THE BEACON
Woodfords
Congregational Church
November 2021
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Thanks for the Old and the New
When I was a youngster, I spent several years in Girl Scouts. I never advanced past being a Brownie, but to this day, I still can sing the first stanza of that good-old standby, “Make New Friends.” The lyrics go like this: “Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other is gold.”
One thing I love about those words is that they remind us to value not only what is new and shiny, but also what is tried and true. And the song’s message works the other way around, too: It encourages us to reach out to new people and try new things, rather than to rely solely upon what we know and are comfortable with. Really, it’s a great message about simultaneously respecting tradition and innovation.
Here at Woodfords, November is going to be quite an exciting month. For the first time in two years, we will be back in the building for the Downeast Fair. For the first time since 2019, we will spend the weeks leading up to Advent and Christmas – as well as the holiday season itself, hopefully—worshiping in the sanctuary. And even as we do these “traditional” things, we are expanding our experiences and embracing new innovations. For example, the amazing Downeast Fair team once again will take online orders for wreathes and delicious food, like it did last year. And in the realm of worship, we are experimenting with hybrid models that allow us to reach people who are not physically in the building. Over the upcoming couple of months, new audio-visual equipment in the sanctuary will enable us to serve our “old friends” and “make new friends” even more effectively.
A few years back, I had the privilege of participating in a professional development opportunity offered by Duke University. It focused on a concept called “traditioned innovation,” which “holds the past and future in tension, not in opposition.” Traditioned innovation respects and values the past, even as it looks forward to adapting to the newness of whatever the future may bring. In the opinions of my teachers, this way of looking at the world is crucial for Christian institutions that want to grow and remain vital.
Siblings in Faith, during this season of Thanksgiving, I am giving thanks for all of you. During my 18-month walk with the Woodfords community, you have shown me your love for this faith community’s well-loved traditions, even as you simultaneously have considered decisions that will help the church innovate into the future.
This Thanksgiving, let us name and share our gratitude for all that is old, as well as all that is new.
In faith,
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An Important Announcement
from Rev. Charlotte
We’re Sending Her Off with Prayers & Warm Wishes
Dear Members and Friends of Woodfords Congregational Church,
Scripture tells us that there is a time for everything: “A time to be born; a time to plant and a time to uproot what has been planted; a time to embrace and time to refrain from embracing; a time to keep silent and a time to speak.” (Ecclesiastes 3)
Many of you are aware that I experienced a serious medical crisis in mid-August that required brain surgery and two weeks of close monitoring in the ICU at Maine Medical Center here in Portland. I am blessed beyond measure to have lived and survived through it all without physical impairment. Although I may appear to others as being “back to normal,” my brain and stamina continue to be in a recovery period. This medical event has made me realize that I need to slow down and enjoy all that God has laid before me on this earthly journey.
All this said, I ask for your understanding and prayers as I announce my resignation as the Director of Woodfords Senior Program, which will be effective November 13, 2021.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here at Woodfords Congregational Church. It has been an honor and privilege to be part of this caring Woodfords Community. I depart knowing that I have made new friends and wonderful memories as we’ve shared laughing, playing, and praying.
Oh, the memories we have shared in the time we’ve been together! The June Spring luncheon gathering, which allowed us to reunite after a prolonged period of isolation due to the pandemic. The Annual Picnic at Roberta Barker’s Sebago Lake house. Christmas in July, followed by several themed luncheons with wonderful music. I will pause here to say “Bless you” and thank you for these memories and journeying with me in this ministry with the Woodfords Senior Community.
This is not a time of saying goodbye forever – only until we meet again here at Woodfords Church, or at a Maine UCC event or conference. I will continue to pray for you, for your health, for your families, for the faith community to continue to bless members and friends in teaching and worship. I will pray for your strength in this time of transition. I will hold you in prayer and love, and always dear to my heart.
With my sincere appreciation. In faith and to the Glory of God,
Rev. Charlotte E.Y. Bell
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Welcome to our New Members
This month Woodfords Church welcomed four new members to our church community.
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Sara Anderson
My husband and I moved here in December of 2018 to help take care of my aging parents after my husband retired as an Orthopedic Surgeon. I was raised in the UCC church by my parents Rachel and Carl Beyer. Growing up we were members of many different and diverse UCC Congregations across the country. I started my education in Fine Arts and soon learned I would be lucky to make a living at this career. I trained in Horticulture and Landscape Design at City College of San Francisco in 1989 and have been in the field ever since then. This is truly my passion in life - the care and nurturing of plants.
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Cara Cookson
Cara Cookson moved just around the corner to Rackleff Street two years ago with four-year-old Ramona and her husband Ivan Belanger. She works for the Office of the Maine Attorney General coordinating a statewide victim services program. She also is an Adjunct Professor at Vermont Law School, where she earned her law degree. Cara grew up attending the United Church of Cabot in Vermont. She looks forward to making new friends, more book group meetings, promoting justice and breaking bread when we can.
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Rev. Alyssa Lodewick
Alyssa Lodewick is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and Woodfords’ designated term minister. Alyssa currently serves as president of the Maine Council of Churches. In addition to sitting on the board of the Maine Conference, UCC, Alyssa is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Board for Boston University’s School of Theology. She and her spouse, Robyn, share a home with their two cats, Pen(ny) and Quill. Some days, it’s difficult to tell who truly runs the place. After accompanying Woodfords through a global pandemic and a boiler failure, Alyssa looks forward to walking with the community under less catastrophic circumstances! (Fingers crossed.)
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Jessica Parsons
Jessica Parsons is a seminary student at Duke Divinity School and a former Woodfords pastoral intern. Jessica is pursuing a call to ordination in the UCC and hopes to devote her time to parish ministry in some capacity in the coming years. When she’s not at Duke, Jessica lives in Portland and enjoys long walks around the city, sampling the truly great coffee Portland has to offer, and participating in justice efforts around Southern Maine. She looks forward to participating in book clubs and Bible studies on Zoom as well as attending Sunday worship after she graduates in May.
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November Worship Series: It’s a Wonder-full Life
In upcoming weeks, we will gather after worship to explore thought-provoking questions about money and meaning. Please join us in the Parlor after worship on the following Sundays for casual conversation and fellowship. No pre-reading or homework necessary, but if you’d like to take an optional deeper dive into Integrating Money and Meaning, the book that is inspiring this worship service, you may purchase it by clicking the book title above. For those who choose to read, the numbers after each date indicate the page numbers in the book that will inspire the day's conversation. But again, everyone is welcome
- October 31 (for those who are reading along, this session will focus on pp. 42-82)
- November 7 (pp. 89-110)
- November 21 (pp. 110-128)
About the Worship Series
At its best, spiritual practice feeds the parts of us that are oriented toward serenity, harmony, truth, compassion, gratitude, love and joy. But these are not always words we use to describe the role of money in our lives. In this worship series, we will explore our values and relationships with money in compassionate ways that can offer increased depth of meaning, healing, and new perspectives about what constitutes a wonderful life. To watch a trailer for the series, click the link below.
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Woodfords Senior Program - November Update |
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November 5th Creative Writing Workshop “Seeing with the Hearts Ear” is cancelled and will be reoffered in the spring or on a later date.
November 20th 9 am - 1 pm, Downeast Fair, Woodfords Senior Program members order your lunch on us! More details to follow on this event!
December 10th 12:00 -4:30 pm, (Friday) The Magic of Christmas with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Only 28 tickets remaining at this writing!! Sign up early!! Lunch will be held at church prior to the departure to Symphony Hall. Transportation will be by carpooling due to Covid safety concerns.
Ongoing Events
Caregivers Circle led by Rev. Charlotte Bell MDIV, MSW
Mutual support for caregivers. Limited to 10, please contact Rev. Bell to sign up cbell@woodfordschurch.org Meet every second Wednesday, 10:30-11:30 am, in the lounge. Next meeting is Wednesday, November 10, “Coping with the Holidays”. Light refreshments provided.
Weekly Chair Yoga with Elizabeth Fertig-Burd
Join us for a gentle and contemplative hour of centering, chair-based yoga, and community check ins. All you need is a stable chair and some comfortable clothes. Burdie is able to make adjustments and adaptations to provide a full body stretch for everyone and is interested in healing, restoring, and growing movement. Everyone is welcome! To be placed on the email reminder list or for inquiries or the Zoom link, contact Em Amatangelo at emham73@gmail.com
Weekly Spiritual Direction with Rev. Mary Zachary-Lang
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Book Group
Read, Discuss, Socialize. ZOOM, 2nd Wednesdays, 3:00 pm
Contact Em Amatangelo at emham73@gmail.com for more info and the Zoom link. The October book is...The Words That Went Unspoken by Ellie Mercer. We welcome your book suggestions! Anyone is welcome to attend even if you haven't read the book.
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Coming Soon to Your Bulletin!
Woodfords Church has a strong tradition of supporting Missions. Reading that sentence may make you think of WCC’s 2 trips to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina or sleeping overnight at the Clark House for Family Promise or bringing food to Project Feed or one of the trips to Guatemala with Safe Passage. Even as we remember those efforts, we also know there is work to be done!
In recent months, a small group of Woodfords folks has become the Championing Justice Team. Taking our name from one of the three parts of Woodfords Mission Statement, we have begun looking at how WCC does its mission work and we want your help!
Before long in your Sunday bulletin and in an email, there will be a SHORT survey asking you to help our Team decide where to focus our time and at least a portion of our Mission monies during this fiscal year. As we all know, there are many worthwhile organizations that can benefit from our support, personally and as a church. And we think we can do the most good by focusing our efforts.
So, please be on the lookout for our survey. Give it your thoughtful attention! We promise it is short. Perhaps not easy, as it should not be when choosing how to use mission resources of Woodfords Church to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God.”
We look forward to hearing from you!
“Civil rights activist Robert Parris Moses warned us that the nation can ‘lurch backward as quickly as it can lurch forward.’ We must choose what kind of nation we will become. The scriptures tell us this: When we decide to live into the dream of freedom, equality and opportunity for ALL of us, then we all thrive. That’s the vision at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as in heaven.’ Let us make it so.”
Rev. Cameron Trimble
Convergence
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November 14: Distribution of Bibles for Young People
Woodfords has a historic tradition of giving Bibles to the church’s young people. If you know of a young person (second grade through college) associated with Woodfords who would like an age-appropriate Bible and has never received this gift from the church, Woodfords would be happy to provide them with one.
Please send the young person’s name and age/reading level to our tri-church Christian Education and Spiritual Formation Director, Emory Burke (emory@williston-immanuel.org).
(Please note that this offer extends to grandchildren and other friends/relatives who periodically attend church with Woodfords community members.)
We will distribute the Bibles during our next intergenerational worship service on November 14. If your young person would like to receive a Bible in person, we extend a hearty invitation for them to worship with us on that day.
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Dear Members of the Woodfords Church Community,
My name is Jen Roe and I am the Director of A Company of Girls (ACOG). If you don't know us, we have the privilege of being one of your mission partners, and we are so beyond thankful for how the Church has helped us navigate the challenges of this crazy time we are in. (particularly Louise and Teri!)
From the first moments of keeping the building safe and secure, to the craziness of the flood and helping us to find alternate programming locations, to allowing us to use the Undercroft area both last year and this year so that we can safely have girls here for in-person programming, we so appreciate that, even in a time that was so stressful for all of you, we have felt very taken care of. And that has made so much of a difference in our being able to continue our programming through the craziness... and
we are beyond excited to share that we have just started our programming back up for this school year - and are back at full force!! Undercroft gives us space for having 10-12 girls with good safe distance, as well as room to move and be back to the fun of art projects, theater games and general silliness, and it even feels almost "normal" for whatever that means these days. And - we finally got to cook again in the kitchen yesterday for the first time since March of 2020!! (we even got new purple aprons to celebrate our cooking return). So hopefully you will start to enjoy the smells of our cooking projects from time to time. (this week's theme is apples!)...
...We know you are in a time of decision making and lots of thinking - but please know how grateful we are for your support of ACOG. I wanted to put out there that if any of you want to come for a tour of the space we've created, and learn a little more about what we do, we'd love to show you around (your basement)! ha! Just reach out! Maybe we can find a time for a community art project together!??
Thank you again!
All my best,
Jen
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Help Shape Woodfords’ Future Worship
Woodfords recently voted to upgrade its audio-visual systems in ways that will enable the church to offer hybrid, live-streamed worship services. Once the new equipment is installed, worship will be accessible to people in the sanctuary, as well as people who wish to participate remotely.
With live-streaming opportunities on the horizon, Rev. Alyssa would like to bring together community members who are interested in helping shape Woodfords’ future worship services (live-streamed and non-live-streamed alike). If you’d like to learn more about worship design and help make Woodfords’ worship services as rich as possible, please be in touch with Alyssa (alodewick@woodfordschurch.org). Once she has gathered the names of interested parties, she will schedule an initial conversation. Thank you!
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Did You Know? WCC'S Pastor-Parish
Relations Committee...
... is dedicated to supporting effective ministry at Woodfords through attending to the important relationship between our church’s pastor and people. Whether a church is large, small, or historically peaceful (not given to conflict), history has shown that the health of this relationship should not be taken for granted. Therefore, our PPRC wants to do what we can to facilitate a sharing of the congregation’s ideas—dreams, hopes, expectations, and concerns—with Pastor Alyssa. Likewise, we hope to learn from Alyssa (and share with the congregation) her experience of pastoral function and needs she may have here at WCC.
Whereas the church’s Personnel Committee deals with policy matters, job descriptions, and salary and benefits for all members of the church staff, the PPRC has a different, more deeply relational focus. The PPRC’s purpose is to support the personal and professional well-being of the pastor, as well as to provide a means of communication to the congregation, through constructive and caring two-way dialog. In this way, our PPRC can be thought of as a support group for the effective ministry of the church, rather than just “the pastor’s support group” or merely a channel for congregational complaints.
In addition to Pastor Alyssa, current PPRC members are: Mitch Rosengarten (chair), Suzanne D’Bourget, Pete Sampson, and Elaine Armstrong. Feedback for the committee is welcome by contacting any committee member. (Consult the church directory or the church office for email addresses or phone numbers in this time of COVID). The invitation is that we all take an interest in the health of our pastoral/congregational relationship by supporting in constructive ways that which is rewarding and satisfying while heading off the potential for tension as we move through our church’s future together.
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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 set up a 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 December Beacon?
The deadline is November 20. Please send proofed text with title and photos (if available) to Teri at info@woodfordschurch.org.
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HAPPY NOVEMBER BIRTHDAY
Laurie Davis 11/01
Paul Gillis 11/02
Alberta Cook 11/03
Olivia Brewer 11/04
Peter Rovnak 11/05
Margo Vaillancourt 11/07
Wes Johnson 11/07
Robert MacMath 11/10
Amy Segal 11/11
Erin Ritter 11/11
Jeffrey Jordan 11/12
Jean Johnson 11/15
Carol Gillis 11/16
Craig Belanger 11/17
Marjorie Sampson 11/18
Judy Wolfe 11/19
Robert Carpenter 11/21
Rollanda Graumann 11/22
Peter Ashley 11/22
Pamela Meader 11/23
Michael Hale 11/23
Renee Newman 11/24
Margaret Vire 11/24
Kay Kenney 11/25
Sheryl Plummer 11/26
Sandra Whitmore 11/28
Jane Gould Johnson 11/30
HAPPY NOVEMBER ANNIVERSARY
Martha & Gary Baldwin 11/24 48 years
Roy & Jean Koster 11/28 40 years
Ann Babbitt & Deb Smith 11/23 25 years
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