10/19/25 Weekly Messenger
- Feb 11
- 6 min read
Hancock UCC Weekly Messenger for October 19, 2025
The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple,
the church is not a resting place, the church is a people.
I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus, All around the world! Yes, we’re the church together!
Choir rehearsals are at 9:10 on Sunday mornings. All are welcome!
Meditation continues every Friday morning at 9:00 am at the Union Congregational Church until next July, when it moves back to the HP Chapel. Reach out to Pastor TJ or Alison Boden with any questions. (aboden3321@gmail.com, 609-865-3236) All are welcome!
The Minister’s Discretionary Fund helps people in need whether members of our church family or people in our communities. It is a minimal church budget item, supported mainly by donations made to this specific fund. If you would like to donate, envelopes are available at the back of the Sanctuary, or notate your desired donation on your check. Thank you!
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.
The Outreach Committee will meet Thursday, October 16th at 4:15 pm
The Christian Ed Committee will meet Wednesday, October 22nd at 12:00 noon
Church Council will meet Friday, October 24th at 11:00 am
Other Important Dates:
Wednesday, October 15th: Annual Reports were due in to the office.
Friday, October 17th and Saturday, October 18th: Maine Conference, UCC
Annual Meeting at Pilgrim Lodge
October 20th - November 4th: Pastor TJ will be combining vacation in Wisconsin and working from a distance. She will be preaching via Zoom on October 26th.
October 26th: We will celebrate All Saints Sunday. If a loved one has died since last All Saints Day please share their name/names with Pastor TJ or Vicky. This is also the day we will add new name plates to the Memorial Board at the back of the Sanctuary.
November 2: Rev. Linette George will lead our Worship Service and officiate Communion.
Please keep the following people in your prayers this week:
Our prayers remain with Alex & Savannah and Andrew & Tamara; and Tyler Crabtree and his family. We pray for David M,; Brian S.; Kenny V.; James B.; Marie; and Jane of Golden Acres. Prayers for Graham, Joey and Morgan; Yvonne; Dexter B.; Cynthia W.; Judith C.; Eleanor A.; the Raymonds; Hollis & Debbie; Bruce’s sister Lynn; Sally’s friend, Sue Barger; Patrice’s step-sister Patricia; Cathy C; Kirk; Ruth; Herbie Lounder; Sandy Phippen; Jonathan Holmes; Sue Davies; Sue Davenport; Ira and Ginny; Kenny Stratton & Joy & David & Lori & Melissa; Debbie & Lincoln & Aaron & Ashley & Brielle. Prayers for all in Hospice Care. Prayers for all that are unsafe, unhoused, hungry & in need of care & compassion. Prayers for individuals and families affected by addictions. Prayers for all caregivers; those who are grieving loss or change or experiencing family conflict; and prayers for all that is in your heart…
October Birthdays
18: TJ Mack 19: Bonnie Ross 20: Ruth Dietze
24: Susan Davies 26: Joshua Davis 29: Ron McGlinchey
Conference Minister Sabbatical
Marisa will be on Sabbatical from Friday October 31 through Saturday December 6. During that time, Rev. Diane Weible will serve as Interim Conference Minister. Rev. Weible is former Conference Minister for the Northern California Nevada Conference UCC. Rev. Weible now serves on the UCC national staff as Administrator for the Council of Conference Ministers. She is also a coach and consultant. Rev. Weible will join us remotely and will provide support for all of our staff and the Board of Directors.
Marisa will be attending the Annual retreat of the Council of Conference Ministers in Atlanta Georgia from Sunday December 7 through Wednesday December 10. During that retreat, she will be available by email and phone.
From Our Maine Conference
Our Call in these tumultuous times--
This Friday and Saturday 170 of us will gather for our Annual Meeting. For those who did not meet yesterday’s registration deadline, we will welcome drop ins. For those who cannot attend, you will be dearly missed. I invite all of us to take the next few days contemplating the questions we will be pondering at Annual Meeting. I invite all of us to take the next few days praying for all of us as we wonder: We hear a call. What is our call? What is our call in our conference? What is our call as clergy and laity in our churches? What is our call in these times around our country and around our world that speak of anguish and uncertainty, division and enmity?
Let us begin by taking some time to pray upon our focus scripture in Isaiah 43:18-19
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
I want to begin with a celebration. Alleluia! Together we are looking ahead at what God has planned for us. We are trying not to focus on “the way things used to be.” God is doing a new thing in our conference: in the churches that have faith that they can be “alive and thrive, any size” and are becoming beacons of light in their greater communities. We have tiny churches that revive as they focus on the needs of their communities around them through food and shelter and clothing. All of our churches are alive and thrive as they reconsider that thrive is not measured by how many folks are in the pews, but by how many of those folks are serving the community around them.
Just this week we heard from Phippsburg UCC, as their people have decided to focus locally on mission by giving monthly donations to the local food bank. They are concerned that cuts in federal funding will impact negatively on food insecure folks.
We can perceive the new thing God is doing as each of us listens carefully to God’s still speaking voice. God wills for our conference to be alive, united together in a covenant of “we.” As we work together to learn more and more how we are inextricably intertwined:
Churches and ministries and programs;
Associations and Committees on Ministry
Board of Directors and Conference committees and Conference staff.
We are one as the body of Christ with essential and different members of the body. And we are called to honor each member as essential and blessed and beloved.
It seems like we need God to make a way in the wilderness, the wilderness of a country that is so divided. We need God to make streams, for we are parched in this wasteland of a world that turns its back on innocents.
We hear a call. What is our call? Even more so, what is our vision and mission that God is calling us to?
Let us celebrate together this weekend our covenant one with another, including those who cannot be with us in person or on zoom. Let us pray together this weekend from the corners of our Conference.
In a couple of weeks, I will be leaving for Sabbatical. I so appreciate the time to refresh and renew. I look forward to my return when we will continue our conversation about call, about our vision and mission; about affirming that each of us is beloved of God, bringing that belovedness to the table even as we acknowledge our differences around what is going on in our country and the world; about how our conversation will focus on living and acting according to how Jesus models and instructs us to live and act: to feed the hungry, uplift the downtrodden, include the stranger, welcome the marginalized and shunned, make the powerful care.
I am so grateful for each and every one of you. I pray that those I have met I will meet again. I pray those I have not yet met will seek me out. I pray for each of you. I pray for our beloved conference that truly shows the hands and feet of Jesus to a pained and grieving world.
You are beloved,
Marisa
Rainbows of Hope—A time for prayer and sharing
Join the Women Leaders of New England for a new monthly prayer and share zoom! We begin with time to share celebrations and concerns, followed by nature photos for reflection and meditation. We will end with spoken prayer. Stay on to share ideas that you are working on to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God in your community. It’s a fun way to learn something new and exchange ideas with new friends! Our first meeting is on Wednesday, November 5 from 7-8:30 pm.Contact Fran Bogle at fbog@aol.com and we will send you a zoom link.
Blessings, prayers and keep looking for rainbows!Love, Fran and the leadership team at WLNE
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