Hancock UCC Weekly Messenger for June 1, 2025

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

Starts This Sunday!  June, July, and August in addition to the 10:00 Worship Service in our

Sanctuary, Pastor TJ and a small contingent of volunteers plan to offer an alternative contemplative service inspired by John Philip Newell prayer books. These outdoor services will begin at 7:00 a.m. at Tidal Falls (rain or shine) and are expected to last 20-30 minutes. Please join us!

All are invited to a congregational conversation on SUNDAY, JUNE 1 following our morning service to discuss innovative uses of the acreage owned by the church that is between the parking lot on the south side of Route 1 and the shoreline.  This discussion is one outcome of the Small Church Leadership Community program of the BTS Center.  For the last 8 months Pastor TJ, Nick Davis, Carol Skinner, and Alison Boden have been representing our church in that initiative, and look forward to sharing some of what they've learned and to hearing the congregation's ideas.

Upcoming vacations

Vicky will be on vacation from May 23-June 6.

Please email or call Pastor TJ in Vicky’s absence.

Pastor TJ will be on vacation and working from a distance June 4-18. Rev. Dr. Alison Boden will lead our service on June 8. Pastor TJ will preach from Wisconsin via Zoom on June 15.

June Birthdays and Anniversaries

  01: Jim & Liz Singletary   02: David Wildes       05: Debbie Riley

08: Doug Kimmel        09: Brad Bamford           10: Catherine Genn

12: Eleanor Ritchie         12: Jackie & Bobbi Hunt       13: Bob Schmid

14: Clancy King          15: Roslynne Lowry    17: Ginny Shaw Coleman 

          17: David Mack

Please keep the following people in your prayers this week:

Alex & Savannah and Andrew & Tamara; and for Tyler Crabtree. Prayers for Donald B.; Kenny V.; Orrick; Brian; and Jane of Golden Acres. 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; Sue Davies; Sue Davenport; Kenny Stratton & Joy & David & Lori & Melissa; Debbie & Lincoln & son-in-law Aaron, daughter Ashley, and granddaughter Brielle; and Sandy Phippen. 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; and prayers for all that is in your heart…

Maine Council of Churches is Helping us keep our kids safe

Mandated Reporters in Maine are required by law to receive state-approved training every four years. That includes clergy, church school teachers, and youth group leaders.

Maine Council of Churches, in partnership with Franklin County Children's Task Force, is offering FREE online state-approved training. 

You can choose an afternoon or an evening class:

 Tuesday, June 10 at 2pm

-OR-

 Wednesday, June 11 at 7pm.

Participants will get a certificate verifying they received this training.

 From Our Maine Conference

What’s In The Hopper?

Malcolm Himschoot, Dean of The Maine School of Ministry

I love the moment of creative invitation and design that happens for MESOM classes. It happens about one year before the “go-live” moment for a class itself. Because time cycles get all mixed up, this means I’m usually thinking about something else when students are just registering and beginning any one term. Take it from me – there is a prayerful euphoria to finding people with a passionate “Yes” to offering a course that meets a deeper need: an opportunity for meaningful application of theology in the life of the church as it is and as it shall be. I know it will change lives! But I have to wait a whole year to find out whose.

Last year, Rev. Dr. Leslie Foley said YES to teaching a Worship course – offered now! – and organizing a dozen other colleagues to do it. It is complex to collaborate with and harness the energies of a few people, let alone a dozen, crossing modalities of in-person and online, tapping into multiple best practices. Yet as an educator and a pastor, Leslie is enthusiastically convinced by the Spirit’s presence in community, and she is committed to exposing the “next generation” of worship leaders to the dynamic learnings and expertise of multiple practitioners. Currents of a feminist and embodied stream of vitality now invigorating church life from the last 30, 20, 10 years of education and innovation will co-mingle and refresh the work of God’s people for the next 10, 20, 30 years.  This course – and its one-day retreat off-shoot, WorshipFest! for anyone lay or ordained – will help form and inform participants and professionals, whether from out-of-the-way or well resourced parts of the state, when they meet together at Pilgrim Lodge on Saturday, June 7th. May they practice the presence of God together. Amen. 

Meanwhile I’m busy thinking ahead to next spring! By the time the spring peepers are once again peeping, MESOM will have rolled out a whole new semester that meets learning objectives in history, ethics, and pastoral care. Between now and then, lifelong learners across the Maine Conference can register for these MESOM 2025 Fall Semester classes: 

• Preaching as Prayerful Communication, with the passionate and wise Rev. Dr. AbbyLynn Haskell, who says: “Preaching is not merely the act of delivering a message; it is a sacred conversation—an ongoing, prayerful engagement between God, preacher, and community.”

 • Old Testament Psalms, Wisdom Literature, and Prophets, a class in Hebrew Bible understanding and interpretation, in conjunction with the New York School of Ministry and long-time instructor Rev. Dr. David Cleaver-Bartholomew. 

In each case, an instructor who is a minister and a scholar has declared what they can offer – something to which they’ve dedicated their life, their time, their study – and agreed to offer it for the good of passionate students from all walks of life. It’s a microcosm of what happens in every setting of the church, when any of God’s people bring forward what they have to share.  Join in sharing your fish, and your bread. You are welcome in this learning adventure. Peek ahead in your calendar, join me in proleptic forward-looking time, and don’t wait but register today!

Today I read that Jesus asked "why?" 

about eighty times as recorded in the gospels ...

And I remember, 

"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' 

and do not do what I tell you?" 

And I wonder – 

Why does anyone bring a gun 

to the porta potty

at a victory parade for a home team?

I remember, 

"Why are you so afraid?" 

And I wonder

– Why does anyone bring a pistol 

to a picnic at a park 

with a switch to make it a machine gun?

I remember, 

"Why are you thinking these things?" 

And I wonder – 

Why is the United States 

a leader in overall firearm mortality rates, 

firearm mortality rates for children, 

firearm mortality rates for adolescents, 

firearm mortality rates for women.

I remember, 

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 

and I want to just echo the words,

but God is not the forsaker. 

 ~ Maren Tirabassi, May 27, 2025