GULFPORT, Miss. (ABP) — Members of this city's First Baptist Church bid farewell March 26 to the hollow shell of their beachfront sanctuary, decimated by Hurricane Katrina, in order to move to an inland location less vulnerable to storms.
Stark photographs of the ruined church — which appeared on magazine and newspaper covers on two continents — became an international symbol of Katrina's unprecedented fury.
Members and friends of First Baptist gathered for the last worship service at the downtown facility, which became home to the 110-year-old congregation in 1915.
“The church of Jesus Christ is not at this location,” said former member Ken Parvin, now a pastor in Brookhaven. “I am looking at First Baptist Church,” he said, gesturing to the hundreds of people assembled in and around a large tent beside the church ruins. “Ladies and gentlemen, never forget that the church of Jesus Christ is in you.”
The congregation, which is presently meeting at Gulfport High School, made the decision to relocate and are searching for land north of Interstate 10, several miles inland from the present location.
After the final service, people lingered on the broken street in front of the fenced-off city block on which the church's buildings rest. Older members carrying canes were joined by young parents holding infants in taking one long, last look at the venerable church complex. The property will soon be listed for sale soon.
First Church pastor Chuck Register spoke of the many special memories the church evokes — comical, sacrificial, and eternal. Delivering a message from the third chapter of Philippians, Register urged the congregation to “reflect, refocus, and recommit” in order to be “people just like Jesus Christ.”
First Baptist of Gulfport was constituted in 1896 and constructed its first building in 1899 one block from the current site on Highway 90. In 1969 Hurricane Camille pushed about four feet of water into the sanctuary, but Katrina gutted most of the buildings and reduced the sanctuary to its steel superstructure.
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