Hancock UCC Weekly Messenger for October 6, 2024

Give us to drink the wine of compassion

Give us to eat the bread that is you

Nourish us well and teach us to fashion

Lives that are holy and hearts that are true

The Union Congregational Church of Hancock, United Church of Christ will hold an emergency special congregational meeting on Sunday, October 6, 2024 immediately following the 10 am morning worship service for the following purposes:

1.    To vote on the expenditure of up to $25,000 to replace the Fellowship Hall and Educational Wing roof with metal roofing.

2.    Any other business to come before the congregation.

Jeanne Edwards, Clerk

September 16, 2024

It’s getting to be that time of year again when we start gearing up for Annual Reports. If you are responsible for getting a report ready for the annual meeting, please get it into the office soon. All reports are due in the office NO LATER THAN October 13th.  Thank you!

Our meetings are open to all. If you would like to attend a meeting, please let TJ or Vicky know and they will provide the Zoom link, or you are welcome to attend in person.

The Outreach Committee will meet Thursday, October 10th at 4:15 pm in person and on Zoom

Church Council will meet Friday, October 11th at 9:30 am in person and on Zoom

Trustees will meet Friday, October 11th at 9:30 am virtually

The Board of Deacons will meet Friday, October 11th at 3:00 pm in person and on Zoom

Beginning in October, all are invited to join a meditation group at 9:00 a.m. on Fridays in our Sanctuary.  In the spirit of the sessions led by Angela Absher at the Hancock Point Chapel we will begin with a lightly guided non-denominational meditation followed by a few minutes of discussion and ending with another 20 minutes of meditation. The program will be led by novices Alison Boden and TJ Mack.

Now and again we may have guest speakers. Our goal is friendship and happiness. No experience is necessary. We leave in silence. Do come…

2025 Stewardship

Friends and family of our church are essential in our ability to be responsible stewards of our church, providing support, spreading love, and having a significant impact both within our congregation and in the wider community. As we embark on our campaign of annual giving for the 2025, we ask you to continue the support you have shown in the past by submitting the Stewardship Promise Card recently mailed to you, or by asking me for one if you would like to plan your giving for the coming year.

Church Council and its Budget Committee has worked on a budget proposal over the last two months and will meet on Friday, October 11 to finalize the 2025 Budget for presentation at our Annual Meeting after worship on Sunday November 10.

We ask that you place your pledge card in the offering plate on Sunday, October 6, or mail

it to the church at PO Box 443, Hancock, ME 04640 to be received by Thursday, October

10.

Gratefully yours,

Ron Schwizer, Stewardship Director

(tel/txt 207-460-0313)

Long-Term Member turns 100

BLUE HILL — Cliff Manchester, currently the oldest resident of Parker Ridge Retirement Community, recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Manchester was born Sept. 20, 1924, in Bar Harbor and grew up in Northeast Harbor. With the exception of three years spent serving in the Army during WWII, he has lived his entire life in Maine.

Manchester attended Stetson Grammar and Gilman High School, leaving in Feb. 1943 to join the Army. After pre-meteorology training at Hamilton College, Manchester was stationed in the Pacific until 1946. In October of 1952, he married Ruth Haglund and together they raised three children, Ralph, Joyce and Jane.

“I have to say that the greatest time in my life was raising my children with my wife,” Manchester said.

Ruth died in May 2010.

The couple has nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Manchester worked for Scott Paper Company for 35 years before retiring in 1991. He volunteered for 20 years on the Waterville Planning Board, 25 years at the Thayer Hospital (Waterville) reception desk and 22 years for the Evening Sandwich Program. Additionally, he volunteered for Regional Planning Commission Kennebec County Center, Waterville Board of Education, the State of Maine School Board Association and on the Board of Directors for Kennebec Behavioral Health.

To celebrate his birthday on Sept. 20, some of Manchester’s family members joined Parker Ridge in a friendly game of corn hole and enjoyed root beer floats and ice cream sundaes. Manchester was presented with a personal apple spice cake and Parker Ridge’s own version of the Boston Post Cane. When asked his secret to a long life, he replied, “luck” and, of course, “moxie.”                                         Printed in the Ellsworth American – updated October 2, 2024

October Birthdays and Anniversaries

06: Judi Crowley        07: Jaimie Wood Harrell

08: Richard Lewis       08: Will & Sharon Stephenson

  09: Chris & Rohanna Smullen Madigan  09:  Aaron & Meghan Philio Scott

12: Brandon Perry-Hudson    13: Liz Bunker            14:  Peggy Karns

18:  TJ Mack     19:  Bonnie Ross         20:  Ruth Dietze

24: Susan Davies  29:  Ron McGlinchey  30: Chris & Melissa Nowell

Please keep the following people in your prayers this week:

Prayers for the family and friends of Richard “Dick” Butters who passed away last week. Prayers for Ron’s brother, Joe; Kathy’s brother, David; Everett’s brother, Darrell; Sandra & Susan; Orrick; Judith C.; Don and Heather; Bruce’s sister Lynn; Sally’s friend, Sue Barger; Dr. John; Yvonne; Herbie Lounder; Ira; Cathy C. and for Cynthia’s Aunt Barbara receiving Hospice Care. Prayers for Donald B. and Kenny S. of Golden Acres, both awaiting surgeries. Prayers for Jane; Ruth; Marie; Joyce; Doris; Ron & Kathy; Jim Snyder; Jonathan Holmes; Brandon Perry-Hudson; John Wood; Sue Davies; Sue Davenport; Liz & Jim; Austin’s cousin Danny; Kenny Stratton; Joy & David & Lori & Melissa; Debbie & Lincoln & son-in-law Aaron, daughter Ashley, and granddaughter Brielle; Sandy Phippen; Betty & her step-daughter Mollie; Debbie & Hollis & Holly and Debbie’s Aunt Linda Reed; Amy Nickerson; Tom & Judy’s son Andrew & family; Kevin and Vanessa & family. Prayers of strength and healing for all awaiting diagnoses and for all recovering from surgeries & procedures. Prayers for all that are unsafe, unhoused, hungry & in need of care & compassion. Prayers for all caregivers; and prayers for all that is in your heart…

Official Call of the 2024 Annual Meeting of the

Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ

The 93rd Annual Meeting of the Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ (successor to the Congregational Christian Conference of Maine; it being the 113th Anniversary of the Congregational Conference and Missionary Society of Maine; the 199th Anniversary of the State Conference, the 214th Anniversary of the Maine Missionary Society, the 192nd Anniversary of the Maine Congregational Ministerial Relief Society, and the 54th Anniversary of the Maine Conference as a Conference of the United Church of Christ), will: convene in person at Pilgrim Lodge and via Zoom at 8:45 a.m., Saturday, October 19, 2024. Connection details to be provided pending registration.

 Items to be voted at this year’s meeting will be the: 

●       Proposed 2025 Conference Budget

●       Slate of Officers Elect

●       2025 Clergy Compensation Guidelines  

Susan E. Burgess, Conference Clerk

Maine Conference of the United Church of Christ

From our Maine Conference

                   Reflections from the Dock

 A Message from Liz Charles McGough, Pilgrim Lodge Director

Between years on summer staff in my early 20’s and my current role as Director of Pilgrim Lodge, this was my seventh summer season on the Pilgrim Lodge staff. In all of those years, I had successfully avoided being a lifeguard. I was always a camper who could be found in the craft cabin and a staff member who would be engaged doing anything music oriented. Not swimming. This summer, however, we needed more lifeguards. I looked toward lifeguard training with a bit of trepidation. “Athletic” is an adjective that has never once been used to describe me. I was, however, steady enough to pass the testing and training to get my lifeguard certification.

Spending time on the dock at Pilgrim Lodge this season was the most unexpected joy and gift of the summer. Lifeguard shifts during morning swim before breakfast, Option Time and Water Carnival pulled me out of the office and gave me a front row seat to watch sacred moments unfold in the water. The Spirit moves in mysterious ways.

I quickly came to appreciate that Morning Swim, an option for swimming at the wake-up bell, is one of the most peaceful times of the day. Camp is quiet, the water is still as the morning fog rises, and the air is cool before the intense heat sets in during the thick of summer. I soon realized, that there was beauty at the waterfront beyond the natural wonder around me.

I got to watch some of our youngest campers weave a multi-day imaginative world of sisterhood of the mermaids in the shallow end of the swim area. They had names like “Donut” and journeyed together through swim maneuvers and adventures exploring their water world. I watched one young boy from Elementary Adventures teach his new friend how to dive. Over and over they jumped into the water, the “teacher” offering tips and praise while his friend made steady improvement and sported a modest, proud smile. During the Crazy Dive contest of Family Camp, the youngest camper to be awarded special commendation was two years old; a prize for “Bravery” earned by jumping off the dock in his floaties to the arms of cheering adults. This summer our maintenance team worked with Dean Andrew of Senior High to resurrect one of the old white hull boats used for trip camps. They packed the whole camp into the boat where they learned that the only way to get it to move was by paddling in unison. I got to watch first generation immigrant children from Tree Street Youth learn to swim, joyfully jumping off the dock and splashing their friends. The “stretch goal” of one staff member was to get into a boat. Having accomplished that goal, he would often take out a kayak at the end of a long, full day of work for some peace and refuge on the water.

I was humbled to realize that coming to the water together opens up space for the Spirit to move among those present; a space where vulnerability meets love. I witnessed sacred moments as an adult camper came to the dock in the presence of supportive women sporting a bathing suit for the first time since her mastectomy. I witnessed the staff member of a visiting senior living facility “contact” guard for a resident in her 90’s, one offering the support of their body to the other; the gift of buoyancy. I got to listen to a conversation of campers talking about gender-affirming hormones, one celebrating their first anniversary of receiving gender-affirming care. While we invite campers to the waterfront for swimming and boating, I came to understand that the time spent on, in and around the water is often the means for sacred moments to happen.

Water as sacred. Water is connected to birth and baptism. Just this past weekend, I got to stand on the dock and witness one of our high school aged campers be baptized at the hands of his pastor, in the arms of his parents, in the presence of his church. Immersion into water can remind us that our bodies are about half comprised of water – what better reminder of our kinship to the natural world could we seek than our relationship to this life giving substance?

In just a few short weeks, we look forward to welcoming folks from across the Maine Conference United Church of Christ and beyond to Annual Meeting here at Pilgrim Lodge. While we will not be offering a cold plunge into the lake, may our time together on the banks of Lake Cobbosseecontee evoke the Spirit that is present here and moves among and through us in sacred and mysterious ways.

Please join us! https://www.maineucc.org/annual-meeting/