News & Events in the Episcopal Diocese of Maine |
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Volume 25, Number 6
March 31, 2023
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Diocese comes together for Chrism Eucharist |
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The diocese came together for Holy Eucharist with the Renewal of Vows and Consecration of Chrism at Grace Church in Bath on Tuesday. Bishop Thomas Brown was joined by two former Maine bishops, Bishop Chilton Knudsen and Bishop Stephen Lane. Bishop Knudsen preached, and all renewed promises of baptism and ordination. Thank you to Grace Church for recording the service which you can find here, the Diocesan Liturgical Commission who planned this beautiful liturgy, and all who participated. It was a good day of praising God! See more pictures here.
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Explore Wabanaki Nations' potential under tribal self-government |
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Join Professor Joe Kalt, co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, who will discuss the results of the Project’s recent study and share why there is “nowhere to go but up” for Wabanaki Nations on April 11.
Tuesday, April 11
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
This conversation is offered in partnership with the Wabanaki Alliance and co-sponsored other local organizations including our Committee on Indian Relations. |
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Climate Justice Council provides Earth Day resources |
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Earth Day (April 22) and Earth Week (April 17-23) are approaching, and the Climate Justice Council offers several resources for parishes:
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Click here for an essay you can share with your congregation, looking to the Wabanaki experience as they respond to the climate crisis.
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Click here for a morning prayer liturgy for Earth Week or Earth Day.
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Grants Committee offers update on recently awarded grants |
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Several months ago, the Grants Committee of Diocesan Council was restructured in order to better shepherd the various grant funds available in the diocese. Since then, the committee continues to look at each grant and assess its relevance in a world where congregational and community needs have evolved. Wherever possible, the committee hopes to make the process of grantmaking lively, easy, accessible, and transparent. Stay tuned to see what grants will look like in 2023.
In addition to the annual grants listed here, the committee reviews on a rolling basis applications to the Wolf and Loring funds for continuing education and formation of the laity and clergy respectively.
Ministries awarded grants at the December 2022 Diocesan Council meeting:
New Initiatives
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St. Paul’s, Brunswick: $1,000 to assist in their support of new Mainers, through which they will be able to help a family of asylum seekers from Angola to become self-sufficient.
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Trinity, Lewiston: $1,500 to support “Gifts in Common,” a ministry exploring church-neighborhood interaction, to include a documentary and community art workshop.
International Poverty
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Episcopal Peace Fellowship: $5,000 to support the “Food for Families” program in Beirut, which is administered by the Ven. Imad Zoorob, Archdeacon for Lebanon and Syria, and serves vulnerable families, many of whom live near the site of the 2020 explosion.
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Christ Church, Gardiner: $2,500 to further their ministry of supporting the Rosette School and the broader community of Morne Rosette, Haiti.
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Restoration Laos: $11,000 to support their work of disarming and clearing unexploded remnants of war and restoring land and safety in rural Laos.
Domestic Poverty
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St. Barnabas, Rumford: $1,200 in support of their Essentials Pantry to provide personal hygiene products, household cleaning products, and other essential items not offered at local food banks.
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St. Luke’s Cathedral: $1,200 to support the feeding ministry of St. Luke’s Food Pantry.
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Trinity, Portland: $3,600 in support of their “Laundry Love” ministry, which provides relief to individuals without homes as well as those who are struggling financially.
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St. Peter’s Rockland: $2,000 supporting “Loaves and Fishes,” a collaborative, community, weekend lunch program.
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Bridging the Gap, Augusta: $2,000 to support Addie’s Attic Clothing Bank and the purchase of essential and winter clothing for families in need.
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News From Our Congregations |
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Emmanuel Lutheran Episcopal in Augusta has installed a Call Committee to do the work of searching for a new priest. Thank you all for your service! |
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On Wednesday, April 5 at 6:00 pm, St. Ann's, Windham will hold a Taize Service, open to all in the diocese. It will be ongoing thereafter on the first Wednesday of the month. |
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St. Margaret's, Belfast parishioners volunteer at the GBAM Food Cupboard! Seen here are Dick Frost, Kristen Burkholder, Cindy Frost, Elaine Bielenberg. Not pictured: Matt Markiewicz and Paul Briggs. |
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It's worth seeing this beautiful photo taken of St. Paul's in Fairfield on March 23, even if you're sick of the snow! |
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Historic church in Gardiner needs million-dollar repair job
Christ Church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and continues to serve the community as one of Maine's oldest Episcopal churches. The hilltop may be the highest spot in the village of Gardiner, a steep climb...
Read more
www.newscentermaine.com
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John Hennessy, Director of Public Advocacy, fills us in on the busy legislative session and our top priorities while reminding us that faith advocacy is important, but not easy. "We need to always set the example for arguing principles and positions, not politics or partisanship, and never hold up our opponents to scorn or disdain." Read more here. |
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The Rev. Gwen Fry of St. Mark's, Waterville, the Ven. Aaron Perkins, Archdeacon, and Bishop Thomas Brown attended The Episcopal Church’s gathering of various interim bodies (groups who meet between General Conventions) in Cleveland, Ohio last week. Bless them for doing this work. |
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They invited three of our diocesan colleagues to join them in this conversation. On March 14-17, Klara Tammany of Trinity, Lewiston, the Rev. Sara Gavit of St. Anne's, Calais, and Jamie Beck of St. Patrick's, Brewer gathered with other church leaders throughout the Church who want to encourage discernment, innovation, and holy experimentation in their dioceses.
They hope that these diocesan triads might help nurture a movement across the church that in time shifts the way we show up for one another and our neighbors in the form of New Episcopal Communities and Re-Visioned and Renewed churches already in existence.
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Checking in with Ralph Zoorob, the younger of the two brothers from Lebanon that our diocese sponsored, who continues to attend Lincoln Academy, we find that among other activities, he recently was part of the Unified Team. Unified sports joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. Athletes with disabilities are joined on the court by partners, who help organize the athletes and aid them on the court. Go Ralph! More pictures here. |
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The diocesan office wishes a blessed Holy Week to you and your loved ones. May this occasion give you a chance to express your gratitude to Jesus, and may the faith you have in God always bring you hope and peace and fill your soul with everlasting love.
Assist us mercifully with your help, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
BCP p. 270
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Please keep Jane Hartwell, Senior Warden at Trinity, Portland and retired diocesan Canon for Formation, in your prayers after her recent neurosurgery for brain cancer. |
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We offer prayers of thanksgiving for the Rev. David Dalzell, formerly a priest in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, who is now an Episcopal priest! On Tuesday, he signed the Oath of Conformity and led us in the post-communion prayer at the diocese-wide Holy Eucharist with Reaffirmation of Vows and the Consecration of Chrism in Bath. Dave continues to serve as priest-in-charge at Trinity in Saco. Congratulations and welcome! |
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May the soul of the Very Rev. Stephen Williams Foote, 80, who died on March 8 at home in Damariscotta, rest in peace. The Episcopal Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Falmouth was Foote's first assignment, as Rector’s Assistant in 1969. He became Rector in 1973 and served there until 1986 when he was called to be the Archdeacon of the Diocese of Maine. After this, the Very Rev. Foote served as Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke from 1990 until 2003. His full obituary can be found here. |
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All are welcome to a requiem liturgy at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 15 at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland and a reception in the upper hall.
Christian Clough, Canon for Music and Liturgy at the Cathedral, invites singers from around the diocese to join members of the Cathedral Choir for choral offerings during the burial liturgy for the late Very Rev. Steve Foote, a former Dean of the Cathedral.
The service falls at the end of the first week of Eastertide, when many church folks take vacation, which makes logistics a little complicated, so your voice is needed!
Music is being shared in advance (see below), and there will only be one rehearsal at 9:00 am on the day of the service. Singers should come prepared, having learned the notes in advance.
S.S. Wesley: Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
H. Walford Davies: God be in my head
There will also be two or three hymns with descants, a relatively simple psalm setting, and a trumpeter.
Thank you for your consideration. Please share this invitation with your choir members. Email Christian if you're available or have any questions!
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Congratulations to the Rev. Steve White, who joins Rev. Ginny Urbanek to serve as chaplains to retired clergy and surviving spouses. Pray in thanksgiving for the Rev. Larry Estey and Elizabeth Estey who are finishing nearly a decade of service as chaplains to the retired. |
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Episcopal Peace Fellowship - ME offers the prayer here inspired by their recent "Peace Out" written by the Deacon Stephanie Batterman of Grace Church, Bath who is a member of EPF-ME. |
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Frank T. Griswold III, 25th presiding bishop, celebrated ...
The Rt. Rev. Frank Tracy Griswold III, the 25th presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, was remembered March 18 as a leader who "bathed us in the love of God."
Read more
www.episcopalnewsservice.org
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Good Friday Offering enters its second century |
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For 101 years, Episcopalians have generously shared their love, compassion, and financial gifts to support the ministry of the Anglican Communion Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East with the Good Friday Offering. The history of the Good Friday Offering reaches back to 1922 when, in the aftermath of World War I, The Episcopal Church sought to create new relationships with and among the Christians of the Middle East.
The Good Friday Offering has enabled ministries that focus on health care, education, and pastoral care to meet the needs of all people in a wide variety of circumstances throughout the region. Numerically, Christians in the Middle East are not large in number. The Anglican Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East recognizes the importance of presence—of following our Lord’s model of unconditionally loving people first. Your gifts will reach across many divides—cultural, religious, political—and people’s lives will be enriched by your love and the love of God.
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Walk with Jesus through Holy Week daily text experience |
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Are you looking for a way to have a deeper way to experience Holy Week? From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, you can receive text messages in real-time so you can walk with Jesus during his final days. When TryTank says ‘real-time’ they mean it! Some text messages will arrive early in the morning or late at night as we truly walk with Jesus and experience the events leading to His death and resurrection. As you read the texts, TryTank's hope is that you’ll live the Easter story as if it were happening in the moment. Text HOLYWEEK to 833-629-0176 or visit trytank.org/holyweek.html to enroll. |
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Save these dates below! For the full events calendar, click here.
APRIL
11 Online Conversation on Wabanaki Tribal Sovereignty
18 Diocesan Listening Session (St. Nicholas, Scarborough)
30 April through 2 May Clergy conference with Dr. Catherine Meeks, Schoodic Institute
MAY
23 Diocesan Listening Session (St. Mark's, Waterville)
25 Diocesan Listening Session (Trinity, Portland)
JUNE
20 Diocesan Listening Session (Zoom)
- 10, 17, 24 and 31 October: Town Halls as Pre-Convention Gatherings
- 21 October Diocese-wide Convocation at the Cathedral
- 11 November Annual business session via Zoom for clergy and lay delegates
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