St. Stephen’s Merrill

St. Stephen’s Church is located in Moon Lake Valley south of Saskatoon, 20 minutes from downtown. Located on 10 acres of land on Carmart Rd; we are a seasonal church, meeting for services twice a month from May to September and hold a Christmas Eve Day service, weather permitting. We have no power or water on site. Established in 1907, the community surrounding the church has been very supportive. Many from the area have family members interred in the cemetery. Members in our congregation are affiliated with the United Church as well as Anglican Church and attend elsewhere when St. Stephen’s is not open. In recent years we have expanded our cemetery, replaced roofs, upgraded windows and added siding to the church and Hilda Kimpton Memorial Centre (re-dedicated from the Sunday School). The cemetery expansion has been our biggest long-term project and was undertaken in response to the surveyed needs of our surrounding community. All proceeds from the cemetery are held in a trust fund for the long-term maintenance of the cemetery. We have over 19,000.00 in our General Fund and close to 37,000 in the Perpetual Care Fund (established in 2019). A great deal of the care and maintenance is done by volunteers and so we have been able to keep our costs low. Our renovations over the last 5 years have been financed from fundraising and to a lesser extent from our General Fund. We are a small committed congregation but as with many churches, we are aging. A principal concern is the management of our cemetery in the long-term. We have a cemetery bylaw which established a cemetery committee to manage the cemetery in the long-term.

We very much appreciate: The support of our congregation from the Diocese which has over the years included ministry from All Saints and ministers who have taken an interest in our little church. On occasion we have been blessed with three clergy at some of our services. We greatly enjoy the natural surroundings and meeting in the summer. We were quite active during Covid and had visitors from other churches as we held services out of doors. Our clergy: Ven Alex Parsons in the Diocesan office, Ven. Dan Hughes, Bishop Rodney and on occasion William Crosby, who have provided ministry to our congregation. The late Rev. Colin Clay was regarded as “one of our own” for many years and we miss him; and Our supporting community, including donations, and the dedicated volunteers that have not only kept our church going but made happen the ongoing improvements.