by Melanie P. Moore
Last month, the Rev. Elizabeth Graham became the first female rector in the history of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Pascagoula, MS, and she was installed by the Rev. Dorothy Sanders Wells, the first woman and first Black person to be elected Bishop of the Diocese of Mississippi (elected Feb. 3, 2024). A graduate of the Iona Collaborative, Graham’s installation was the day after the parish hosted a screening of The Philadelphia Eleven, a film about the first women to be ordained priests in the Episcopal Church 50 years ago.
“I never expected to be here,” Graham said. “I was going to be a Bi-Vocational, non-stipendiary priest.” She had served as a part-time Interim Rector at St. John’s about a year ago and then was hired to manage the chaplain program at Singing River Hospital System which had three hospitals in the area.
“We lived in Meridian and had no intentions of moving down here to the coast,” she said. But after serving as Interim Rector, the people of St. John’s invited her to come on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to celebrate in 2023.
“I had not intended to put my name in for consideration to be the rector, but I loved the people here so much and I really missed them when I was at the hospital,” she said. “But I never expected them to call me. I knew they loved me but I’m not young and there’s a large group of children and young adults.”
After a two-month interview process, during which two other parishes approached her about coming to serve their parishes, Graham got a phone call from St. John’s.
“When they called and made the offer, I said, ‘I accept.’ They said, ‘I thought you might want to pray about it.’” She responded, “I’ve prayed and prayed about it!”
“It was very humbling. I never expected it. And then when they called me, it was hard to believe. I was so excited but also humbled. It’s a huge deal to me. It’s such a wonderful parish.
Graham started as rector in May and said the learning curve wasn’t as steep as it might have been because she already knew the Sr. and Jr. Wardens.
“It’s definitely a Holy Spirit thing,” she said. “My first Sunday here was Pentecost Sunday. It was perfect. That’s how I start my sermons, ‘Come, Holy Spirit, Come.’”
Graham credits the Iona Collaborative. “I am grateful for Iona,” she said. “If it were not for the Collaborative, I would not be here. It was not practical for me to go to residential seminary when my window of being able to serve is not as long as a 30-year-old’s. It would be difficult to justify that cost.
“When I started the process, I didn’t know anything about the Collaborative. I just knew I had a call, and I followed it. I love the classes that are offered. I took Preaching the Epistles of Paul with Jane Patterson and am taking another this fall.” Before going to St. John’s she said she took Leyla King’s class First Time in Charge “…and then promptly wasn’t in charge, but I enjoyed it. Now I’m in charge. I’ve had a lot of practice being in charge, just not at a church.
Her husband retired from the Air Force and worked as a Civil Servant “so I could go do my thing,” she said. “Now he plays golf, takes care of the house, cooks, does laundry. It’s absolutely a partnership. He’s encouraged me all along the way. He’s very proud.”
What is her vision for the parish?
“Not my vision, but their vision,” Graham said. “How do we want to reach out to people and bring the love of God to this community? If necessary use words, but how do we show it?
“This church has a history of doing outreach in lasting ways,” she said. “There’s a medical mission to Honduras that started at St. John’s in 1982 with two Sunday School members and that mission continues. It’s been going for 40 years. That’s the kind of mission-minded people you have here.”
Prior to enrolling in Iona, Graham taught school for nearly 30 years. She has three children and nine grandchildren. “And for 62 years I have been a St. Louis Cardinals baseball fan,” she said. “Those are my claims to fame.”
Of her historic role at St. John’s, she said, “The irony of the whole thing to me is that I grew up Episcopalian in Northern Louisiana and couldn’t even be an acolyte. And here I am the rector of a church. It still blows my mind sometimes.”
See more moments from this historic day on the Iona Collaborative Facebook Page.
