Annual Report for the Commission for Community Life

June 20-22, 2008

University of Maine Farmington

The mission of the commission for community life is to focus on areas of ministry relating to one another serving the needs of local churches, conference organizations and programming at Conference owned facilities. Our commission is made up of 15 members, one from each of the associations, plus five at-large members to be elected at the Annual Meeting of the conference. For the past year, Herbert Oliver has chaired this commission. Our commission is responsible for Outdoor Ministries Committee, Small Church Mission Team, Support Staff Network, Rockcraft Committee, Youth Ministries Teams, Clergy Spouse Network, and Women of the Maine Conference.

At our first meeting, we spent some time getting people acquainted with the responsibilities and sorting through the tasks of this commission. Again this year a person from the commission has been the liaison with one of the groups for which we are responsible. Linda Smith and I have been the representative to the Coordinating Council and I have been the representative to Executive Council. Since our annual meeting is in June this year, we have only had 7 meetings, with another being canceled because of the weather we had this winter. I will highlight ,the various activities that have been reported to us, as well as the town meetings which our commission set up and then Coordinating Council assumed the responsibility.

Outdoor Ministries Committee This committee meets on a regular monthly basis on the first Saturday of the month. The money they request from our Commission goes toward the mileage requests of their members who travel to the meetings and the Deans retreat which is held in the Spring of the year before camp opens up for campers in the summer.

Small Church Mission Team The money that this group requests is used for the on-going Parishes of Promises as well as a new parish of Promise church. They also give assistance to churches in the form of grants. Finally, they use money for team expenses and a gathering for small church and church leader’s convocation.

Support Staff Network The purpose of this committee is to bring about dignity, respect and fair compensation for all support staff of the Maine Conference United Church of Christ churches. They had scheduled a meeting for the fall but because of the limited number who had signed up the committee had to cancel. The committee request that the pastors of the church encourage their assistance or secretaries attend these scheduled workshops since they are planned to help them do their job more effectively.

Rockcraft Committee This committee is chaired by Earl Simpson. He and his committee have sent out special mailing to schools, United Way organizations and other non-profit groups to make them aware of this beautiful facility that is available during the week or weekend for their meetings. They continue to market this property for meetings not only on the weekend but especially during the week.

Youth Ministry Teams These groups of young people continue to be very active. The senior youth group held their fall meeting at Pilgrim Lodge and there mid-winter meeting at Saco. They have new adult leadership and are still looking for additional leader. We continue to look for leadership for the Junior High group. If you are interested in helping serve the younger youth, please contact Susie Craig at the conference office or Herb Oliver as chairperson of the Commission for Community Life. The young people are eager to attend the National Youth Event in Tennessee in July.

Clergy Spouse Network They held their retreat at Living Waters Retreat Center in Winslow on May 2-4, 2008. The money they request helps to pay for the cost of their speaker at the spring meeting,

Women of the Maine Conference Even though they have not had meetings they are still a responsibility of our commission since we pay dues to the UCC Women Leaders of New England so they can attend the New England Women’s Celebration that is held every 4 years. The planning board held their meetings in May to determine where the 2010 celebration would be held.

Commission items

At the annual meeting in September last year, our commission shared with you the 15 sites where the town meetings were going to be held to discuss the Conference assets. The notes from those meetings were posted on the website and later were replaced by a summary of the comments arranged by Conference Office, Pilgrim Lodge, and Rockcraft. The Coordinating Council has been working on the findings and will be presenting there findings at the Annual Meeting in June. At that meeting we will be discussing their findings. Please check out the Conference webpage for the information.

As I conclude my year as chair, I want to thank all members of the Commission for their support and continued prayers The Commission members wishe to thank those who have assisted and /or advised us this year: Rev. David Gaewski, Conference Minister, Rev, Susie Craig, Associate Conference Minister, Mark Schussler, Business Manager, Denise Goodman, Conference Moderator, Annette Mott, Director of Local Church Resources, and many others who have offered their opinions or knowledge for our consideration.

Respectfully Submitted

Herbert Oliver, Chair of the Commission for Community Life