessary for Paul to work during the summer and at other times whenever possible. One summer he secured a job at the steel mill in Steelton, Pennsylvania. His first day on the job was spent cracking limestone rocks with a heavy sledge hammer. By evening his hands were raw and bloody and his muscles ached so much that the pain kept him awake most of the night. Nevertheless, he was back on the job the next morning without complaint. Indeed, explaining to the foreman his need to earn money for college expenses, the foreman bandaged his hands and transferred him to easier work.

A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also describe plants where steel semi-finished casting products are made, from molten pig iron or from scrap.

Steelton is a borough in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States, 4 miles (6 km) southeast of Harrisburg. The population was 5,990 at the 2010 census. The borough is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Limestone Sedimentary rocks made of calcium carbonate

Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock that is often composed of the skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, foraminifera, and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). A closely related rock is dolomite, which contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite, CaMg(CO₃)₂. In fact, in old USGS publications, dolomite was referred to as magnesian limestone, a term now reserved for magnesium-deficient dolomites or magnesium-rich limestones.

Following college graduation from Lebanon Valley in 1918, Paul enrolled at Bonebrake Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio.

Ordained ministry

After receiving a License to Preach, Paul was appointed Pastor of two United Brethren Churches near Middletown, Pennsylvania. Under the combined load of college studies and pastoral responsibilities, however, Paul suffered a physical breakdown. This was, in fact, the first of several such episodes which plagued his ministry. Nevertheless, never was there any expression of bitterness of self-pity. Of this occasion, Paul later wrote, "I was not worried or frightened for I knew the Lord would provide for his own, and he surely did."

Following college graduation at twenty years of age, Paul spent the summer as Pastor of the U.B. Church in Veedersburg, Indiana. During his second year in seminary, he began serving the Fairview Church in Dayton, but ill health forced him out of the pulpit. In his farewell message to the Fairview congregation, he said:

"It is no compliment to a pastor to have his work fail in his absence. I have tried to win you to Christ. If I have succeeded, you will be faithful; if I have won you to myself, then the church will fail. The biggest compliment you can pay me is to carry on the work for which I have given my strength."

Two days before Christmas, 1924, the Shannon family moved to a cottage at Mt. Gretna, Pennsylvania.

Death and burial

Bishop Shannon is buried in Home Cemetery, Dallastown, Pennsylvania.

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References

Milhouse, Paul W., Nineteen Bishops of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, Nashville, The Parthenon Press, 1974.

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