St. Peter's-by-the-Sea, Gulfport

While not part of our mission per se, Dr. Jackie in particular has been following the story of devastation and reconstruction at St. Peter's since her first post-Katrina visit to the Gulf Coast. On Saturday, while the main body of the team was en route home, David and Dorothy lingered to visit Gulfport and take pictures of the re-emerging church building, taking advantage of their 2-day return schedule.

St. Peter's-by-the-Sea, which sits precariously close to the Gulf of Mexico, was hit by a 38-foot storm surge when Katrina came ashore. The entire lower half of the building and everything inside were washed away. Remarkably, the vertical structure remained standing, and the upper half of the building (including three small stained glass windows) was largely undamaged. The parish has been worshiping at a Presbyterian church far enough from the shore to have been laregely undamaged. In the meantime, reconstruction has been going on, as shown in the pictures here, and the "new" church is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

The lower half of the building is new construction.

Looking from the entrance toward the sanctuary -- all of the white parts are new construction where essentially nothing was left by Katrina.

Details of the survivng stained glass windows.

The St. Peter's motif (inverted cross, keys to the Kingdom) is above the sanctuary. The other two windows, with essentially identical crossed fish motifs, are high up in the side bays of the cruciform structure.

Looking from the altar steps toward the entrance and the choir loft.

The construction supervisor welcomed us as visitors and gave us a tour of the site. He also encouraged us to take as many pictures as we wanted.

Our remaining pictures below show the west side of the church and the new Parish Hall building, this part all new construction, and the east side of the church, beyond which one can see just how close it sits to what the locals call "the ocean". Between the church and the water, out of sight below a small rise, is the Beach Highway (US 90) and a beautiful beach. Normally there are no waves to speak of because of protective offshore islands in the Gulf. But there are also no dunes or other protection when a big storm comes ashore.

DAS, 11/1/07

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