St Mary Star of the Sea

I suppose that this review really should be for the Rainshadow Chorale and Orchestra. The group performed Bach’s Magnificat and Cantata No.140 in the sanctuary of St. Mary’s on Thursday, Nov. 17^th and it was a wonderful evening.
I was in the audience.
I suppose that this review really should be about the high quality of the all-​volunteer chorus and the professional (but local) musicians who accompanied them. It would be appropriate to note that this was Rainshadow’s official Fall 2011 performance and that the music soared into the church’s rafters with nary a dissonant note.
The performance was truly celestial but I’ll let you read more about it on the organization’s website:
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That being said, this review is really about the church because the building, and its ministry is rather a surprise. At least to me, anyhoo…
St. Mary Star of the Sea is located a block from the Port Townsend Public Library. It’s a one-​story red brick building which occupies a city block and has a large parking lot. The parish does not (as far as I can tell) host a parochial school and yet the site would have been the perfect location for such a school, had one been started.
The church’s website,
tells all the sordid (but ultimately uplifting) details.
The reader will learn that such a school was planned for the location, that an early church housekeeper, who was vehemently anti-​Catholic, totally impoverished the parish, selling off all of the church’s contents including the baptismal font.
The reader will also learn that a later housekeeper willed a considerable amount of money to the church to restore it.
The present building has soaring ceilings, a beautifully carved wooden crucifix and lovely Stations of the Cross on the perimeter walls. It has to be one of the more airy, uplifting, modern churches that I”ve been in.
The congregation (and present pastor) seem to also be welcoming inclusve, witness the use of the sanctuary for the Rainshadow concert…
I enjoyed a wonderful musical evening, felt at home and once again marveled at the amazing artistic life of Port Townsend. Just as the all-​Bach performance fit beautifully into its setting, so does St. Mary’s, which is perhaps the only Catholic church in Puget Sound, fit into the Port Townsend community.