First Congregational Church Camden, Maine

March 2016 Vol. 32, No. 3

One Great Hour of Sharing Sunday, March 13

When you make a gift to One Great

Hour of Sharing, you actively participate in tending God’s flock throughout the world. Your gift brings shelter, food, water, and

medical supplies to disaster survivors. You help refugees find

safe shelter and begin to build new lives. You aid impoverished

communities in securing dependable sources of food and

clean water. And you help provide medical care and education that

strengthen bodies and minds and create brighter futures.

Watch for your envelope in the mail very soon!

Last SOUP’S ON! is Wednesday, March 23!

Come join us and say goodbye until the end of October, when we begin our 12th year!!!

A few weeks ago it was reported that astrophysicists recorded the sound of two black holes colliding a billion light years away. This recorded sound confirms Einstein’s prediction through his Theory of Relativity of gravitational waves rippling the fabric of space and time. I downloaded the recorded sound onto my computer, and even now a few weeks later I find myself listening to it. I think what’s so compelling about this sound for me is the realization every time I hear it that in hearing it I am connected to a reality, a universe so much larger, mysterious, and full of meaning and dimension than I can ever fully know. But I can for moments, moments that accumulate over a lifetime, find myself in a direct relationship with what transcends the limits of what I humanly know and experience. When I listen to the recording it “feels” sacred, holy, like a revelation. The thing I’m noticing over these last few weeks is that this awareness of deep connection and relationship, this “feeling” of revelation and the sacred, is exactly the same as the awareness and “feeling” I have being part of the Christian Church in all its variety of people, the multitude of experiences and understandings, all that happens when a connection is made or meaning and truth dawn, when questions, and vulnerabilities and needs are shared, and relationships and individual lives and the world are revealed to be so much larger, so much deeper than we ever imagined. As we as a church enter into a discernment time leading to the calling of a new pastor I encourage you to see this transition time as a time of encounter, connection, and revelation – encounter with God and with all that draws you in and calls you out, and connection with others who may be a source of revelation and inspiration. In the coming months there will be many opportunities to engage with

THOUGHTS FROM

PASTOR DEB

one another – our Lenten Series “And They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love”: Being Christians in the 21st Century”; After Worship Conversations, Forums on a variety of areas of church life and ministry; and much more. Come and be part of a great adventure of discovery! Who knows what sounds we might hear! (If you’d like to hear the sound of two black holes colliding, search LIGO in your web browser.) Blessings, Pastor Deb_______________________________________________

Holy Week & Easter at First Congregational Church of Camden, United Church of Christ

PALM SUNDAY – March 20 at 9:30 A.M.

Procession of Palms with special music provided by the choir and the children; readings of Jesus’ Passion from Luke’s Gospel with hymns.

MAUNDY THURSDAY – March 24 at 6:00 P.M. in the Pilgrim Room.

Supper with communion as we remember Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples; followed by Tenebrae (A Service of Shadows) with candlelight

and readings.

ECUMENICAL GOOD FRIDAY COMMUNITY WORSHIP – March 25, 12 noon at St Thomas’ Episcopal Church. A shared ministry of Chestnut Street

Baptist Church, First Congregational Church, UCC, and St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church.

EASTER SUNDAY – March 27

Sunrise Service at the Camden Yacht Club at 6:00 A.M. And at 9:30 A.M.in our Sanctuary

A joyous celebration of the dawn of Christ’s resurrection in our lives and in our church.

Come and enter into this most holy and blessed of times in the life of the church as we seek renewal and embrace the new life that God is offering to all in Christ Jesus.

FCC of Camden Transition Time

As you are no doubt aware we are in a season of change. This is an ex-citing time for us as we launch into our Transition Process. We are cur-rently recruiting a transition team to lead us in this process. If you would like to be involved, we are more than happy to have you. Please contact me at (207) 542-7691 or gworden@yahoo.com. The goals of this process are:

1.Identify the core strengths and ministries of the congregation; 2.Identify needs and opportunities to serve in new ways in the

community; 3.Develop and articulate a vision for the church’s ministry in

the next 5 years; and 4.Identify qualities and characteristics desired in a new pastor.

The proposed Transition Process will occur in two threads: We will hold informal facilitated discussions following service

on several Sundays (approximately 8-10) in which we will discuss our oral history. The goal of this is to be able to capture the wonderful things that we have accomplished and be able to put this on our website as a written remind-er for the future as well as to capture this information for the Congregational Profile. For instance, I didn’t know that the idea for Coastal Opportunities originated in our base-ment until someone mentioned it during a recent meeting. Other items to be discussed will be the history of the Pray-er Chain, the Memory Garden and more. These should be fun discussions.

We will also hold formal facilitated forums focused on areas of ministry and mission including Worship and Spiritual Growth, Congregational Care and Hospitality, Outreach and Mission, Stewardship and Finances, Christian Educa-tion and Youth, Buildings and Grounds. These will help us develop both the Congregational Profile as well identify the qualities and characteristics desired in a new pastor.

Our plan is to have a Congregational Profile completed by June at

which point we’ll launch a Search Committee. The Transition Team will

be meeting shortly to discuss this process and there may be altera-

tions. The schedule of informal discussions and facilitated forums as

well as the results of these will be on the Transition Team webpage on our website. This will be the go to location for all things Transition re-lated so check there frequently. Information will also be shared in The Beacon, Sunday bulletins, and frequent emails.

I, for one, am looking forward to getting started. If you have any questions, thoughts, ideas, concerns or just want to talk you can reach me at (207) 542-7691 and by email at gworden@yahoo.com. I’m always happy to talk.

Faithfully, Greg Worden

_______________________________________________________________

TEAM CATE

Camino Seguro / Safe Passage

The Youth Group was tasked with coming up with a team name for their time in Guatemala and have chosen TEAM CATE! We would like to thank all of you for your support. We could not have done this without you and we are grateful. Not only have you helped us reach our goal of paying for the trip, but we will be leaving funds for future Youth Group endeavors. There will be one more fundraiser made possible by the kind folks at Rockport Automotive, 271 Commercial St. (Rt. 1), Rockport. They will give us $5 for every oil change that they perform during the month of March. Call 236-2431 to schedule.

The group will be leaving Maine on April 16 and returning on April 24.

A commissioning service for ALL the travelers will be held during the Sunday service on April 10.

It's been a wonderful first few weeks here at First UCC. I've enjoyed working with the choirs, and getting to know everyone better, and I'm so grateful for all the kind words and welcoming encouragement. It's taken some time to effectively plan ahead with choir and bell music, because I felt I needed some time to become familiar with our singers and ringers, and with the music in the church library. But now that some time has passed, I've planned music through till June, and it is with excitement that I give you a brief glimpse at the line-up we have in store for you. I think the congregation will find it a wide variety of musical styles, and with many opportunities for displaying the varying talents available to us within the congregation and community. In March, you'll want to join us on the 13th when we'll have violinist, Meg Thomas, from the National Opera Orchestra, joining myself in Bach's E Major Concerto. We'll be performing movements of the work during the prelude and postlude, and featuring another Bach work, "Sheep May Safely Graze", during the offertory. It is with excitement that I will accompany Meg on the church's Zuckermann harpsichord, which was built and generously donated by Dr. Henry White in 2008. A harpsichord specialist by the name of Forrest Dillon was recently in to inspect and service the instrument, and was keen to note its fine quality. Of course then it'll be Holy Week in a flash, but we'll have a musical offering by the children to look forward to on Palm Sunday. The Sunday School students will be joining the adult choir for a special introit, which will also feature several children on the new bells that were recently purchased for them. Then, just a week later, we'll have Bruce Cole and the Midcoast Brass here to spruce up our Easter Sunday festivities. Be sure to arrive early that morning in order to hear their extended prelude!

From Matt Mainster

Director of Music

Just one week after Easter, on April 3rd at 4 p.m., I'll be launching this

year's Friends of Music concert season in a recital featuring

Beethoven's "Ghost" piano trio, and Chopin's second piano sonata. I'll

have local musicians, April Cox and Sarah Glenn, joining me for the

Beethoven on cello and violin, and I know all three of us will hope to

see you here!

Then, the following week, let's all be thinking lots of good thoughts for

our Choral Bells, who'll be traveling to Winthrop for the annual Maine

Spring Ring! It will be a wonderful opportunity for them to attend

workshops, work with notable clinicians, and perform with other

handbell players from around the state. And they have some fantastic

"required music" for this event, which we'll plan to share with the

congregation on the third Sundays of April and May, so that everyone

can see and hear what we've been up to!

Lastly, I would like to leave everyone with two things to think about ... the first is that NOW is your chance to join the Sanctuary Choir before we start having too much Easter fun without you!! It's not too late –– stop by any Wednesday at 7:00pm to see if you might enjoy singing with us, even if only for the Easter season. Then, the second thing is that we'll be featuring special soloists during the month of August, allowing our choir members some much needed rest. SO ... if you play a musical instrument, or sing, or know of someone who might like to share their talents with First UCC, please contact me –– and the sooner the better! I'd love to start lining people up! My best to you, Matt _______________________________________________________

The First Friends of Music Concert

Don’t miss Matt’s concert on Sunday, April 3 at

4:00pm where he will perform Beethoven’s “Ghost”

piano trio and Chopin’s second sonata piano sonata.

The Beethoven work will also feature local musicians,

April Reed-Cox, cello, and Sarah Glenn, violin.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS

63 Washington Street received a $3,000 donation from the Outreach Committee

of the First Congregational Church of Camden.

This gift will be used for the ongoing renovation and support of the facility and is made possible through Heavenly Threads Thrift Shop. 63 Washington Street is a senior living facility built in 1898. “63” is a community based nonprofit that is licensed as a Level 3 Residential Care Facility with staff available 24/7. The 118-year-old structure has room for 6 residents and provides a homelike environment with three meals a day, housekeeping, transportation and other assistance as needed. The First Congregational Church has provided support for “63” since 1983. Heavenly Threads is an outreach mission of the church and provides gifts to nonprofits like “63” throughout the year in Knox County and Lincolnville. Community donations of gently used items made it possible to donate over $22,000 in 2015 to various organiza-tions. For more information about Heavenly Threads call 236-3203. Left to right: Jeanne Denny and Jan Kelsey “63” Board members, Betsy Perry, Co-Chair Outreach and Gayle Palmer, Outreach and co-manager of Heavenly Threads’ S.O.S. Room

As February charges to a close we will fellowship with a family potluck/game night on the 27th. Time to see who has a competitive streak!

The start of Lent has brought with it some great teachings by Pastor Deb during the children's talks about the symbols that surround this time before Easter. They are really informative and engaging and help to reinforce the importance of this time in the church.

The first meeting of the Christian Education Committee is scheduled and we are excited to get to work helping to renew and refine our program. The children’s offering through Easter will help support the Camden Food Pantry. I love that we are able to send money afar to places like Lesotho and then also support families close to home.

The children are baking muffins for our March 6th brunch to honor the Maine Conference Minister and will help to set up for that special event. That will also be the Great Hour of Sharing Sunday and it is our hope to help the children see how much can be done through a collective effort such as this.

Lots of Hosannas can be heard in the classrooms as we practice our Palm Sunday Introit by Ashley Brooke that will be sung with the sanctuary choir. Those palms will be waving!

As we hang on until Spring I am feeling blessed to be a part of this wonderful community, devoted to Christ and committed to building up these children surrounded by God’s love.

Blessings, Elizabeth

From Elizabeth Lally Director of Church School

Our Priceless Volunteers

For every month, in every Beacon, we will be printing the names of our very wonderful volunteers who have signed up for the tasks below. Check your calendars. If Ushers & Fellowship Team Members are unable to assume the duties on that day, please find a substitute and alert Nan so she can make the correction for the Sunday Bulletin. Many thanks!

DATE LITURGIST USHERS FELLOWSHIP

March 6 Rev. Deb Jenks Marty Martens, Linda Strout, Chris & Shelley Mills

Church School youth

March 13 Becky Brace Kathrin Anderson, Lila Vultee, Zella & David Walker

Amy Rollins, Jean Silva, Bob Garcia & Kim Young, Linda Strout, Flora SHorey

March 20 Roy Hitchings Bob Garcia, Kim Young, June Fryer, Betsy Perry

John & Jinx Hufnagel, Craig & Mary Wells, Jan Kelsey, Anne Smart, Nan Haid

March 27 Sue Hopkins Charlie & Dorothea Graham, Ellen & Jeff Stanclift

Dana & Suzanne Southworth, Jean Forest, June Fryer, Gary & Roberta Walker, Loel Kline

From Heavenly ThreadsThreads Melissa Chapman, Manager

Greetings from Heavenly Threads!

If you haven't been over to donate or shop lately...come in! We have a bright, new, welcoming entrance. Our storage room has been re-organized and SOS is looking sharp!

It's not too early to think about Spring cleaning. Please remember that we would love your gently-used, just about anything— housewares, men's, women's and children's clothing, jewelry, books, kitchen goods, antiques and collectibles and much more. (We will happily accept your out-of-season clothing and decorative items as well.)

A staff update: I am sorry to say that Jean Cox has decided to retire. We will miss her greatly!! (I will be picking up her days.) We have hired Beth Gerrish as assistant manager. (Yes, Rita Elliott's daughter.) She will be working four mornings a week with our inventory, as well as two Saturdays a month. Holly Hoing is our pr/marketing strategist and also a per-diem manager who loves to dive into storage! Patti Peace and Susan Neisingh are also per-diem managers and jack-of-all trades.

If you have been thinking about volunteering...come on over and have a chat. If a weekly time slot seems overwhelming, think about being on our substitute list.

Please share our mission with your friends and encourage them to donate to US! Donations may be dropped off anytime during shop hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10 - 4.

YOUR mission gave over $21,000 to local charities and non-profits last year. Let's keep it up! Thank you all. Happy Easter to all. Shop at HT for your Easter decorations and basket goodies.

March Birthdays

3/3 Lorna Page 3/5 Madeline Shields 3/7 Nancy Thompson 3/8 Rita Elliott Michael Lally 3/10 Henry Hanscom

3/13 Ward Wickwire 3/18 Nancy Akers 3/23 Kathy Jex 3/24 Bob Carter 3/25 Deb Endl 3/31 Hal Forney

MS Walk: Save the Date: Saturday, April 9, 10 a.m.

Let’s continue our tradition of supporting the National MS Society in its efforts to find a cure for MS. This will be our 9th year and we have become one of the largest and most successful teams in the Camden walk. So, get your walking shoes ready! Watch for more information soon.

Please sign up on the FLOWER CHART in the Pilgrim Room

to dedicate altar flowers to your loved ones, or to commemorate an event.

LOTS of available dates.

Spaghetti Supper Fundraiser for 63 Washington St

Friday, March 18, 5-7pm Rockport Masonic Center, 361 Main Street, Rockport

Adults $8, children under 10, $5 Marlene Hall and her wonderful band will entertain once again by

public demand. Great fun! Raffle prizes. Please come and support this important

Camden Home for the Elderly.

March Activities

1Tuesday, 5:30pm, Soup & Lenten class 2Wednesday, 9:30am, Staff meeting; Noon, SOUP’S ON; 1:00pm, Prayer Service; 6:00pm, Choral Bells Rehearse; 7:00pm, Sanctuary Choir rehearses 3Thursday, Noon, Prayer Shawl meets; 5:00pm, Boards & Committees meet 4Friday 5Saturday 6 SUNDAY, 9:30am, Worship, Rev. Deborah Blood preaches; Communion, 10:30am, Brunch 7Monday 8Tuesday, 5:30pm, Soup & Lenten class 9Wednesday, 9:30am, Staff meeting; Noon, SOUP’S ON; 6:00pm, Choral Bells Rehearse; 7:00pm, Sanctuary Choir rehearses 10Thursday, Noon, Prayer Shawl meets 11 Friday 12Saturday, 9-1pm, Craft Supplies Fair 13SUNDAY, 9:30am, Worship, One Great Hour of Sharing 14 15Tuesday, 5:30pm, Soup & Lenten class 16, Wednesday, 9:30am, Staff meeting; Noon, SOUP’S ON; 1:00pm, Prayer Service; 6:00pm, Choral Bells Rehearse; 7:00pm, Sanctuary Choir rehearses 17Thursday, Noon, Prayer Shawl meets 18 Friday, 5:00pm, Spaghetti Dinner for 63 Washington ST at Masonic Hall 19Saturday 20 PALM SUNDAY, 9:30am, Worship 21 Monday 22 Tuesday, 5:00pm, Cabinet meets 23 Wednesday, 9:30am, Staff meeting; Noon, LAST SOUP’S ON; 1:00pm, Prayer Service; 6:00pm, Choral Bells Rehearse; 7:00pm, Sanctuary Choir rehearses 24Thursday, 6:00pm, Maundy Thursday, Dinner and Service 25 Good Friday, noon, Ecumenical Service at ST. Thomas Episcopal Church 26 27, EASTER SUNDAY, 6:00am, Sunrise Service at Camden Yacht Club; 9:30am, Worship in our Sanctuary 28 Church Office Closed 29 30Wednesday, 9:30am, Staff meeting; 1:00pm, Prayer Service; 6:00pm, Choral Bells Rehearse; 7:00pm, Sanctuary Choir rehearses 31 Thursday, Noon, Prayer Shawl meets

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