Special Article 9 - Waquoit Congregational Church

Believe it or not, there are some times when I haven't yet made up my mind about an article by the time town meeting begins. Article 9 on the Special Town Meeting warrant - to appropriate $190,000 from the Community Preservation Act for the historic restoration of the Waquoit Congregational Church - was one such article.

There was a considerable amount of debate which centered on the relationship between church and state. Falmouth Town Counsel Frank Duffy noted that there is a provision in the Massachusetts constitution, the "Anti-Aid Amendment," which prohibits the use of public funds to advance the cause of a religion. Restoring a church is apparently acceptable (there are more than 70 similar projects across Massachusetts), but some folks suggested that giving money to a church frees other funds to evangelize, creating an indirect church-state conflict. Of course, this assumes that the recipient of the funds has other money for evangelizing.

For my part, I was convinced to vote in favor of this project for a number of reasons:

1) Last fall, I argued against giving $20,000 in CPA funds for the restoration of an ice house at Highfield Hall. Not only did this violate the promise (again) that no public money would be used for this project, but Historic Highfield is a well organized non-profit that has proved to be rather adept at raising money.

On the other hand, I don't even think the Waquoit Congregational Church has a web page. It is a small church with a correspondingly small congregation - a very small base from which it must raise the funds necessary for restoration.

2) Historic Highfield requested just $20,000, an amount which they could easily raise. On the other hand, the Waquoit project is considerably larger - any organization would struggle to raise $190,000.

3) There is a significant public benefit. The church is not unlike the churches of old, which were used as public meetinghouses when religious services were not in session. Currently, it is used for Precinct 7 meetings and voting.

4) Finally, there is the issue of the Community Preservation Act itself, which requires that at least 10 percent of the funds be spent on historic preservation. Historic preservation projects are few and far between unlike open space acquisitions, of which we seem to have no shortage. If the Waquoit Congregational Church didn't get this money, we would have to bank it for some other project.

And so I voted "aye"; it passed.