All Saints Episcopal Church welcomes new rector

Gabe LePage is excited to join the Flathead community after starting his role as rector at All Saints Episcopal Church just over a month ago.  

“It’s been great. This is a very generous and supportive community,” LePage said.  

His family is originally from Whitefish, but LePage was born and raised in Kenya while his parents were doing Christian relief and development work there.  

LePage moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee at age 12, and was exposed to the effective element that geography plays in poverty. This sparked his interest in geography and the environment.

After graduation from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan where he studied geography and international development, he spent time learning different styles of leadership from a range of community leaders.  

While living in Florida he worked for a nonprofit organization that sent plant seeds to missionaries, his interest in the environmental aspect in communities deepened, in his words, “putting science to service.”  

“Our health and our wealth is based in our land,” he said. “If our land is not healthy, we cannot be healthy as a people.”  

LePage then attended Yale Divinity School and Yale School for the Environment to get a joint degree in religion and ecology. This is where he got to “dive hard into my questions,” he said.  

Last September, he moved to the Flathead Valley to be closer to his parents and grandparents. He was ordained in February and started full time at All Saints Episcopal Church just over a month ago.  

He really appreciates the love of the land here in the valley and is hoping to incorporate this love for the environment into the church.  

LePage wants the church to be a place that people in search of a community can come to.  

“The church is a place of community development,” he said. “Coming back here has been the first place I have been living in that I feel like I belong to.” 

He is interested in hearing what the people of the congregation and the community want to see.  

“I want to listen to what they want our community to be,” he said. “We are throwing a party every Sunday and we would love for people to join us.” 

One of his favorite parts of this community so far has been meeting people doing good work.  

“I have been really inspired by the generosity that I have seen already,” he said.  

LePage has been working to build relationships with nonprofit partners around the valley, he said.  

“Hearing the stories of what people are up against and what others are doing to help these people stand up" is enjoyable, he said.  

In his free time, he enjoys spending time outdoors hiking and rock climbing. He is eager to continue exploring the Flathead Valley.  

All Saints Episcopal Church is located at 2048 Conn Road in Columbia Falls.