Last modified: Friday, December 21, 2007 12:51 PM CST

Priest Rand Fagg will head the newly formed St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, 902 Sixth St. in Rupert, with the combined congregations of Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church of Rupert and St. James Episcopal Church in Burley. Photo by Laurie Welch/South Idaho Press

By Laurie Welch/South Idaho Press

Two Mini-Cassia Episcopal congregations have merged into one and will soon have a ceremony to solidify the rare union.

“A fusing like this is almost never done,” said Rand Fagg, priest for the newly formed St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, which will meet at 902 Sixth Street in Rupert.

Fagg was previously acting priest for both the congregations at Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church in Rupert and St. James Episcopal Church in Burley. The two congregations blended together to form the new one after much soul-searching by members of both congregations.

“We look at it not as a closing but as two communities coming together into a larger, vibrant family,” Fagg said. “The new congregation certainly has more life than either of the old congregations did.”

Permission to close a church or rename one has to be granted by the church Diocese, and was obtained in October. The church’s door has a new coat of red paint, which is allowed only by Episcopal churches named after a saint.

“The contributions at St. James were not paying the bills,” Fagg said about the impetus to combine the two. “We were praying for a miracle and this is what we got.”

The Burley church at 2000 Oakley Ave. will be sold to the Church of Christ and has already been deconsecrated.

Fagg said the members of the church were very relieved to have another church as the buyer of the building, which has been an Episcopal church since it was built in 1907.

“Since it has been a church all of that time, we wanted it to remain in God’s hands,” Fagg said. “It would have been sadder if it had just closed, this way it will have life in it again.”

The antique organ that graced the church was donated to the church at Fort Hall Indian Reservation and the columbarium containing cremated remains of congregation members was moved to St. Matthew’s and fit neatly into a niche in the wall.

“It fit perfectly into the space, just like it was meant for it,” Fagg said. “They brought some of themselves and their church over here.”

The decision to utilize the Rupert church was made because it is handicapped accessible and St. James was not.

A vote to combine the two was held by both congregations and was a unanimous decision, Fagg said.

The two had worked together for years through picnics and pancake suppers so they were already sort of a family, Fagg said.

Copyright © 2007 South Idaho Press