12/14/25 Weekly Messenger
- Feb 11
- 6 min read
Hancock UCC Weekly Messenger for December 14, 2025
The King shall come when morning dawns,
And light triumphant breaks;
When beauty gilds the eastern hills,
And life to joy awakes.
Choir rehearsals are at 9:10 on Sunday mornings. All are welcome!
The Emmaus Center Christmas gifts for the giving tree in the Fellowship Hall need to be returned to the church, unwrapped and with the tags attached by Sunday, December 14th.
The Outreach Committee will deliver the gifts on Monday, the 15th.
Join us for a PotLuck and Christmas Carol Sing on Sunday, December 14th.
Meet in the church Fellowship Hall at 5:00. Bring a dish to share and invite friends and family to enjoy the meal. Stay for Caroling at 6:00 pm in the Sanctuary.
December 14th and 21st, we will be receiving the Christmas Fund for the Veterans of the Cross Offering. This is an annual UCC offering that expresses our thanks to retired and active UCC pastors and lay church workers and their families facing emergency financial need, providing direct assistance to supplement pensions, help with the cost of medical insurance, and thank you gifts at Christmas. This is also one of the 5 for 5 Offerings taken by the Maine Conference. Envelopes are available in the back of the Sanctuary and in the Fellowship Hall.
Please plan on joining Pastor TJ this Advent Season for this lively study focusing on Advent scriptures and the wonders of birds. Our third of three sessions will be on Thursday Dec. 18th at 2 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall and on Zoom.
A Family Friendly
Christmas Eve Service
Wednesday, December 24
7 pm
Deacons will meet Friday, December 12th at 3:00 pm
Please keep the following people in your prayers this week:
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Peggy Karns and her extended family and friends on the recent passing of her sister, Grace. Our prayers remain with Alex & Savannah and Andrew & Tamara, and with Tyler Crabtree and his family. We ask prayers for Sarina’s Dad who is recovering from a major stroke. We pray for David, Brian, Kenny V, Brad, James, Marie, and Jane of Golden Acres. Prayers for Yvonne; Jeanne’s brother Clem, Kate W.; Mike & Carol; Dexter B.; Cynthia W.; Judith C.; Eleanor A.; the Raymonds; Hollis & Debbie; Bruce’s sister Lynn; Patrice’s step-sister Patricia; Cathy C; Kirk; Ruth; Herbie Lounder; Sandy Phippen; Jonathan Holmes; Sue Davies; Sue Davenport; 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. Prayers for those who are grieving loss or change or experiencing family conflict; and prayers for all that is in your heart…
December Birthdays
15: Frank Dorsey 16: Ashley Ehrlenbach Johnson 17: Sue Croteau
18: Barbara Reeve 20: Sheila O’Neill 21: Mary Angela Davis
27: Jennifer Ashmore
Dear Community ~
You are warmly invited to gather for a Winter Solstice Spiral on Monday, December 22nd, at dusk - at the soccer field by the tennis courts, in Hancock.
As the year leans into its darkest night, we’ll walk the spiral slowly and in silence, each carrying a small light to guide us inward. This simple, heartfelt ritual helps us kindle warmth and hope within ourselves—an invitation to notice the quiet magic that lives inside the darkness and the subtle return of the sun.
Please dress warmly, as we’ll be outdoors. Bring nothing, we have enough candles for everyone. All ages are welcome.
Afterward, we’ll head indoors to share some warmth together. If you’d like, feel free to bring a side dish for a warm drink and a cozy potluck.
We hope you’ll join us in welcoming the light back in.
– The Fountains
Christmas Poinsettia Plants
Poinsettia plants wrapped in foil will be available to order for the Christmas Eve Service.
The poinsettias will be $15.00 per plant.
Please place your order with Vicky by Sunday, December 14th by completing the order form below, calling 207-422-3100 or 207-266-9493, or emailing hancockmaineucc@gmail.com
Cash or checks made payable to Union Congregational Church will be accepted.
Your Name:________________________________________ Your Phone:______________
Please indicate if your poinsettia is in honor of or in loving memory of someone
or multiple someones and how you wish to have this listed in the bulletin.
In honor of ________________________________________________________
In loving memory of ________________________________________________
From the Maine Conference
The Gifts of Advent
A Message from Liz Charles McGough, Pilgrim Lodge Director
I’ve been driving around a lot in the dark lately. Evening trips to take kids to basketball practice and robotics club all happen after the sun is long gone for the day. At this time of year, life happens in the dark. In the center console of my car, I have a quote that I pulled off the wall after a fall retreat group at Pilgrim Lodge. The retreatants had spent three days meditating and left behind this quote, loosely attributed to Bhudda:
“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the single candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
The quote reminds me of my own experience of our Advent tradition of candle-lighting. We mark the journey of waiting for the birth of Jesus by lighting the candles of hope, peace, joy and love. And then, we gather on Christmas Eve. I am the product of small, rural Maine churches, so there is a sweet intimacy in my experience of Christmas Eve services. As the chords of the first verse of Silent Night sound, one of the church elders lights a candle from the Christ candle in the center of the wreath and begins to pass it down the row of neighbors assembled in the pews. Soon, we all glow with Christ light.
I can’t help but think that so much of the discord and deep conflict in our world stems from a mindset of scarcity: we don’t have enough money, enough land, enough status, enough resources, enough power. So many stories of human conflict stem from a race to out pace one another for more, more, more. And yet, we have the story of Jesus, whose birth we celebrate by sharing light. Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the single candle will not be shortened. As our sanctuaries fill with the light from the single Christ candle, we celebrate the gifts of our Christian tradition that can be shared without being diminished: hope, peace, joy and love. Indeed, these very gifts of Advent are made stronger, brighter, more palpable by being shared. The child, humbly born in the midst of empire in a manger because there was not enough room in the inn, invites us into a story of abundance. Jesus reminds us that there is enough room at the table, enough welcome for people of all walks of life, enough bread for all, enough love to share, enough light to shine.
These days of darkness are hard, here in Maine. This winter, the snow and cold descended upon us in full force. As we light a candle week by week, I offer you a stanza from an Advent prayer by Arianne Braithwaite Lehn:
Dear God, you came to me amidst darkness and stars
reminding me how darkness and light
are most beautiful together.
And, in that holy, mysterious and messy night,
you redefined perfection,
promising me that leaning into the mystery
and laying down in loving awe
compose the most faithful response.
This Advent season, may the abundance of hope, peace, joy and love be with you…and your neighbor.
Organizing for Relationships and Repair
As led by Wabanaki REACH, part of this course will feature “Decolonizing and the Role of Faith Communities” – a 6-hour experience split between two Saturdays, Feb. 28 and Mar. 7. Any and all church participants in Maine are welcome and encouraged to attend! (Fee: $50) The semester course continues with sessions utilizing the “Sacred Reckonings” curriculum for organizing faith communities in response to issues of historic injustice, drawing on the Open and Affirming model.
Presenting Sponsors: Church of Universal Fellowship (Orono), Wabanaki Allies Working Group of First Congregational UCC (South Portland)
ONLINE Saturdays: Feb 28 / Mar 7 (9:00-12:00) Mar 21 / Apr 25 / May 16 (9:00-3:30)
Tuition fees range from $375-400. Partial scholarships available.
To sign up and share information with others, please see: https://www.maineucc.org/mesom/
Pilgrim Lodge Book Club
You're invited to join us for PL BOOK CLUB!
Join us on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Pick-up a copy of the book "Reading Secrets: A Queer Inheritance of Life & Scripture" by Malcolm Himschoot, Dean of the Maine School of Ministry, and join PL friends via Zoom in January to discuss the text. We'll be joined by the author himself, who will guide us in a Q/A discussion and will read a selection from the book. You don't want to miss this!
Comments