Until nobody comes and the doors are locked

"What's sad for me is the fact that, about half a dozen years ago, I told the bishop I'll stay here until nobody comes and the doors are locked. Guess what? Kind of a bad day for me."

On Sept. 22, nearly 3,500 people attended the first Wyoming sermon of popular artist Kanye West at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody. That same day, nearly 300 miles to the southeast, Reverend Arlen Rounds bore both smiles and tears as he gave what was likely the last sermon at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Medicine Bow.

He was not alone.

Rounds, who has provided Sunday services to St. Luke's for around 20 years, was joined by fellow reverends from across the state. Reverend Melinda Bobo, who also served at St. Luke's for a time, came from Pinedale along with Reverend Randy Belton. Reverend Roxanne Friday made the drive from the Wind River Indian Reservation. Reverend Ray Gribe traveled from Wheatland and Reverend Candice Corrigan drove from Laramie.

In addition to the clergy, who outnumbered the parishioners, former Medicine Bow resident Shawn Dovey was in attendance. Having made the decision, along with his friend Susan Bury, to make the drive from Laramie, he had no idea he would be attending the final sermon for the church. Dovey was baptized at St. Luke's as a child. It was also the church where his parents were wed.

The other two parishioners were locals. Bonnie Culver and Jeanette Fisher are technically Methodists, but have consistently attended Rounds' sermons to support their friend.

St. Luke's has a long history and an influence.

The church began as a schoolhouse, founded by the employees of the Union Pacific railroad. Eventually, the building was moved from the "other side of the tracks" to its current location and was founded as an African Methodist Episcopal church. For a period of time it was the principal church in Medicine Bow and doubled as the town hall.

"I wasn't here when it was first dedicated, but from here to the back wall was the church and going the opposite direction was the city hall. Where the city fathers met," said Rounds. "I don't know if they pulled the curtain across or just left it the way it is."

Coming down the aisle, on the left hand side, the front most stained glass window bears familiar icons. The Virginian Hotel, founded after the popularity of Owen Wister's novel of the same name, has a spot. As do the words "When you call me that, smile." Near the bottom, a cowboy sits atop his horse and is a painting of Ab Irene, the grandfather of Elk Mountain mayor Morgan Irene and a frequent visitor of the church.

"He was a cowboy. He wore spurs and if you peel back the carpet by where Randy is sitting there, you will find grooves in the floor from where he sat all the time," said Rounds, pointing stage left to the front pew.

Rounds is just one of three people who have felt the call to serve St. Luke's who made the regular trip from St. Matthew's in Laramie. Before Rounds, Bobo performed services along with Reverend Todd Sermon.

"The congregation at St. Luke's was aging," said Bobo. "Also, several people became seasonal residents. Everyone in our group from Laramie had been readers and chalice bearers in the Episcopal Church for years, so we had quite a bit of experience with being active in services."

Sermon, Bobo and Rounds, who was Sermon's Education for Ministry (EFM) mentor at the time, made the trip to Medicine Bow on the 2nd and 4th Sunday. 

"We provided consistent services and pastoral visits to those who needed them," Bobo said, "even taking communion after church to a man who worked at the Virginian Bar on Sundays. He had to miss church to clean and open, so we'd stop in. Todd would set up on the bar and administer communion to him right there so he could keep working."

Over the course of traveling back-and-forth to Medicine Bow and providing services, Sermon told Bobo that he felt she was being called to serve as clergy. He convinced her to begin taking the EFM course through St. Matthew's. Bobo began providing the services at St. Luke's while Sermon performed communion.

"Both St. Matthew's and St. Luke's were very supportive congregations, but because Todd was such a good mentor I decided to ask him to be my sponsoring priest and St. Luke's to be my sponsoring congregation," said Bobo.

About 20 years ago, Sermon announced that he was moving to Colorado to enter seminary. The Medicine Bow parishioners were concerned as to who would replace Sermon at St. Luke's.

"The people sitting in the pews were saying, 'Well, who is going to take your place?' and I heard a voice say 'I am.' I looked around to see where that voice was," said Rounds. "Everybody said, 'Oh, goody, we got somebody.' Todd looked right at me and said 'Thanks, Arlen, that helps people a lot.'"

While Rounds may have volunteered to take Sermon's place in serving St. Luke's, he still had to go through the process of being confirmed. He was directed by Bishop Bruce Caldwell, who led the Wyoming Episcopal Dioceses from 1997 to 2010, to form a committee to determine if he was qualified. 

"I called some people I knew and some friends and some church people at St. Matthews. They finally told Bruce I could do the job, they thought, and that's how I got started. I preached my first sermon in this church," Rounds said.

The events that happened next might make one think Rounds was destined to lead sermons at St. Luke's. He was informed by the committee that he needed to record a sermon for them to view. So, Rounds asked Bobo to run the camcorder.

"I was standing up there and kind of in the middle of the room and somehow, unbeknownst to her and me, she got my head centered in that little window and it looked like I had a halo," said Rounds. "I think that's probably why they decided maybe it would be ok that I preached here."

For nearly 15 years, Rounds performed services at St. Luke's and Caldwell was eventually replaced by Bishop John Smiley. The current bishop told Rounds that he wanted him to attend the Iona program.

"The Iona program allows lay people like me to get enough of an education and the history of the church and in the Old and New Testaments and in the theology of the church to make it legal, so to speak, to preach here," Rounds said.

Rounds attended the Iona program and was ordained on Dec. 18, approximately four or five years ago, in a blizzard.

Nearly 100 years before his ordination, in 1915, St. Luke's had been dedicated in a blizzard as well.

"When I first started here, there was an average of about 12. In the last year, I've averaged about two, plus me. That's not very many people," said Rounds. "And two very good friends of mine, they happen to be Methodist. They aren't even Episcopalians but they came here anyway. That is really a blessing and I thank them very much."

While this was the final sermon that Rounds would give at St. Luke's, it is possible it may not be the final sermon for the church itself.

"This is a very sad day for me because, for one thing, I live in Cheyenne and that makes it more difficult to get here," Rounds said. "The other was the decision that the bishop and I mutually agreed to, and that was to not fully eliminate the church but, as he put it, 'put it in mothballs' until we can determine if we can reopen it and have enough people here to support it and to keep it going."

As the service came to an end, the closing hymn was sung. Bobo extinguished the candles and Corrigan rang the bell. Most everyone made the short trip to The Virginian for lunch where they shared stories, smiles and laughs in fellowship.

In a way, it was an example of Matthew 18:20; "For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them."