Maine Conference Annual Meeting 2024
Pilgrim Lodge West Gardiner, Maine
Theme:
Linked by Love
Focus scripture: Colossians 3:12-15
Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as God has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. (NRSV)
Rev. Dr. Marisa Laviola invites YOU
to the Maine Conference 93rd Annual Meeting
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 18th
8:00 – 5:00 Registration
7:30 – 8:30 Breakfast
8:30 – 9:00 Gathering for the Mini-Retreat
9:00 – noon Mini-Retreat for authorized ministers
Noon – 1:30 Lunch/Celebrations & Observances
1:45 – 3:00 Workshop #1
3:15 – 4:30 Workshop #2
5:00 – 5:30 Social Time with Swing Low
5:30 – 7:00 Dinner w/ entertainment over dessert
7:00 – 7:30 Break
7:30 – 9:00. Evening Activity : Loony Tunes and Tales
Saturday, October 19th
7:00 – 8:00 Breakfast
7:30 – 8:30 Registration/Gathering
8:30 – 8:50 Opening Worship
8:50 – 10:30 Plenary #1
10:30 – 10:45 Break
10:45 – noon Workshops
12:15 – 1:45 Lunch with Keynote Speaker
2:00 – 3:00 Conference Scramble
3:10 4:10 Plenary #2
4:10 – 4:40 Closing Worship with communion
Workshop Options
Friday October 18th
1:45 pm – 3:00 pm
Supporting Communities in Crisis
Leader: Various
“Last October 2023, Maine experienced its first mass shooting. Towns from Lewiston-Auburn to Oxford Hills, to Augusta, to Lisbon Falls and beyond felt the direct impact of this terrible tragedy. First responders to the trauma included our faith communities with prayer vigils and pastoral care . As we supported each other, What have we learned about what was helpful to the healing process? What was not helpful? What can we take from this when other communities experience either human or nature created trauma? Come and join this conversation with pastors and church members who were there on the front lines.”
Resourcing the Local Church Grants
Leaders: Members of the Resourcing the Local Church Team
Do you have questions about grants provided by the Maine Conference through the Resourcing the Local Church Team? Did you know that this group can help cover tuition for Members in Discernment? This workshop will help you understand the types of grants that can be obtained, how to maximize your chances of obtaining a grant, and when applications should be submitted. We hope to provide you with realistic expectations of what can and can’t be done with these grants. We welcome your questions.
Vision Journaling
Leader: Pam Williams
One of the best things about the Visual-Journaling process is that you don’t need to be an artist, nor do you need previous art experience. Everyone has the ability to express their feelings and emotions using their inner language of imagery.
Journals and art supplies will be provided.
Maximum participants: 12
Bug Juice, Cookies and Conversation
Come and Chat with Conference Minister, Marisa Laviola, in-coming Board Chair, Stephenie Michaud, and meet the new Associate Conference Minister, John Fiscus. Learn more about what’s going on in the Conference and how the Board and Conference Minister and Associate Conference Minister, along with the staff, are working together for and on behalf of the Conference.
Tour of Pilgrim Lodge
Leader: Liz Charles McGough, Director
Come tour Pilgrim Lodge, learn more about PL’s history and current programming, along with goals for the future.
3:15 pm – 4:30 pm
Conversation as a Spiritual Practice
Leader: Rev. Todd Weir
This workshop will focus on how to have more conscious and meaningful conversations. Each day, we have between 10 and 25 conversations. How many of them are valuable? Do you remember the last great conversation you had with someone? What made it stand out? How would our churches change if we had richer conversations?
This year, I made a resolution to treat my conversations like a spiritual practice. Much like meditation and prayer aim to bring us closer to God and others, conversations open the door to greater self-understanding, deeper community, and discernment of God’s work. Together, we will explore ways to have better conversations that enrich our lives and improve the quality of our church community.
Workshop Objectives:
• Enhance active listening skills.
• Learn to ask better questions that foster deeper dialogue.
• Develop strategies for managing difficult conversations.
• Shift group discussions towards more positive and productive outcomes.
Through role-playing exercises, group discussions, and reflective journaling, we will embark on a journey to transform our conversations and, ultimately, our church community.
Join us in this journey to transform our conversations and foster a deeper, more connected church community.
Inspiration and Innovation: How do congregations cultivate, support and encourage vocation?
Rev. Holly Reid, Pastor of the Neighborhood in Bath, will share her story of discovering her vocation to ministry with people who have experienced incarceration and her congregation’s response to this innovative inspiration. Holly will also share how this ministry of advocacy has led to a consideration of new practices in response to injustice.
Participants will have an opportunity to reflect and discuss ways of responding to holy inspiration that may be arising in our congregations. This is a workshop about listening for God, embracing risk, and finding new pathways forward as a congregation.
When God Says Go- The Current Honduran Partnership
Current political fodder focused on our southern border clouds the reality of life on the ground for Central Americans making this treacherous journey leaving behind their homes and families. Yet success rates of immigration reform and support remain questionable without focus on hope and opportunity within Central America.
Years of productive partnership between our Maine Conference and the Evangelical and Reformed Church of Honduras weakens under the post traumatic stress of Covid and continued political unrest, violence and poverty.
Come discuss and learn about current efforts on the ground in need of YOU-the Honduras Partnership, El Junco Scholarships, Daisy’s Children. Join our call for open conversation, relationship, and the creation of a ripple in the power of partnership and possibility.
Bug Juice, Cookies and Conversation
Come and Chat with Conference Minister, Marisa Laviola, in-coming Board Chair, Stephenie Michaud, and meet the new Associate Conference Minister, John Fiscus. Learn more about what’s going on in the Conference and how the Board and Conference Minister and Associate Conference Minister, along with the staff, are working together for and on behalf of the Conference.
Saturday October 19th
10:45 am – 12:00 pm
Challeng-tunity
Leaders: Annual Meeting 2024 Planning Team
Through the first decades of the shrinking of American Protestant churches, many congregations couldn’t help but to panic as they faced the changing landscape of religion in the United States. As congregations began to settle into this new reality, though, many have discovered new opportunities in the midst of challenges. This is, and continues to be, true in Maine. How is your congregation rising to the challenge? Or are you yearning to hear from other churches—what new things have worked, what hasn’t, etc.? Join us for a conversation into the exploration of new ways of being church and opportunities to be communities of love and hope, no matter the size.
We Need Better Laws, for God's Sake: Faith in Advocacy
Leaders: The Social Action Committee
The Social Action Committee will lead you in exploring and using tools that enable participation in legislative advocacy. The SAC has gained some experience doing this in its first 3 years of existence. It has submitted testimony, written and verbal, on a series of
social justice matters including gun safety, tribal sovereignty in Maine, and rights for trans people. Members of the SAC will share with you their experiences; orient you to the Maine Legislature website for submitting testimony; help you practice drafting a statement in response to actual proposed legislation; and talk about how to do this kind of advocacy as both your own faith in action and on behalf of a religious organization.
Confronting and Combating Rising Authoritarianism
Leader: Jodi Cohen Hayashida, Maine People’s Alliance (Keynote Speaker at lunch)
As people of faith, our vision of a world tenderly held within the embrace of an all-encompassing and holy love offers a unique challenge to the distorted moral narrative of political authoritarianism and social hierarchy. We will explore the current landscape, identify key inflection points, and share organizing tactics and resources.
Choir Rehearsal
Leader: Rosalea Kimball (Winthrop UCC)
Join us for preparing an anthem for worship at the end of the day.
Mini Retreat for Authorized Ministers
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.
Keynote Speaker
Rev. Dr. Jodi Cohen Hayashida
After serving the First Universalist Church of Auburn for over 20 years, this past spring the Rev. Dr. Jodi Cohen Hayashida began a new ministry organizing a statewide movement called Multi-faith Justice Maine under the auspices of the Maine People’s Alliance. In addition, she serves on the board and Public Policy Committee of the Maine Council of Churches, serves as tri-chair of the Maine Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and works with the harm reduction community.
Keynote:
How do we create hopeful, hope-filled communities when we are immersed in a culture cynically oriented towards encouraging division and despair? When we organize ourselves across traditional lines of division, we not only build the collective power necessary to build the Kin-dom of heaven, but also reground ourselves in our identity as a people of fierce hope and radical love.