Father James Roberts reflects on his experiences with the church community surviving the storm. Photo and Video below by Ji Hoon Heo
GULFPORT – “When I was first ordained the rule of the Episcopal Church was you would retire at 65. I was 64 when Katrina hit, and I knew I couldn’t quit,” said former St. Mark’s Episcopal Church priest.
Father James B. Roberts was born and raised on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in the city of Biloxi. After graduating from the seminary in 1966, he served two churches in Northern Mississippi. Three years later, he received a call sending him to St. Mark’s in Gulfport where he led a congregation for 44 years.
“Come down here, young guy and all enthusiastic and ready to work,” said Father Roberts. “Only to find out you’re really going to get to work because the church is going to be nearly destroyed.”
Four months after Father Roberts arrived, Hurricane Camille hit the Gulf Coast, the worst natural disaster the country had seen at that time. Along with his mother, wife, and three children, Father Roberts stayed in his home behind the church.
“Water started coming through the floor so we decided to go into the attic. It was really noisy and bad, and we heard the floorboards tearing up,” said Father Roberts.
After the storm, he stood near the damaged church and saw the chairs scattered across the muddy, debris-covered beach. The National Coast Guard turned him away but there was nothing that could turn him away from the people of his congregation.
“He put this church on his back and rebuilt it not only physically but members grew from 100 to 700,” said John Harral, church member since 1978.
More than 30 years after, Hurricane Katrina made landfall and left the 153 year old church with nothing but the slab.
“Even the toilets were knocked off the slab and were lying on the side,” said Harral.
The next Sunday following Katrina, Father Roberts led a church service at the site where St. Mark’s once stood. The service was broadcasted live on CNN that morning.
“We never missed one,” he said during an interview after the service. “Since I came in April of 1969, we haven’t missed one.”
In the aftermath of Katrina, it wasn’t unusual for priest to eventually find work elsewhere, but Father Roberts waded out yet another storm and decided to lead his church to a new foundation.
“We just plugged all along until we got through it, but the rewards were great,” he said, “seeing the people, and the process, and seeing them appreciating and what we together were doing here.”
St. Mark’ received over $3 million in donations from across the country to help fund the construction of a new church. In 2006, St. Mark’s held its first service in their new church, which now stands away from the beach.
“It’s not just a matter of let’s build a pretty church somewhere,” Father Roberts said, “It’s a matter of let’s have a place that we can worship and that will attract other people to come.”
In 2013, Father Roberts finally retired. Father Stephen Kidd from Dallas, Texas, stepped up to take over leadership as St. Mark’s new priest.
“We weren’t done,” Father Kidd said, “It wasn’t going to be the end of this story. It was going to be the beginning of a resurrection story.”
The people of St. Mark’s gathered last Saturday morning where the church once stood like they did 10 years ago. They thought not so much of the disaster, but of the promise of the future.
“Its not a feeling of I want this memorial to continue to exist,” said Father Roberts. “But it is a feeling of what my life meant for these 44 years here at St. Mark’s, to have a place here.”
