During the Christmas season, our church has had a long-standing practice of supporting organizations that meet local humanitarian needs. This year the Church Council is encouraging your Gifts for the Christ Child to provide food, blankets and cleaning supplies for the Central Aroostook Human Society’s new animal shelter.

During the season of Advent, our Digital Team will be sharing brief devotional posts (Mon, Wed, Fri) about Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love on our Facebook page. If you find these posts meaningful, please react with a “Like,” and consider sharing the posts with others who might be blessed by the posts. You may also download a journal containing all of the posts for the season.

The Christmas Fund has been caring for active and retired clergy and lay employees of the United Church of Christ for over 100 years, providing emergency grants, supplementation of small annuities and health premiums, and Christmas “Thank You” gift checks each December to our lower-income retirees.

Your gift may be given any time during the month of December. Thank you for considering a gift to The Christmas Fund!

The Redemption of Scrooge — a 4-session Advent Study, led by Dena and Parker Smith, will meet online via Zoom on Tuesdays at 7:00 pm, beginning November 26.

Interested? Email Dena (or the church office) to order a book. You can also order a print or Kindle/ebook version direct from Cokesbury or Amazon.

Dena and Parker are excited to have you join them for this Advent exploration!

Alphabet of Gratitude is a resource for a daily reflection on gratitude. Beginning Sunday, November 3 through Thanksgiving Day we will post three social media images on our Facebook page each day.

This gratitude practice takes you through the letters of the alphabet and guides you through a different word and question for reflection each day.

The Katahdin Association Executive Committee, to support a better understanding of our sisters and brothers of the Wabanaki peoples here in Maine, has engaged with Wabanaki Reach to offer the "Interacting with Wabanaki - Maine History" program at 9:00 am on Saturday, September 28, via Zoom. This program is free for any member of our Katahdin Association churches.

Register on or before Mon, Sept 23. Click on "Read more" for how to register.

“Re-Shaped: What We’re Made For”

You’re invited to consider how God is (and has been) “Re-Shaping” us—personally, and as a church—through another worship series from Dr. Marcia McFee (Worship Design Studio). Change is so common and yet one of our most challenging human processes.

To help guide your exploration of the theme of change—which we all experience—you can download a companion reflection journal to accompany your discernment.

In July, we will be experiencing “Quest: the Awakened Traveler,” a four-week worship series that will encourage us to open ourselves more fully to the curiosity and wonder, reflection and transformation that travelers–not merely tourists–experience when they choose to immerse themselves in soul-widening adventures.

If you’d like to go deeper with the “Quest” worship series, a companion journal for the four weeks is available to download, with links to video clips with famous travel guide Rick Steves.

Our final total is $2,874.76! Thank you!

From Jennifer Gillis-White:

On behalf of the Property and Finance Ministry, we thank each person who contributed to the Paving Path fundraiser. …

These additional funds will take a great burden off other ministry resources of the church, as we complete this much needed repair to our parking area. This project is an issue of both hospitality and safety.

The Strengthen the Church all-church offering is one of the United Church of Christ’s 5-for-5 offerings we support each year. Your gift may be given any time in the month of May.

“Read More” to view an invitational message from the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, and a short video reminding us of the important work our gifts support — programs and initiatives that can directly impact our church’s ministry.

On Sunday, April 8, the Property and Finance Ministry launched the Paving Path fundraiser. The goal of this fundraising is to raise money to offset the cost of repairing and paving the Second Street parking lot entrance — a much needed repair project.

When completed, this fundraiser will earn $5,050. These additional funds will take a great burden off other ministry resources of the church, as we complete our paving project. How it works …

“Share the Light”

During the month of March we invite your giving to One Great Hour of Sharing® (OGHS). It is one of four special mission offerings of the United Church of Christ. This Lenten Offering supports the disaster, refugee, and development ministries of the United Church of Christ within Wider Church Ministries.

We recently shared via email a guide-book for a Lenten prayer practice called Pray the Day. We also promised to provide daily Facebook posts through Lent. However, Pray the Day is not a daily series, but rather a template for a practice of prayer throughout each day.

To provide that daily prompt for your Lenten spiritual journey, we are sharing Return to Me on our Facebook page, exploring the theme of “return” through several spiritual practices – with prompts suitable for children, too. Booklets can be downloaded …

An Invitation & An Opportunity

As part of our annual appeal for financial support, Pledge Packets are mailed to members and friends to inform and encourage giving to support the ministry of our church. The items in that packet are also linked at the end of this post.

Why give? One important document in the packet is a letter from our new Moderator, Susan Morrill, highlighting the recent annual meeting vote to explore some form of shared ministry with the United Parish Church of Fort Fairfield

The Annual Meeting of The Presque Isle Congregational Church, United Church of Christ was held following the worship service on Sunday, January 28, 2024. In addition to the ordinary business of accepting reports about the 2023 work of our Church Council and Ministries, financial reports, remembering members who died in the past year, and thanking those who had served in leadership roles, several actions were taken regarding our ministry in 2024: …

Our church’s Annual Meeting is a time to reflect on the past year, plan financially and programmatically for the coming year, elect leaders, and celebrate our life together in community.

While this meeting satisfies a legal requirement of incorporation, it is more importantly a moment for us to determine how we will follow faithfully where the Spirit leads. In this year’s meeting we will consider whether the Spirit is leading us to some form of shared ministry with the United Parish Church of Fort Fairfield.

For your reflection during the 28 days of Advent, we’ll be sharing content on our Facebook page from “Shadow & Light,” a daily Advent devotional resource from Vibrant Church Communications .

Each week you’ll be invited to use scripture, song, prayer, and practice to prepare yourself for the birth of the Christ child, discovering what is holy in the spectrum from shadow to light. Wait and watch (two Advent themes) for more information on our Facebook page.

The Christmas Fund provides emergency grants, supplementation of small annuities and health premiums, and Christmas “Thank You” gift checks to lower-income retired clergy and lay employees.

This year, our care and compassion will be especially appreciated by those servants of the church who are facing a time of need. It’s one of the UCC “5 for 5” offerings our church supports. Your gift may be made any time in the month of December. Follow the “Read more” link to learn more about how our gifts help.

In 2023, the theme for Neighbors in Need (NIN), one of our wider church offerings, is “BEHOLD!” This year’s focus is on environmental justice. Plastics, electronics, and other non-compostable wastes are being shipped across, and even tossed into, our waterways, launched into space, as well as buried in landfills. We can be better stewards of our planet! …

You may give to NIN anytime during the month of October. Please give generously.

From our Moderator, Calvin Hall:

As was announced in church last Sunday, we have arranged for the Rev. Dr. Diane Langworthy, pastor of the United Parish Church in Fort Fairfield, to partner with us and provide pastoral care for our church family on a part-time basis. …

We believe that this relationship can lead to even more opportunities for collaboration and partnership with our United Parish Church neighbors, and we look forward to working with Diane in the coming months. Please help us welcome Diane as a partner in our ministry!

Our church was vandalized on September 19, with what was apparently meant to be a hateful anti-LBGTQ+ slur. So, what happens when a church building is defaced by graffiti that is meant to diminish or harm others whom we believe are children of God?

Love is what happens!

To help make that love more visible in the coming days, and continue to reject hate in all its forms, follow the “read more” link to learn more about one simple witness we can all make to say there’s no room for hate here - or anywhere!

Our church embraces a different pace and practice for worship in July and August. This is in part to give a short break to those who have had primary responsibility for preparing and leading worship (including all the technical tasks) from September through June.

We have created some options we hope will fit your individual schedules — a little something for everyone. Here’s a link to a printable version of the full summer worship schedule.

Sunday, July 30, we’ll meet at 10 am at the Mantle Lake Park pavilion.

Part of the service (in-person only) will be an opportunity to walk the park trails or remain in the pavilion for small group conversations and reflection. Coffee and drinks will be provided. You are invited to bring a breakfast dish/treat to share, potluck style, if you are able.

For those who have difficulty walking, the gate on the driveway leading down to the pavilion will be unlocked at 9:45am for someone to drop you off.

[Note: New to our church and the UCC? You may find it helpful to follow the Read More link and see the section “What is General Synod?”]

“Making All Things New” was the theme of the 34th General Synod of the United Church of Christ, held June 30–July 4, 2023, in Indianapolis.

Details of approved resolutions on a number of social justice concerns, and other important actions taken by the Synod (e.g., electing the first woman to lead the UCC) can be found on the General Synod News website page.

The Strengthen the Church offering is one of the several 5 for 5 mission outreach appeals we make each year, supporting mission work of both the Maine Conference and the national offices of the United Church of Christ.

The funds raised for Strengthen the Church support leadership development, new churches, youth ministry, and innovation in existing congregations. By our generosity to this offering, we build up the Body of Christ.

We will gratefully receive designated Strengthen the Church gifts throughout the month of June. Thank you!

Saturday, June 17 — The Pride Aroostook Festival will be at the Riverside Park Pavilion - 19 Riverside Drive, Presque Isle. The festival grounds open at 3:00 pm. As one of the sponsors of the event, our church will host a table to share information about our Open and Affirming congregation. We’d love to see lots of our members and friends there to show how our welcoming message is more than words! See you there!

Sunday, June 18 — Worship (10:00 am) will be led by Meg Hegemann and others. It will be a Pride-themed service, and will include a service of communion.

While we worried about the weather, the sale was both fun and profitable for us, with proceeds exceeding $1,150.00. Many thanks go to the Welcome and Care Ministry, chaired by Carolyn Woodman, for organizing the sale; Sara Harvey for coordinating the Food Sale and Coffee Bar; Claude Brissette, Bill and Diane Deschesne, Peggy Woodman, and Susie James for organizing and pricing; Ginette Rivard for acting as cashier. And thank you to many others who shared in the work of the day. Items not sold were donated to the Hope and Justice Project and to Catholic Charities. Proceeds from the sale will benefit our local missions.