NATCHEZ — The Rev. Joan Gandy said she did not expect the call when it came.

Having left Natchez more than 10 years ago to attend seminary in Atlanta, Gandy said she had occasional thoughts about a possible return to her home church but knew such opportunities were rare and extraordinary.

Sunday afternoon, the First Presbyterian Church will install Gandy as its next minister, a homecoming that is both special and exciting.

“It is breathtaking to come back to the church and is extraordinary that it happened,” Gandy said.

The public is invited to take part in the installation service at 3:30 p.m. at the church. A reception will follow.

The decision to call Gandy by the church’s pastor search committee was equally fascinating and unexpected, committee chairman Marc Doyle said.

“We had been interviewing and accepting applications for a year,” Doyle said. “We had considered over 100 applicants for the job.”

Halfway through the search process, several members of the church suggested calling Gandy to let her know of the church’s search for a permanent pastor.

“She was shocked,” Doyle said.

After seminary, Gandy answered her first call to a pastorate from a small Presbyterian church in Erwin, Tenn., near the North Carolina border. Gandy calls her years with the East Tennessee church a transforming experience.

“Everything I did there helped me to grow as a minister,” Gandy said.

Gandy was happy in Tennessee and had not seriously considered going anywhere else.

“I was not looking for a call,” Gandy said.

Then Gandy received the phone call from the search committee which then led to “much prayer and deep thinking,” she said.

Thrilled by the idea, Gandy said she wanted to make sure she was hearing God’s call and that coming back to the church where she was baptized, where her mother sang in the choir and where she served as an elder, was for the right reasons.

The search committee similarly entered a period of discernment.

“We purposefully paused to be enlightened and guided by the Holy Spirit,” Doyle said.

The more Gandy and the search committee worked through the discernment process the more each became committed to the call.

“The more I talked with the search committee, I knew it was right,” Gandy said.

Doyle agreed.

“It became very clear to the committee that the person who understood the mission and ambitions of the church was Joan,” Doyle said. “There is no question that we on the committee felt called to her to entrust the next chapter in the history of the church.”

While Gandy will not be officially installed until Sunday, she has been busy since she returned to Natchez six days ago. Since then she has started settling in, handling the day-to-day business of the church.

“The people in the church have said, ‘Take your time, settle in, we have lots to do.”

As for her goals for her new ministry and her new church, Gandy said that would come with time and prayer.

“Together we will figure out what that will be,” Gandy said. “We will start in prayer.”

Much of that prayer will be together, and in groups, she said.

“We will establish small prayer groups, intentionally praying for the direction of the church,” Gandy said. “It is my vision that we can be that light on the hill where this church stands and find ways that will foster reconciliation and togetherness in the community.”

Gandy said she is grateful to the Rev. Noel Reed and the Rev. Denny Reed for their ministry to the church.

“They were beloved and did wonderful work,” Gandy said.

Completing her first week in the church, Gandy said she is excited about the future and wants to hold onto the enthusiasm that she has already experienced from the many people who have wished her well.

“It is a special thing when a new pastor comes into a church,” Doyle said. “A time when there may be anxiety.”

“In this particular case, there isn’t any of that. It is one of those rare situations where there is a great sense of calm and excitement,” Doyle said.