Hospitality Homes, a system of homeless shelters hosted and organized by Island churches, is nearing the end of its first year, with administrators, coordinators and volunteers declaring success.

Beginning in January, seven nights a week, three churches will provide shelter and meals to men, women and families who need a place to get in out of the cold.

Easter in the Christian tradition symbolizes new birth, and this Easter a new church has come to life in Edgartown.

Seven Island churches are casting out into the community with a new youth group program they’re calling The Net, aimed at middle and high school aged students.

Terry and Marcia Martinson began to move into an old house looking down on the Edgartown harbor this week. Unlike most people who live on the Island waterfront these days, the Martinsons will live there year-round. But taking the whole history of the place into account, their time in the home will be short.

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.

Years ago, in Whitinsville, the Rev. Alden Besse was asked to participate in a Memorial Day parade. “I thought, what can I carry? Lots of people carry guns and I’ll carry a pruning hook,” he recalled.

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.”

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