Presbyterian pastor comes home to childhood church

• By RELMA HARGUS
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jun 14, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Contrary to Thomas Wolfe, you can go home again — just ask the Rev. F. James Stayton.

A church that once embraced his family following his father’s untimely death is the church Stayton now serves as pastor.

The First Presbyterian Church of Hammond is also the church for which his father, the Rev. Conrad Lawrence Stayton, was once pastor and in which the son spent his childhood.

His father’s massive coronary “a little over two years” after he came to the Hammond congregation shocked the community and left his mother with three young boys to raise alone.

But, Stayton said, the family never felt abandoned.

“There was a great outpouring of love for the family from the church and the whole community,” he said.

“(Hammond) was a small community in those days and they showed their concern and love in many ways.”

With the support and encouragement of church and community, his mother updated her teacher’s certification so she could teach in Louisiana and support the family.

One member of the congregation bought a home for the family, Stayton said.

His mother’s teaching salary allowed her to pay the home owner rent and for them to live more comfortably, he said.

“They continually worked for our best interest,” Stayton said, which is what good fathers do, he added.

Such love makes it possible to see and love God, he said.

“The Christian faith is always a personal faith. It’s a heritage; it’s always passed down.