Our History

The Episcopal Church has been a presence in Meridian, Mississippi, since the 1850s. The original Church of the Mediator, established in 1858, was the sole Episcopal church until 1902, when the “St. Paul’s” mission was established. The two parishes served the community until 1911, when the Mediator’s long-time rector, the Reverend Waddell, retired. At that time, the Mediator liquidated its assets, and many in the congregation transferred memberships to St. Paul’s. Thus, St. Paul’s operated as the only Episcopal church in Meridian until the late 1940s, when the Diocese of Mississippi authorized the establishment of a mission. 

 The mission, which met in an Army Air Force Chapel at the local airfield, was named “Church of the Mediator” in honor of the original church. It remained in that location from 1949 until 1952, when- following the acquisition of a three-acre wooded lot in a residential neighborhood and the purchase and donation of the Chapel by a parishioner at St. Paul’s-the building was moved to the site of the present church. The history of the Mediator is full of stories of the support received from St. Paul’s parishioners and others who donated furnishings and appointments and supported needed renovations.

On April 3,1961 (Easter Monday), the new church building-a simple A-frame structure with English Tudor accents- was dedicated by the Right Reverend Duncan M. Gray, Sr. The building had been designed by the rector, the Reverend Howard B. Kishpaugh. The architect, Durwood May, and the contractor, Bobby Culpepper, were parishioners. The interior of the church is a mid-century design with modern furnishings and frosted mullioned lead-glass windows. The focal points of the interior are the free-standing altar and the Christus Rex. The choir loft and the baptismal font are located at the end of the nave nearest the narthex. The seating capacity is three hundred.

The sacristy, which adjoins the nave, connects to a chapel that seats thirty-five. The second floor has two offices, one of which was used during the Covid-19 pandemic as a studio to allow online worship services via Facebook.

 The campus has evolved since the 1960s. When the present church building was completed in 1961, the old building continued to serve as a Parish Hall until a new one was built in 1988. A fire in 1968 seriously damaged the Chapel, necessitating extensive repairs. An Education Building was completed in 1979. In 1998 a walled memorial garden was built to include both a columbarium and a permanent labyrinth. The garden provides an outdoor space for worship services (well-used during the pandemic), a private space for contemplation and meditation, and a place of interment or scattering of ashes. In 2015, campus improvements included renovation of the choir loft, addition of a second parking lot, and addition of another entrance to the Parish Hall.

 A parishioner who lived next door to the church bequeathed her home to the Mediator and later, the church bought an adjacent house to complete the footprint of the property. One of the houses served as the administrative office until 2023, when the office was moved to the Education Building and the house was razed. The other house is now used for storage. 

 Unique the campus are the two barbecue pits with covered fire-pit, used annually during the Mediator’s most important fund-raising, fellowship, and community-building event-a barbecue that began fifty years ago and that feeds the community, builds fellowship, and represents an integral part of the Mediator’s identity as a church that (in the words of a former rector), “goes out into the world in unconventional ways.”

 Information in this document was assembled from the history of the Church of the Mediator, written in the 1980s by Bob Harrison, a long-time parishioner, and from other materials from the parish archives.