Maine Council of Churches
April 2006 Newsletter
Stories in this Newsletter (click on any title to go directly to that story):
> Our Story: From the Executive Director
> New Chapters - Speaking the Language of Love in Times of Fear
> A Story About a Legacy that Made All the Difference: MCC Creates the Elsie Libby Memorial Society
> A Story about Meeting Our Neighbors: “Hear Our Stories, Know Our Names”
> A Story of the Power of Connecting to Others: MCC Volunteer Sally Chappell
> A Story of Moving Beyond Division to Wholeness: The Giving Winds Campaign
> 20/20: A Story about Sharing the Vision
> A Story about Partnership: Friends of the MCC and How You Can Become Involved
Our Story: From the Executive Director
The Maine Council of Churches’ story is one of hope, cooperation and dedication, “written” by volunteers, supporters, staff, and community “storytellers.” This newsletter issue highlights some of the ways they are bringing to life the gospel values of loving one’s neighbor, welcoming the stranger and daring to live as peacemakers.
In Bridgton, Sally Chappell celebrates her passion for environmental justice through her connection with the Council’s EarthCare Teams. Betty Wurtz of New Gloucester feels called to work on overcoming poverty through her connection with our economic justice program and drama about homelessness. Working through the Maine Council of Churches, our staff and volunteers help to transform our community. Each finds within the Council an ecumenical connection and an outlet for her passion for justice.
New Chapters - Speaking the Language of Love in Times of Fear
The Council Board of Directors envisions a future “storyline” in which the Biblical principles of justice, compassion and peace guide us in building sustainable communities by overcoming oppression and poverty. Specifically, we see an unfolding story of the Council:
- Serving as a resource for congregations by creating projects and trainings to effectively address issues of poverty, oppression, earth stewardship and restorative justice in our communities
- Presenting statewide conferences for adults and youth about putting faith into effective action. Enhancing our web-based and e-communications to better serve individuals and congregations. Continuing our work in coalition with interfaith and secular organizations on a wide variety of issues of shared concern.
- Asking the vital question: What makes for sustainable community?
For us, the prophetic biblical vision of community calls us to challenge systems that unfairly burden the poor, to care for creation as good stewards, and to overturn the tables of oppression.
The Council is recognized statewide as a respected religious voice for justice in Maine. Now is the time to write new chapters in our story. You are part of that story. Our supporters and volunteers — our “story-tellers”— understand that the Council brings together crucial resources and diverse participants, allowing people of faith to have a constructive impact on our common life.
A Story About a Legacy that Made All the Difference: MCC Creates the Elsie Libby Memorial Society
Since 1938 the Maine Council of Churches has been a voice for Maine congregations on behalf of justice. In 1973, a gift from Elsie L. Libby, of Wells, gave the Council new life. Projects were funded that addressed Maine’s social justice concerns. In 1986, the Council hired full-time staff to support its growing role as a voice and a resource for the ecumenical community. Today, thanks to support from individuals, congregations, and member denominations, the Council continues to speak up and to
act on economic, environmental and restorative justice issues.
Last year, the Council lost a great friend with the untimely death of the late Rev. Joy Gasta, who served for years as a beloved colleague and board member for several years. Like Elsie Libby, Joy Gasta passionately believed in the importance of the Council’s work. By remembering the Council with a bequest in her will, Joy left a legacy that will make a lasting difference in the lives of the Maine people she served so gracefully and lovingly as pastor. It is fitting that Joy’s gift is the first to be accepted in the Elsie Libby Memorial Society.
If you would like to remember the Maine Council of Churches in your will and wish to receive more information about planned charitable giving, please let us know. Please contact Doug Cruger at the Council office at 772-1918.
“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true and beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.” - Reinhold Niebuhr |
A Story about Meeting Our Neighbors: “Hear Our Stories, Know Our Names”
“Our society tends to be more and more separated by economic class,” says Dolores Vail, MCC Economic Justice Program Director. “What is lacking is a meeting place where we can find common ground. That is the beginning of loving our neighbors as ourselves—recognizing people as being ‘our neighbors’ in the first place.”
The Maine Council of Churches’ drama about homelessness, “Hear Our Stories, Know Our Names,” written and performed by Mainers who have been or are homeless themselves, fulfills this need by bringing people from widely different backgrounds together, helping us recognize one another as neighbors. It is a first step to building sustainable communities in which no one is hungry, cold, jobless, or homeless. The Council’s goal is to bring this important story about homelessness to every part of the state.
More than 50 congregations have made possible over 30 performances from York to Bar Harbor, seen by thousands. Betty Wurtz, of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, was part of a collaborative effort by seven churches that brought a performance of the play to the Theater Project in Brunswick. Betty describes this experience as one that was particularly meaningful. “Most intriguing of all is hearing people who are homeless speak with their own voices about their experiences. I helped make the performance in Brunswick happen and that was most meaningful to me.” Betty believes that coalition-building is one of the Maine Council of Churches’ most valuable contributions to the state. “Working together, the Council bridges gaps to make things happen in the Legislature and in the community. When churches and others do this together they succeed, and I appreciate that.”
A Story of the Power of Connecting to Others: MCC Volunteer Sally Chappell
Sally Chappell believes that recycling, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, and using energy-efficient products contribute substantially to the health of our planet. Sally shares that vision with EarthCare Teams, a joint project of the Council and Maine Interfaith Power & Light. She also believes that through our innate connection to the earth, we can experience our unique spiritual link to God, its creator.
Sally, a communicant of St. Joseph’s Parish in Bridgton, is drawn to the MCC by her deep-rooted interest in ecumenism and by the Council’s commitment to environmental stewardship. “The Maine Council of Churches helped me solidify my Christian mission…which is what I refer to as the three E’s: education, ecology, and ecumenism. The Council is relevant to all three of these mission goals.
“My fifteen-year participation with the Council has deepened my connections with my own faith. In May 2001, I went to Washington, D.C. as part of a MCC delegation to attend a conference on climate change. There, I met people from my own denomination who shared my concern about climate change and were working toward the same goals. This helped me feel that I wasn’t alone in my denomination working on environmental issues.”
“Environmentalists and religious people can help reunite our civilization’s head and heart. [They can create]…a story of a people in an intimate and caring relationship with their planet, their cosmos and each other…as comfortable with awe and wonder as with weights and measures…[This story] would be the lodestar that guides us to a socially just and environmentally sustainable future.” Gary Gardner: Invoking the Spirit |
A Story of Moving Beyond Division to Wholeness: The Giving Winds Campaign
Economic justice is central to the biblical vision of a community in which wholeness is restored and resources shared fairly. The Council’s Giving Winds Campaign, initiated in response to the divisive casino referendum
in 2002, is an example of a successful collaborative effort on behalf of that vision.
In partnership with the Four Directions Development Corporation (FDDC), this capital campaign for the Native American Housing and Small Business Revolving Loan Fund has now raised $387,000 in contributions and no/low interest loans, with an additional $220,000 in pending contributions. These funds, all of which go exclusively to FDDC, will be matched by the federal government. For the Council, initiating the Campaign helped us to fulfill our mission of initiating and facilitating projects that allow people of faith to join in ecumenical efforts that build a culture of justice, compassion and peace.
Though the Giving Winds Campaign ends in June 2006, the Council will continue a relationship of collaboration with FDDC while encouraging churches to learn about and partner with our Native American neighbors in Maine so we can move together toward wholeness.
“I know that God acts. But...we must discern the gifts God has given us, accept them, employ them, pass them along. Without our active cooperation, God ’s abundance remains in the realm of potential, always there, always available, but forever untapped.” - Parker Palmer |
20/20: A Story about Sharing the Vision
For 68 years, people of faith and bold vision have realized how important it is that the Maine Council of Churches exists. Elsie Libby realized it; Joy Gasta realized it; countless supporters and volunteers over the years have realized it. As we write the next chapter of the story, the Maine Council of Churches seeks to continue to be a voice on behalf of justice at the state and national levels and a resource to congregations at the local level who want to unite with others to build sustainable community.
The next three years will be critical. For that reason we are bold to put forward an invitation. With a new director in place and a sharpened focus, we are determined to close the gap between what our current resources allow and the critical work our vision impels us to do.
We invite a special few of you to enter with us into a special relationship shaped by the vision we share. We are seeking 20 individuals and 20 congregations willing to pledge $1,000 per year for the next three years to the support of the Council’s social justice outreach efforts in Maine. For some, we know the “20/20 Share the Vision Campaign” will be a stretch; for others the deepening of a commitment that already exists.
It’s often been observed that if the Council did not exist, we would need to invent something like it to respond with a voice of faith to the challenges of our times. The 20/20 Share the Vision Campaign will help to ensure that today’s challenges are met with a clear, consistent, and prophetic voice for justice and with actions that “repair the breach and restore the streets to live in.” (Isaiah 58:12)
A Story about Partnership: Friends of the MCC and How You Can Become Involved
The Maine Council of Churches is a partnership. We have 8 member denominations and many friends who share a vision and a sacred task. These are some of the ways you can help:
- Your gifts. A donation in any amount makes you a Friend of MCC. Your special commitment to the 20/20 Share the Vision Campaign.
- Your help getting the word out. Share news of MCC with your faith community.
- Your ideas. How might your faith journey be better served by MCC? (Write or e-mail us through our web site at www.mainecouncilofchurches.org
- Your participation. (See our web site for events and opportunities.) Provide your email address to receive our weekly e-bulletins.
- Your legacy. Consider remembering the Council in your estate plan. Join the Elsie Libby Memorial Society. (Call us for more information.)
| Thank you! |
The Maine Council of Churches is a non-profit organization with IRS 5 0 1 (c)3 status. Contributions are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law. |
Maine Council of Churches
19 Pleasant Avenue P ortland, ME 04103
Phone: 207-772-1918
E-mail: info@mainecouncilofchurches.org