Aquinnah’s only church has transformed its long-vacant parsonage into rental housing, creating new affordable units to combat the Island’s housing crisis and strengthen ties with the Wampanoag tribal community.

The Community Baptist Church of Gay Head, believed to be the nation’s longest continually worshiping Native American congregation, recently completed a renovation of its 169-year-old parsonage, converting it into a duplex for community housing. A member of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and a tribal family moved into the two units on Sept. 1.

Once only reserved for the minister, renting out the parsonage is now helping to keep residents in town and the lights on at the church.

“It is a blessing to us,” said Rev. Michael Gilman, the church’s pastor.

The Baptist congregation dates back to 1693, and the parsonage was built by a tribal member in 1856, before moving to Church street in 1907. In recent years though, the parsonage fell into disrepair and the church saw its once robust congregation dwindle to only a handful of parishioners.

Last year, a church member anonymously donated $1 million to renovate the parsonage to house Aquinnah residents. Since then, the house was entirely renovated to add a single-unit apartment to the side of the original structure.

Derrill Bazzy

Derrill Bazzy

Workers insulated the parsonage, installed new windows, and added mini splits and solar panels.

“They’re fully set up except for furniture,” said Derrill Bazzy, a consultant with Island Housing Trust who helped the church with the project.

The parsonage housing, which is limited to people earning 120 per cent of the area median income, is targeted towards the so-called missing middle – Islanders who make too much for most traditional affordable housing but too little to afford buying a home here. Other affordable projects in town, such as the Carl Widdiss Way apartments that opened in 2024, are limited to residents making 80 to 100 per cent of the area median income.

The additional units help Aquinnah maintain its title of the Island town with the highest percentage of affordable housing, with more than 15 per cent of the units in the small town set aside as affordable.

Rents from the parsonage will support the parsonage itself and then go toward restoring the historic church, which needs repairs to its bowed roof and steeple, replacements of worn rugs and repainting of the white wooden pews.

Many tribal members and non-tribal members applied for the housing through a lottery system. Reverend Gilman said the church worked with the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority to find a legal loophole that enabled the church to prioritize selecting tribal members.

“It was their ancestors that built this church and we wish to honor that,” Reverend Gilman said.

Reverend Gilman said he hopes the parsonage will help build a bridge between the community and the church that he feels has been lost in recent years.

He began leading the congregation in 2021, preaching to about 10 church members. He said attendance has sharply declined since about four decades ago, when Reverand Gilman was told the pews were mostly filled.

“It’s not endemic to just our church alone, but [in] churches throughout the country membership is falling off,” Reverend Gilman said. “People are becoming more secular.”

Residents in the new parsonage are not required to be a part of the congregation, nor are they required to attend services. Reverend Gilman sees the project as a hopeful moment during the relentless tolls of the affordable housing crisis, and a way to show gratitude to the tribal community.

“I think it’s one of the slow but sure ways that God is using us to rebuild the community of faith in this town,” Reverend Gilman said.

Reverend Gilman added that all are invited to a party outside the church on Sept. 13 at 1 p.m. There will be food, live music and games.