St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church

St. John's the Evangelist Catholic Parish is an old parish in the center of downtown Gulfport Mississippi. It has many established parishioners that have been part of the parish since its foundation. They are loyal, dedicated and love their parish.  When destroyed by hurricanes they have got together and rebuilt both structurally and spiritually and have been staunch supporters of their parish through thick and thin. Being a downtown parish, we are blessed to have many people from other cultures and nationalities, Anglo, African American, Philippine, Vietnamese as well as from other Asian, African and European cultures. We also have a growing Hispanic population who bring great joy and life to our parish from many parts of Central and South American. 

We worship as one family our many different cultures and races, expressing the all-embracive love of God. We delight in our unity while respecting the many different expressions that invites us to come out of ourselves to the encounter of the graces and blessings of another culture. One Heart, many faces. 

We have many ministries and over a year ago we continue to evangelize and reach out to the unchurched through our 'discipleship quad's ministry' that continues to be a huge blessing to our parish. 

Our church is a warm, welcoming community where everyone is welcome and immediately feels at home and in family. 

We have a second priest who has just joined Fr. Mike, and we would like to continue to support a second priest for our parish. Therein is the challenge, as our parish does not have the financial resources to support a second priest full-time. We are appealing to you to support us according to your capacity. Financially we would need approximately $45,000 yearly to have another priest to support our growing ministries and accompany our many lay ministries. 

We are a missionary parish and small in comparison to the big parishes around us, nevertheless we believe our multicultural international family is a powerful testimony and statement to the division and turmoil in today's society. We live and share as one, celebrating our differences as an invitation to discover the many faces of God who doesn't discriminate, rather who empowers us through one-another.