Hancock UCC Weekly Messenger for February 23, 2025
O Lord, with your eyes you have searched me, and while smiling have spoken my name;
now my boat’s left on the shoreline behind me; by your side I will seek other seas.
Pastor TJ is on family leave in Wisconsin. Even though we miss her, we are very grateful for those who have stepped up to cover for her while she is away.
This week, we welcome to the pulpit Sarina Brooks. Sarina is a student in the Pathways Theological Education Program working toward a Certificate in Ministry and is a Member in Discernment in the Sunrise Association of the Maine Conference. Sunday is her last “official” Sunday with us as our Student Ministry Intern. Come celebrate Sarina and what the future holds for her during our Coffee Time.There will be a basket for cards and an opportunity to share some words of appreciation too.
Rescheduled from February 9th, due to church being cancelled, the Narcan training by Brandy Brooks will be held after church on Sunday, February 23rd. Brandy will provide training on when and how to administer Narcan. Those who attend will be provided with both Narcan and educational resources.
The Outreach Team is providing a hot dinner for the guests who utilize Healthy Acadia’s Warming Center in Ellsworth.
Menu: Lasagna / Garlic Bread / Garden Salad / Pies & Cakes
Monetary donations can be made to Tamara and she will shop for ingredients OR you may
make food donations to be dropped off at the church by Sunday, March 2nd. If you have any questions, please call or text Tamara at 207-460-4148 or email at Crowley_tamara@yahoo.com.
FOOD DONATION NEEDS:
o Lasagna or pasta bake (4)
1.Tamara
2. Pat S.
3. Jodie
4. ____________
o Other needs
4 Loaves of garlic bread (frozen or fresh)
o 4 bags or heads of lettuce
o 8 tomatoes
o 5 cucumbers
o 5 peppers (any color)
o 4 large bottles of salad dressing (French, Thousand Island, Italian, Caesar)
o 4 bags of croutons
o 4 pies or cakes
o 6 rectangle tinfoil pans
Our meetings are open to all. If you would like to attend a meeting, please let Vicky know and she will provide the Zoom link, or you are welcome to attend in person. Our meetings are held in person and virtually on Zoom.
Council will meet on Friday, February 21 at 12:30 p.m.
The Christian Education Committee will meet Wednesday, February 26 at 1:00 p.m.
Deacons will meet Friday, March 7 at 3:00 p.m.
Join us for lightly guided meditation at 9:00 a.m. on Fridays in our Sanctuary.
All are welcome!
Lent begins on March 5th. All are welcome at our Ash Wednesday Service of
Soup and Prayers at 12:00 noon in our Fellowship Hall.
February & March Birthdays and Anniversaries
24: Heath Hudson 25: Michael Hodgdon 27: Antonio Blasi
March 5: Bruce and Patrice Alexander 12: Tom Severance 13: Zachary Spaulding
15: Nick Davis 15: Harry Lounder III 20: Vivian Foss
21: Eveline Thorsen 21: Savanna Hudson Havey 23: Linc* Ehrlenbach
28: Pam Bowie 29: Debbie Maddocks
March tentative Supply Clergy
March 2 – Rev. Cynthia Priem
March 9 – Rev. Dr. Kate Winters & Rev. Joel Krueger
March16 – Rev. Nancy Johnston
March 23 – Rev. Dr. Kate Winters & Rev. Joel Krueger
March 30 – Rev. Cynthia Priem
Please keep the following people in your prayers this week:
Prayers for Pastor TJ, her Mom, Carol, and her siblings; and prayers for Pat’s daughter, Mary Shannon-Riley. Prayers for Alex, Andrew and Tamara; Prayers for Donald B.; Kenny V.; Orrick; Brian; and Jane of Golden Acres. Prayers for Judith C.; Eleanor A.; Ira and Ginny; Don and Heather; Bruce’s sister Lynn; Sally’s friend, Sue Barger; Herbie Lounder; Ruth; Marie; Jim Snyder; Jonathan Holmes; John Wood; Sue Davies; Sue Davenport; Liz & Jim; Kenny Stratton & Joy & David & Lori & Melissa; Debbie & Lincoln & son-in-law Aaron, daughter Ashley, and granddaughter Brielle; Sandy Phippen; Amy Nickerson; 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; those who are grieving; and prayers for all that is in your heart…
Handy Woman for Hire!
Personal care; Food preparation and cooking; Shopping;
Gardening; Interior and Exterior Painting
Contact Lori Stratton
From the Maine Conference, United Church of Christ
A Letter from our MESOM Dean
An Example Worth Following
An embodied invitation to give on MESOM Sunday, February 23rd!
Each year the Maine School of Ministry offers a Polity class during January Term. “Polity” is short for organizing life together. The course incorporates United Church of Christ history and theology – how we got here, what explains our “heady, exasperating mix,” and what we promote together about the maturity it takes to have covenantal instead of hierarchical relationships. It’s common for people going into authorized ministry to take Polity (the course) to understand polity (the phenomenon). Yet I think the greatest exemplar of polity has to be the individuals who have integrated their lives, and heart, and service as UCC participants. The late Anne Hodgman comes to mind.
Anne’s journey involved lifelong lay leadership – in her church, beyond her church, and for the sake of the future church. She taught children in her home congregation about love and faith and growing up. This passion led her to network with others throughout the New England chapter of the Association for United Church Educators, where she was well-regarded and credentialled during a time when that grassroots peer-based group offered professional recognition for leaders. She supported young people not just in their home church but in their networking and formation at Pilgrim Church and beyond. When the conference had a resource room serving other church leaders and clergy, Anne staffed that library – offering not just education for children but lifelong learning for adults. These same adults would tend congregations to grow the life of the church in the next generation.
Anne believed in ministers stewarding the church’s calling through prayerful Word and Sacrament. She did whatever she could so that Maine pastors would have practical tools to support that sacred responsibility. And she did consider it sacred. As an office administrator for the conference – an entity that tracks ministers through validated profiles – she also had to hold accountability for authorized ministers’ goings and comings. She saw the back-end of the system on a daily basis, and stayed connected to the information systems from the denominational offices all the way to each and every association committee on ministry.
More than all this, Anne kept a memory of every pastor who had served in Maine, their churches and their other settings for ministry and mission, and the loving relationships they left behind at the time of their death. Lifelong clergy come to symbolize relationships in a more recognized way than anyone else, and the church clusters around them understandably as representative servants. But look slightly back-stage, and there you see Anne’s prayer life, encouragement, and clarity of purpose, which helped call many ministers to their best selves! Although she might not formally have sat on a Committee on Ministry, her consistency in the practices she cultivated over the years were like those of a good COM. She was a living reminder that each lay person can be the equivalent of a bishop; as Randi Jones Walker says, in the UCC lay leaders provide episcopē, nurture and support, oversight and accountability, for an ecclesial purpose greater than oneself.
Anne greeted me in 2023 with enthusiastic expressions of support for the Maine School of Ministry – our classes and mentorships, our teachers and students, our educational resources and special programs. I believe her support was meant for the whole church – its settings intertwined between wider and local bodies, the present and the future.
I constantly hear such expressions of support for MESOM from many in our conference who are dedicated to learning and leadership development – worthy of both lay and ordained members of the Body of Christ. With MESOM’s focus on theological education for the life of the church, we are grateful to nurture these possibilities! MESOM Sunday is celebrated on Feb. 23rd . Many congregations receive a special offering on that day in support of the Maine School of Ministry. Some put a line-item gift in their mission budget. Not just local churches, but each person who enacts covenant can participate. Individuals too can give online through the Maine Conference website.
Your gifts – along with your prayers – make an awesome contribution!
- Rev. Dr. Malcolm Himschoot, Dean, The Maine School of Ministry
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