Hancock UCC Weekly Messenger for April 27, 2025

I am your king, Thomas I live

What must I do, before you're convinced

Look at my hands, come touch my side

What more will you need, before you believe

That I am alive

The choir rehearses Sunday mornings at 9:10 a.m. All are welcome.

If you donated flowers that adorned the altar Easter Sunday, PLEASE feel free to take a plant home when you leave the Sanctuary Sunday morning.

Your redeemable beverage containers support Hancock students! - Since January, church Members and Friends have contributed $130.70 in container receipts to support students and teachers at the Hancock Grammar School. Thank you! The proceeds pay for snacks to fuel students who would otherwise be hungry and unfocused during their school day. It's painless and easy contribution to a very good cause. Just bring your bottles and cans to the church or call David Wildes (422-3739) for a pickup. Thank you for your continuing support.

April and May Birthdays and Anniversaries

April 27: Jeff Springer             30: Ruth Butters          May 01: Kelly Hudson

          01: Erick & Ginny Shaw Coleman  07: Liz Singletary        07: Marge Severance            07:*Nancy* Baril   09: Jeanne Edwards     14: John Wells

Please keep the following people in your prayers this week:

Prayers for Pat Shannon’s daughter, Mary Riley. Prayers for Alex, Andrew and Tamara; and for Tyler Crabtree. Prayers for Donald B.; Kenny V.; Orrick; Brian; and Jane of Golden Acres. Prayers for the Livio Family who lost everything including their beloved dog in a house fire recently. Prayers for Cynthia W.; Judith C.; Eleanor A.; Ira and Ginny; Don and Heather; Bruce’s sister Lynn; Sally’s friend, Sue Barger; Herbie Lounder; Ruth; Marie; Jim Snyder; Jonathan Holmes; John Wood; Sue Davies; Sue Davenport; Liz & Jim; Kenny Stratton & Joy & David & Lori & Melissa; Debbie & Lincoln & son-in-law Aaron, daughter Ashley, and granddaughter Brielle; Sandy Phippen; Amy Nickerson; Kevin and Vanessa & family. Prayers of strength and healing for all awaiting diagnoses and for all recovering from surgeries & procedures. Prayers for all that are unsafe, unhoused, hungry & in need of care & compassion. Prayers for all caregivers; those who are grieving; and prayers for all that is in your heart…

Choir, Easter Sunday Morning

April 20, 2025

Front row: Pat Summerer, Carol Skinner,

Jeanne Edwards, Mary Angela Davis, and

Alison Boden

Back row: David Mack and Nick Davis

Pianist / Choir Director: Debbie Riley

CWS-Update from the Disaster Ministries Team – How CWS is Responding to Myanmar…

In our initial response, CWS (Church World Service) has provided financial support to a local partner to reach communities close to the epicenter outside of Junta-controlled areas where little or no help has been provided. Through the Asian Disaster Reduction & Response Network (ADRRN), CWS Japan is coordinating with local disaster organizations in the region to assess the situation and determine how and where CWS can provide the greatest support.

In the most affected areas, including Mandalay City, Sagaing Province and Nay Pyi Taw, critical items have been distributed, including food, hygiene items, cash assistance, and emergency shelter and hygiene kits. 

CWS will continue to work with partners in the region to provide initial life-saving support and work with affected communities long after the initial disaster response phase to identify unmet needs and gaps where our support and efforts are most impactful. We will be involved in long-term recovery efforts to help meet these needs in the months and years to come.

Your contributions ensure that we can provide critical and life-saving resources to our neighbors when it’s most needed and sustain that support long after the news has left the headlines. Donations of items for kits and or the “processing fees” of $2.00 per kit are very much needed as well! Do what you can and please promote and or assist at your local church. The depots are just weeks away!! Contact us if you would like to get involved with our team or need any assistance. Jack Lacey, Chair 207-745-1348.

From Our Maine Conference

      What Do “The Marks” Mean?

                    - Rev. Dr. Malcolm Himschoot,

      Dean of the Maine School of Ministry

Dean’s Announcement: For current Members in Discernment and interested COM volunteers, MESOM will host a Marks Fishbowl on Saturday, Sep. 6th . For hands-on exploration, portfolio development, and peer consultation, you are invited to drop in at the conference office between 10:00-2:00.

Faith leadership in a tradition carries that tradition with it. If we happen to be moving in the current of a tradition, it is like being a fish in water – how do we begin to describe it? But if we don’t describe it, how do we nurture and call forth leadership that will carry that tradition into the future? “The Marks of Faithful and Effective Authorized Ministers” arose from a number of conversations during the first decades of this millennium among people who carry transformative practices and values of faith life in the United Church of Christ. “The Marks” become a reference point across the many settings of our denomination, to serve as common vocabulary for anyone who cares about leadership. Theological educators, mentors, Members in Discernment, Committees on Ministry, lay persons and authorized ministers, can use these signposts to map meaningful destinations – and ask important questions about ways to get there.

There are eight categories of “The Marks.” These eight topic areas reflect conversations across regions and cultures, lay and ordained participants.

(1) “Exhibiting a Spiritual Foundation and Ongoing Spiritual Practice.” Should a minister do that? Yes, indeed! This is where it all starts. (2) “Nurturing UCC Identity.” Should every minister do this? In an ecumenical and interfaith world, ministers embodying covenant with the UCC should do this. (3) “Building Transformational Leadership Skills.” Is this true to what faithful and effective ministers have always done? Yes. Does it come automatic for someone just because they have a graduate degree? No. (4) “Engaging Sacred Stories and Traditions.” In this area look to find aspects of preaching, teaching, and sacrament.

(5) “Caring for All Creation” is the fifth of the areas of “The Marks” and speaks to ministry in a practical sense, informed by self-awareness and a broader engagement in context. (6) “Participating in Theology” means to imagine and reflect constantly, not only on books past and present, but also on lived experience as a source of understanding from a God who is still speaking. (7) “Working Together for Justice and Mercy” describes how a minister serves to equip the saints to press on toward the calling for which Christ called us. (8) “Strengthening Inter- and Intra-personal Assets” indicates not only professional skills but the personal maturity and relational strengths to carry trust and build capacity among a wider group of people.

The list has 48 total Marks; six in each area. Examples of needed knowledge, skills, and abilities are detailed within the above eight sections of “The Marks.” Every Committee on Ministry volunteer is learning about this longer list, while they have their own case studies coming up in committee work. Is a MID meant for authorized ministry? How should that MID prepare? Is a MID ready for the responsibility? What else is needed? To each question they face on a committee, individual Marks or areas of the Marks provide one way to frame an answer.*

Committee on Ministry decision-making is increasingly guided by competency assessment, rather than triggered by certain life stages or institutional inputs. If a Committee on Ministry is not seeing “The Marks” come through clearly from a Member in Discernment, if the Committee cannot recognize with enthusiasm a level of knowledge, skill, and ability for ministry in and on behalf of the UCC, their answer to a question of authorization should simply be: “No.” By contrast, whenever there is a clear “Yes” based on “The Marks,” then the wider church knows what it is celebrating! By conferring authorization, Christ’s people are not dispensing an individual commodity; they are investing in their deepest dreams for God’s future.

The Maine School of Ministry has a sample document available for Members in Discernment and COMs regarding “The Marks” and how MESOM’s curriculum courses contribute to a curated portfolio. If you would like to see this document, please write to us. Those who will be communicators and leaders in the life of the church have the big job of expressing what they feel to be true, and testing their hearing of God’s sacred call with discernment partners. Sometimes culminating portfolios to communicate their theology and leadership show creative work: stained glass windows, original songs, grants written, non-profits founded. Sometimes portfolios consist of sermons and written pieces alongside an ordination paper. When a Member in Discernment uses a portfolio to shine forth the meaning of “The Marks,” a paradoxical thing happens. Such indicators of competence for faithful and effective ministry might surpass what is special about one unique minister, to reflect the Spirit’s calling to the church as a whole.

* In matters such as preparation and formation, authorization for ministry or not, and ongoing support for lifelong discernment which is unending, familiarity with “The Marks” can be useful to structure conversations across the entire arc of ministry. The exception for COM work is decisions on ethical matters, to be guided by the Minister’s Code and UCC procedures around Fitness Reviews. See the Manual on Ministry.