Margo and Stuart Zephier, along with Pastor George Gehant, center, ring the bell Sunday after it was put in place near the 10 year old building recently.

Ten years ago this Christmas season, St. Mary’s/Our Blessed Redeemer Episcopal Church held its first service in its new building on Second Avenue.
This Sunday, the congregation will celebrate that anniversary with an open house from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church.
The church also recently received its bell back and had it reinstalled on the property, and will ring that on Christmas Eve. The service that night is at 5:30 p.m.

“The first service was on Christmas Eve that year,” said Margo Zephier, senior warden at the church, remembering the 2008 completion of the building.
Church members want those who have faithfully supported the efforts of the church – including its July 4 Indian taco sales -- to come and celebrate Sunday with chili, fry bread and cupcakes, she said. “We have a good chili maker, a good cupcake maker and a good fry bread maker.”
The bell, first purchased in the late 1800s by the congregation, was blessed at a Dec. 9 service. “When our old church came down, they saved the bell,” Zephier said. “Our contractor recently brought our bell back, so it’s where it should be.”
When the old church building was torn down to make room for the new structure, the congregation also saved the stained-glass windows and had seven of them restored and reinstalled.
While the church is small, at that first Christmas Eve service in 2008, 110 people attended, Zephier said. “It fits our needs well,” she said of the building. “Our congregation is small too.”