Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Luverne will host its final worship service at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22.
The remaining three members, Lowell and Roni Feit and Bob DeYong, made the announcement last week.
“The way I look at it, it takes organization to make a church, and we're down to the base — we're it,” said Lowell Feit “We're no longer self-sustaining.”
After Oct. 22, the church “will just be a building, and it just breaks my heart,” said Roni Feit.
The three members will continue worshipping in the Hilger Commons across the street from the church, and they welcome others to join them.
“Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them,” DeYong said, quoting Matthew 18:20 from the Bible.
The church building itself will be for sale, and that's been hard for the tiny congregation to accept.
“How do you sell a church?” said DeYong. “I would hope another congregation could use it for a church; then it could still be a house of God.”
He said anyone who's worshipped in the Holy Trinity sanctuary understands its special place for Christians.
“You can't go into that church without feeling something special,” DeYong said. “The spirit is so strong.”
Lowell Feit said it's as if every one of the church's rocks has a name — in memory of believers from generations ago. Recent church leaders included Anne Rinkel, Barb Bot, Tim and Jeanette Tangeman and Bonnie Hilger.
“If you stand in the sanctuary in the morning with the sun streaming through the stained glass, it's breathtaking,” Lowell Feit said.
Their most recent pastor was Judi Wiley, who now lives in Ohio.
She will return to Holy Trinity in Luverne to lead the Oct. 22 service, and Coleen Tully, Episcopal priest in Marshall, will also share in leading that service.
Holy Trinity congregation members — all three of them — said they hope the community joins them for this farewell event. Refreshments will be served in Hilger Commons afterward.
Even those who never worshipped there have recognized the church as a significant Luverne landmark on the corner of Luverne Street and Cedar Avenue.
It was built in 1891 by R.B. Hinkly with Sioux quartzite stone from the Blue Mound Quarry, which he owned.
The arched windows of the church, which were shipped in from England, are all still original, as is the altar and solid oak woodwork throughout.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.