Hancock UCC Weekly Messenger for March 29, 2026

Filled with excitement, all the happy throng spread cloaks and branches on the city streets. / There in the distance they begin to see, riding on a donkey, comes the Son of God. / From every corner a thousand voices sing praises to him who comes in the name of God. / With one great shout of acclamation loud triumphant song breaks forth: / “Hosanna to the King!” “Hosanna to the King!”

Choir rehearsals are on Sunday mornings at 9:10am. All are welcome.

Sunday is Palm Sunday and also New Member Sunday! Join us as we celebrate Palm Sunday and welcome new members of our congregation into full covenant with our church community.

Palm Sunday, March 29: Worship and New Member Sunday at 10:00am

Maundy Thursday, April 2: Tenebrae Service at 7:00pm

Good Friday, April 3: Sanctuary open for prayer and reflection from Noon – 3:00pm

Easter Sunrise Service, April 5: 6:00am at Riverside Cemetery

(behind Hancock Grammar School)

Breakfast in the Fellowship Hall at 7:00am

Easter Morning Worship at 10:00am with handbells

We are looking for a volunteer to coordinate our 7:00am Easter Breakfast in the Fellowship Hall following our 6:00am Sunrise Service at the Riverside Cemetery.

The Meditation Group meets Friday mornings, at 9:00 am in the Fellowship Hall. Reach out to Pastor TJ or Alison Boden with any questions. All are welcome!

(revtjmack@gmail.com, 207-323-6743 or aboden3321@gmail.com, 609-865-3236)

Hear ye, hear ye!

All are invited to the Hancock Historical Society on Friday, March 27 at 2:00 pm to witness and celebrate as Carol Skinner receives the Boston Post cane for the town of Hancock. A reception will follow the presentation.

On Saturday, March 28, Alison Boden will tell the entire Gospel of Mark from memory. Please join us in the sanctuary at 3:00 p.m. for this powerful sharing of the Word. A brief Q&A will follow in the Fellowship Hall, along with refreshments. All are welcome.

Our Deacons offer rides to area residents on Sunday mornings and for special church events. They could use some help! If you are willing to  be part of the driver pool please let Pastor TJ or a Deacon know. 

Love our new sanctuary ceiling? We have extra paint left over after project completion. Robin blue, interior latex. Free to any who wish to take it home.

Our first warming center dinner was a big success and guests were very grateful.  March 29th is our next "hot dinner" date and we are planning on the following menu:  Meatloaf (w/ gravy), mashed potatoes, peas, carrots and cookies for dessert.  A sign up sheet for food donations will be available at the church on Sunday, March 15th, and cash donations are always appreciated.  Thank you so much for your continued support of this important outreach - we are making a small difference and making valuable connections with our community's most vulnerable.  Please contact Tamara at 207-460-4148 if you have any questions.

Our meetings for the month of April. All meetings are open to all. Please let Vicky know if you would like a link to attend via ZOOM.

Christian Ed, Friday, April 3 at 12 Noon; 

Deacons, Friday, April 10 at 4:30 pm;

Trustees, Wednesday, April 15 at 4 pm via Zoom;

Outreach Thursday, April 16 at 4:30 pm

Council will meet on Friday, April 17 at 11 am

Healthy Acadia is coordinating the 15th Annual Hancock County Food Drive with a kick-off event on Saturday, April 4th. Volunteers from many Food Security Organizations (FSO) will be on-site at grocery stores and businesses (9 AM - 5 PM).

The HGS BackPack Program has been a beneficiary of this effort for several years.

The goal is to raise $40,000 which will be distributed to the 16 participating FSO's.

The Hancock County Sheriff's office will be conducting a "Fill-the Cruiser" at Shaw's and Ellsworth Police will do likewise at Hannaford’s.

Attached are: a Food Drive Poster and an Event Poster with info.

Ways to Donate:

Food Drive - Main website: https://www.hcfooddrive.org/hcfd

How to donate: https://www.hcfooddrive.org/donate

Donate by check:

1.   Write the check to Heart of Maine United Way with “Hancock County Food Drive” in the Memo Line.

2.   Mail the check to Heart of Maine United Way at 700 Mount Hope Avenue, Suite 101, Bangor, ME 04401

Please keep the following people in your prayers this week:

Prayers for all God’s creation, that peace may prevail here and around the world. Our prayers remain with Aaron & Ashley, Lincoln & Debbie, Alex & Savannah, Andrew & Tamara, Tyler Crabtree and all of their families. We pray for David, Brian, Brad, Donald, Kenny V, James, Marie, Charlie, Jonathan and Jane of Golden Acres. Prayers for Doug and Jeanne & her brother Clem. We pray for Sarina’s dad James, Mike & Carol; Dexter B.; Cynthia W.; Judith C.; Eleanor A.; the Raymonds; Hollis & Debbie; Bruce’s sister Lynn; Kirk; Ruth & Peter; Patrice’s step-sister Patricia; Herbie Lounder; Sandy Phippen; Sue Davies; and Sue Davenport. Prayers for all in Hospice Care and for all caregivers. Prayers for all that are unsafe, unhoused, hungry & in need of care & compassion. Prayers for individuals and families affected by addictions. Prayers for those who are grieving loss or change or experiencing family conflict; and prayers for all that is in your heart…

Save the Dates

●     Sunday, May 3rd our Christian Education and Outreach Teams are planning our next Intergenerational Party, in our Fellowship Hall from 4:00-6:00pm.

●     May 15th and 16th. Pat Summerer and Jennifer Ashmore are preparing for our Spring Clothing Sale scheduled for Friday night and Saturday morning. Volunteers will be needed the week before to create the attractive retail space for which we are known.

●     June 17-20th. Let’s go to Pilgrim Lodge for Lighten Up Loosen Up (LULU) camp for adults. Plan to attend all three nights or only one or two. Do what is right for you.

April Birthdays

     04: Don Baril  09: Jane Bradley  11: Linda Cunningham   13: Nancy Johnston       19: Linda King  19: Keith Bowie    21: Mary Beth DiMarco  21: Brian Simpson    22: Betty Johnston    27: Jeff Springer           30: Ruth Butters

Our church has a tradition of sending cards so each person feels remembered and celebrated. You are invited to help continue this by donating birthday cards – whether you have a stack at home or just one or two to share. Every contribution makes a difference, and with your help, we can keep this joyful ministry going. Thank you!

Poet’s Corner

I’m searching for the future

to be; better than yesterday

I’m healing of the past,

to make WAR obsolete

and settle disagreements better

from this day to the last

for saving lives and loving

each other is better than

taking lives of elderly and

children who are just starting

out and have a bright

and beautiful future to live

for

clean water         fresh air      flowers

and peace

~ Jane W. Lennon

Ancestors

Rev. Dr. Malcolm Himschoot, Dean of Maine School of Ministry

I guess I’ll be the one to tell you. Alas. The dean of your Maine School of Ministry failed to pass his ordination exam. Once, 23 years ago, I met around the table with some wise and prudent decision-makers in the metro Denver association, and they decided not to ordain me – yet. The following season they would ordain me, but on that day, the direction of theological dialogue headed into waters of which I was uncertain. They put to me a hard question that I could not answer. “What is the Barmen Declaration?” I stumbled. I agreed to meet later with my local church pastor to address this gap in my UCC formation and knowledge. I would come to find out that he was the one who held the committee to a high standard of discernment on that day, because he knew personally what was at stake upstream and downstream from this doctrinal statement in the context of history. This was no trivia question, but rather a central piece of spiritual understanding that is too often glossed over in favor of cultural normalization and political accommodation. It was my ordination exam question, then. It may well become the test of our time.

Now you’re curious. You want to know the answer. Where to start this story?

I was not there in 1930s Germany, but I learned after the fact that German churches dealt with internal divisions and conflict because of white nationalists beginning to take over the government and co-opt Christian churches. I can imagine that some churches fed right into the Nazi apparatus, other churches went along, and still more churches hesitated to say things that would create conflict. I can imagine that when a few leaders did say things that opposed the Nazis, they were deemed controversial, and they had to keep going until more and more people of conscience began to see the writing on the wall.

Apparently, these German clergy summoned one another to an ecclesiastical and theological summit to make plain the metaphorical writing-on-the-wall by scripting a theological document so more people could understand the problem that Nazis had. This was years before a similar council met in South Africa to proclaim that “apartheid is a heresy,” and even more years before descendants of Congregationalist missionaries recanted the Doctrine of Discovery to indigenous Hawaiians. The problem the Nazis had is multi-generational, spans the globe, and could be said like this: There is no Jesus in white nationalism; there is no Christ in christofascism; there is no Spirit of God in violent control and exploitation.

The way the people at Barmen worded it in 1934 was with a statement of affirmations modeled as confessional beliefs. Those who signed on to the Barmen Declaration afterward became known as the “Confessing Church.” They made plain the following:

            1- Jesus is Lord. (Understood: Hitler is not.)

            2- There is no area of life where Jesus is not. Not even politics.

            3- The church’s belonging and loyalty is found in Jesus. (Not the Nazi party.)

     4- The church’s authority must not be given to any political leader. (See point #1.)

            5- Church and state are not the same, and the authority of the state does not                              subsume the responsibility of the church.

            6- The church must preach the commission of Jesus, not the commission of any                       politician or any party. (This was a statement of non-cooperation with the Nazis.)

My pastor, Rev. Clyde Miller came from the generation of WWII veterans, the generation that saw through the formation of the United Church of Christ, prevailed through the civil rights movement to tether American democracy to its multi-racial goals, and held sacred the ideas of the Confessing Churches. Including the idea represented by the UCC official logo, visually expressing the sovereignty of Christ throughout every sphere of life. Now – why was this personal to him? Clyde was an African-American man in a part of the country that had only a small African-American community. He was used to being one lone voice crying in the wilderness when it came to “justice issues.” But he was wise and faithful. And especially when he had orthodoxy on his side, not to mention ancestors like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he did not feel intimidated. Bonhoeffer himself learned from elders in the US Black church from his time spent in Harlem. Later UCC leaders would pick up on this important legacy in the post-war ecumenical movement. It was important to Clyde that the next generation of people coming along in ministry – white and Black, German and English, Asian and all – would learn from the scruples and the courage of these ancestors.

From Pastor Clyde I indeed learned to recognize the backbone and sense of humor that Jesus showed when he rode a donkey into Jerusalem. On the first Palm Sunday he claimed his own spiritual lineage from the prophecy of Zechariah and Zechariah’s forebears. Jesus’spectacle symbolized a spiritual truth more powerful than the chariots and warhorses of empire. In the emperor’s game of dominance and humiliation, Jesus actually chose humility and transformation. In Matthew’s gospel, this marks a clear contrast to what Caesar was all about. It represents a theological summons to children of God, and a limit to the wisdom of the age. Jesus reminded people of their sacred heritage of peace, their call to integrity, and their necessary embodiment of love of neighbor, as opposed to love of power. He wore no armor and cut no one down. He was neither belligerent nor ruthless. Rather, Christ taught us the only lesson that matters to learn – even if, and especially when, we make mistakes and have to learn it all over again.

 Easter Flowers

If you would like to help beautify the church with Easter flowers please fill out the form below and return it to the office by March 29^th.  (Easter is April 5^th.)

A donation of $15.00 is suggested.

Cash or checks, please. Checks payable to Union Congregational Church of Hancock. 

Please indicate whether your donation is in honor of or in loving memory of…

Your Name:___________________________ Phone:____________________

How do you wish to have the bulletin read?

In honor of  _____________________________________________________

In loving memory of  _____________________________________________

Amount paid ___________

EASTER

at

Union Congregational Church

1368 Route 1, Hancock

Palm Sunday, March 29, 10:00 am

Maundy Thursday, April 2, 7:00 pm

Good Friday, April 3rd, 12 noon – 3 pm,

Sanctuary open for prayer and reflection

Easter Sunday, April 5

6:00 am, Sunrise Service

Riverside Cemetery, Hancock

(Rain location – church Fellowship Hall)

7:00 am, Breakfast in Fellowship Hall

       10:00 am, Traditional Easter Service

with Handbells

Followed by Fellowship Time

WE WELCOME EVERYONE!