Hancock UCC Weekly Messenger for May 4, 2025

He said, Simon, do you love me more than all these others do?

I said, Lord, you have no closer friend, my love for you is true.

As if he disbelieved me, he asked me twice again

Till I said, Lord, you know everything, you know I am your friend.

And he told me, feed my sheep, feed my sheep,

Feed my sheep, just feed my sheep.

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

Please join us this Sunday, May 4th at our 10:00 Worship Service as we offer a Liturgy of Thanksgiving and Release for Sarina Brooks, who concluded her Student Ministry Internship with us in February while Pastor TJ was on Family Medical Leave. We were incredibly blessed to have Sarina ministering with us for so long, and in so many ways. Let us come together to thank her for the gifts that she shared with us and to bless her on her continued journey.

Sunday we will share Holy Communion.  For those who will receive the sacraments at home, please prepare a piece of bread or a cracker, and a cup of juice or wine and join us at the table. Also, we will be receiving non-perishable food items, toiletries, and pet food for the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry as we do on the first Sunday of every month.

During the month of May, we will be receiving the Strengthen the Church Offering. STC is one of the special 5 for 5 offering received by the Maine Conference each year. STC reflects the shared commitment of people across the UCC to cooperatively build up the UCC. Conferences and the national setting equally share the gifts given by members and friends through their local congregations. The funds raised support leadership development, new churches, youth ministry, and innovation in existing congregations.  By your generous gift to this offering, you build up the Body of Christ. Envelopes are available in the back of the Sanctuary. Every little bit helps!

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.

This summer, in addition to the 10:00 Worship Service in our Sanctuary, Pastor TJ plans to offer an alternative early morning contemplative service during the months of June, July, and August. The tentative plan is for the services to begin at 7:00 a.m. at Tidal Falls. It is expected that these outdoor services inspired by John Philip Newell prayer books might be 20-30 minutes in length. Your feedback is desired. How often shall we meet? Weekly? Twice a month? Once a month? Is 7:30 preferable to 7:00? Is there a location other than Tidal Falls to consider? Are others interested in leading this simple service so that they happen even on the Sundays when TJ is unavailable to lead? Please be in touch with Pastor TJ with your thoughts on how to best make these early morning outdoor services fit your busy summer schedules.

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.

Deacons will meet on Friday, May 9 at 3:00 pm

Outreach will meet on Thursday, May15 at 4:15 pm

Trustees will meet on Wednesday, May 21 at 4:00 pm on Zoom only

Council will meet on Friday, May 23 at 11:00 am

May Birthdays and Anniversaries

07: Liz Singletary        07: Marge Severance   07:*Nancy* Baril   09: Jeanne Edwards  14: John Wells   18: Fran Courschene   20: Dennis King          22: Brendan Bonner            23: Debbie Ehrlenbach     24: Erva Pinkham   26: Vicky Espling

27: Andrea Bernard         29: Sally Knapp   31: Marty* Johnson     

31: Clint & Eleanor Ritchie  

Please keep the following people in your prayers this week:

Prayers for Sally’s sister Martha; Pat Shannon’s daughter, Mary Riley; 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; 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…

Spring

By Jane W. Lennon

Roses line the walkway,

Bright reflections of the sun,

With colors of the rainbow,

Speak to everyone.

Answers all from nature

Sweet responses we do hear.

To try to be the very best,

Kind words we all do hear.

Spring captures every moment,

Bright scents that we do know.

We are of spirits rising,

And golden stars aglow.

Enjoy the starlight dancing,

Reaching each of nature’s songs,

Filling soul and gentle rhythm,

Smiling so we all belong.

From Our Maine Conference

A Letter from Lydia Hoffman

Assistant Camp Director of Pilgrim Lodge

Luke 19:1-6

 19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

I spend a lot of time thinking about trees.

 Often, I am so awestruck by a hemlock or a birch or an elm, that I find myself completely drawn away from the day to day noise of everyday life and I just can’t help but pause. I can’t help but notice their textured bark, for example, and the way it protects not only the tree but the bugs and small forms of life who burrow within it. I can’t help but wonder what it must be like to lose all of your leaves each year, to stand naked and resiliently face life bare-branched for the coldest months of the year. I can’t help but wonder what knowledge and wisdom is passed through the root system of one tree to all other neighboring trees. I can’t help but notice how my perspective changes when I am thinking about trees. My relationship with the earth changes, when I consider how young I am, and how old (and tall) some trees are. My perspective with my community changes, when I consider how, like the root systems of a tree, we are all interwoven and interconnected with each other. Our stories are so woven together, even with those who we have not yet met, that we can never separate ourselves from the communities we exist in. We are rooted into being, into connection, into creation with everything that is around us. The more I think about trees and the less I think about the material world, the more grounded I feel, the more centered I feel, and the more at peace I feel. What would it be like to stand tall like a tree? To be so incredibly resilient, so intricately connected to community, so consistent yet so open to change each season.

Surely, Zacchaeus had spent some time thinking about trees too. Or at least one tree, when he found himself hoping to get a better look at Jesus who was traveling through town. Zacchaeus, featured in our scripture for this morning, was a short man, and knew or noticed that climbing up into a tall sycamore fig tree would give him a new perspective - literally! Zacchaeus also was a tax-collector, and in the book of Luke tax-collectors are the prototypical outcasts. He was unliked by his community, and pushed aside, all the way up into a tree! A tree that gave him a new way of seeing, and perhaps a new way of thinking. In this story, the sycamore fig tree not only serves to physically allow Zacchaeus to see what is going on in his community, but it also allows his community to see him, and to especially see him when Jesus walks right up to the base of the tree and speaks to him directly. To Zacchaeus! The outcast, the tax collector, the one no one wanted to be seen with. Yet, Jesus has a habit of finding these particular tree-climbers, the outcast, the rejected. Jesus invites himself into Zacchaeus’s home for dinner, as if to say to him, “I see you”. Way up in that tree, pushed away from your community, drawn up into those sycamore fig branches, I see you. Had Zacchaeus not climbed up there, had he not considered the tree, perhaps he would have not seen the way. The way to Jesus, the way to grace, the way to forgiveness, the way to community and connection. Zacchaeus’ community cast him away, shunned him and rejected him, as if punishment and cruelty and rejection were the only way - but when Zacchaeus was able to climb to new heights he saw Another Way.

He was offered Another Way.

With Jesus, and within the trees, he found Another Way. 

Often when I am thinking about the trees, when I am trying to find a new perspective or a new way to be in connection with all creation and community, I am beneath the trees in the woods of West Gardiner Maine, at Pilgrim Lodge. A community of care and connection, an open table of inclusion and acceptance. A summer camp and retreat center focused on the spirit of extravagant welcome. Where new perspectives are formed, stories are woven together, and the spirit is alive in each and every one who travels down our camp road, daring to try a new and brave thing. To try Another Way.

At Pilgrim Lodge, each year our summer season is framed around a chosen theme that we then use as a continuous centering thought while we engage in programming, worship, and camp life together. This year, we will center ourselves around the idea and theme of, “Another Way”. Pilgrim Lodge is a community that does a lot of things, and lives in a way, that is different! We are a community that encourages tree climbing and new perspective forming.

At Pilgrim Lodge, all who come in love have a seat at the table, and in the tree. This means, that absolutely anyone who wishes to come to camp is welcomed and accepted and celebrated for who they are and what they bring with them. All who come with open hearts, open minds, and a willingness to stretch and grow are welcome at Pilgrim Lodge. All ages, all abilities, all understandings, all misunderstandings, all identities, all sexual orientations, all ethnicities, all genders, all people, all, all all. Tree climbers, tax collectors, oppressed, rejected, refused. When the world is quick to judge, when society is quick to cast away, when the voice in our heads tell us we are not enough, at Pilgrim Lodge,

we choose Another Way.

We choose to practice a welcome that is radically inclusive, because we choose to live and to love, Another Way. We actively seek new ways to grow and change and be with one another so that no one is excluded. We offer programming for all ages, intergenerational experiences, adult-only weekend sessions, first-time camper opportunities, high school age life-changing experiences, and everything in between. We believe there should be no barrier to camp for anyone who wishes to come. No need to climb up into the tree to see what is in store at camp, we will bring the goodness right to you, though tree climbing is still always encouraged.

At Pilgrim Lodge, we are surrounded by trees. We often sing a grace at meal times called “neath these tall green trees”, perhaps you’ve heard it before. The trees are part of the camp community, all creation is part of the camp community. We take a moment to pause, to slow down our lives that can be so busy and so full, and reflect among the pines and the leafy trees.

At Pilgrim Lodge, we hope you’ll come with an open mind and leave ready to change the world. We hope you’ll climb to new heights and see new perspectives. You, tree climbers and meaning-makers, are especially invited to Pilgrim Lodge this summer. You believers and you hope-filled journeyers, are especially invited to Pilgrim Lodge. Come be among the trees, come see and do things, Another Way.

Summer Schedule: https://www.pilgrimlodge.org/camps/

Scholarship Applications: https://www.pilgrimlodge.org/summer-camp/scholarships/

Sad News from Honduras 

Last Friday (4-25) the beautiful headquarters of the Evangelical and Reform Church of Honduras was gutted in a fire.  No one was injured because the family living in the 2nd story residence was able to get out, but they lost all their possessions and the offices and equipment and contents of the Sinodo were destroyed.

Over the years since Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras (1998), hundreds of us Maine Conference people have been welcomed by our sisters and brothers at this headquarters and in many of their churches as well.  This loss will be felt by all their pastors and congregations so I ask that each and all of us add pastors and layleaders and people of our sister church to our individual and Sunday worship prayers.

We expect to have much more news by the next publication of Midweek News, so look for this next week.

For the Honduras Partnership Committee and many other concerned folk in our Conference, thank you.

Bruce Burnham (the Rev.)