At its December meeting, the Council discussed the following ongoing projects and wanted to provide updates to the congregation. With so many things going on at once, it can be hard to keep up!

Building Repair Update: The furnace repair company and the electrician are currently on schedule to complete work by the end of December or early January. Our electrician Curtis has only the work on the elevator to complete. The building is currently being heated by a temporary furnace to prevent pipe freezing.

CHOM Proposal Update: CHOM has had conversations with each of our major mission partners (Portland Conservatory, Stages, and A Company of Girls) to get their input on their building usage and needs. CHOM plans to have the proposal to the Building Committee by the end of December. It will subsequently be shared with the Council and the congregation early next year. A reminder that the proposal is meant to be a conversation starter about building usage and visioning for the church growing into the future. CHOM understands that we are not contracting them to do any work at this time and that we are currently paying for their engineering and planning expertise.

Personnel Update: With the departure of Rev. Tamara, the Personnel Committee is already well underway hiring her replacements. At this time, the decision was made to split Tamara's position into two separate positions: one for the Woodfords Senior Program and one for the Joint Portland UCC Christian Education collaborative. While Personnel understands the urgency to have the positions filled as soon as possible, it is also of great importance to get the right people into these positions. In the interim, some WSP programming continues and the three ministers (Rev. Alyssa, Rev. Scott of State Street and Rev. Reba of Williston-Immanuel), have committed to continuing our monthly intergenerational worship services and a monthly CE activity.

Respectfully submitted,

Matthew B. Rosengarten

Clerk

Though the flood and Covid have impacted staff presence in the building, you can always contact me/the Church Office through email or phone. Starting in January, I will be working a 4-day week; I will not be available on Fridays. This means that through the winter and spring, while staff are mainly working from home, you can email me at info@woodfordschurch.org or tcoviello@woodfordschurch.org or call me at 207-774-8243, Extension 106, Monday – Thursday. I am on email all day and usually respond within the same day if I can. I check my voicemail at the beginning of the day and mid-day. Any emails and calls that come in on Friday or the weekend will be responded to on Monday.

Thank you,

Teri Coviello

Administrative Director

In recent weeks, several folks have reported receiving phishing emails from scammers pretending to be Rev. Alyssa. These emails usually are very general or generic and say something like, “Hi, how are you doing? I need a favor from you, email me as soon as possible. God bless, Rev. Alyssa.” But if you look carefully at the “From” line in the email, you’ll see that the note doesn’t come from Rev. Alyssa’s official Woodfords address. Instead, it comes from an email address ending in something other than woodfordschurch.org. Please do not respond to these emails, as they often are scams and come from people who will proceed to ask you to send money or gift cards or other information about yourself – all while pretending to be Rev. Alyssa.

Rest assured that Rev. Alyssa will NEVER ask you to send you her money or gift cards. Ignore these emails, even if the scammer pretends that they are Rev. Alyssa in an emergency situation. If you have a question about an email, please call or write to Teri or Alyssa directly to inquire about whether a message was legitimate.

A new year is beginning, and it seems like a perfect time to add some new voices to Woodfords’ justice conversations. If you are interested in participating, please join us. Participation in prior conversations is not necessary, and you do not need to make any sort of long-term commitment. We are simply interested in hearing as many perspectives as possible. The group will not be the same without you!

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 a physically distanced 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.)

Don Mairs 1/1

Susanna Adams 1/16