Father James Linton was at a loss.
For nearly 10 years, the priest had been dutifully shepherding his small but dogged flock from St. John’s Anglican Church across the Salt Lake Valley in search of a worship home. At times, members met in public parks; other times in hotel conference rooms. For a while, they called the chapel of CommonSpirit Holy Cross Hospital in east Salt Lake City their home — until an earthquake damaged it.
“We were,” Linton said, “homeless.”
Despite this, the congregation had begun to grow, picking up new members, including former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it pingponged from site to site. The downside: The larger it got, the more space it needed and, thus, the less affordable the options for a permanent home became.
“People would ask, ‘Hey, what are we doing about a building?’” Linton recalled, pegging the congregation’s current size at 100. “And I would tell them we’re praying for a miracle.”
That miracle materialized just before this past Easter in the form of a phone call. Another Christian church, Mountain Springs Community Church, was closing its doors in Cottonwood Heights. Did the Anglican congregation want the keys?
“I was,” Linton said, “completely blown away.”
Roughly four months later, on Aug. 31, St. John’s held its first worship service in its new home, located at 7136 S. 1700 East. In doing so, the community ushered in what Linton described as a new era for Utah’s only branch of the Anglican Church in North America.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) St. John's Anglican Church in Cottonwood Heights on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025. Up until August, the building served for decades as the gathering place for Mountain Springs Community Church.
‘You should talk to that woman’
The way Linton, a bubbly Southern California native, tells it, the flap of the butterfly wing that set this all in motion was a walk he took eight or so years ago with a fellow priest on the east Salt Lake City campus of Westminster University. The two were joined in prayer, wrestling with this issue of finding a home for Linton’s congregation when his companion stopped and gestured to a stranger unfamiliar to both of them.
“He said, ‘I think you should talk to that woman,’” Linton recalled. So he did, explaining who he was and that his friend had felt he should approach her.
Far from being put off or startled, the woman was “very warm.” They exchanged contact information, he said, and set up a time to meet when she could bring her husband. The couple, members of Mountain Springs Community Church, started a Bible study group with the priest, who came to know more of the congregation’s ever-dwindling ranks through the years.
By the time the Christian Reformed church decided it no longer had the critical mass to continue, support for granting the building to Linton and his flock was unanimous.
Witnessing a resurrection
Salt Lake City’s Mary Goldring has been a member of, and oft-times leader in, Mountain Springs since the 1980s. During that time, she experienced the community through boom times — years when pews spilled over with children and hundreds of faithful gathered each week — to periods of sharp decline as those children grew and moved away with none to replace them.
Goldring was among those who came to know and trust Linton, and someone who participated in the often-difficult meetings in which the leaders weighed their options as a church that, toward the end, drew around 20 old-timers.
“There was a lot of soul-searching by the congregation,” she said. “We wrestled. We really wrestled for months.”
Ultimately, the members decided to fold, spurred by the news that their pastor planned to retire.
“People in the church,” she said, “were quite tired, honestly.”
The only decision left was what to do with their assets. They spread their cash, a few hundred thousand dollars, across a handful of nonprofits, including the Utah Food Bank and another Christian Reformed Church, Life in Christ in east Salt Lake City. That left the Cottonwood Heights property.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) For years, the church packed the pews. Over time, however, children grew and moved away with few to replace them.
“People asked, ‘Why don’t you sell it?’” Goldring said. “And do what with the money?”
Better, they decided, to give it to another Christian congregation or deserving organization in need.
In the end, Goldring was tasked with narrowing the possibilities to two candidates, which included St. John’s. These she presented to the ecclesiastical leadership, who then asked the congregation to vote.
“It was unanimous” for the Anglican church, Goldring said. “First time they’d ever been unanimous about anything.”
Do the two strains of Christianity — Reformed and Anglican — share any historical ties?
“Not a one,” Goldring said, “except Jesus.”
Even still, there was jubilation in the air when she pulled out her phone and, right then and there, called Linton. Putting him on speakerphone and surrounded by her fellow congregants, she told him the good news.
“Then the most beautiful thing happened,” she said. “Being the pastor that he is, he spoke a word of blessing over all of us. It was just so powerful. He said that any fruit that God will bear out at St. John’s will eternally be credited to Mountain Springs.”
The event gave Goldring “closure.” That is not to say she and her fellow church members aren’t grieving. Many raised their children in a community that is no more. But, she stressed, “Jesus couldn’t be raised if he wasn’t dead.”
“I truly believe in resurrection,” she said, growing emotional at the memory. “This thing that we have known needs to die. But we believe something else…good will grow from this. It’s just not going to be us.”
Will the members of the now-dissolved congregation attend the Anglican services?
Goldring said she doubted most would, at least not right away. The final few had given their lives to that community. They would need time to grieve.
A roof over head
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Anglican Church In North America embraces a structured, liturgical worship style, a striking contrast from the building's former denomination.
Feast day celebrations (something the Anglican tradition does not lack) youth ministries, community services — these are just some of the possibilities Linton foresees in the new space, as well as a gathering place for Anglican clergy from across the region.
“We have a central place now,” he said, “from which ministry can go forth.”
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Father James Linton at St. John's Anglican Church in Cottonwood Heights on Monday, Sept. 8, 2025.
All under one, single and — thanks to a final goodwill gesture from the Mountain Springs community — brand-new roof.
Worship services take place at 10 a.m. All are welcome.