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Who
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Rockcraft Retreat Center: A stately stone villa overlooking beautiful Sebago Lake is the inviting and comfortable Conference retreat center. Formerly a fashionable vacation home, it includes a main lodge, carriage house, boathouse and chauffeur’s house. It provides a beautiful setting for spiritual nurture and development and is used for retreats and workshops primarily for adults and youth groups. Currently, it is also available for use by non-Conference groups and organizations. Pilgrim Lodge: Nestled on the shores of Lake Cobbosseecontee in West Gardiner, more than a dozen cozy cabins linked by a rustic boardwalk welcome each year hundreds of children, youth and church families for a summer camping experience of spiritual challenge and growth. It is also becoming a site for individual churches to hold retreats. The Pennell Center: This is main office
of the Maine Conference UCC located in Yarmouth, Maine. There are two
Conference Ministers with one having a home office in Belfast, the Business
Manager, Administrative Assistant, Conference Secretary, Placement Secretary,
and Bookkeeper. The Resource Center is also located at the Conference
office. The Conference office is the business office for all the UCC
churches in the state of Maine. Academy for Congregational Life and Leadership: Pilgrim Path to the Future - A two year program with an optional third year of concentrated work designed to deepen involvement in and understanding of the church of the present, while learning about the past and looking toward the future. Classes and retreats offer resources for both personal and congregational renewal. In a collegial community of learning, participants can deepen insight while clarifying their own understanding of ministry, and gain confidence and skills to be active participants in the Church of the 21st century. Small Church Mission Team receives
and reviews applications from smaller churches in need of financial
assistance in order to maintain a pastoral ministry. When grants are
approved, churches are expected to conduct a survey of members' opinions
on a range of issues, and to supply the Team with quarterly financial
and activity reports. The Team also sponsors the Parishes of Promise
program, in which selected churches are led through an intensive process
of asset assessment, goal-setting, and development of community ministries
to enhance congregational health and self-sufficiency. Financial assistance
provided for Parishes of Promise diminishes over the five-year duration
of the program. State Youth Council: Comprised of all the high school aged youth in the Maine Conference. Led by an Executive Council of eight elected youth together with three adult advisors, this group holds two retreats a year, leads one of the worship services at Annual Meeting, and offers opportunities for our youth to gather together in fellowship throughout the year as well as supporting participation in regional and national youth events. A member of the Executive Council sits on the Coordinating Council. Maine Council of Churches: MCC is a statewide ecumenical organization founded in 1938 whose nine denominational members include Maine’s Roman Catholics, Unitarian Universalists and mainline Protestants, including the Maine Conference of the UCC. The Council provides a unified voice, speaking up to policy-makers, the public and the press on issues of economic and environmental justice, human rights and peace. MCC also provides resources to local congregations who wish to learn more and become involved in public advocacy on these issues, including health care reform, global warming, local foods initiatives, environmental health and toxics, homelessness and poverty, anti-torture and human rights efforts and connecting with advocates for justice in other faiths in Maine. United Church of Canada: Through the exchanging of visitors for Annual Meetings and occasional clergy retreats, the Maine Conference maintains a friendly relationship with the Maritime Province of the United Church of Canada. Maine Seacoast Mission: This is a multi-denominational effort providing ministers and ministry to coastal and island churches of downeast Maine. With its flagship, the Sunbeam, Maine Seacoast Mission helps connect often-isolated islanders and brings relief to the needy. The Wilson Center: Named after author Dorothy Clark Wilson, is the home of the Maine Christian Association and provides Protestant chaplaincy to the University of Maine at Orono. Supported in part by the Maine Conference, its recent chaplains have all been UCC Ministers. Honduras Partnership: Commission for Witness Life promotes this growing relationship of our church with the Evangelical and Reformed Church of Honduras and its social service arms. This has been a challenging and rewarding mission activity that has included work team visits, Honduran visits to Maine and project funding assistance. The Maine Ministerial Relief Society: Provides confidential, emergency financial assistance to Maine UCC clergy and their families through a fund that is administered by trustees from the Maine Conference. Resourcing the Local Church: The Capital Campaign Endowment Fund income is used for leadership development and special service to local congregations. This committee maintains a policy for use of the annual income and to monitor the requests for use of such funds. Application forms are available for churches and individuals at the Conference Office. Interim Ministry Network: A group for the support and on going training of interim ministers. All interim clergy and invited to attend on a regular basis. Rapid Response Team: A group of trained persons used by the Conference Ministers in conjunction with Church and Ministry Committees to investigate and respond to complaints of pastoral misconduct.
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Maine
Conference of the United Church of Christ P.O. Box 966, Yarmouth, Maine 04096 207-846-5118/207-846-2301 FAX |