Two congregations from two distinct denominations are now officially united as one, following a service in Neepawa, Man. over the weekend.

It's something that's been in the works for some time now, as the congregation of St. James Anglican Church had an ageing building that required a large portion of their annual budget being put towards upkeep. While the congregation could afford it, they felt there were better ways to be using their money for Kingdom work in the town.

"We know that the building can become a distraction," Chad McCharles says. "The congregation said, 'You know what, we need to do something new,'" in seeking to live out their mission as a church.

It just so happened that both St. James and the Neepawa United Church were both without clergy, just as McCharles, who is an Anglican priest, moved back to town after leading a church in Nova Scotia. Discussions began, and the two congregations decided to unite as one ministry to reach out to their surrounding area.

McCharles is now officially the Incumbent Minister of Neepawa United-Anglican Shared Ministry. At the service on Sunday, Oct. 18, the congregations held a covenanting service as the two became one ministry. The service was held at the Neepawa United Church, where the congregation will now officially gather to worship.

"It was a long-time in the making, and planning," McCharles says of Sunday's service. "There were lots of promises made on behalf of the people, and myself, and our judicatories, United Church of Canada and the Anglican Diocese of Brandon."

The imagery of a wedding was not lost on all involved. "That imagery actually was laced throughout the liturgy. It worked really well, because there's a give and a take in that relationship from both sides, and yet a lot of excitement in what is new in going forward," McCharles says.

The service also had lots of "ecumenical visitors," McCharles says, with pastors from all the other churches in the town attending.

"It was surreal, certainly," the priest says about the service finally taking place after lots of discussion and planning. "There were lots of times throughout the process of figuring out whether this could work and how it would work, and then, you know, putting it down on paper in our ecumenical shared ministry agreement document... there was lots of opportunities for that to have all gone sideways. And, yet, (Sunday) afternoon it was just tangibly clear, made manifest in our midst, that this was a real thing we were doing."