La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

How quickly the joy shared by those at La Conner United Methodist Church, those who knew and loved Mark Stephens, turned to grief and sorrow.

It was only one year ago, last November, when many church members, overcome with emotion, pulled out tissues as they (and even Mark) shed tears of joy during a message Mark delivered about how this small church he had joined had become his “Home,” the place where “belonging” to a church had taken on new meaning in the lifelong process of his faith as a Christian.

Today, that same church community is now in shock and grieving the death and loss of a man k...