Building renovations at Mississippi’s oldest Episcopal congregation help spur membership growth

Christ Church in Church Hill, Mississippi, has undergone extensive renovations over the past decade that have brought new life to the building and its congregation. While its current building was completed in 1858, the congregation was founded in 1820, six years before the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi was established. Photo: Courtesy of Christ Church

[Episcopal News Service] Christ Church in Church Hill, Mississippi – founded in 1820, it’s the oldest congregation in the Episcopal Church in Mississippi – has seen a revitalization of its congregation and its 1858 building over the past decade.

And now, with attendance at its twice-a-month services averaging close to 30 people, it is tackling restoration of the cemetery adjacent to the church and has hopes for the congregation’s next steps.

The genesis for new life in the congregation belongs in large measure to Tate Taylor, a film director and producer who moved to Church Hill in 2016, according to people connected to the church with whom Episcopal News Service has spoken.

Mississippi Bishop Dorothy Wells told ENS that she first heard of the restoration work at Christ Church in 2024, before her consecration as bishop, during a visit to Trinity Church in nearby Natchez. But she was worried about who was overseeing the work and whether it reflected what she called “historical accuracy and faithfulness.”

But once there, she met church leaders, including Taylor and his partner John Norris, and learned of their commitment to honor the church’s past, including repainting the walls to replicate the original faux-marble look and determining the original paint color of the wooden pews.

“It was the most stunning moment for me, to think there is so much love and care around restoring this property faithfully,” Wells said. “I was just blown away.”

Interior renovations helped restore the walls to their original faux-marble look, as well as refurbishing the pews to their original color, repairing stained-glass windows and adding heating and air conditioning. Photo: Courtesy of Christ Church

The renovations eventually included a new roof, which allowed the original cross to be placed on it once again, along with new windows and the first heating and air conditioning ever installed in the building. Windows filled with panels of plain stained-glass were repaired when a company in the state capital, Jackson, was able to obtain pieces of the original glass from a factory in Germany. The heart pine floors have been sanded and restored, and the pews, pulpit and altar have been refurbished.

Taylor helped jump-start the renovation efforts in part, he told ENS, because he has some construction experience flipping houses after he graduated from college. The native Mississippian decided to move back to the area after his 2011 movie “The Help” had become a hit. Octavia Spencer won an Oscar in 2012 for best supporting actress for her role in the film, and it garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and acting nominations for Viola Davis and Jessica Chastain. It also received dozens of nominations and wins for a variety of film awards.

He first stumbled upon Christ Church while in the area to look at homes for sale. Directions to one of them brought him in front of the church, and the sight of it “stopped me in my tracks,” he said. Calling the church “stunning,” he told ENS, “It doesn’t feel like something that would be in Mississippi. It was so Gothic… It felt very European.”

Even before he made it to the property he was going to see – Wyolah, which he did buy and refurbish – he felt the church was a sign to him “that this was a cool place, a beautiful, perhaps spiritual and artistic place, to be.” He and Norris are now members.

Carolyn Vance Smith, a Christ Church member, told ENS she couldn’t say exactly how much the renovations cost, because so much of it was given by donors or by people who provided their services without charge. She did note that 30 years ago, an architect had estimated the cost of needed renovation to be about $400,000, or nearly $900,000 in today’s dollars.

This 1930 photo shows Christ Church atop a hill, with terraced steps leading to it. The area originally was known as Maryland Settlement (for the many people who moved to the area in the 19th century), but was renamed Church Hill because of the prominence of Christ Church. Photo: Courtesy of Christ Church

Wells said she kept tabs on the renovation work after her first visit. “It has been exciting for me to see the love, the care, the concern, the faithfulness that have accompanied this entire restoration process,” she said. “They’ve really not left any stones unturned.”

Recent donations have provided outdoor lighting, and an organ was donated by a new family who attends the church. “Our organist is in heaven,” Smith said.

A 19th-century church in the Deep South can’t escape the issue of slavery, Wells said, but church records show that the diocese’s first bishop, William Mercer Green, baptized several Black children, including children of enslaved people, at Christ Church. Most of the people in the Church Hill community today are Black, she noted.

Taylor said he had to reckon with the fact that the doctor whose 1836 home he purchased had owned slaves. While the property covers 100 acres, he said the enslaved people served the needs of the house – a large, three-story Greek Revival building – not in its fields.

Like most people in the region, the doctor likely “dabbled in some cotton,” he said, which was the region’s primary crop and the country’s top export from 1817 to 1860. Across Mississippi, producers relied heavily on slave labor to grow and harvest it. The growth of large cotton plantations helped increase the number of enslaved people from 53% of the county’s population in 1820 to 80% in 1860.

While Taylor turned the property’s free-standing doctor’s office and summer kitchen into guest cottages, he restored the cabins where the enslaved people lived to their original condition. He planted a tree and placed a marker near them because, he said, “I thought it would be quite inappropriate to do anything other than to save them for history.”

The Rev. Samuel Godfrey serves Christ Church part-time, driving the 110-mile round-trip from his home in Vicksburg, where he is the priest at Christ Church there. He grew up visiting Church Hill, he told ENS, and his fourth-great-grandfather gave the land that Christ Church sits on.

The renovations and the energy they brought have helped members realize they didn’t want the beautiful building “to just be a museum, but to be a church, and to grow and be active,” he said.

Church attendance now is close to 30 people at services at 3 p.m. Eastern on the second and fourth Sunday of each month, he said, and some have asked if they could have it more often.

By definition of diocesan canons, the church is considered a mission station, but with its growth, members hope to apply to be a mission, which requires 25 members and would allow them to send delegates to the diocese’s annual Council.

Smith said the next stage of renovations is taking place in the cemetery adjacent to the church, which has been neglected for decades and damaged by fallen tree limbs. A designated church fund is helping pay for the repairs, with a local company clearing away debris and cleaning and repairing headstones. They have finished about 75% of the work, she said.

Mississippi Bishop Dorothy Wells presided at a rededication of Christ Church on Dec. 20, 2025, to mark completion of the building’s extensive renovations. Photo: Facebook

The cemetery holds a special place in Godfrey’s heart because many of his ancestors are buried there. Because the altar is against the wall, he can see their burial places every time he celebrates the Eucharist, looking through the stained-glass window above the altar.

To honor the renovations, Wells presided at a rededication service on Dec. 20, 2025, and a concert on Jan. 11 highlighted the new organ.

When asked about the importance of helping historic churches like the one in Church Hill not only survive but thrive, Wells said their presence helps tell the story of who we are as Episcopalians.

“This is our history,” she said, “and we don’t want that history lost,” even when it includes hard or troubling moments, like slavery. “It’s really important to me that our churches that bear witness to who we have always been through these years not be lost.”

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.