Your Life - Faith & Values

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009

MOVING FORWARD

First Presbyterian of Gulfport readies to hold services in new building

GULFPORT — Members of the First Presbyterian Church of Gulfport will hold their first worship service in their new church Nov. 22.

For the past few years church members have been holding services at Bayou View Elementary School in Gulfport. The school’s basketball court has been their sanctuary.

Members are proud of the new brick building with 23,000 square feet and plenty of office space, a nursery, a large children’s area, a gymnasium, a kitchen, a playground, a fellowship hall and more.

The old First Presbyterian Church on U.S. 90 was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Members tried to salvage the church, but the damage was too extensive.

“That kind of architecture you can’t replace like the hand-carved woodwork, but one of the things we learned through the hurricane is that the church is more than building,” Pastor Guy Richard said. “The people are primary and the building is secondary. Our church family became much stronger. We grew closer.”

Some of the old church relics survived, including the steeple, the pews, windows and the organ pipes. The church hopes to use these items in the new facility.

“One of the other things we learned in the hurricane is the church building is important, because it gives us a sense of who we are,” Richard said. “We want to use as much of the things we salvaged from the old building as we can, because it helps give us a sense of our history.”

Church members had a lot of decisions to make after Hurricane Katrina. Members decided not to rebuild on U.S. 90 but farther north on O’Neal Road in Gulfport.

Rebuilding the church was not the first priority after the storm for the church. The focus was first on helping members get back into their homes. It took about two years to help rebuild the homes of about 350 members.

Richard was called to lead the First Presbyterian Church just before Katrina. The first phone call he received after the storm from a church member was the member telling the pastor about the church’s damage.

The transition to South Mississippi was significant for Richard and his family. He and his wife, Jennifer, and their two children were living in Scotland, the birthplace of the Presbyterian faith. He graduated with his doctorate in historical and systematic theology from the University of Edinburgh.

“After arriving here from Scotland, the last four years have been difficult,” Richard said, “but we are excited about what God is doing in us and through us as we move forward.”