•Early Beginnings

As ironic as it may sound, the very first step toward the founding of an Orthodox
Church in McComb, MS was the assignment of the Rev. Norval Yerger as the Episcopal
priest there in 1970. After much prayer and study, he resigned his position as
an Episcopal priest in June of 1977 and was chrismated into the Orthodox Church the
very same month. After directed study with faculty members of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox
Theological Seminary in New York, he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood in
September of 1977, taking the name Fr. Paul.

Here, the founding of another Orthodox Church in Mississippi must be briefly
explained in order to move Fr. Paul from New York back to Mississippi in the fall of
1977. Archpriest George Gladky was the founder and pastor of Christ the Saviour
Church (now Cathedral) in Miami, and, with Archbishop DMITRI, co-founder of the
Diocese of the South. A tireless missionary, he founded more than a dozen Churches in
the South which are still in operation. In 1977 he made several trips to Jackson, MS and
served services in hotel meeting rooms and homes to see who would come. (Jackson is
the capitol of MS, and is about 80 miles North of McComb.) The fruit of Fr. George’s
efforts in Jackson was Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church, to which Fr. Paul was
assigned as their first priest upon his ordination and return to MS.

Returning to the story of the Church in McComb, one of Fr. Paul’s former
Episcopal parishioners, David Varnado, made the move to Orthodoxy with him. David helped to recruit other converts in the area, notable Subdeacon Jonah Ford, who converted in 1981 and has been a mainstay of the Church ever since. Angela Dunaway, who had been a teenage member of Fr. Paul’s former church, also converted a few years later. David was married to Edie in 1995, and their home became the nucleus of the Church in the McComb area. This began what was to be better than 20 years of commuting from McComb to Jackson (and later to Clinton, a town just outside of Jackson where Holy Resurrection Church is today).

•Founding and the Future

In 1999, the members of Holy Resurrection who lived in McComb heard that
there might be some local interest in the Orthodox Church. Fr. Paul traveled down to
hold a service at the hall of the Presbyterian church in the next town (Magnolia, MS) to
gauge what the level of interest might be. From that outreach several families came—a
husband and wife “found” the Church and soon converted, and an Egyptian lady (a
Coptic Christian) also made contact, though she later returned to Egypt.

The group of Orthodox Christians in McComb was slowly enlarging, and the
hope for a Church to eventually be planted nearer their home began to grow. In 2000, Fr.
Paul blessed the McComb group to begin meeting together in members’ homes weekly to
read Vespers. Soon after they were also blessed to begin reading Typica together
occasionally on Sunday. The members always shared a community meal together after
the services. This time for fellowship was very important for “cementing” the core group
that was soon to be the founders of Christ the Saviour Mission.

One day in 2002, some of the members “chanced” to drive by a building
(formerly a Christian Science “church”) that had just been put up for sale. They had
noticed this building for months and had always thought what a great spot for an
Orthodox Church it would be. By the grace of God, a way was made available for this
small group of dedicated Christians to purchase the building in April of 2002. The
Church was named Christ the Saviour Mission Station, and the Transfiguration of our
Lord and Saviour was chosen as its patronal feast. (The Church was initially considered
a mission station of Holy Resurrection, a status which was upgraded to mission in 2005.)
It is located right in town, near many of the other churches in McComb and in a very
visible location. They almost immediately began having Reader’s Vespers every
Wednesday and Saturday night, and Fr. Paul began to come down one Saturday a month
to serve the Divine Liturgy and check up on the progress of his small group of
missionaries.

In January of 2003, just 9 short months after the purchase of a Church building,
the group in McComb was able to purchase the house next door to the Church to serve as
a parish hall. The hall was dedicated to St. Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow and
Enlightener of Alaska. St. Innocent was chosen because he was a missionary priest, and
also because he was very good at fixing and building things (two qualities that seem very
important at the Mission). The temple and the hall were beautified—both were painted
and had minor repairs done, and a local carpenter was brought in to build an iconostasis
and to install some benches around the walls (the stadium style seating from the old use
just seemed inappropriate and was removed).

The time has flown since the purchase of buildings and the semi-regularization of
services. In 2004, 2 seekers were made catechumens. They were chrismated in 2005.
Several other important events happened in 2005, including the purchase of a set of bells
from Russia in memory of the repose of a member’s father. Archbishop DMITRI of
Dallas and the South also visited in June 2005, when he made the announcement that Fr.
Matthew Jackson would be assigned as the first parish priest upon
his graduation from St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in May 2006. In
November 2005 a three-bedroom home only 2 blocks from the Temple was purchased as
a rectory for Fr. Matthew and his family. It was dedicated to St. John of Kronstadt, who
knew St. Innocent of Alaska, and was an incredible missionary and man of God in his
own right.

Christ the Saviour Mission draws regular members in from as far as 60 miles
away. Through the generosity of benefactors and the truly selfless giving of the
members, both the temple and St. Innocent Hall are completely paid for, and only a small
amount is still owed on St. John’s. Another of the miracles of God for this Mission—
upon his graduation from Seminary, Fr. Matthew was able to come to McComb as a
full time parish priest! All of this, with only 10 families in the Church to date.

There is an enormous amount of work to be done down South in spreading the Truth of our Faith. Christ the Saviour Mission marks only the 6th active Orthodox Church in Mississippi today. We ask for your prayers for the missionary efforts of all those spreading the Faith throughout the world today.

Glory to God for all things!