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From The Pastor Gina M. Finocchiaro Little Easters By the time you read this newsletter, we will be more than half-way through our Lenten season. How is your journey going? For me, I often start out with such zeal and promise, and then as the weeks go by I start to wonder if whatever pledge I have made was such a realistic idea in the first place. Whether you have chosen to “give something up” or to “take something on” for Lent, I hope the daily choice to honor that commitment draws your focus back to God. Ultimately, these devotional intentions and actions are only effective if they remind us of our original purpose: to return to God. Sometimes it is easy when thinking about Lent to focus on the hard message of suffering, of sin, of sacrifice. I have thought about Lent this year as an opportunity. These days are ones set aside to examine, reflect and re-imagine your relationship with God. How have you fallen away from God in the last year? Now are the days to discover and rediscover avenues to the divine. Despite the serious nature of such a season, I encourage you to keep your eyes on the prize, the prize of Easter. As blossoms of spring promise to unfold around us (though it is again snowing outside my window as I write this article), remember that each Sunday in Lent is meant to be a “little Easter”. There are only 40 days of Lent, not 46. We count from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday exempting the Sundays in between. For each Sunday is time to remember the promise of resurrection and new hope that is already among us. Peace and Blessings,  New Members The following people joined our church on February 17th, 2008: Gibson & Reneé Fay-LeBlanc live in Portland with their son Liam and dog Whitman and are expecting another son in late April. They have lived in the California Bay Area, Vermont, and Manhattan and are happy to be back in Portland. Renee is an internal medicine doctor at Greater Portland Medical Group in Cape Elizabeth. Gib directs The Telling Room, a nonprofit writing center for kids, and his poems have appeared in magazines including The New Republic, Poetry Northwest, and Tin House. Sandra Kynes describes herself as an explorer because her curiosity has taken her on many travels and to live in New York City, England, Germany, and now New England for the second time. She has spent the past year renovating an old two-family house in the West End which she shares with her mother, son, daughter-in-law, and five cats. In addition to being an author of five books, Sandra is a yoga instructor, and has her own massage therapy practice. Alice and Stephen Purington live in North Berwick, ME with their two chocolate labs. Alice is a college counselor and an avid gardener. Stephen has been a math teacher in Massachusetts for many years. Brooke Teller has been attending Williston-West for over a year and made Portland her home last August. She is pleased to be joining this amazing congregation. Brooke spent ten years teaching high school science in CT and is currently employed as the chemistry teacher at Casco Bay High School. She is looking forward to being an official member of the Williston-West community.  Meet Erin Clark Sam Saltonstall ...a little background on our new Church Administrator I sat down with Erin on a drippy February afternoon to learn a little more about her life experiences. I found out convinced me that Williston-West is very lucky to have hired her! Erin grew up in Buxton, and her family attended the First Parish UCC church in neighboring Gorham.An only child, she loved to sing as a youngster.By the time she left college she had already assembled an impressive array of skills.Her Bachelor of General Studies program at the University of Maine at Farmington enabled her to engage in work experiences related to her study of early childhood education, psychology and social justice.She practice taught in a mainstream classroom and created and co-coordinated FACES, an anti-sweatshop organization based at UMF. Erin interned at and was also later a board member for the Maine Women’s Lobby, a 501(C)(4) organization concerned with reproductive choice, employee benefits and other issues facing the women of Maine.She crafted testimony before the Legislature and planned press conferences for the organization as well. Erin met her partner Janelle through a friend during this time, and they eventually moved to Saco once Erin finished college.Following her studies, Erin took a job at Day One's Network, a state-wide organization which works with an array of other non-profits to get kids with substance abuse problems into treatment.She was employed there for six years.Along with being a parent outreach coordinator for the organization, she wore many other hats. Erin and Janelle have since relocated to Portland, and it was Mary Beyer who let Erin know of the church administrator position at Williston-West last summer.Since joining our staff, Erin has made the office and the job very much her own, contributing efficiency, an on-line church calendar, a reorganized office, and wonderful layout skills with the print publicationsour church.What Erin likes about her new job is both its flexibility and creativity.Working closely last summer with June, our bridge minister, and now Gina, Erin has brought us fresh ideas such as the dinner fundraisers contemplated for this spring. Janelle and Erin have twothrough adoption whom you may have already had the pleasure of meeting: James (age 3) and Anna (14 months). Asked what it’s like to worship as well as work here, Erin commented that as people realized that when she’s in church she’s not working, and that an email or a phone call is the best way to communicate with her about church business, everything has been going smoothly. She states she loves both working and worshipping with the wonderful community of people here at Williston-West. We are delighted to welcome Erin, Janelle and their family into our fold!  Sudan Sam Saltonstall According to a January 27th editorial in the New York Times, the new United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur is not off to an encouraging start. Roughly 200,000 people have been killed in that region over the last five years and 2.5 million more have become refugees. Although the recently organized joint force to which the Times refers was to swell the number of peacekeepers from 7,000 to 20,000 and bring in helicopters and more advanced equipment, only one tenth of the new forces were in place at time of publication. The government in Khartoum has done what ever it can to block the implementation of the UN peacekeeping force through a variety of means, further complicating a very difficult situation which involves the janjaweed, the Sudanese Army, and a number of rival militias. “Underlying it all is a desperate competition between nomads and farmers for land and water in a parched region. There is no hope at all until a credible and credibly armed peacekeeping force is deployed”, says the Times. “Caring is not enough. What is needed is troops, equipment and a lot more diplomatic pressure on Sudan.” As we begin our year of Tents of Hope, we invite you to learn about Darfur and visit the website tentsofhope.org. There you will find a whole variety of links through which you can stay informed and apply some of the needed pressure that could save many lives and stop the tragedy still unfolding in Darfur. Reminder - Williston-West Dinner Series Erin Clark As a reminder — our first of our new fundraising efforts will be a dinner series to be hosted by members and friends of Williston-West and held during the months of April and May. WE NEED YOUR HELP. As this artile goes to print I have heard from many people that they’re considering hosting or planning to host a dinner. Please send in the form outlining your dinner (to be found on the last page of the Navigator) to me BY MARCH 9TH. This series will only be successful if many of us participate!!! Unsure about hosting a dinner in your home ? Dinners can be held at the church or at another venue altogether as well. You are also welcome to host a dinner of close friends and not ‘advertise’ your dinner in our dinner booklet to outside parties. We’d love to see this series be profitable and enjoyable... Your ideas are welcome and again — your participation is needed! Please contact the church office with any questions, and get those sign up sheets to the office BY MARCH 9TH! Many thanks! Trustees' Report Going to the Ash Wednesday service seemed like extra effort this year. Meggie had piano lessons, we had to eat supper and then hurry off to the church. “Is all that scurrying worth it?” I wondered to myself. But we have the good fortune of having piano lessons with Denise, and she and Mark and Max were also filling their early evening hours with rushing about, going to a parent-teacher conference, finding some supper and scurrying to the church. I felt a sense of community, knowing that we were two families busy in our lives, trying to assure we were present for a significant spiritual service. Sometimes when we go to church, it is just going to church; nothing more or less. We enjoy the company of our church family, the sermon is agreeable, and the choir sounds fine. Yet, sometimes when we go to church, we find ourselves filled up; we feel complete in a way that can be hard to explain to others, and has at times been termed as having “the Spirit.” Well, that is precisely what happened for me on Ash Wednesday. It was not what I expected to happen, but there it was, and I am grateful for it. As I was trying to hold on to that sensation in the car on the way home, Meggie’s voice came from the back of the car. “I love my church home,” she said, to my surprise. We talked together about how we felt filled with love after the service, and how special that feeling is. I have been thinking about that evening for most of the past week or so. I usually tell people I attend Williston-West because of the community. I participate in the committees and various events because I truly enjoy the people at WWUCC, and enjoy learning new things about them and my self when we are together. I would never dream of telling people not connected to our church about finding experiences such as what happened for me on Ash Wednesday. It would seem too evangelical, and in some ways insincere, as it is not a routine occurrence for me. But that one evening is worth all the other times when coming to church feels like something that is done, not something that is essential. And yet, having a church home is so very essential. Coming regularly to join in community is as filling as having your self overcome with unexpected love and joy. It is simply that the two experiences provide us with the sensation of being loved in very different ways. One is powerful and stunning, while the other is gentle and nurturing. It is why we must continue to serve on committees, find ways to increase the membership of our church, and stay faithful during this time of wilderness. We are in a Lenten season in some ways as a church community. We certainly have our work cut out for us, maintaining this historic building, and trying to find ways to increase our resources financially. But I believe we can do it. We are on the cusp of being reborn into a whole new congregation, vital and energetic, engaged in our local community. Every chance we get, we must find ways to share with others what a special place we have in Williston-West. We are alive, we are being born again and again and again, and we are a place where love reigns supreme. We are a community that people would love to be a part of, if only they knew about it. So, while I am uncertain how to tell my story without coming off as pretentious, pompous, or proselytizing, I pledge to try and respond to opportunities that might arise to share how much I am fulfilled in so many different ways at Williston-West. I hope you will do the same. Since I have already stolen a phrase from John Coltrane, I will now shamelessly rip from the Beatles. The love we make is equal to the love we take, so we should definitely find ways to extend the love of our faith beyond the doors of Williston-West. Enlightened U.S. Assistance Could Help Curb World Popujlation Growth By 2050 U.N. growth projections put the population of the world at anywhere from eight to almost eleven billion people, up from almost 6.8 billion today. If our goal is to eradicate poverty, hunger and illiteracy, and slow the pace of global warming, we must strive for the lower number. While many nations around the world have stable populations, countries struggling with poverty are growing the fastest. 201 million couples around the world can not get the family planning services they need, and in most cases desperately want. It is also these countries where rampant deforestation has been caused by the harvesting of wood for cooking fuel and the clearing of land for unsustainable agricultural practices, both of which contribute to climate change. Providing family planning services could be a relatively inexpensive task shared by the developed and developing world. Doing so would yield enormous benefits. Meeting the needs of women who do not have access to effective contraception could each year prevent 52 million unwanted pregnancies, 22 million induced abortions, and 1.4 million infant deaths, according to the U.N. Population Fund. It is not so well known that countries can quickly stem population growth. Iran is one such success story. From 1987 to 1994, Iran undertook a campaign to reduce population growth, establishing 15,000 “health houses” nation wide which provided health and family planning services. Female literacy and schooling programs were established as well. Television programming on family planning was broadcast extensively. In just seven years, Iran cut its population growth in half. Mexico has used, of all things, TV soap operas to reduce illiteracy, which relates closely to reducing unwanted pregnancies. The day after a character in a soap was shown visiting a literacy office to learn how to read and write, a quarter million people showed up at these offices in Mexico City. In Bangladesh where the government is working hard to curb population growth, it is estimated that for every $62 spent by the government to prevent an unwanted birth, $615 in expenditures on other social services are harvested. It would take less than eight billion dollars to provide needed family planning services around the world. An MNBC website articla from 2006 pegged the total cost of teh Iraq war at around seven billion dollars each month. Yet in recent years our government substantially cut U.S. support of international family planning organizations. As people of faith, I believe we must try to change our government's policy in this regard. Sanctuary Flowers Birthday, anniversary, or other occasion you want to Celebrate or recognize? Consider signing up on the flower calendar on the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall — many dates are open and our sanctuary and altar look so beautiful when graced with flowers. Then, when it gets close to your date, expect a call to ensure your dedication is printed in the bulletin! A Williston Connection George Crockett Perhaps you read the Feb/March issue of Portland Magazine with the cover that reads "indie Anna"? On page 86 they feature a Cape Elizabeth home on the water that is listed for sale for about six million dollars. This was once the home of Marion Chapman Shartle who left our church about $75,000 in 2001. She was the daughter of Charles Chapman, one of the founders of Williston Church. Charles Chapman is also known for establishing the bank housed in what we now call “The Time and Temperature Building” as the Chapman National Bank in 1928. Christian Education Report Gracie Johnston Each of us has their own way of teaching our children and there are many effective models to follow. One of my favorite educators was John Dewey. I personally learn best by his philosophy. Children learn best by doing, and their participation in meaningful projects adds to their understanding. When we made the decision to become thoroughly involved with the Tents of Hope project my goal was to have the youth learn by doing. Whether it’s through collecting money in their Tents of Hope banks or baking for and working at the Bake Sale table there are many opportunities for active learning. Each of our young people will have the opportunity to learn by doing through the painting of the tents, experiencing a time with Sudanese kids from the area, or hearing Sudanese students tell their stories. They can help host a Sudanese Dinner and even have the possibility of traveling to Washington DC where all the tents will be displayed. Each Sunday as part of our curriculum our young people work on projects that enliven Jesus’ life and teachings. Be a part of our young people’s life and help them learn by doing. What a wonderful way for our youth to learn and be involved.! Williston-West gets 'Earthy' Sam Saltonstall Old Mother Earth is in trouble, from climate change to environmental pollution. With that in mind, the Williston West Missions Committee invites you to join us each month this year in making small, simple changes that will make for a greener world. This month, in celebration of a spring which we are certain lurks somewhere around a snowy corner, we invite you to consider composting your kitchen scraps. Yes, we mean putting your uncooked vegetable and fruit scraps into a pail for occasional carry out to a bin in your backyard where they will slowly turn into a nutrient rich soil amendment for your garden or potted plants. Why, you ask? Well, there are some good reasons:
We have a FANTASTIC purchasing opportunity for you through the Maine Resource Recovery Association. The price is more than half off and is not being marked up to benefit the church (but if you want to add a small contribution to Williston West, that would be fine too!) The composter is easily assembled, takes up little space, is made of sturdy recycled plastic and has a cover to keep the rain off and any odors in (if you occasionally give the compost a stir and cover it with a little soil, odor should not be a problem). We are also selling an inexpensive compost bucket for the kitchen, and a compost stirring tool called a wingdinger. Those of us in the church who already compost will be happy to provide you with counsel and support if composting is new to you. Order forms will be available during the coffee hour in early March as well as in the church office. To participate, you must turn in your order form and payment by Sunday, April 5th. They can be mailed to the church or during coffee hours in March. We must purchase the composters in lots of twenty, so please consider inviting your friends and family to buy from us as well. If you like to garden, you may wish to purchase several for yourself, as the process of turning food scraps into wonderful soil takes time. One can then be the bin to which you add, while the other supplies you with finished compost. The pickup date for purchased composters will be Sunday, May 11th, at the coffee hour at church. Please join us in helping Mother Earth! One Great Hour of Sharing - March 23rd OGHS is part of “Our Churches Wider Mission”, a special mission offering of the United Church of Christ that carries God's message of love and hope to people in more than eighty countries.The UCC works with international partners to provide sources of clean water and food, education and health care, small business micro-credit, emergency relief, and advocacy and resettlement for refugees and displaced persons. OGHS also supports domestic and international ministries for disaster preparedness and response. Nine Christian denominations and Church World Service work together to develop common promotional materials thereby sharing ideas, costs, and a commitment to faithful service. Each denomination receives and manages its respective OGHS offerings. More than 60 percent of the UCC's offering supports international development initiatives, including annual support for approximately ten missionaries working in health care, education, and agricultural development. Gifts are also used for disaster preparedness and response, refugee and immigration advocacy and assistance and related volunteer initiatives. A month long “offering calendar” full of enlightening information is printed in this Navigator issue. We invite you to cut it out and use it to raise your and your family’s awareness of the needs One Great Hour of Sharing seeks to meet. On average, of every dollar given to One Great Hour of Sharing, 92 cents are used directly for mission programming. This offering is a wonderful way to put your charity dollars to work. The Missions Committee encourages you to be as generous as you can this year. OGHS offering envelopes will also be in the Sunday bulletins on March 16th and 23rd. Checks should be made payable to Williston-West Church with “OGHS” written on the memo line. Alternatively, you can mail them to the church office. Thank you for your generosity! |
