A new worship space stands southeast of the historic Chapel of the Cross in Madison, behind the woodland and cemetery as seen from Highway 463.
Known as the Chapel of the Resurrection, the $4.4-million structure seats about 360 people and provides much needed room so members of the Episcopal Chapel of the Cross will be able to worship together after COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.
“The Chapel of the Resurrection is three times the size of the Chapel of the Cross,” said the Rev. Ben Robertson, rector at the Chapel of the Cross, 647 Mannsdale Road.
With an interior that features hand-hewn oak beams and floors, tall narrow windows and arched entrances, the Chapel of the Cross accommodates about 100 worshippers, perhaps a few more depending upon how closely together they sit.
“The chapel has been too small ever since it was built,” Robert said. “When Bishop (William Mercer) Green consecrated the chapel in 1852 he wrote in his diary that it’s too bad it’s only able to accommodate half the people who attended.”
As Madison County has grown and subdivisions such as Reunion, Lake Caroline and others have filled, the Chapel of the Cross has grown to a membership of about 900, he said. “We wanted a place where we could all gather,” he said.
Like the Chapel of the Cross, the Chapel of the Resurrection is built of brick, utilizes supports known as buttresses and features tall, narrow windows with an arched point at the top known as lancet windows, but the newer building is not a replication of the older one, he said. “It’s very much its own building,” he said.
Ground was broken for the new building on April 14, 2019, and Probity Contracting Group in Florence is done with construction. Barlow Eddy Jenkins designed the building.
“We are waiting for some of the furnishings to arrive,” Robertson said. “We have some choir chairs being built by The HannaBerry Workshop in Ocean Springs that will arrive in February. The pews will arrive in the middle of February.
“We were given an incredibly gracious gift, a font, by St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. It is in Madison County and we will install it after the pews. Adam Gwin of Adam Gwin Fine Furniture in Natchez has completed the altar and credence tables. He will also build priest chairs, prie dieux and hymn boards.”
A rose window, created by Pearl River Glass Studio in Jackson, is a beautiful addition to the space, Robertson said.
“It’s stunning,” he said. “We’re blessed by how it’s all come together.”
Noack Organ Co. in Georgetown, Massachusetts is building an organ for the new chapel. “I’m hoping it will be done by Christmas, but it may be January 2022,” Robertson said.
The Chapel of the Cross will remain the centerpiece of the campus, be preserved as a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places and be used for services that need do not require the seating of the new chapel, Robertson said. “We’ll definitely use it and preserve it well,” he said.
The Rt. Rev. Brian Seage, bishop of the Episcopal Church in Mississippi, has given permission for the Chapel of the Resurrection to be used before it is formally consecrated but that hasn’t happened on a regular basis yet, Robertson said.
Edith Stater, a member of the Chapel of the Cross for more than 30 years, served on the furnishings and fixtures committee for the new chapel.
“It’s time to rejoice,” she said. “With God’s help plus hours and hours of work from development to construction to completion, all amid the many challenges of 2020 and COVID-19, the result is a beautiful new worship space for our community so it can continue the legacy of the Chapel of the Cross and grow and support current and future generations.”
Stater’s daughter, Elena, holds the distinction of being the first bride to be wed in the Chapel of the Resurrection. Elena Stater and Tommy Skelton married there on Dec. 12.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chapel of the Cross currently offers limited in-person worship on Sundays at 11 a.m. that is also livestreamed via Facebook and the church’s website, Robertson said. Some Sunday school classes meet in person, while others meet virtually.
The Chapel of the Cross is known for its annual Day in the Country, a festival that is more than 40 years old that has raised funds for the maintenance of the building. Robertson is hopeful that a full-fledged Day in the Country will be offered this year.
Because there is a cemetery right outside the Chapel of the Cross, a ministry that is a throwback to another time offers members and friends a unique experience: The opportunity to dig graves in the cemetery. Members of the Gravediggers Guild use shovels instead of modern machinery to create final resting places in the cemetery. “It’s a very earthy, meaningful ministry,” Robertson said.
The legal name of the parish will remain the Chapel of the Cross, and members who attend the church will attend what’s known as the Chapel of the Cross, even while meeting in the Chapel of the Resurrection, he said.
Members of the Chapel of the Cross submitted several names for the new building and members of the vestry selected the Chapel of the Resurrection.
“After this year, the year with the pandemic, an economic downturn and contentious political upheaval, for the vestry to select the name, the Chapel of the Resurrection, is a statement that we are a people of resurrection,” Robertson said. “We are an Easter people. This last year has been quite challenging but all will be well in all manner of things, and this chapel and its beauty is a symbol of that.”
