The Williston-West Navigator

After a horrendous winter and dismal (non-existent!) spring, we were blessed with a summer beyond compare. But, as God would have it, the seasons march on so already we are beginning our fall season when the church comes back to full life. As you read the September issue of the Navigator, this will be made clear.

Later this fall I will be presenting a three-night series on Erik Erikson’s theory of personality and the search for ego identity. The paradigm he presented provides a wonderful and safe way to look at ourselves and to learn why we interact with the world the way we do.

I will expand on Erikson’s stages of human development by looking at how our faith, or lack thereof, is profoundly affected by early childhood and is open for growth throughout one’s entire lifespan. Self-knowledge is important if we are to have a mature and healthy religious life.

On a more personal note, I want to thank you all for giving me the time to heal from my accident that resulted in a detached bicep. I am doing very well and feel great, but the road back to complete recovery requires much time. I have learned a lot about myself this summer as I looked out on the million tasks I was just itching to do but simply couldn’t. Of course, whether I intend it or not, this experience will be reflected in future sermons.

I look forward to being back and am ready to enthusiastically resume my role as pastor to a most wonderful church family.

As I write this, the warm days of summer linger with what perhaps are the last days of the humidity that the meteorologist calls the muggies. I truly do not want to write about the opening of our new church year because it will mean that we are days closer to all that winter will deliver.

But we have much to look forward to besides the weather. When we gather together as a family once again, we will continue to build on the work we accomplished last spring. We will get back that spirit we seem to have placed on hold while we enjoyed our visitors from away, our boats, our vacations and all that summer in Maine brings through God’s blessings.

I want to encourage each of you to become involved with our work at church. Please consider spending a little time on fall clean up, or working with one of our committees that do all the work of the church. Each of you can help us grow. You do not have to go door-to-door as an evangelist; that is not our style. Perhaps you can find a way to let a friend, neighbor or co-worker know how valuable you find Williston-West’s open door, kinder and gentler approach to theology. We know your time is valuable; after all each week still has only 10,080 minutes. We only need a few minutes from each member to remain vital, lively and continue to grow.

Our UCC campaign "God is Still Speaking" is now close to one year old. It has enjoyed remarkable success from coast to coast. Those of us you have elected to lead our historic church recognize the responsibility you have entrusted to us. We must do the hard work to insure that we grow as a family of faith. In the past ten years the number of children in our Sunday school has grown remarkably, but our overall growth has not kept pace. The greatest good each of you can do for Williston-West is to bring one new person to worship with us. Just think: in that ninety minutes, we get the opportunity to demonstrate our remarkable welcome and they get a well- needed respite from the week past and a spiritual lift for the next.

My motto for Williston-West for the foreseeable future… "EACH ONE BRING ONE."

As we welcome new people into our membership, I hope that we will all reflect on our individual contribution to the strengthening of our church community and consider participating on one of the many boards or committees at Williston West.

As a mid-year check-in, maybe it is a good time to ask, "What do your Deacons do?" I say "your" Deacons because, as members of the board, we are your representatives. We are here to serve the congregation’s needs, and when we are able, your wants as well. We are also representatives of our church in the broader community. Here are some examples of our Board’s activities:

One of our most basic, and perhaps one of the most obvious, is our preparation of the sanctuary for worship. The Deacons are responsible for making sure that it is presentable, that services are taped for those that are unable to attend, that the sound system is broadcasting into the sanctuary, that the candles are lit when appropriate, that the lights and fans are on, and that you are "de-greeted" at the end of service. We prepare the elements, set the communion table, and serve communion on the first Sunday of every month.

Based on information coming out of the retreat, we are also taking responsibility for brightening the sanctuary in the form of large banners that will be hung at the front. If you know someone that has an artistic flare or sewing capabilities, please let me know as we are considering a number of options to have this completed!

The Deacons are the lay ministry, the spiritual leadership from within the congregation. Our ministry includes educational and spiritual development opportunities by ensuring that each service has a liturgist. The Board of Deacons led a laity Sunday on July 3, wherein the service was conducted by members of the board. We also host a number of programs, such as our Advent and Lenten series, and made contributions to the planning of the retreat. One of our plans for this year includes a Comparative Religion Program in October and November, hosting five different speakers from different religions. Tentative dates are October 20 & 27 and November 3, 10 and 17.

Finally, through your contributions, we support both individuals and needs of the community through the Deacon’s Fund (the special offering given during the first Sunday of each month). We have contributed money to support Longcreek Youth Center’s fellowship following their worship service. This summer, we also donated $300.00 to send a needy child from the community to summer camp through the program at Portland West.

All in all, we have a vibrant, diverse, and strong board. We hope that we are adequately fulfilling the needs of our congregation; please let me know if you have any suggestions that we can consider! I want to personally thank each member of the board for their individual contributions to our growth and for their insight.

Trina Anderson, Linda McDevitt, Sherry Thomas,
Roxanna Brophy, Karl Parker, Bill Whelan,
Erik Hanna, Chris Snell,
Dan Kane, Gloria LaBreque

This glorious summer that we have all enjoyed is winding down and before long it will be time for Kick-Off Sunday and the return of the choir. I’m sure you have enjoyed the summer music program. There will be a minor change in the rehearsal time for the choir. Instead of starting at 6:30 PM on Wednesdays, rehearsal will begin at 7 PM. This will give everyone a chance to get home, eat, and get to rehearsal. The first Wednesday rehearsal will be September 21. The choir will return on Sunday September 11, and there will be choir rehearsals at 9AM on both the 11^th and the 18^th.

If new people are interested in joining the choir, please plan on coming to a rehearsal. We all work hard, but we also have a lot of fun. In the future I would like to see both sides of the choir loft filled.

Beth and I will again work with the junior choir. Rehearsals will continue to be right after worship service during coffee fellowship. That seemed to work out well last spring. The first rehearsal will probably be October 2. We will keep you posted on that. We had a wonderful group of young people join us, and we look forward to adding some additional young voices.

See you on Kick-Off Sunday September 11th!!!!!!!

In September the Membership Committee will begin to make Williston-West even more welcoming. Sumner Moulton and Carol Witham will take turns sitting at a Welcome Table near the entrance to the sanctuary to offer nametags to visitors or to those who don’t have them. Our goal is to be able to call one another by name.

A basket will be provided in Fellowship Hall for the return of your tags or you may return them to the board. Penney Armstrong is in the process of putting all our nametags in the same format. She will continue to do this as new names are added.

P l e a s e:

WEAR YOUR NAMETAG

Thank you for joining us in this exciting venture.

In thinking about the business of the church, there are a number of activities that the Trustees have either taken upon their plates through their own initiative, or have been asked by the church council to do in accordance with some of the results from our recent retreat.

Some items that currently engage the Trustees are exploring the possibility of electronic pledging capacity, looking to paint the sanctuary, including the very dark grill work at the front of the church, reviewing the insurance policies, and putting the endowment fund out for bid.

The idea of pledging electronically is one that we are quite taken with, and look forward to bringing more details to folks just in time for our annual stewardship appeal.

The investment committee has determined that it is time to review where the endowment fund is currently being managed, and be confident that our resources are with the best possible firm. An RFP (request for proposals) letter will be sent to the current managing firm, and we will also seek proposals from another firm. We will make a decision about this probably around October.

Also in October, we will begin to charge the various church council committees to begin making plans and recommendations for the budget development. It is our hope that we can design a new process that allows for as much voice as possible in the development of the budget, without bogging things down too much.

Stay tuned. I hope you have enjoyed the summer. We look forward to giving folks more information this fall.

More by happenstance than anything else, I have recently read two books and a poem that revolve around church life. The two books were set in the fourteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, and more on those later.

I want to start with the poem. "The Eve of St. Agnes," by John Keats, who wrote in the early nineteenth century. St. Agnes, a virgin martyr of the last great persecution by the Roman emperor, Diocletian, was venerated as a model of purity, and was patron of young girls. You may not be an enthusiast of poetry, but give this one a try – it is a long poem, but easy reading, and I think that you will enjoy it. Rather than include it here, I offer you a link to a wonderful site (The Poets' Corner) which displays the entire poem. I hope you enjoy it.

Church life was rather austere in those days, but in this story there was something brewing in the sanctuary and parish buildings...

On Sunday, June 19, we held our 5^th annual Seeds of Peace Planting Day at the Seeds of Peace International Camp in Otisfield, Maine. It was a beautiful day to be at the lake and we had an industrious group of planters in attendance. The camp’s Activities Director, Leslie Adelson-Lewin, spoke to us about the camp and introduced us to two counselors—both former Seeds campers, one from Israel and one from Egypt, who then told us how the camp had impacted their lives. After enjoying our picnic lunches, we got to work. The place was alive with activity because there was a counselor training going on, and all the campers were due to arrive the next day. As we worked, we had many people thanking us for our efforts and telling us how much it meant to them to have us there each year planting flowers and beautifying the camp.

Many thanks go to those in attendance that day:

Thanks also to all of those who donated flowers and supplies by "picking a flower for peace" and bringing in many annuals and perennials for us to plant at the camp! You really made our job easy!

The planting day is an annual event so if you missed participating this year, it’s not too early to think about joining us next June. Be part of the "Miracle in the Maine woods that is Seeds of Peace International Camp"!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

It’s never too early to start talking about the Christmas Fair, which will be held on December 3 this year. I have already started making jam, and, as usual, I am looking for ½ pint jelly jars. If anyone needs pint or quart jars, I have lots of both. I really hope other people will do some canning this year. We can always use pickles, salsas, jam, jellies, etc. Canning is not difficult, and it gives you a great feeling of accomplishment. If I can do it, anyone can.

Every day 30,000 children die a preventable death due to extreme poverty. Yet we have the power to prevent this silent tsunami. What is missing is the moral and political will to do so.

What can we do as a community of Christians to help prevent this tragedy? Well, for starters, we can’t go along as usual and pretend it isn’t happening. This summer I read God’s Politics by Jim Wallis, and I am slowly wading through The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs. There is much more information on the Internet of course, some of which I have referenced below. All of it suggests that with prophetic leadership, the problem of world poverty can be faced and overcome.

An upcoming opportunity to get involved is September 14-16, when the United Nations will hold a high level plenary meeting -- also referred to as a summit -- to review the implementation of the Millennium Declaration (2000), and the integrated follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.
 
 Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger 
 Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education 
 Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women 
 Goal 4: Reduce child mortality 
 Goal 5: Improve maternal health 
 Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases 
 Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability 
 Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development 

The evangelical group, Sojourners, is calling on us to declare to President Bush our intention to fast and pray during the World Summit at the United Nations, September 14-16. A fast can be as simple as sacrificing one meal during the course of the Summit, which can serve as a spiritual and personal act of solidarity with the billions of people across the world who go without food and basic necessities every day. Even this relatively small sacrifice will strengthen our call for real and specific policies to fight global poverty. If you can access the Internet you can send President Bush a message declaring your intent to fast. Go to http://go.sojo.net/campaign/30000_children/

As Jim Wallis says in his book, it’s time not just to rescue people who are "drowning in the river," but also to swim upstream, find out why, and do something about the causes of this world tragedy.;