St. Joseph’s Mission in Dixfield, which closed last winter and didn’t reopen this summer, is on the market.

St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Mexico will likely close by the end of October, marking the end of an era in the River Valley.

The closures, restructuring and renaming of the parish to Holy Savior, is the end result of a two-year process to consolidate the Catholic churches throughout the state.

In the River Valley, St. Athanasius and St. John Church in Rumford and Our Lady of the Snows in Bethel, will remain open.

The lack of priests and money played a major role in the restructuring.

Church members from Bethel, Rumford, Mexico and Dixfield met for much of those two years to devise a plan for the changes. Their final plan was approved by Bishop Richard Malone of the Maine diocese.

Closing a church is difficult, said Father Angelo Levasseur, pastor of Holy Savior Parish. To help people deal with the closure of their church, a committee will soon be formed within St. Theresa’s to aid in the transition, he said.

That same group will also study what, if anything, should be done with St. Theresa’s Church. Two businesses now rent space on the bottom floor. Whether the building will be retained as a site for support groups, Bible study and other purposes, or sold likely won’t be determined for about a year, Father Levasseur said,

“We need to take the time to process what the needs are of the Holy Savior Parish,” he said.

Several inquiries have been made about St. Joseph’s Mission, including a couple from other churches, but the building on the Weld Road remains for sale.

At St. Athanasius and St. John, a major renovation and repair of the massive twin steeples has been ongoing for many months.

At Our Lady of the Snows, member Mike Broderick said the church would continue to be a mission church. It had originally been a mission of the Rumford church, then was switched to St. Catherine’s in Norway, and is now back with the Rumford area churches. Built in the late 1960s, it is the newest of the River Valley churches.