The angels that appear in the story of Jesus’ birth share a short, but simple message with those they encounter, “Do Not Be Afraid!” This Advent, we will contemplate the message they bring to Zechariah, Mary, Joseph and the Shepherds, and then find ways to carry God’s message of more hope, more peace, more joy, and more love into the world.
Here are a few ways you can celebrate the season with us:
Sunday Worship – Join us each Sunday for worship in the sanctuary at 9:30am. On December 18th, worship will include special music from the church orchestra!
Advent Book Study – We’ll be using Susan Robb’s new book “The Angel’s of Christmas” to guide our discussion, but you can come even if you don’t have the book. We’ll meet on Wednesdays from 4:30-5:30 starting on November 30th.
Christmas Mission Project – We’re assembling mini-warmth kits for Maine Needs that will be distributed to unhoused folks across the state of Maine.
Christmas Concert featuring the Coastal Winds Community Band
December 13th at 6:30pm in the sanctuary. Donations for the fuel assistance fund and non-perishable food items for the food pantry will be collected at the door.
Christmas Eve Celebrations – December 24th
4:30pm Caroling and Cocoa on the church lawn
7:00pm Service of Lessons and Carols in the sanctuary
Christmas Day – December 25th
9:30am Worship in the Vestry
This will be a cozy service with Christmas Carols and a Christmas story. Bring some cookies to share!
Join us for our fall worship series, “I’ve been meaning to ask…” (a resource from Sanctified Art).
Some of the best conversations start with good questions—questions we’ve been meaning to ask, questions that keep us curious, and questions that lead us deeper into courage and connection. Our guiding questions for the season will be: “I’ve been meaning to ask… Where are you from?… Where does it hurt?… What do you need?… Where do we go from here?” These are deep questions that invite us to tell our stories, share our pain, care for one another, and dream about a new way forward together.
We’ll have some extra time for conversation and connection throughout this series. Each Sunday, a question will be posted on the wall to prompt coffee hour conversation (or, for you to share your written reflection).
And there are a few special events planned, too:
September 18th -Ice Cream social on the lawn after worship
October 9th – Blessing of the Animals 11am – bring your beloved creatures (be they furry, feathered, scaled or shelled) to the church lawn for a brief ritual of prayer and blessing. For everyone’s safety and comfort, please bring your animal companions on a leash or in a carrier. You can also bring a picture if your animal friends don’t travel well! Kids can bring a favorite stuffed friend to be blessed, too.
October 23rd – Curiosity and Connection Worship – We’ll gather in the Vestry around tables, inviting deeper connections through conversation, listening and refreshments.
Want more opportunities to join the conversation?
Join us on Tuesdays from 3-4pm for Bible Study and conversation (begins 9/20)
Stop by the church for a printed Study Journal with art, reflections on scripture, and poetry to prompt conversations at home (or email Pastor Kelli if you’d prefer a digital copy)
Find us on Facebook where we’ll be sharing questions, reflections, and art each week.
What have you been meaning to ask? Come wonder and connect with us every Sunday at 9:30am.
Join us on the lawn (or in the vestry if it rains) for our summer book chats. We’ll be discussing the books that Pastor Kelli is using for summer worship.
In July we’ll discuss the book of Jonah. In August, we’ll talk about Help, Thanks, Wow by Ann Lamott.
Bring a lawn chair if you have one.
For the entire month of May, when you purchase a $2.50 reusable Fight Hunger Bag at the Hannaford in Gray, $1 is donated to the New Gloucester Food Pantry.
You can pick up a Fight Hunger Bag on displays around the store and at the checkout or online via Hannaford-To-Go.
Don’t need more reusable bags at your house? Pick one up to support this fundraiser, then bring the bag to the food pantry and we will use it to help pantry clients get their groceries home.
The New Gloucester Food Pantry distributes food to any New Gloucester resident on the second and fourth Saturday of each month.
Thanks to Hannaford for their continued support of the pantry.
We hope you will join us for Holy Week and Easter services
Dear friends,
We are two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, and we continue to adapt the ways we gather in order to protect ourselves and our community.
At our meeting last week, the Church Council took up a discussion of continuing our requirement to wear masks for church gatherings, including worship. The decision was made to continue our mask requirement through at least Easter Sunday (April 17th). We expect larger that usual crowds for both Linda’s retirement service and Easter Sunday, and it seems wise to continue to act with an abundance of caution to protect those who want to worship in the sanctuary for these important celebrations. The council will take up this discussion again at our meeting on April 5th.
If and when we decide to change our mask requirement, I pray that we will bear with one another with grace, patience and love. It was clear from the Council’s discussion that while some folks are ready to move about without masks, others are reticent to gather without them. People’s decisions to wear masks or not are often complex and highly personal. If our requirements change, we expect folks will continue to do what feels safe for them and their families. This might feel uncomfortable and messy at times – but if we extend each other a bit of extra grace and compassion, we can navigate this phase of the pandemic together.
We are also mindful that COVID continues to be part of our collective reality, and protocols for protecting one another will continue to be strengthened and relaxed as necessary. As always, we will strive to be a community of mutual care and concern.
With hope,
Marianne Cowan, Church Moderator
Rev. Kelli Whitman, Interim Pastor
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We are pleased to welcome Rev. Kelli Whitman as our interim minister. She began her work with us on January 16. She’ll be serving alongside Rev. Gard through March.
Kelli is a life-long member of the United Church of Christ. She grew up in central Pennsylvania and graduated from Susquehanna University with a B.A. in Communications. After college, she moved to St. Louis Missouri to attend Eden Theological Seminary. She moved to Maine in 2010 and has been serving churches in the Cumberland Association ever since.
In her pastoral profile, Kelli describes her approach to interim ministry this way:
I like to think of interim ministry as a “trapeze moment”—we’ve let go of one settled reality, and we’re waiting to grasp the next. As an interim minister, I hope to help a congregation make the most of that “in the air” time. This usually involves asking lots of questions. What do we want to celebrate about our history to this point? What do we need to let go of in order to embrace what is next? What strengths exist in our congregation right now? Who do we believe God is calling us to serve right now? Most of us do not enjoy change, but if we can embrace the possibilities of transition, we can emerge with a renewed sense of mission and purpose, ready to embrace what God is calling us to do in the next chapter of our lives together.
Kelli lives in Saco with her husband Bryan and daughter Abigail and her cat, Linty, who has been a constant companion during these many months of working from home. In her free time, Kelli enjoys baking (especially attempting new cupcake recipes), working on a variety of arts and crafts, and listening to pop-culture podcasts.
IN-PERSON WORSHIP in the Sanctuary!
9:30 am SERVICE EVERY WEEK
As the sanctuary was built to hold 300 people, the 40-50 who come regularly to worship during Covid can chose comfortably distanced seating. Currently, our services are a bit shorter, as we are singing two hymns instead of 3, have the offering plates at the doors, and the children are invited to activities with Sunday School leaders in the educational wing during the service. We have the good fortune of having the Sanctuary and Handbell Choirs back in action. They are playing and singing while masked, no easy thing, but it’s good to be together and not to have to forego this important part of worship.
MASKS ARE REQUIRED IN THE BUILDINGS. We are holding coffee hour in the sanctuary during the winter–more room to move about.
THE STITCHERS are meeting on Thursday mornings, 9:30-12, masked. THEY ALSO WELCOME you to drop in for COFFEE/TEA/CONVERSATION, any time during the morning. Should the numbers in attendance make meeting in the library too cosy, we have other spaces to which we can move.
Guidance from the CDC is changing daily…and often confusing. Still, the Council has determined it wise to have a policy in place for ALL gatherings in the church, both church and community groups:
All groups meeting in the buildings and on the property of the church must follow the CDC guidelines in place at the time of their meeting; Maine CDC guidelines must be observed where they are more restrictive.
