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Nature’s Battery

This is the sort of fast that pleases me: Remove the chains of injustice! Undo the ropes of the yoke! Let those who are oppressed go free, and break every yoke you encounter! Share your bread with those who are hungry, and shelter homeless poor people! Clothe those who are naked, and don’t hide from the needs of your own flesh and blood! ~ Isaiah 58:6-7

Fasting is unnatural, nature demands the opposite, i.e. put on weight in order to do the necessary work. All migratory birds put on extra weight before and during migration. Some birds will actually double their weight so they have enough fuel for the trip. This explains why sometimes large flocks of birds, shorebirds, for instance, gather at abundant food sources at particular times. If you want to see a Red Knot or Ruddy Turnstone in May, there are a couple of small beaches in southern New Jersey where Horseshoe Crabs lay their eggs where you can see hundreds at once at the right time. Bird skin is so thin, that banders are able to determine if a bird is migrating or breeding by blowing on their bellies to move the feathers and then simply looking for visible fat. Fat is nature’s battery. It is how animals store energy for future use. In periods when calorie intake is insufficient, burning fat can make up the difference.

Unlike the birds, we sometimes put on weight unintentionally. Lots of money has been made helping people lose that weight. The industry has redefined the word “diet” from what is normally eaten for survival to something you “go on” to reduce weight. One problem is that in the extreme it can lead to opposite results. The body sometimes interprets fasting as a sign that food is scarce and so retains fat to be used later when things get really desperate.

Long before fasting became a weight loss plan, it was a spiritual practice. Self-denial was seen as a tool for making room for the spirit, which according to Isaiah, intends for us to loose the bonds of oppression and feed those who have been made poor. Sadly, what prompted Isaiah to remind us of God’s choices was the all-too-common practice of choosing ego. Even if we don’t flaunt our sacrifice on behalf of spirit, it is easy to turn our focus entirely inward. When we put ourselves first, even if for the sake of self-improvement so that we might be healthier physically or spiritually, we run the risk of neglecting our siblings. That is is why the fast of God’s choosing is one that integrates with the world around us to bring justice.

Prayer: Spirit’s wind, move aside what we thin-skinned people hide behind and show us what stores of energy you want us to use to serve you. Amen.

CONCERNS
  • Danies Baker's father Tom Baker who had medical tests on Monday
  • For our country and the American people.

Faith Formation & Fellowship

We will continue our weekly gatherings on Zoom every Thursday at 7:00 PM
Currently, we are having conversations about race. It is helpful to have support from one another as we confront topics like this that challenge us to difficult actions. There is nothing necessary to prepare in advance, just come prepared to engage. 
Click to join Zoom
 Sarah Mills, in partnership with Rev. Ian Lynch, will be leading a birding and spiritual reflection walk on Saturday, May 21st at the Davidson Nature Preserve in Vassalboro. The walk will begin at 6:30AM (that’s when the birds show up!).

This event will combine spiritual reflection, scripture readings, and, of course, some wonderful birding! All are welcome to attend so bring your binoculars AND a friend! It will likely be muddy and buggy, so we recommend dressing accordingly.


If the weather doesn't cooperate, the back up will be Sunday at noon.
More about Davidson Nature Preserve, including directions can be found here: https://www.tklt.org/davidson There is limited parking, so carpooling is encouraged.
“Mawopiyane, in Passamaquoddy, literally means ‘let us sit together,’ but the deeper meaning is of a group coming together, as in the longhouse, to struggle with a sensitive or divisive issue. The word indicates an urgency to meet because the outcome is something very desirable, such as resolving a conflict or bringing about peace. It’s a healing word.”

Those opening words come from a book that we are inviting you to join us in reading together in order that we may engage in a greater understanding of our indigenous neighbors in Maine, the Wabanaki, “People of the Dawnland,” those who called this land home for thousands of years. The Wabanaki are made up of four Maine tribes, respectively the Maliseet, Micmac, Penobscot and Passamaquoddy. Their story is important for us to know and vital for us to engage in. The impacts of colonization and issues of injustice that remain a reality for the native people in Maine are of concern to all of us. Healing and moving forward together can only happen when we are willing to listen to and learn from one another.

The Gatherings: Reimaging Indigenous-Settler Relations is a book compiled of
stories and perspectives from the voices of those who committed to sitting in the circle to listen and to share. The first gathering began 30 years ago and became a life-changing experience for those who joined together. Their voices teach us the value of hearing one another, the importance of acknowledging each other’s perspectives and the healing power of respectful dialogue.
Recognizing our interconnectedness is the way toward peace, harmony, and justice. So then “let us sit together” as we explore The Gatherings and share in this journey alongside one another.

The Gatherings Book Study, is open to all. Co-facilitated by the Reverend Doretta Colburn, Dianne Morse-Leonard, Al Struck and John Brooking as technical support, the book study will be held on Wednesdays in June (June 1,8,15 and 22) from 6:30-8:00 p.m. on Zoom. Books can be purchased online. If the cost of the book is a barrier for you, please let Stephen Hastings
know ( stephenh11656@gmail.com). We look forward to deepening our understanding of our interconnectedness as we read and discuss this book together. Please register by contacting Stephen Hastings by May 18th. Please put “book study registration” in the subject area.
It was so good to have our first coffee hour after more than two years without one! The Deacons plan to continue the coffee hours monthly. We do want to caution everyone to continue to socially distance, both inside and outside, and to wear masks inside and out, except when eating or drinking. The virus is relentless, and we should be also.
.--Sally Melcher-McKeagney, FCN, for the Health Ministry Team

The Creation Care Ministry Team sometimes reads a poem during worship for the Creation Care moment. Often it is only  poetry that can show us what being in right relationship with Creation and its inhabitants means. Those who attend the Prayer/Check In Group are learning  this, as we listen to at least one poem every day. 

 Last year, the New York Times Magazine ran an article entitled  My Secret Weapon Against the Attention Economy - The New York Times (nytimes.com)  This is a short article worth reading. The secret weapon is poetry. Elliott Holt, the author, chooses a poem the first day of every month, and then reads that poem every day of the month. She says by the end of the month she has memorized the poem. OK, I know that I would not have memorized any poem just by reading every morning--even reading it carefully, which is what she does. I need much more repetition and intention. But still, even if you don't memorize the poem, wouldn't it be wonderful to really know a poem, to notice every word, and to notice the same words in a different way? 

Here's a poem you will be hearing at least once this month. I thought you might like a preview, to read it over a time or two and welcome it into your being. It's a good one!
--Sally Melcher-McKeagney, for Your Creation Care Team


     What I Have Learned So Far by Mary Oliver

Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don’t think so.
 
All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of —indolence, or action.
 
Be ignited, or be gone.
Dave Hedrick on alewives (photo is of alewives in Damariscotta)

The place in Vassalboro with the best view is the new fish ladder on the south side of the large red brick mill that used to be the Kennebec Bean Company right down town at the intersection of Oak Grove Rd with Rte 32.  There is plenty of parking and stairs that lead down to a nice viewing area.


This is the best place on China Lake Outlet Stream to see the fish up
close.  This week is the first time in about 175 years that fish have been able to get to China Lake from the ocean.

The State began trucking adult fish to spawn in China Lake four or five years ago.  Their babies (80,000 per adult pair) spent their first summer in China Lake then followed their parents downstream, tumbling over the six dams that were then in the stream, down the Sebasticook and Kennebec to the Gulf of Maine where they grew to adult size and sexual maturity over a span of four years trying not to be eaten by a cod, haddock, seal, or whale.

During the three or four months spent in China Lake growing from fertilized egg to 3” fry ready to make their way to the sea they imprinted on the unique  smell and chemistry of the water in China Lake.  During the evolution of this fish, healthy rearing conditions produced the most fish.  Those who evolved to remember the smell of where they had success in growing produced even more offspring, and so on for a few million years.  There is a good reason for everything that Mother Nature does.  We inevitably screw things up when we try to overrule Mother Nature because God made us smarter than any other creature in the Universe… that we know of anyway.

For 4 billion years Mother Nature and Charles Darwin have been working to make everything work together harmoniously.  It only gets unbalanced when humans attempt to make things better… for humans.

As I said this is the first time returning fish have upstream access to China Lake so the run will not be as large this year as it will in 3 or 4 years.

The new upstream passage facilities were designed to easily accommodate a run of 1 million fish.

When that happens Vassalboro will have the right to sell a portion of these fish for lobster bait after enough breeding fish pass into China Lake to spawn sufficient to  sustain the annual run.

This is the 14th year fish could get up the Sebasticook to the amazing fish elevator that lifts them up over the Benton Falls dam and on their way to spawn in Sebasticook Lake in Newport and Plymouth Pond near Denise.

Benton employs two school teachers with money from its rights to alewife that pass through town, rights that Winslow declined in a snit over removal of Ft. Halifax Dam. 

In recent years the number of fish reaching Benton has been three to five million.  This is far more than are needed to breed and sustain the run or which could be used as lobster bait before it rots.

So for the past three years the Canadian government has purchased the excess, loaded it by the ton into refrigerated trucks and taken it to a cannery in St. John, New Brunswick for processing.  The canned alewife is then sent to protein-starved Haiti as humanitarian aide.

Fish going from Benton to Haiti:

Small gray totes hold two bushels and carry fish up a steep bank from waters edge.  The contents are dumped on to layers of crushed ice in the larger plastic containers which hold more than a ton.  These are loaded by forklift onto trucks and taken to a cannery in St. John, NB.
 

Climate Change

(Five Facts)

•        It's real

•        It's bad

•        It's us

•        Scientists agree

•        There's Hope!

Hope depends on us working together to bring about change. Speak up, act up, and tell your Member of Congress and other leaders that you expect them to act!

 

Letter from Karen Steelhammer - Registrar at Pilgrim Lodge.

Special Scholarship Funds for Churches of the former Kennebec Valley Association 

Greetings!  

We have been richly blessed with scholarship funds that was managed by the former Gardiner Congregational Church.  After the Gardiner church closed, the Maine Conference gained access to these funds, and the decision by the court is that churches from the Kennebec Valley Association of the UCC use these funds to send children and adults to Pilgrim Lodge.  We are charged with administrating these funds.   
 
We are so delighted to bring programming back to Pilgrim Lodge after a two year pause on traditional overnight camping!  Our hope is to reach out to members and active non-members of your church to let them know about the possibility of attending camp at a highly discounted rate.  Also, if you know of someone not directly affiliated with your church that could benefit from a camp scholarship, please consider being a sponsor using these funds.   

We will gladly answer questions from anyone, so please do not hesitate to reach out by email ksteelhammer@pilgrimlodge.org or call the office at 207-724-3200.  

And remember, we offer programs and day passes to adults and families. 
We are hoping that this will enable you to utilize the ministry of Pilgrim Lodge to strengthen your church and provide experiences of faith building and Christian Education for members and friends of your church.  

If you are interested in a scholarship please let pastor Ian know or Nancy in the church office by May 26th so we can pass it along by the deadline of May 27th.



 

Strengthen the Church Offering, June 5th

The Strengthen the Church Offering supports the efforts of our conferences and the national ministries of the United Church of Christ to support leaders, new churches, youth ministry, and innovation in existing congregations. Together, we all grow stronger.

For a small conference like the Central Pacific Conference, it’s sometimes hard to offer the kinds of tools and resources to our churches that larger conferences do. We don’t have a big endowment or other buckets of money to draw on for hosting workshops. At the same time, we believe strongly in paying fair wages for good work, so we know it would be unfair to expect people who’ve spent years honing their skills and expertise to offer their hard-earned wisdom for free. Thank God for the members and churches who give to Strengthen the Church, because they make it possible for the Central Pacific Conference to offer workshops and live our values regarding fair compensation.

Thanks to the money given to Strengthen the Church, the Central Pacific Conference has been able to offer workshops on End-of-Life Pastoral Care, Practicing Gender Justice, Fostering Generosity, and many other topics that help our clergy and lay people minister more-effectively in their communities. Together, we’re able to foster stronger connections among the ministers and lay members who attend these workshops. Together, we nurture spiritual growth in our ministers and lay members who engage exciting topics with skilled facilitators who are justly compensated.

Together, we Strengthen the Church.
Rev. Tyler Connoley (he/him/his)
Conference Minister Central Pacific Conference United Church of Christ

Whether joining the daily prayer check-in or attending Sunday worship via Zoom, the safest and most reliable way is to open the Zoom app on your device and enter the meeting ID and passcode listed below. Or you can click on either of the boxes below to open the meeting you want to attend.
It is also possible to join with audio only by calling 1 929 205 6099
Daily Prayer Check-In - meeting ID: 914 158 897 passcode: 693668
Sunday Worship - meeting ID: 360 970 974 passcode: 835873
Wednesday, May 18
  9:00 a.m. Essentials Closet
10:00 AM Daily Zoom prayer/check-in 
Office Closed

Thursday    19
10:00 AM Daily Zoom prayer/check-in 
11:30 a.m. Stone Soup Cafe at Winslow
  5:00 p.m. Essentials Closet
  7:00 p.m. Faith Formation & Fellowship
 
Friday         20
  9:00 a.m. Essentials Closet
10:00 AM Daily Zoom prayer/check-in 
11:30 a.m. Stone Soup Cafe
  
Saturday      21
10:00 AM Daily Zoom prayer/check-in 
Sunday, May 22
9:30 AM Worship Service on-site & on-line

Monday      23
10:00 AM Daily Zoom prayer/check-in 
11:30 AM Stone Soup Cafe at Winslow
Office Closed

Tuesday    24
10:00 AM Daily Zoom prayer/check-in 
Office Closed

Wednesday  25
9:00 AM Essentials Closet
10:00 AM Daily Zoom prayer/check-in 

  
 
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