The weekend of January 31st—February 2nd was a busy one in the cavernous halls of the Mississippi Coast Convention Center in Biloxi. At one end of the building gaggles of cheerleading squads from around the region flooded the lines of concession stands as they awaited their turns to perform in competition. A room around the center’s midpoint hosted a “hot tub blowout expo” catering to big spenders looking for a soak.

At the far end of the site, less frenetic but full of spirit nonetheless, was the 198th Annual Council of the Diocese of Mississippi. From the residents of the hosting coast to the road-weary northerners of Corinth and Southaven, congregants from all over the diocese greeted old friends, made new ones, conducted the church’s business, and greeted each other in peace, as Episcopalians always do.

There was great anticipation for the first council address from Bishop Dorothy Sanders Wells, elected one year before at the 197th council. She took the podium around 6:30 on Friday night to speak on her chosen theme, “Telling Our Story,” one that seemed appropriate after the ten months she’d spent travelling the state to learn. She explained:

Our story as a diocese is really enmeshed in a story of a state—its natives and settlers, changing agriculture and industry, warfare and peace, conflict and struggle through richer times and poorer times, storms and winds—both literal and figurative—through rebuilding and retooling. Our churches have stood since the early 1820s as places of worship and sanctuary, as beacons of God’s light in our cities and towns, as places for communities to gather as makeshift hospitals for the injured, as jumping off points for rebuilding. Our worshiping communities, although largely comprised of persons of European descent, have included all races, ethnicities and all kinds of folks who have found our churches to be places of welcome. The hands of enslaved persons helped erect some of our worshiping spaces and our own records reflect the baptism of persons who are part of our story.

With an acknowledgement that there is still plenty for herself individually and the people of the diocese collectively to learn, the bishop felt the choice for her first council was obvious.

“Our story is still evolving,” she said, “and that’s why it struck me that there was really no better theme for this council than ‘Telling Our Story.’ There’s a lot of story to tell, and God’s not done with us yet.”

The bishop’s address featured a video presentation showcasing the resilience of churches in the diocese. Some of the stories in it were recent and familiar, some more distant but no less relevant.

Trinity, Yazoo City was destroyed by fire in 1904, by flood in 1927, and by tornado in 1933. Today, the parish lives on and delivers for the community through the Manna House feeding ministry.

“It is a story of perseverance,” said the Rev. George Woodliff, Rector of Trinity. “It’s a story of the faithfulness of God, and the faithfulness and perseverance of the people of Trinity.”

Much more recently, in March of 2023, Chapel of the Cross, Rolling Fork, suffered its own destruction at the hands of a tornado. Wells, at the time still rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Germantown, Tennessee, recalled reading the news and feeling the heartbreak of Rolling Fork’s people. On the Day of Pentecost the following year, she stood beside Chapel rector Greg Proctor, as bishop-elect, to break ground on a new church.

Most appropriate for the setting of council, the latter half of Wells’s presentation focused on the tremendous losses suffered by the churches and larger communities on the coast during Hurricanes Camille (1969) and Katrina (2005). Virtually every Episcopal church on the Mississippi coast was either completely destroyed or heavily damaged in both storms. Yet, the churches rebuilt and persist to this day. Bishop Wells called out, among the many inspirational stories in the aftermath of these disasters, two examples.

At St. Patrick’s, Long Beach, the church is using its space to support the ministry of Emerge Mississippi, which provides vocational training for people with vision loss. St. Paul’s, Picayune, made a similar choice with an underused education building on their campus by partnering with the Picayune Carver Cultural Center, which offers programs for underserved children in the community. St. Paul’s education building is now their home.

The stories are too numerous to tell in limited space (see the full video for a touch more at msepiscopalian.com/council-video).

With the tone for the weekend set, Bishop Wells handed the reins over to the council host parishes to formally welcome all in attendance.

“We’re thrilled that the day has finally arrived that we’ve been planning for for so long,” said the Very Rev. Stephen Kidd, rector of St. Mark’s, Gulfport.

He went on to describe the event as “like a big family reunion” and said, “the thing we do in addition to business and prayer and worship is we also have a good time.”
A good time was indeed had by all later that evening at the Ground Zero Blues Club, where excellent food and music accompanied many a reunion within the diocesan family.

The tone was set for the weekend, which proceeded with business, with elections, and indeed much worship. On Sunday morning, the banners representing 82 churches and other diocesan institutions filled the room with a dazzling array of colors just as rich and diverse as the places they represent.

Before the final procession, Bishop Wells called on the people of Mississippi to look outward after a weekend of reuniting with those we already know and learn how to use our story to reach others:

How are we welcoming all of God’s people who come into our midst? How are we welcoming the folks who will never come into our midst? We just need to tell them the story of who and what we are, so that they, too, know how much we all are loved by our God. Because it’s that welcome, it’s that affirmation, it’s that truth-telling, it’s that witness that is what draws God’s people again and again and again to the place of worship, to the place where we know that God’s presence will always meet us all.