Last year Good Shepherd Parish in Oak Bluffs was faced with a problem. Father Messias Albuquerque was leaving, and due to a priest shortage in Brazil finding a replacement who could say mass in Portuguese would be difficult. Recruiting someone to say the Saturday mass was a familiar issue. Over the years a series of clergymen have filled this role.

After nearly two centuries, the Lambert’s Cove Church became but a memory last Sunday.

When the kerosene lamps were being rewired during the recent Lambert’s Cove Church restoration, a shopping list for a ham and bean supper was found in the walls.

“It was written in the most beautifully blue ink writing from a quill, it was dated to 1895,” Joshua Yates said. “It called for five pounds of salted pork and barrels of beans.”