Maine Conference Annual Meeting 2025
Pilgrim Lodge 103 Pilgrim Lodge Lane West Gardiner, Maine
A WELCOME VIDEO FROM OUR
CONFERENCE MINISTER
Click the buttons below to learn more about:
Annual Meeting Schedule
(Childcare is available both days but MUST be registered for ahead of time in your meeting registration.)
Friday, October 17th
8:00 – 4:00 Registration table in Quitobaquito
8:00 – 12:00 Vendor’s set up in Quitobaquito
7:45 – 8:45 Breakfast
9:00 – 11:30 Mini-Retreat for Authorized Ministers “Witness at the Boundary Between Congregation and Society” Marvin Ellison
11:30 – 11:50 Free Time
12:00 – 5:00 Vendor Display Tables
12:00 – 1:00 Recognition and Remembrance Luncheon
1:00 – 1:50 Bible Study in Small Groups
2:00 – 3:15 Workshop #1
3:30 – 4:45 Workshop #2
5:00 – 6:00 Social Time
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner
7:00 – 9:00. Storytelling with Stephen Carnahan
Saturday, October 18th
7:30 – 12:00 Registration table open
7:30 – 8:30 Breakfast & Social Time
8:00 – 3:30 Vendor Display Tables
8:30 – 8:45 Welcome and Land Acknowledgement
8:50 – 10:40 Plenary #1/Speak Out #1
10:40 – 11:00 Break
11:00 – 11:45 Bible Study in Small Groups
11:45 – 12:00 Transition to Quito/Responding Music
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch/Speak Out #2
1:00 – 2:15 Workshop #3
2:15 – 2:40 Pick Up Choir Rehearsal
3:00 – 4:45 Plenary #2
5:00 Closing Worship with Communion
Workshop Options
Friday October 17th
2:00 pm – 3:15 pm
Critical Elements of An Effective Safe-Conduct Policy
Leader: Jeff McDonnell, United Church of Christ Insurance Board
A review and discussion of major components that should be included in a Safe-Conduct Policy, including Supervision, Training, Screening, Monitoring, Reporting and Best Practices. This workshop will include Q&A, as well as access and reference to resources and policy templates.
Embodied Worship in the Future Church
Leaders: Rev. Leslie Foley, Pastor, Westbrook Warren UCC, with Panel
The Maine Conference is blessed with many experienced and innovative planners of Christian ceremony. Rev. Leslie Foley, who led MESOM’s Worshipfest Intensive course this June, will convene a panel to reflect and respond to questions such as:
What is the purpose of Christian worship? How is it changing in these times? What innovative practices might we explore? What conventional practices might we let go?
Sharing our experience of inspiring liminal ceremonies and ambitious liturgical train-wrecks, we’ll wonder together about the art of effective worship in this time.
Vision Journaling- Going Deeper Than Words
Leader: Pam Williams, Lay Minister, Second Congregational UCC, Norway
This Visual Journaling workshop is an opportunity to explore within your heart and soul, and to discover ways to express feelings and emotions using the inner language of imagery.
We will gather in a quiet room with centering music. No artistic ability or experience is required. Journals and art supplies will be provided. Registration in this workshop is limited to 12 people in each of two sessions.
Justice, Peace, and Creation Care
Presenters: The Social Action Committee of the Maine Conference
The Social Action Committee has been in dialogue all year about actions from Washington that continuously raise questions and concerns, and that we see generating reactions ranging from outrage to rejoicing.
In the Maine Conference, justice, peace, and care for creation have long been at the heart and soul of our social action ministry. We do proclaim “positions” on some issues, and there is a broad variety of issues that merit our consideration.
This workshop will be one of presentations, conversations, clarifications, and hopeful consensus building that will faithfully engage us and direct us toward a more just society and planet.
3:30 pm – 4:45 pm
Fresh Approaches to Congregational Fundraising
Facilitator: Rev. John Allen, Senior Pastor, First Congregational UCC, Brunswick
This workshop will give you practical guidance to energize fundraising efforts in your congregation. Drawing on current research, we will consider how churches can evaluate their development practices and explore new strategies.
Rev. Allen will draw upon the experience and insight of leaders in congregations of various sizes and settings. While the primary focus will be on our routines of annual giving campaigns, the insights and principles will apply as well to programs for capital development.
This will be an opportunity to reflect on the conventional sense of the boundary between congregation and society, and to wonder together how new approaches to fundraising might complement a congregation’s broader strategy for public relations, hospitality, financial stability, and effective ministry.
Justice, Peace, and Creation Care
Presenters: The Social Action Committee of the Maine Conference
The Social Action Committee has been in dialogue all year about actions from Washington that continuously raise questions and concerns, and that we see generating reactions ranging from outrage to rejoicing.
In the Maine Conference, justice, peace, and care for creation have long been at the heart and soul of our social action ministry. We do proclaim “positions” on some issues, and there is a broad variety of issues that merit our consideration.
This workshop will be one of presentations, conversations, clarifications, and hopeful consensus building that will faithfully engage us and direct us toward a more just society and planet.
Ministry With All Generations
Facilitators: Rev. Dr. Beth Hoffman, Pastor, First Congregational UCC, Eliot, & Pastor Spencer Law, Minister for Intergenerational Innovation, First Congregational UCC, Bridgton.
We know that today’s children and youth are the future church. They are also part of the present!
How can faithful adults share our experience of discipleship in ways that inspire wonder, joy and connection among all generations? The spiritual hunger of a changing world inspires creative new models of ministry in our faith communities.
In this workshop we will dream, pray, strategize, and lean in to a story of faith community in which children know that they play a vital role.
Visual Journaling – Going Deeper Than Words
Facilitator: Pam Williams, Lay Minister, Second Congregational UCC, Norway
This Visual Journaling workshop is an opportunity to explore within your heart and soul, and to discover ways to express feelings and emotions using the inner language of imagery.
We will gather in a quiet room with centering music. No artistic ability or experience is required. Journals and art supplies will be provided. Registration in this workshop is limited to 12 people in each of two sessions.
Saturday October 18th
1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
Creative Membership
Facilitators: Rev. Allison Smith, Pastor, Congregational UCC, Cumberland, & Rev. Brad Hirst, Pastor, Second Congregational UCC, Kittery Point
Many of today’s churchgoers are happy to be sitting in the pews but are just not “joiners”. How do we meet the spiritual needs of Members and Friends “no matter where they are on life’s journey?”
What are the implications for the covenant commitments we make to one another? Come with your questions and ideas for this important and timely conversation.
Critical Elements of An Effective Safe-Conduct Policy
Facilitator: Jeff McDonnell, United Church of Christ Insurance Board
A review and discussion of major components that should be included in a Safe-Conduct Policy, including Supervision, Training, Screening, Monitoring, Reporting and Best Practices. This workshop will include Q&A, as well as access and reference to resources and policy templates.
Embodied Worship in the Future Church
Facilitator: Rev. Leslie Foley, Pastor, Westbrook Warren UCC, with Panel
The Maine Conference is blessed with many experienced and innovative planners of Christian ceremony. Rev. Leslie Foley, who led MESOM’s Worshipfest Intensive course this June, will convene a panel to reflect and respond to questions such as:
What is the purpose of Christian worship? How is it changing in these times? What innovative practices might we explore? What conventional practices might we let go?
Sharing our experience of inspiring liminal ceremonies and ambitious liturgical train-wrecks, we’ll wonder together about the art of effective worship in this time.
Ministry With All Generations
Facilitators: Rev. Dr. Beth Hoffman, Pastor, First Congregational UCC, Eliot, & Pastor Spencer Law, Minister for Intergenerational Innovation, First Congregational UCC, Bridgton.
We know that today’s children and youth are the future church. They are also part of the present!
How can faithful adults share our experience of discipleship in ways that inspire wonder, joy and connection among all generations? The spiritual hunger of a changing world inspires creative new models of ministry in our faith communities.
In this workshop we will dream, pray, strategize, and lean in to a story of faith community in which children know that they play a vital role.
Mini Retreat for Authorized Ministers
“Witness at the Boundary Between Congregation and Society” – Marvin Ellison
If you are an authorized clergyperson serving in Maine, please join your colleagues in a morning of nurture and encouragement. More details will be posted in September.