ALL CONFERENCE E-MAIL       sunflowers
Sept. 2, 2009
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  1. Annual Meeting is almost here
  2. Healthy Stewards
  3. “Aliens Among Us”
  4. A Project In Support Of Small Congregations
  5. Resourcing the Local Church Committee Nominations
  6. Congratulations to Ben Haskell

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1.  Registration for Annual Meeting deadline was Sept. 1.  If you have not registered yet, please call Sue at the Conference office to see what is still available. Sunday River must have reservations for meals shortly after our deadline, so no meal tickets will be available at the registration desk.
Several of the workshops are filling up rapidly, and workshops are filled on a first come-first served basis, so be sure to get your registration in quickly, and designate a second choice for your workshop selections.
          Please join us at Sunday River for a weekend of visiting with friends, participating in the work of the Conference, eating, relaxing and worshiping together.  See you on the mountain.

2.  Healthy Stewards: Healthy Leadership for Healthy Churches
To help you on your path to a healthier you, the UCC (Non- Medicare) Health Plan will be offering confidential and voluntary wellness screenings to all 2008 myhealthIQ participants and to new Plan participants. Individual wellness screenings will be provided at your Conference Annual Meeting held at Grand Summit Resort Hotel Saturday, September 26th, from 7:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m.
Please watch for additional information from the PBUCC Health team to learn more about the myhealthIQ wellness offering and about improved incentives for participation or visit www.pbucc.org.
If you would like to schedule for the exam please contact Camale Allen, Wellness Administrator today, toll-free at 800.642.6543, ext. 2872 or by e-mail callen@pbucc.org to reserve a spot for you at the wellness exam!

3.  The Witness Life Commission invites you to a showing of the documentary “Aliens Among Us” by Martina Radwan, followed by a discussion aimed at helping us wrestle with the biblical call to offer hospitality to the stranger in our midst in the face of today’s very real challenges of internatonal insecurity.  The film is scheduled for Saturday evening of Annual Meeting.  Documentary.org, the website of the International Documentary Association describes the film:  “The war on terror has gone on for over seven years, yet all politics implemented have failed to produce significant results.  The Justice Department designed a registration program for immigrants already in the US, based on their nationality, not on the targeted people’s actions.  Aliens Among Us describes the lives of these people, who are targeted because they are ““different”” and therefore a potential danger.  The drastic measures are supposed to protect us from them.  But where do we draw the line?”  For more information about the film, go to http://www.aliensamongus-thefilm.com/index.php.

4.  A Project In Support Of Small Congregations:
Virginia Theological Seminary is happy to announce that applications are now available for the fifth Summer Collegium – a nine-day intensive residential program for 25 pastors (along with their spouses or partners) serving small congregations.  The 2010 Summer Collegium will take place June 23-July 1, and the emphasis will be Leadership in the Small Church. Alice Mann, a prolific writer and speaker on congregational issues, is the keynote speaker.  John Bell, of the Iona Community in Scotland, will join as musician. Application materials are available by emailing SummerCollegium@vts.edu, or may be downloaded from the vts webpage (www.vts.edu/education/collegium). Completed applications must be postmarked no later than December 15, 2009.  The Summer Collegium is fully funded through the generosity of the Lilly Endowment through its “Making Connections” initiative, and is offered to participants at no cost.

5.  Resourcing the Local Church Committee Nomination.
Nominations for a lay person from the central/mid-coast area are needed to serve on the Maine Conference Resourcing the Local Church Committee (refer to http://maineucc.org/resources/resourcing_local_church_guidelines.htm for more info).  The RLC committee meets 3-4 times a year (typically on a Thursday at Hammond Street Congregational Church in Bangor) – their next meeting is scheduled for October 15, 2009 at 10:00 am.  The committee makes decisions to award grant monies to churches who request funding for emergency needs or special projects.  The money comes from an endowment that was raised during the last Conference Capital Campaign.  Nominations should be forwarded to Rev. Darren Morgan, Acting Associate Conference Minister for Small Church Development, who staffs this committee.  Nominations will be submitted to the Coordinating Council who makes the appointment.  If you have any questions, contact Rev. Morgan at dmorgan207@roadrunner.com or telephone 944-9469.

6.  President Kent J. Ulery is pleased to announce the following new members to the Bangor Theological Seminary Board of Trustees:


Benjamin Haskell is Executive Vice President and Academic Dean of the New England School of Communications in Bangor. He also has served as the Director of Education of the same institution. Mr. Haskell moved to Bangor in the summer of 1959, when he was 14, and when his father, Stanley, entered the Bangor Plan at BTS. He has served in many volunteer capacities and is currently Chair of the Proclamation, Identity, and Communication Committee of the Maine Conference.

He is joined by Charles Miller of Portland, the founder and director of The Children’s Initiative, an organization that helps children in resource-poor areas around the world; and Dr. Paul Burlin, Founding Chair of the Department of History at the University of New England.