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St. Mary of the Harbor

    PET PARADE

    Blessed Dogs and Dancing Ones, Too

    People and pets turn out for animals that need adopting

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — The Rev. Brian Raiche made his way through a crowd of some 50 animal lovers and dozens of dogs gathered on the sunny lawn of St. Mary of the Harbor on Sept. 28, bestowing blessings as he went. “These animals bless us with their presence,” said Raiche. “We’re happy to bless them back.”

    Although there were only dogs present, Raiche was quick to point out that all animals were welcome. Some people brought photos of pets that were unsuited for the gathering. Julie DeVita, a Provincetown rescue volunteer, brought photos of her two cats and four turtles. “I do believe in blessings,” DeVita said. “Anytime you can get a blessing in this world, it’s a good thing.”

    The blessings kicked off a day of pet appreciation that included a parade down Commercial Street and a tea dance where animals were welcome at the Boatslip Resort.

    Freya, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, was not rolling the dice at St. Mary of the Harbor on Saturday. She was there to get a blessing. (Photos by James Judd)

    The tea dance and an auction were benefits for the Carrie A. Seaman Animal Shelter (CASAS), a no-kill shelter for adoptable dogs and cats from across the Outer Cape. Board president Sherry Brec greeted dogs and people in a full-body cat costume that looked straight out of the Broadway musical.

    “Of course, we hope to raise money,” said Brec, “but raising awareness is always a top priority.” She was talking about awareness of the need for homes for dogs and cats at CASAS. Her organization wasn’t alone in getting the word out. The Animal Rescue League of Boston was represented by Whitney Tropeano, who said that the league has a branch full of adoptable dogs in Brewster.

    Fred Burke, Tony Fuccillo, and a posse of their friends, all dressed in mariachi outfits, were present to see Levi, a four-year-old Boston terrier, receive his blessing. “Our theme is amigos,” said Burke, adding that he wanted people to know about Northeast Boston Terrier Rescue, where he got Levi. Other Boston terriers at the event included Luna and Juno, rescued by Diane Cullen through the same organization.

    Sherry Brec, president of the board of CASAS, was the only cat in view at the dog-dominated blessing.

    Michael Carter and Scott Wozny, both of New York City, were here for a long post-season weekend and to participate in these events with Milo, a one-and-a-half-year-old golden cavalier. All three were dressed in Captain Marvel Jr. costumes, which Carter noted was the inspiration for Elvis Presley’s sparkling caped stage look.

    Don James, who lives in Provincetown, brought some political awareness to the scene by wearing a vintage ACT UP T-shirt. His dog, Cooper, a 10-year-old chihuahua-Jack Russell mix, sported a Kamala Harris coat. James, who is in need of a kidney, said that for now, “Cooper is my medicine.”

    Deb and Tracey Folley of Provincetown brought a seven-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel making her debut at the event. All three were decked out in pink neon. Although Freya has only one eye, she used it skillfully to wink at the many cameras pointed in her direction.

    As dozens of humans and dogs streamed in for the dance, many stopped to paw at a pair in one of the more eye-catching costumes spotted on Saturday. Andrew Brennan of Provincetown and his two-year-old West Highland terrier, Percy, were both there as scantily clad spiders. Who knew spiders could be underdressed?

    Not to be outshone by anyone, human or canine, Bonnie and Beth Ablew and their spotlight-snatching golden retriever, Neptune, were dressed as squids and sea creatures. Per usual, the citizen paparazzi snapped hundreds of photos of the trio and reassured Neptune countless times that he is indeed a good boy.

    RELIGION

    Finding a Church That’s ‘a Little More Inclusive’

    A former Catholic priest is St. Mary’s new pastor

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Brian Raiche was at the grocery store when he decided to reevaluate his relationship to the Catholic Church. Raiche was the priest at a parish in Averill Park, N.Y. Out shopping, he found himself face to face with a former parishioner who offered him some blunt advice, Raiche says.

    “You’re in the wrong church,” she told him, adding that he seemed more like an Episcopalian than a Catholic. That encounter was in 2003. Raiche had been a priest for eight years, and when it came to disagreements about doctrine, his “primary concern,” he says, was the church’s restriction on leadership roles for women. “I empowered some women to preach, and that was frowned upon,” he says.

    The Rev. Brian Raiche, right, with his husband, Loren Lee, and their dog, Chloe, outside St. Mary of the Harbor. (Photos by Elias Duncan)

    As an openly gay man, Raiche also found the church’s doctrines on sexuality problematic. All Catholic priests, regardless of their sexuality, are required to be celibate. “You couldn’t be married; you couldn’t be partnered,” says Raiche. “That can be pretty lonely.”

    The church’s view of homosexuality is complicated. The catechism of the Catholic Church — a compendium of the church’s teachings meant primarily for bishops and priests — describes gay people as “objectively disordered.” At the same time, it says that those with “this inclination” face challenges, and so, “They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.” Meanwhile, “Homosexual persons are called to chastity,” it concludes. That would seem to make the priesthood an option for gay people, although Pope Francis’s predecessor, Benedict,  reportedly was not on board with that.

    Francis said during a 2013 news conference, “If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge?” The statement, though it seemed remarkable at the time, didn’t result in any change in church law.

    Raiche takes in the view from the parish hall.

    Raiche entered the priesthood at 29 and devoted 10 years to the Catholic Church. “I didn’t leave angry,” he says about his departure. “I just couldn’t represent it anymore.”

    Ironically, his departure from the church led directly to a career supporting it. He moved from upstate New York to Boston to work for Trinity Fundraising Consultants, which advises Catholic churches.

    Raiche worked at Trinity for six years, eventually as senior vice president, before starting his own firm, Cornerstone Fundraising. The work is secular rather than spiritual, Raiche says: “I do that as a consultant, not as a priest.” Episcopal priests can be “bivocational,” according to the church’s Title IV Canons website. They can preach and have other jobs as long as those are approved by the bishop. Catholic priests typically don’t work outside the church.

    Nicholson Hall, the sanctuary at St. Mary of the Harbor.

    Raiche met Loren Lee at a rehearsal for a Tanglewood benefit concert in 2005. Raiche played the piano, and Lee was the guest violinist. Lee was a regular at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Newburyport, and Raiche soon joined him for Sunday services. In 2013, the couple had a “big church wedding” at St. Paul’s.

    The Episcopal Church, Raiche says, “has a lot of what people love about the Catholic Church –– it’s just a little more inclusive.” That’s true for both clergy and congregations: women and LGBTQ people can be ordained, and priests are allowed to marry and have families. Gay parishioners are not asked to be celibate.

    It wasn’t long before the rector at St. Paul’s asked Raiche to preach on weekdays. “Slowly I got back into things,” he says of returning to a pastoral role. In June 2015, Raiche was formally received into the Episcopal Church and a year later he became the rector at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Reading, where he worked until this past July.

    Next to the coat rack, a painting by Jerry Farnsworth of St. Mary’s first full-time vicar, the Rev. Robert Wood Nicholson.

    Raiche and Lee bought a condominium in Provincetown as a “getaway place” and investment property to rent in the summer. During the pandemic, they began spending more time here and attended outdoor masses at St. Mary of the Harbor. Raiche says they found a spiritual home at St. Mary, not to mention friendships: “We met all kinds of different friends during the off-season.”

    Raiche says he wasn’t looking to lead a parish when the St. Mary position opened up. But he says, “When I received a call to serve the parish, my answer was an enthusiastic ‘yes.’ ”

    Raiche became St. Mary’s year-round vicar in September. Now he, Lee, and their dog, Chloe, are getting settled — though with the church’s rectory, where they plan to live, undergoing renovation, and their Provincetown place rented out, the couple are still back and forth to their home in Newburyport.

    AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod used St. Mary’s kitchen this summer for its free lunch program. Raiche looks forward to more community outreach of that kind.

    One challenge for the church, Raiche says, is not peculiar to Provincetown: how to coax people back to Mass. During Covid, he says, “a lot of people just stopped coming.”

    This past summer, St. Mary opened its kitchen to the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod, which prepared meals for its free lunch program there. Raiche is looking forward to more of that kind of community work.

    His main focus is on creating an inclusive refuge for those in search of a “spiritual home,” Raiche says. “People are just looking to belong.”

    HOUSING SOLUTIONS

    A Priest’s Home in Provincetown May House Summer Workers

    St. Mary of the Harbor steps up to address a crisis

    By

    PROVINCETOWN — Amid a massive workforce housing crisis that threatens the survival of local businesses, one idea appears to be Heaven sent.

    The members of the vestry of St. Mary of the Harbor, the Episcopal church at 517 Commercial St., are working out final details with restaurant owners Joachim Sandbichler and Mark Ferrari to house six to eight of their summer J-1 student visa workers in the church’s vacant rectory.

    “We feel very excited about it,” Sandbichler said on May 8. “But it is only a tiny part of the solution.”

    The rectory, an elegant 1880 three-bedroom, two-bathroom home on the waterfront next to the church, is normally reserved for the resident priest, said Mary-Jo Avellar, a member of the church deanery. But when Pastor Terry Pannell retired recently, the vestry found the Rev. Bill Rich, formerly of Trinity Church in Copley Square, Boston, to take Pannell’s position. Rich already had a home in Truro and did not need the waterfront digs, Avellar said.

    Arlene Weston spent the winter scouting real estate for restaurant staff when she found the St. Mary of the Harbor rectory. The vestry and restaurant owners are planning to rent the waterfront home for J-1 student visa workers. (Photo by Nancy Bloom)

    Meanwhile, Arlene Weston, whom Sandbichler and Ferrari hired to scout summer housing for their employees, had been picking through the meager offerings for seasonal workers in a town where the median sales price so far this year is nearly $2 million for a single-family home and $849,000 for a condominium, according to the Cape Cod & Islands Association of Realtors. That is 31 and 41 percent, respectively, over the median sales prices one year ago.

    More than 53 percent of the properties Cape-wide that closed in March went for above the asking price, the association reports.

    Sandbichler and Ferarri own two restaurants, the Patio American Grill & Cocktail Bar and Pepe’s Wharf, and are about to open a third, Freemans, at 333 Commercial St. in the former Café Edwige. They need housing for about 100 employees and have secured enough for 40 of them through “gumshoe work,” Sandbichler said.

    This year, the restaurant owners knew the housing problem would be worse than ever. That is why they employed Weston, not just as the general manager of Freemans but also as a real estate scout beginning in February. She has been hunting for “B-minus” real estate that could be used for seasonal housing ever since, Sandbichler said.

    “I read ads fast and get to people right away,” Weston said. “I think housing is possible if you start early enough and have the money to secure it.”

    How bad is it this year? Weston’s housing search this winter included two potential scams. In one case, she nearly fell for a rental offer until she went in person and saw the unit fully occupied. Another time, online scammers offered her a three-bedroom in Truro for $10,000. “Just send me the money and you can see it tomorrow,” she was told. “Do you think I screwed my head on this morning,” she replied.

    Sandbichler said rooms usually renting for $4,000 for the season are now $12,000. He has toured places so vile he wishes he could forget them. Like many business owners, he and Ferarri already own apartments for staff. They rent out parts of their restaurant buildings for employees to live in and subsidize the rent other workers must pay.

    The rectory of St. Mary of the Harbor is on the left. (Photo by K.C. Myers)

    “We started getting into the housing business years ago when we saw how the J-1 students had to live,” he said. “Shame on us that our workers have to live in these conditions.”

    He and Ferrari redo floors, paint, rip up old carpeting, and generally try to make the places habitable. But what is on the market this year takes more than elbow grease. It is also incredibly overpriced.

    In the middle of this struggle, a SeasCape Realty agent Weston was working with told her the St. Mary’s vestry might be available.

    “I said, ‘Are you serious? The house is beautiful,’ ” Weston said.

    St. Mary’s new pastor did not return calls from the Independent. Mike Sutila, treasurer of the church vestry, said of the agreement, “We thought, what a perfect fit. We are really excited about it.”

    The J-1 visa students are expected to move in this Sunday, May 15, Sutila said.

    “It worked out very well for us,” Weston said. “To get a house with a massive living room right on the water. You cannot beat it.”

    No one would discuss the exact terms. The church is charging rent that “is not a steal and not overly expensive,” Sandbichler said. “We are very grateful to them.”

    Still, he added, the cost of real estate remains a huge problem and does not bode well for the sustainability of local businesses and the town generally. “If all the businesses become condominiums,” he said, “there will be nothing else and then why would people come here?”

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