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PASTOR’S NOTES Eric Kelley Occasionally I come across something that makes me laugh because it hits so close to home. This happened to several of us when Bill Whelan opened the July Deacons’ meeting with this little prayer written by Dorothy Shellenberger. It started a big discussion on aging parents, our own aging, and the way we deal with life. I bagged this from Bill to share with you now. I hope this prayer makes you laugh a little – laughter that I call "growth laughter" – as you look more closely at the meaning of your life and what is really most important. "Lord, You know better than I know myself that I am growing older and will someday be old.
Grace and Peace, Eric
 The Great Foundation! Cindy Stewart This has been quite a summer so far and it is quickly winding its way into fall. Time goes by so fast – a phenomenon my parents spoke of and I am now living. A few weeks back Eric preached a couple of sermons about foundations, building and tearing down. Those themes are universal and apply to so much of who we are as a church and as people. This has been a year of stabilizing our foundation and re-building who we are as a church. We have welcomed many new members, and many new faces are in the pews on any given Sunday. The church has the feel of something growing - of something alive. Our foundation has proven to be strong and who knows how much of a load it can bear. My hope is that it will support the growth of a vital and vibrant church family. My own family has been through a process of examining our foundations and building new walls and tearing down old ones. This summer has brought my adult son into our home again to recover from an addiction. He seems to have built some new foundations to layer atop the one he had – hopefully influenced in part by me and the other parents in his life. This new foundation is supporting new walls, giving him something solid to lean-on and he has torn-down some rotting and dangerous walls in the process. We have built a new living space for him in our garage, which turned out to be much more of a project than we had bargained for. Dry-walling is not my strength nor is it my aspiration to become an expert in that trade. But, it is done and he has privacy and we have more space in the house. Our daughter is pushing the edges of her world – anxious to complete this final year of high school and move into a new space of college. She is impatient for this next stage, but accepting the building of the foundation and completion of high school. Our porch is torn apart as workers toil (at their convenience I might add) to convert it to an expanded living space that will bring sunlight into our lives in the dead of winter. It will be a warm and bright room to escape from the long nights of the winter. It will also be a space to breathe cool breezes and let-in the sounds of the cardinals in the summer. This is a project that is for the older adults in the house – our new room! As fall rounds the corner, our church will start to think about the budget, what new foundations we might want to add and what old ones we need to make stronger. Committees will start to think about next year’s programs and determine their needs and the Trustees will do their best to craft a budget to meet the requests. Building, expanding, tearing-down and re-evaluating. Williston West has a history of activity in all of these areas. The strong foundations and careful planning of the church will insure that it will out-live us all. It's Not Over George Crockett The Endowment Campaign Challenge is in the third year of the pledge period. We have had great results to date. We now have 14 pledges to be completed this year. That is the good news. The bad news is that even if they are all paid we will be a bit short of matching the challenge. An endowment is a critical part of assuring us that this Community that we value so much will be secure in its future. If you could step forward and make a one-time contribution to this effort it would be most appreciated. Just note on your check that it is for the Challenge Campaign. For those not familiar with this, an anonymous donor pledged $27,000 to the endowment if the congregation matched it. It was to be met over a three-year period. This is the third year. A Prayer for All Times Janet Cole In sorting through a box of records from the earliest days of Williston Church, I found the following prayer. There was no date on it, but in the three paragraphs of introduction it mentions the "growing tension and danger in the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union," I would guess it is from sometime in the 1980s. In fact, this prayer is said to have originated in the Russian Orthodox Church nearly a thousand years ago, though perhaps not in this form (the reason will become clear as you read on). Once again our country and its people face tension and danger, at home and throughout the world, in the face of terrorism. People: In peace let us pray to the Lord. *** Mission Notes Betty Kelley Last Sunday of Every Month: Food for Thought Sunday. Bring in nutritious snacks for the students of Reiche School. Good nutrition is so important to a productive learning environment and our donations of snacks are an important addition to the diets of the Reiche students. Simply add an item or two to your weekly shopping list and bring the snacks in on the last Sunday of each month. Ongoing Apple Tree Project: Pick an apple from our Apple Tree, located in our fellowship hall. The three organizations sponsored by the Apple Tree this year are The Center for Grieving Children, Portland West Neighborhood Center’s Learning Center, and Reiche School. Each apple on the tree has a small need of one of the three organizations. Pick an apple from the tree and make a difference in the life of a local child! Contact any member of the Missions Committee with questions: Audrey Tanner, Madeline Bates, Becky Gratwick, Bob Campbell, Carol Hutchins and Betty Kelley. *Showing of the Seeds of Peace documentary has been postponed until fall. Padre Nuestro Victoria Chicon Padre nuestro, ques estas en los cielos,
santificado sea tu nombre;
Venga a nos tu reino;
Hagase tu voluntad
aquian la tierra como en el cielo. Thank you, Victoria, for submitting this prayer. On The Line Bill Whelan I just returned from Sacramento, California. I know, last time I wrote I had just returned from San Diego, but this amount of travel is very unusual for me! I was in Sacramento because I am a runner and I run track. I was invited to join my former employer's track team for the weekend at the 25th Annual Corporate Track National Championships. It was an exciting weekend for me. I am thrilled to think somebody figured my running could be that much of an asset to them. I guess they also knew I enjoy running in hot weather and the temperature in Sacramento was expected to be somewhere between 95 and 105. (It was!) A comment that got me thinking about weekend (and its connection to this Williston-West newsletter) came from a friend of mine, Tom Guare. When I told him about doing this, he was impressed. Not so much because of my speed but, as he put it, "your willingness to put yourself on the line and do it out there in front of a crowd." Well, this got me thinking about commitment and willingness to risk. It also got me thinking about our minister, Eric Kelley. Being a minister and putting yourself in the pulpit every week is not an unusual thing. (Yet, Lord knows many of us couldn’t imagine coming up with a sermon for public consumption every week!) But Eric is not just a minister devoting himself to a weekly sermon. He is also a man who has made a commitment to ideals; ideals worth fighting for and taking risks for. As my friend said, he puts himself on the line and he is willing to do it in a public way. Whether the topic is gay rights, support for Palestinian survival or the survival of the Williston-West Church, Eric is a passionate man and he is willing to say what needs to be said regardless of the reaction of opponents. This is not as easy as you might think. It is not simply a matter of words; it is a matter of actions. Williston-West Church did not become an "open and affirming" church without effort, but with the support of the minister who helped us become one of the most truly open, welcoming churches in the state. Standing out on the track as part of a relay event I hear the starter's gun fire; the first runner has the baton and is running very fast in my direction. I am filled with excitement and adrenaline... and also fear. Fear that I will drop the baton as it is handed to me, fear that I will not run fast enough, that I will look bad in front of the crowd. The key is to act in spite of the fear. I know taking a stand and opening yourself up to the world is not done without a certain amount of fear, but it is done regardless. I also know that it has been a very hard year for Eric and for the church. Had Eric decided to leave during all of this, I don’t think anyone of us would have blamed him. But he didn’t leave. He continued to get up in the pulpit each week in his role of teacher, explaining the gospel to us in ways that bring the humanity out of each and every story. Living and working in the public eye is its own challenge, dealing with adversity, gossip and the struggle in your own soul while continuing to be productive is even harder. I am grateful that Eric chose to remain with Williston-West, that he is willing to be human and deal with issues even as he stands in front of the crowd. I am sorry that he and the church had to go through the maelstrom of the last year. However, I am pleased that we have remained a strong church, that we have had the collective courage to continue the process of growth and introspection; and we will be better for it. We all struggle with demons of one sort or another. The best we can hope for is to learn from it. A humorist once said, "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want". And, boy, did we get some experience! A friend of Eric’s said to him, "I’m glad you made it through all of this. Your church, and all of Portland, would have been diminished if you left." Amen. Editor's Notes Chris I have received a number of requests from various worthy causes and would like to pass this information along to you, our gentle readers. Hospice of Maine is now taking applications for the Fall volunteer training program. Training class for direct service volunteers begins September 12 and continues weekly until November 14. The class meets each Thursday from 3pm to 6pm, and one Saturday class will be held, November 2, 9am to 4pm. The course is required for people who are interested in working directly with families and patients receiving hospice volunteer services. For more information or to request an application, please contact the Hospice of Maine office at 207-774-4417, or visit their web site at www.hospiceofmaine.org. It is said, "Truly, it is in the darkness that one finds the light." I remember fondly the wonderful people at Hospice who cared so gently for my beautiful mother before her death – and their kindness to us in our grief. If you think that you have the capacity to involve yourself in this type of work, you will reap great rewards. Another rewarding experience awaits... Host a high school student from Kosovo! If you think that you, or someone you know, would be interested in hosting Fllanza, you may contact the Grimshaws through our Church office, or e-mail them at grimshaw@maine.rr.com. They send their thanks. More host families needed… Southern Maine Technical College is issuing an appeal to area families urging them to host an international student who will be participating in a unique community exchange program. Students, aged 18-21 from Vietnam, Belgium, Netherlands, Russia, Japan, Norway, Korea, Latvia, Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine will arrive this fall to study at the College and volunteer in a variety of community service programs. Debra Andrews, Director of the Center for Global Opportunities at SMTC shares her enthusiasm about this program with us with the following: "We are excited about this unique program where promising young people from overseas will become part of our community. Not only will they receive a valuable educational opportunity, they will be giving their time, energy and talent to the community. It’s a win-win for everyone. However, in order to be successful, we need host families for either a single semester or a full academic year. This is a wonderful opportunity for families to have an enriching experience that could last a lifetime. Interested families and individuals are urged to contact Debra Andrews through our Church office, or e-mail her at dandrews@smtc.edu. Debra sent a list of the students and it is here in the office. It also includes a brief biography of each student. If anyone is interested, I would be pleased to copy the information and send it along to you. |
