Woodfords Congregational Church | |
photo by Bill Kenny, 2022 | |
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As I write this note, we are two days into spring. It is the end of March, and journeying season has begun. College students are anticipating Spring Break. On April 17, Portland’s public schools will close for a week of spring recess. Throughout the upcoming weeks, planes, trains, and highways will fill with individuals and families fortunate enough to be able to afford travel. (And let’s not forget businesspeople, who are resuming quests to achieve coveted platinum status in travel rewards programs after being grounded due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
You know who else is travelling at this time of year? Jesus. As we accompany him in worship each Sunday, he is on way to Jerusalem. He isn’t taking a plane, or a train, or even a donkey (until the very end). Instead, he’s on his own two feet, traveling the dusty roads of Judea, heading toward a confrontation with authorities that will end in his crucifixion … and then some sort of transformation that his followers experience as resurrection.
Over the course of my three years with you, I’ve acknowledged that I often don’t know what to make of the Easter story. It can be so difficult to understand – perhaps especially for those of us who live in cultures shaped by scientific worldviews that often (but not always) privilege empiricism and objectivity over mystery and faith. Can we really read the Easter story as a narrative about the physical resurrection of Jesus’ corporeal body? Or should we instead read it as a spiritual narrative that highlights the resilience and continual resurrection of Jesus’ life-giving spirit and values? (Miraculously, they survived his death and then proved powerful enough to shape 2,000 years of human history!)
Many of the Easter-related conversations I overhear and participate in focus upon the experience of Jesus. They explore the story and significance of his death and resurrection. But what happens if we examine the Easter story through a different lens? How do our reactions to the story shift when we center the disciples? For they, too, experienced transformative resurrection. Their teacher … their mentor … their friend … experienced a violent, gut-wrenching death. In the aftermath of trauma, the disciples’ hearts were shattered. They journeyed through valleys of loss, anger, grief, and death.
But instead of succumbing to nothingness and despair – instead of giving up on all that they had worked and hoped for – most of the disciples rallied. Their spirits came alive again and propelled them forward into life. By refusing to let trauma and death have the last word, they honored and embodied ministries of justice and compassion that their friend Jesus had begun.
Today, I firmly believe that the Easter story is not only about one man’s death and resurrection. It also is about the millions of resurrections (large and miniscule) that happen each day, when individuals and communities choose to refuse nihilism and self-destruction and instead embrace hope and compassion.
This Easter season, I invite you to be still and listen. Where is your soul’s journey taking you? Where do you need to go – spiritually and/or physically? If you’re looking for a good book to accompany your adventuring, I highly recommend Timothy Egan’s A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of Faith. I’m reading it now, and it is wonderful.
Children of God, have faith that that wherever you travel, and wherever we go as a community, the Holy will be right there beside you and us.
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With Easter hope and love, | |
Holy Week and Easter at Woodfords | |
Woodfords 150th Anniversary - Final Column | |
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Woodfords Past, Present and Future
As we close on our year-long celebration of the 150th anniversary, this last column reflects the dreams of our ancestors and what we now will consider moving forward. Sankofa is an African word from the Akan tribe in Ghana. The literal translation of the symbol is “it is not taboo to fetch what is as risk of being left behind.” The Akan believe the past serves as a guide for planning the future. It is the wisdom from the past that ensures a strong future.
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In looking back through the Woodfords archives, the 50th celebration gives some thought on what our ancestors thought about the future. For the celebration, Mrs. Andrew Furbush created a pageant that included several times from their past 50 years. The last two parts of the pageant were titled “Closing the Doors of Memory” and “The Gates of Opportunity”. In the Memory section, Iona Grant represented Hope and one can only imagine as she grew older and left her endowment, The Iona Grant Fund, to the seniors of Woodfords, she was giving “hope” by establishing means to help our seniors as they age. | | |
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The entire ensemble of the 50th anniversary pageant | |
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In reading, “One Hundred Years at Woodfords Congregational Church”, both the minister, Rev. Dr. Thompson and his associate minister, Rev. Birger Johnson, shared reflections about the future. Rev. Johnson only wished to think about 10 years into the future. He shared 10 thoughts or as he concluded, his fantasies, which as you read you may reflect that we are thinking about these points today. 1) Personal faith in a living God as revealed in Jesus Christ will become a central concern instead of worrying about budgets, etc.; 2) A return to a “catechetical” explanation of our faith using more contemporary symbols drawn from technology; 3) A re-emphasis and re-interpretation of the resurrection; 4) Because of financial concerns, pastors may be given freedom to do other tasks beyond “church work” that could draw people together knowing they were all in the same tent; 5) Local congregations may depend less on the pastor as leader and become leaders themselves; 6) The UCC and other liberal churches will be drawn closer together; 7) “Good men and women, young and old, will have to sit down and ask what ought to survive, what should be the priorities;” 8) The church will look inward, addressing its needs and establishing its identity; 9) The church will move away from more rigid formalities to more spontaneous experiences of worship; 10) Rev. Johnson concludes, “May the Lord have mercy on my arrogance.”
Rev. Dr. Thompson felt that “a church content to follow routine paths year after year, without change, was a church doomed.” He lived these words in his 25-year tenure at Woodfords always looking for places for Woodfords to expand its reach into the community and beyond. In his last sermon preached on Nov. 15, 1970, he shared these thoughts about the future. “…And now, let me say a word about the future of the church, our church. It’s a fairly old church, nearly 100 years. But we have a member, Granny Noble, who is as old as the church, a little older. She came to church every Sunday…sews with the women every Thursday…steps around a lot more lively than many of us.
“The secret in Granny Noble’s life is to keep going today! For a better tomorrow you have to have a better today. And we can take a leaf out of the notebook of Granny Noble and not worry too much about the future, but make sure we take care of today as we should.
“The future of Woodfords Church is not in the hands of someone you don’t know…someone who’s going to appear 25 or 50 years from now and do this or that. Actually, what could someone do in the future that we are not working at now? The best future any church has is right now. And we, with God’s guidance, are responsible for the Now. Do you think the people of the future are going to be any better than the people of today? I doubt it. Or, the people of the past, are they any better than we are? I doubt that!
“If there is truth in it, and there is, we had better get in action now. Not when we retire or have more time. The church needs us Now. We are the church’s future by what we do for it Now. So, let’s get on with the job, for if we don’t get at it Now, it may never get done.”
As Woodfords ponders its destiny, may these words from our elders, our Sankofa, help guide us.
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Rev. Dr. Thompson and his wife, Jeannette Thompson | |
New Events and Opportunities | |
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April 16: Visit the Bradley Meeting House Site
Join us for a trip into Woodfords’ past … and then journey with us into Woodfords’ next 150 years!
Over the past 12 months, we have commemorated the 150th anniversary of the dedication of Woodfords Church. The Sunday following Easter, we will wind down this celebratory year with a visit to the piece of property where ideas for Woodfords Church were born.
Woodfords’ founders worshipped in a church building called the Bradley Meeting House before they decided to break away and start a new congregation closer to their homes. Thus, the Bradley Meeting House may be considered Woodfords’ spiritual predecessor and parent church.
On April 16, you may visit the grounds of the Bradley Meeting House between noon and 2pm. The site is located at 27 Capisic Street. where the Sisters of Mercy Frances Warde Convent – formerly the Eunice Frye Home – currently stands. CLICK HERE for a picture of the property as it looks today.
After morning worship on April 16, you may:
Follow in the steps of Woodfords’ founders. At the close of our 10am service, a group of wayfarers will head out on a walking pilgrimage from our contemporary church home. They will journey along a route that echoes the path Woodfords’ spiritual ancestors would have taken to the Bradley Meeting House. The walk will cover about a mile and take 20-30 minutes.
Close out the anniversary year with a short ritual of gratitude and thanksgiving at 12:30pm. As we locate ourselves on the Bradley Meeting House site, we will give thanks for the individuals who launched the dream of starting a new church over 150 years ago. We also will offer gratitude for all of the individuals who have stewarded and tended the property over the generations.
Visit a building that dates to Bradley Meeting House days. Stop by any time between 12pm and 2pm to peek into the small chapel-like building that still stands on the Bradley Meeting House site. It is a nineteenth-century schoolhouse that was located next to the church building. The picture below shows the Meeting House and the school as they looked in 1880.
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A ROUND of APPLAUSE
Many thanks to our creative and caring Sunday School teachers who enjoyed and were enjoyed by grandchildren and children of WCC friends and members during our Lenten Sunday School sessions.
Joanne Bartlett, Connie Smith, Matt Rosengarten, Cara Cookson and Sarah MacMath served in teams sharing stories of Jesus’ ministry not only with books, but also by acting out stories, doing crafts, playing games and enjoying being together.
We are grateful for their ministry with our children.
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Introducing Karin Wetmore, Director of Woodfords Senior Program
We are pleased to announce the hire of Dr. Karin Wetmore, who will help lead Woodfords Senior Program into the future.
A scholar and lifelong learner, Karin holds graduate degrees in psychology, higher education, and the history of science. After enjoying a successful career in university administration, medical education, and medical startup ventures, she entered Boston University’s School of Theology in 2013. Following chaplain residency at Maine Medical Center, she has served as hospital chaplain in Boston, Dover NH, and Portland.
A cradle UCCer, Karin has been an active member of Boston’s Old South Church since 2012. She currently lives in Kennebunk and delights in exploring Maine woods whenever she has a chance. When Karin was around seven, she first experienced the Great North Woods on a family camping trip. It made a life-changing impression upon her. According to Karin, it was “Deep, green and unending – a vivid image for a child of what eternity might be like. Ever-changing close up, but impassable and enduring.” As is evident, Karin has been deep-souled since her youth!
Karin’s first day at Woodfords will be March 29. With the assistance of the Woodfords Senior Program steering committee, she will promote and support the growth and wellbeing of Woodfords’ mature adults by providing a variety of programs and services designed to enrich quality of life. When you meet Karin, please help us extend a warm welcome to her.
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Patricia Maxim 4/06
Joanne Friedrick 4/07
Allan Whitmore 4/10
Cheryl Honer-Hickey 4/12
Allen Wilbur 4/13
Rebecca Wallace 4/13
Mitchell Brewer 4/15
Anna Troxell 4/15
Sarah Thomson 4/15
Marcia McAfee 4/15
Martha Dudley 4/15
Melanie Graser 4/17
Cora Melcher 4/19
Jennifer Wriggins 4/22
Colin Graser 4/25
David Johnson 4/26
Fran Seeley 4/26
Caroline Belanger 4/29
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HAPPY APRIL ANNIVERSARY
Paul & Carol Gillis 4/29 45 years
Brent & Susan Wooten 4/30 26 years
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Have Something on Your Mind?
Want to Talk about a Joy or Concern?
Have a Prayer Request?
If you would like to schedule time for a pastoral care conversation with Rev. Alyssa, do not hesitate to be in touch (alodewick@woodfordschurch.org). She would be happy to talk via Zoom or the phone, or to have an in-person visit.
Also, Alyssa is always open to receiving prayer requests. Drop her a line with a description of what you’d like her to pray for – and don’t forget to indicate if you would also like your prayer request to be added to the Woodfords prayer list. (Alyssa’s default is to consider all prayer requests she receives confidential, unless the requestor explicitly says otherwise.)
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Submitting an article for the May 2023 Beacon?
The deadline is April 20. Please send proofed text with title and photos (if available) to info@woodfordschurch.org.
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