East Range Episcopal Churches

Coat of Arms of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota

The East Range Episcopal Churches was a covenanted cluster of Episcopal Churches located on the eastern end of the Mesabi Iron Range of Minnesota. The cluster underwent several variations of the years. In its most recent iteration, it served the cities of Ely, Tower, Virginia, and Eveleth.

On December 31, 2006 at the request of St. John's Episcopal Church (Eveleth), this covenanted cluster came to an end.

Links to all of the East Range Episcopal Churches remained available online through all of 2007.

St. John's at the end of the 20th Century
St. John's Episcopal Church
(no longer an active link)

St. Mary's Episcopal Church

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Our History

The history of the Episcopal Church on the Eastern end of the Mesabi Iron Range had its beginning in the year 1888 in the small town of Tower, MN. The main industries were iron ore mining and red and white pine logging. Many nationalities made up the population of Tower. Cornish miners brought the skills and organizational structure for underground mining with them from the tin mines in Cornwall. Slavs, Finns, Italians, Swedes, and Norwegians made up the "melting pot" population of this and other mining towns of the Mesabi Range.

Additional historical information may be found on the pages of each congregation.

During the Summer and early Autumn of 2006, the congregations of the East Range Episcopal Churches voted to end their relationship effective January 1, 2007. At that time the decisions were:

St. John's will continue services using supply clergy
St. Mary's will embark on Total Ministry with the Rev Pat Gillespie as their mentor
St. Paul's will embark on Total Ministry with a mentor to be selected in January

This marks the end of at least 40 years of joined ministry of Episcopal Churches on the eastern portion of the Iron Range of Minnesota.

Please click on the links on the left to get to information about St. Mary's Episcopal Church and St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

For the last ten years of the cluster, the East Range Epistle (the newsletter of the cluster) was also available online. To access some of these back issues, click here.

We are part of the greater body of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. If you are interested in learning more about the Episcopal Church, here are some links of interest:

Worship That Works a weekly sermon series by a wide selection of lay and clergy preachers.
The Minnesota Episcopal Environmental Stewardship Commission.
The Episcopal Ecological Network.
The Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota Online.

This page originally created for the East Range Episcopal Churches by
and now maintained for historical reference.

Address comments on typographical errors to Chuck.

Last Updated: 2008-03-13