As people filed in to the First United Methodist Church for the final service of deconsecration Sunday afternoon, one longtime member stayed at the doorway.

Brent Emery, with two cameras slung around his neck, wanted to document this moment.

“I was raised in the church,” he said.

The Emery family history runs deep. He pointed to a plaque on the wall — his mother Mildred Emery is the oldest living member, he said.

What he was on hand to document was a lengthy service, including reminisces of former pastors, a message from the current one, the Rev. Janita Krayniak, a ceremony to transition the church to its new church owners, and finally a walk to the Union Presbyterian Church on North Bent Street that is the Powell Methodist community’s new home.

Members of the Presbyterian Church were there to show support, as was at least one member of the local Hope Lutheran Church, Donna Brandon, who said she was there to show support from her church.

Krayniak guessed Monday that two thirds of those in attendance were church members, the other third were members of the Presbyterian Church.

“Some community members came because they had a connection to the church. They felt like it was an appropriate way to let go of the building and honor all of the memories made,” Krayniak said. “And Hope Lutheran, they have always been our biggest supporters and fans.”

Hope Lutheran has long joined with the Methodist and Presbyterian churches for Vacation Bible School and has even shared pulpits when pastors have been on vacation.

Helping other churches has long been a key part of what the Methodist Church, which started in Garland in 1906, has always been about. Krayniak said one of the aspects of the process that has made it better for everybody in the congregation is that the building is not becoming a restaurant or a climbing gym — the fate of a church in Paris.

“That in itself is cathartic knowing it will continue to serve the Kingdom of God and Christ,” she said. “One of the most important things for them is it will still be a church.”

Krayniak even added a special ceremony at the end of the service where she lit a Christ candle and invited new owners Shane and Susan Legler to the front.

“I passed the light of Christ to Shane and Susan,” she said. “When we processed out, that remained burning.”

Krayniak said the sense of joint work for the two churches she pastors in town every Sunday makes the Methodist and Presbyterian congregations joining together seem only natural — after all, similar churches in Thermopolis have been federated for a century now.

The cake awaiting the attendees at the Presbyterian Church at the end of the walk said it best: Stronger Together.

“That’s the overwhelming feeling for both of these congregations is we can do so much more together than we can do apart,” she said.