New London — The Rev. Michel Belt is the sixth priest to serve as rector of St. James Episcopal Church since Otelia Locke started worshipping there in 1954.

"He's a wonderful man, a good man," said Locke, rattling off the names of the priests who have been at St. James over the past 60 years and adding, "I've been through them all and he's at the top of my list."

In fact, the 94-year-old Locke said she's so taken with Father Belt that she's asked him to "come to Arlington to commit my body to the earth" when she dies.

"I just think he's the most fantastic thing that's ever happened to St. James, and I regret him leaving because I have a feeling we won't get another one like him," said the retired nurse, who worked at the former Uncas on Thames Hospital.

Father Belt, who started at St. James on Feb. 1, 2002, will officiate at his last service there at 9 a.m. Aug. 30, then retire to New Jersey.

His tenure in New London is notably marked by his role in establishing the city's "temporary" homeless shelter in the parish hall at St. James in January 2006. The 50-bed shelter would remain at the church until 2013, when a permanent shelter opened on State Pier Road. Initially the church mission to protect the homeless in winter weather didn't garner much attention, but over time it became a matter of controversy as city leaders and business owners fought to try to close it.

The shelter was not only a maelstrom in the city, but within the St. James parish as well.

Parishioners supported the shelter when it first opened after the city stopped funding its welfare department and closed its emergency shelter in 2005, but as the years dragged on and discontent outside the church grew, Belt said there were mumblings from some parishioners, too.

"It did get to the point where it was becoming so big that it was divisive," said Belt. "So I took a really big chance and convened a group of parishioners, some who were very pro-shelter and some who were very opposed, and asked them to study the homeless situation in New London, to see what we were doing, to see if we were doing it right, and to see what the biblical call was."

Back in 2006, the church had responded to the need to open the shelter after a homeless man died in the woods in inclement weather, said Belt.

"Our call, our understanding of who Christ calls us to be, is to care for the less fortunate than the rest of us," he said.

But not every parishioner agreed, as time went on. Following Sunday worship services when parishioners would exit the church and enter the parish hall for fellowship, they would be met by the 50 cots pushed aside and the belongings left behind by homeless who had just departed. One parishioner refused to use the church restroom and others were put off by the smells in the church hall, said Belt.

So he convened his study group, gave them their charge, and waited.

"What he did was really quite remarkable," said the Rev. Catherine Zall, executive director of the Homeless Hospitality Center and pastor of the First Congregational Church of New London, of the study group that Belt created.

As Belt explains it, the group spent two months studying the issue and " ... pulled together statistics and wrote a report for the parish, and all of them, even the two anti-shelter people, at the end converted and believed that we should do this, that it was our call, that we had the space, time and energy, and that was what God called us to do." 

"It was such a remarkable kind of gentle, effective leadership," said Zall. "A lot of hearts changed in that process."

Locke recalled the brouhaha over the shelter.

"He won, because the majority agreed with him," she said, adding, "I was for it. I know that I wouldn't want to be out there in the cold, or want my child out there."

The decision of St. James to continue to host and support the shelter as a mission allowed "breathing room" for the Homeless Hospitality Center to obtain the financing and approvals to open the permanent shelter at the former Sts. Peter and Paul Polish National Catholic Church on State Pier Road in 2013.

What Belt and his parishioners did for the homeless was "invaluable," said Zall, but added that he has been engaged in many other New London activities, too.

He's a past president and active member of New London Rotary, on the board of the Covenant Shelter, a corporator at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and on its investment committee, secretary of the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut, chaplain of the New London Police Department, and active in the governing body of the state's Episcopal churches.

"Anytime volunteers are needed, he is there," said fellow Rotarian Anna Lathrop, owner of the North Stonington-based Gourmet Galley. "The Rotary motto is 'Service above Self,' and he embodies that. He is always thinking of other people before himself.  

"And while I know he is very, very busy, he never appeared busy to me," she said. "That is an art."

Fellow Rotarian Meredith Diette, an attorney with Siegel, O'Connor, O'Donnell & Beck, said Belt handles the monthly meal at the city's Community Meal Center hosted by Rotary, and makes it look easy.

"He's a very dear friend, and I will miss him terribly," she said. "Any time you walk into Rotary he's just there, and he has a smile for you. It's going to be a big hole to fill his shoes."

Belt, 66, who was born and raised in Wichita, Kan., came to the priesthood later in life, after a series of different careers that ended with a long stint with the telephone company. He was 45 when he entered the seminary and first thought he would serve as a hospital chaplain. But it turned out he enjoyed working in a parish, and served his first assignment in Parsippany, N.J. (He had moved from Kansas to Florida to New Jersey before going to the seminary to earn a master of divinity degree and being ordained.) 

In 2002, he took the job in New London, where he has been since.

Belt arrived just months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and decided the church, downtown at Federal and Huntington streets, should serve as a sanctuary.

"Clearly, people were still hurting," he recalled, explaining that the doors of St. James have been open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays to Fridays ever since, to provide a place for people to come, sit, pray or just relax.

After the recent mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., someone suggested that local churches here open their doors, and another clergyperson noted that St. James has been doing it for years.  

St. James, with 300 members and about 120 regular attendees at Sunday services, dates to 1725. The current brownstone edifice was consecrated in 1850 and is the third home in the city for the parish. The first St. James was lost when Benedict Arnold burned New London in 1781, and the second, located near where the Salvation Army now stands, was vacated when it became too small. The current church has six stained glass windows designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Belt has developed a deep affection for New London but wonders why it can't achieve more successes.

"I think, like most people from outside New London think, that it is an incredible, vibrant, wonderful little city that constantly shoots itself in the foot," he said. "And I'm not sure why."

But with aging parents who require more care, Belt said, this is the right time for him to retire. He will miss the city, he said, and the people he has met here, and of course his parishioners.

"I just love to be with people, and as a pastor, a priest, I've had the privilege to be with people from birth to the end of their lives. I've shared the whole gamut of life experiences," he said.

Funeral director Reid Burdick, who first invited Belt to join Rotary and whose family attends St. James, had high praise for the rector.

"I'm not sure if there is a rating system for clergy," he said. "But coming into that church on the corner, for someone coming from outside, he did an incredibly good job of diving into New London, and I'd give him a high score."

a.baldelli@theday.com

Twitter: @annbaldelli