President Scott N. Conlin stood at the pulpit of the small uptown chapel Dec. 6. The president of the New Orleans Louisiana Stake informed attendees that effective immediately, the New Orleans 1st Branch would become the New Orleans 1st Ward.
The chapel's pews couldn't seat all the members in attendance; some listened to an audio feed in the Relief Society room. All told, 126 members raised their right hands to sustain branch president Terry Seamons as their new bishop.
In January 2006, President Conlin had presided over a very different scene in the same chapel. More than four months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, he dissolved two wards and a branch and combined the remnants of the three units into the New Orleans 1st Branch.
He estimates 15-20 people attended Church services that day.
New Orleans will never fully regain all that it lost to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Category 5 storm slammed into southeastern Louisiana on Aug. 28, leaving a wide swath of destruction in its wake totaling nearly $1 billion.
Katrina destroyed two LDS meetinghouses, and not a single Church meeting was held in New Orleans during the final four months of 2005. When Church services resumed in January 2006, three units — New Orleans 1st Ward, Chalmette Ward and Uptown Branch — were combined to form the New Orleans 1st Branch.
If you listen to Church leaders in New Orleans, they'll tell you the Crescent City is beginning to look and feel more and more like its former, pre-Katrina self. The New Orleans 1st Ward, newly reformed after nearly four years of nonexistence, is a microcosm for how the indefatigable people of New Orleans are reviving their city.
By the time Bishop Seamons was called as branch president in 2007, the average meeting attendance had risen to about 45. That number continued growing, thanks to selfless service and fellowshipping efforts.
"When I first became branch president, we talked a lot in the meetings about what a Zion society was like and what it would take for us to move toward that," Bishop Seamons said. "People took it upon themselves to look beyond their own immediate situation. As people would move in and they would observe their friends and neighbors [serving others], they would jump into that same effort."
As graduate students and professionals returned to live in the city again, they, too, augmented the branch's growing momentum.
"We have a lot of returned missionaries who have a spontaneous willingness to reach out when they see someone new in the ward, reach out in many cases to help them with language issues," Bishop Seasons said. "They've taken it upon themselves to go out and fellowship and bring these people in. It's just been amazing."
Finally, by late 2009, the time had arrived for the branch to become a ward again.
"With the recovery of the city and the recovery of the branch," President Conlin said, "it grew and grew and finally had sufficient priesthood leadership and membership that we were able to make the recommendation to the Brethren to reestablish a ward there. We made that recommendation and it was approved.
"We were glad to be there, three years and 11 months [after dissolving the ward], to reorganize the ward. It was a real joy and a pleasure to be able to do that."
The two New Orleans LDS buildings destroyed by Katrina were full-sized meetinghouses; the one that survived is smaller and built for a branch. Housed in this smaller meetinghouse, the New Orleans 1st Ward feels like it's bursting at the seams.
"The meetinghouse is really insufficient for the ward that we have now," President Conlin said. "It has some challenges because the land in that area is such that it would be very difficult to expand that building. We anticipate continued growth, and one of the things we're looking forward to is figuring out solutions to those challenges."
Fully incorporating the former members of the Chalmette Ward into the New Orleans 1st Ward remains an ongoing area of concern even now, more than four years after the three-unit consolidation of January 2006.
The Chalmette Ward, located on the eastern edge of New Orleans, was part of the Slidell Louisiana Stake. But it was annexed into the New Orleans Louisiana Stake in January 2006 because, in the words of President Conlin, it "was so much more in line geographically with New Orleans and the recovery in New Orleans."
By becoming part of the New Orleans 1st Branch in 2006, the members of the Chalmette Ward also changed stakes.
"The people out there [in the former Chalmette Ward], while it's only maybe 30 minutes from our building, had developed a sense of closeness out there which was separate and distinct," Bishop Seamons said. "It's been difficult for them … some of the ones that are still very active, they adapted very nicely. But we've had some that have just gone inactive."
When the New Orleans 1st Ward recently acquired its third set of full-time missionaries, they were assigned to work in the Chalmette area. Bishop Seamons conveys optimism when speaking about those increased missionary efforts in Chalmette and prognosticates that Chalmette could well have its own Church unit again.
Members without vehicles in the New Orleans 1st Ward often need a ride in order to simply attend their Sabbath meetings.
"Getting people to and from Church becomes a real effort because so many of these folks don't have transportation," Bishop Seamons said. "We have a lot of the members who will bring other families to Church. Or the missionaries will say, 'Can you go pick up so-and-so?' and we'll send somebody out to do that. We're dealing with it, but it represents a real challenge to keep it orchestrated."
Bishop Seamons can't help but forecast continued progress and growth for his new ward.
After all, each ward member is part of the resilient citizenry of New Orleans.
"You have the normal sadness over the loss of what they had and of people moving away, but there's a real sense of survivorship," he said. "The people banded together. People will remember Katrina, but they won't ruminate over it: 'It happened and we suffered, but we're in good shape.' There's not a 'poor me' feeling; there is a never-say-die belief in what goes on here."
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