1. Thank You
2. Press Release – Church Missions goes two ways
3. Celebrations this week

1. Maine sent approximately 250 delegates and visitors down to Hartford last week to attend the 26th General Synod of the United Church of Christ and celebrate its 50th Anniversary. A big THANK YOU to all those who helped ensure that our Maine delegates and visitors could attend and enjoy the celebration. Thanks to Brian and Deb Breault for overseeing the Synod project, to Heidi Bennett for arranging the housing and transportation, to Mike Walsh and the other chaperones for shepherding our youth through the maze that is Synod, and to every one of the individual church coordinators for working with your congregation to make sure that the trip to Hartford was a pleasant and memorable one. Those stopping by the Conference office on their way home from Synod were inspired and enthusiastic about the speeches by Bill Moyers and Barack Obama. For those who didn’t travel to Hartford, you can hear the speeches and see the results of the business meeting on www.ucc.org.

2. The press release below, has been sent to most of the newspapers in Maine. If you don’t see it in your local paper this week, you may want to contact them, and urge them to print some “Good News”.

Church Missions goes two ways!

The Maine Conference United Church of Christ is hosting 14 "missionaries" from the Evangelical and Reform Church of Honduras. These 12 youth and 2 chaperones arrived more than a week ago to begin their stay by attending the General Synod of the United Church in Hartford, CT. They will finish their stay by living with 2 host families for half a week each in various parts of Maine, and return to Honduras on July 9th.

Twenty-three local UCC churches are hosting 1 or 2 Honduran young people from July 4th-8th, and will be offering them many different experiences in that time. Some of these youth will already have met each other at the Synod meeting and then at the Maine Conference's summer camp, Pilgrim Lodge, in West Gardiner, during the last week in June.

The relationship between these church bodies from Honduras and Maine has been in high gear since the days following the devastation that Hurricane Mitch wrought on Honduras in late 1998—though the relationship has roots almost a hundred years old. Many teams have gone south from Maine UCC churches and associations to work since that time, and several trips by Hondurans to Maine have also occurred.

This two-way mission relationship has brought new depths of fellowship and understanding into the lives of these very different groups, and has been described by leaders in both as the development of "family" across national boundaries. All of the 23 churches across Maine who are hosting the young persons and chaperones are looking forward to deepening these
family ties, and teaching these new "amigos"(friends) a little about life and faith in Maine.

3. Celebrations in our Maine Conference
.   Lorain Giles is celebrating the 30th Anniversary of her Ordination on June 26. Letters of rememberance and well wishes can be sent to Lorain at 21 Union Street, Lyme, NH 03768.
.   M. Ronald Beinema is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of his Ordination also on June 26th.
.   Allen Myers will be Ordained at 3 pm. Sunday, July 1, 2007 at the First Congregational Church of Deer Isle, Maine.