Spreading the Word
One hundred and thirty-five years of existence. Four major expansions of the property. Seven permanent rectors, each of whom helped to expand the parish in terms of spirituality, theological understanding, liturgy, pastoral care, infrastructure, and financial resources.
During its history, Saint Mary’s Episcopal Church has exerted significant influence on the Episcopalian faithful and the entire Cape Cod community. It has offered services every weekend for 95 years. It has helped to increase Cape Codders’ access to God’s word by planting new churches on our beautiful peninsula. And over the years, its influence has spread beyond its own faithful. St. Mary’s has stimulated communal efforts as diverse as a summer camp program for children of incarcerated parents; Covid vaccination clinics; July 4th parade entries; and annual recognition of military veterans.
In the Beginning
Our story started in 1866, when two priests from New York City and New Bedford, Massachusetts, visited Cape Cod to inaugurate Episcopalian services. They started in an old Puritan church in Barnstable. About 25 congregants who were “familiar with the service” attended. Services continued in the following summers in local buildings near our present location; they included an old courthouse that had become a Baptist church. Laymen or vacationing clergy – Cape Cod was a tourist resort even then – led the worship.
By 1888, the congregation had gathered enough money, through “fairs, sales, and entertainments” organized by a group of local women, to build its own church. The site: land donated in memory of Mary Kearney Cobb. Hence St. Mary’s – although, of course, we worship the Mother of God as our matronal Saint. (The Cobb family might have provided land less vulnerable to flooding, but we’ve largely managed to deal with that issue.)
Boston architect William Ralph Emerson, a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, designed the church at a cost of about $3,000. A local newspaper described it as “a pleasing wooden structure in the early rural English style.” Its first services took place in July, 1891. But because both Bishops of Massachusetts had recently died, the church was not consecrated until August, 1893. The Bishop of West Texas, another vacationer, performed the service.
First Rector, First Light
During the next three decades, St. Mary’s transitioned from a summer chapel to a year-round church. The roughly 20 members received communion from visiting clergymen. Then in 1928 the congregation called its first rector. The Reverend Sumner J. Brown increased the size of the congregation immediately and significantly, bringing with him his wife and four daughters. To facilitate his tasks of visiting scattered members and evangelizing Cape Cod, he received an automobile. The same year saw the arrival of another miracle of technology. Electricity installed in the church enabled the first evening services.
The Reverend Brown and the mechanical improvements obviously worked well. Within three years of his arrival the congregation boasted 48 communicants. The parish also had an annual budget of $5,000. But it plainly lacked space to accommodate the increasing membership. Between 1937 and 1939, the church expanded to accommodate 120 worshippers. The additional space, based on plans by a local architect, also included a sacristy and a small study for the rector. The Reverend Brown occupied it until he left in 1944.
Change Agent
Two years later, the parish’s growing membership welcomed an authentic change agent as its second permanent rector. During his 14 years of service, the Reverend Robert Wood Nicholson changed St. Mary’s inside and out. He started in 1948, overseeing construction of a parish hall next to the church. Seven years later, he supervised a second expansion of the church itself. That helped to accommodate a membership that had grown in concert with Cape Cod’s postwar population boom.
As numbers continued to increase, the parish helped to establish Episcopal churches elsewhere on the Cape – in the nearby village of Osterville and the next door town of Yarmouth. However, Father Nicholson’s most lasting contributions stem from the gardens that he established. By 1958 the gardens had become impressive enough to win a gold medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Today, the gardens are a must-see attraction on any horticultural tour of Cape Cod.
Father Nicholson made one more continuing contribution to St. Mary’s. During frequent summer travels to Europe, he brought back artifacts to grace the church. Overall, according to a history of St. Mary’s, he “had a love of earth and nature and an innate ability to create things of beauty in the church edifice as well as the surroundings.” He died in 1960, mourned by the congregation. During his rectorship, as one account put it, “the parish grew in size and beauty.” We might hope for a similar comment about any rector.
Decades of Growth
The two permanent rectors who succeeded Father Nicholson continued to grow St. Mary’s numbers and facilities. In the mid-1960s, the Reverend Paul Martin oversaw construction of church school classrooms next to the church. He also championed the purchase of the rectory in a lot next to the church campus. Over the years, that building has housed rectors’ and associate rectors’ families. St. Mary’s currently leases it to a nonprofit organization; the lease ends by late January of 2024. Reverend Martin’s successor, the Reverend George Cobbett, established a Memorial Garden – a haven of peace that now contains the remains of more than 100 parishioners and family members. He also led the parish’s transition to the occasionally controversial 1979 Book of Common Prayer.
A long and successful period of leadership followed. The Reverend David Allen served as rector from 1979 to 2001, overseeing continued growth in numbers, activities, and facilities. The needs of the parish demanded the attention of more than a single rector. At various times, associate rectors and retired priests undertook sacramental and pastoral duties. That approach remains to this day. The congregation’s cadre of retired clergy currently includes Episcopal priests and Lutheran pastors who preside over the Eucharist.
A significant improvement to the church’s infrastructure occurred in 1986: Installation of the Wilhelm pipe organ, an instrument with 23 ranks of pipes. Housing it required expanding the sanctuary and placing it behind the altar. Some parishioners complained that they were now worshipping the organ rather than the Almighty. Suspension of a Celtic cross above the altar solved the problem.
Father Allen’s rectorship created fresh opportunities for formation. A group that met on Thursday mornings for communion and book discussion remains today. So do forums that follow the main Sunday service. Eventually the weekend’s service offerings focused solely on the Holy Eucharist, at the expense of Morning Prayer. Having had to stay away from St. Mary’s temporarily during the rectorship of his successor, The Reverend Steve Smith, Father Allen and his wife Ruthanne remain active members of the congregation. So do former associate rector Charles Morris and his wife Wilma.
Troubled Transition
Research suggests that a rapid transition from a long-serving rector to a successor can bode ill for the successor’s rectorship. St. Mary’s unintentionally avoided that issue. The search process that began in 2001 took three full years. During that time, the parish faced two complications that could have undermined a less loyal community.
The first issue involved interim rectors. Initially, the Reverend Tuck Bowerfind, who had served as Associate Rector starting in the late 1990s, took on the role. But he left within a year for his own rectorship in Virginia. The remainder of the transition time saw service by four other interims – hardly the most stable situation for any congregation.
The second difficulty stemmed from a major controversy in the national church. In 2003, the Diocese of New Hampshire called Gene Robinson, its Canon to the Ordinary, to serve as Bishop Coadjutor. He became Bishop Diocesan the following year. Some Episcopalians regarded the idea that a man in a non-celibate relationship with his male partner could serve a flock as unbiblical. A number left the Episcopal Church for newly-created parishes of the Anglican Church of North America. St. Mary’s wasn’t immune to the effect. But only a few families left St. Mary’s to join local ACNA churches. Those who remained included several of more conservative theological bent. That factor illustrated the basic unity of our parish – unity that has allowed it to continue to flourish.
Arriving in 2004, new rector The Reverend Steve Smith set out to emphasize St. Mary’s inclusiveness. The congregation soon became more welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community, and thereby increased the congregation’s numbers. Reflecting increasing concern about climate change, Reverend Smith also emphasized the importance of conserving natural resources. That message played out inside the church, as well as the rest of the campus. On the first Saturday of each month, the 5 p.m. service featured a Celtic Eucharist. New stained-glass windows, featuring Cape Cod themes and donated in memory of past parishioners and present parishioners’ families, were mounted in the nave and Lady Chapel. And monthly Joy Masses encouraged young people to tap into the joys of God’s kingdom.
Multiple Ministries
The period following Reverend Steve Smith’s departure in 2011 proved much calmer than that before his arrival. Interim specialist the Reverend Bill Eddy guided St. Mary’s through the transition with a steady hand. Then, in September 2012, the parish welcomed its first female permanent rector. The Reverend Dr. Libby Gibson had served as a hospital chaplain and, most recently, Associate Rector of a church in Virginia. Like Father Nicholson in 1946, she had a huge impact on St. Mary’s and its people.
Libby captivated the congregation immediately with her inspiring sermons. Her stories seamlessly connected the lectionary’s readings to events and challenges of everyday life in the 21st century. Throughout, she emphasized the practical nature of Christian love.
Libby’s impact on the parish continued beyond the pulpit. She oversaw a literal renovation of the church and sections of its campus, and a figurative renovation of its relationship with its members during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. She encouraged the development of fresh pastoral services. And she trusted members to create and carry out new tasks and ministries with minimal supervision.
A strong example of Libby’s ministry is the founding of Amazing Grace. This ministry provides a summer camp for children of incarcerated parents. A related program, called Financial Assistance in Re-entry on Cape Cod (FAIR), started in 2022. It offers small loans to help recently incarcerated individuals deal with the financial challenges of returning to their communities. St. Mary’s has also developed a connection with Big Nick’s Ride for the Fallen. This annual procession of bikers honors local resident U.S. Marine Nicholas Xiarhos, who died in the Afghanistan war. As the hundreds of motorcycle riders pass the church on a mid-July Sunday morning, our clergy sprinkle them with Holy Water and our members applaud them.
Internally, Libby oversaw the start of a grief group for members who had suffered loss and had a need for a bereavement ministry. And liturgically, she expanded the congregation’s experiences of worship. Two of the weekend’s services – at 5 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. on Sundays – used the Prayer Book’s Rite II Holy Eucharist while the 8 a.m. service offered the Rite I Eucharist. During certain seasons, though, Libby offered Rite I for all services. She also introduced a meditative Taizé Eucharist on the first Saturday of every month at 5 p.m.
Restoration and Renovation
A more expansive change – liturgical and physical – occurred late in the last decade. After a few years of prayerful consideration, the parish agreed to renovate the campus. Completed in 2019 by a local construction company, the process placed an extra aisle in the church; expanded the church hall; added a robing room and library to the property; and installed an elevator linking the church with ground level. The process made access to the church significantly easier. (During the renovation, our congregation went back to our roots. We worshipped temporarily across the street in the “Olde Colonial Courthouse” where, before building our church, we had shared space with a Baptist congregation.)
An entirely different transformation came in March, 2020, when the state of Massachusetts closed down many activities in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Libby, the staff, and chosen parishioners quickly learned to implement Zoom and other means of remote communication to serve a widely spread community prevented from in-person attendance in church. Communication within the congregation continued with occasional outdoor services on the campus and in members’ gardens. Even as the church reopened, strict precautions surrounding contact and mask-wearing continued. Remote access to Sunday’s 10 a.m. Holy Eucharist remains to this day. It will continue to do so, to include parishioners unable to attend in person. Thanks to Libby’s leadership, the Covid-19 crisis did not cause a noticeable reduction in the parish’s membership numbers.
St. Mary’s began two other significant projects before Libby’s departure. In 2020, responding to concern about racial violence, the parish offered a Sacred Ground course. More than 100 members participated; many regarded it as a life-changing experience. Initial plans for a follow-up ministry await our new rector – who will face the challenge of helping to guide a congregation with varying views on how best to apply Christ’s message to historical and present-day racial justice issues.
In service of a different type, the parish opened Angels’ Treasures. This is an upmarket thrift store that sells a wide selection of treasured items. Its significant receipts supplement the church’s outreach and its general budget.
Libby left St. Mary’s in July, 2022. For three months, Lutheran Pastor Russ Norris, who had served as Libby’s Associate, took on the role of Bridge priest. In September, 2022, Father Scott Bellows, a former rector of two parishes in Maryland, arrived as interim rector. Assisted by Pastor Russ, he has guided the community effortlessly through its period of transition. His technical wizardry has increased post-Covid opportunities to communicate effectively with parishioners. And he has exposed the congregation to the variety of liturgy in our Prayer Book. In doing so, he gives us the breadth of understanding we need as we prepare to greet our next permanent rector.
Beloved Leaders
During the 95 years since calling Sumner Brown, St. Mary’s has joyfully responded to its permanent rectors. All have spent long periods in their roles. Our shortest permanent rectorship lasted seven years; that’s above the current average for the Episcopal church. Each rector, in his or her own way, made a significant difference. All offered more than spiritual leadership; they made it possible to expand the property, refine the worship, and promote pastoral activities for internal and external communities. Some brought to the parish insights that they had gained growing up with non-Episcopal faith backgrounds. Others encouraged parishioners to translate their own faith journeys into fresh ministries. The result has been a continuing vibrant church community whose initial respect for its incoming rectors has inevitably blossomed into great love.