Maine’s Episcopal Bishop stands with protesters, decries Trump’s church photo-op

From Maine-

New England’s Episcopal bishops unanimously are calling out President Donald Trump’s appearance in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., on Monday as “disgraceful and morally repugnant.”

In an unprecedented move, they released a statement on Tuesday, also condemning law enforcement use of force and tear gas to clear a path for the president through peaceful demonstrators.

New England bishops wrote that the real injustice is the continued oppression of and violence against people of color in the United States.

Bishop Thomas Brown of the Maine Episcopal Church echoed the need for healing.

“The real concern here is addressing the inequality and the pain that people throughout this land have been trying to say and have been wanting us to address,” he said. “So, we who are white, we who have authority and privilege — we need to be listening, and we need to be bringing people together.”

More here-

 https://mainebeacon.com/maines-episcopal-bishop-stands-with-protesters-decries-trump-d-c-church-appearance/

Obituary: Rev. Canon Donald A. Nickerson, Jr., D.D.

From Maine-

On Dec. 9, 2019, the Reverend Canon Donald A. Nickerson, Jr., D.D., 80, died after a 33 year struggle with Parkinson’s Disease.  After his diagnosis at age 47, Don and his wife Susan Martin worked with many neurologists to successfully manage the illness and further his ministry in the Episcopal Church and to their beloved Camp O-AT-KA until his short time in hospice care at the end.

Don was born in Boston, Mass. on May 19, 1939 to Mildred and Dr. Donald Nickerson of Melrose, Mass.  After graduating from Melrose High School, Don attended Springfield College and Berkeley Divinity School (Yale) before starting his ministry in Newton Center, Mass. (1964–1966).  Don then served as parish priest for Christ Church in North Conway, N.H. (1966–1974) and St. Paul’s in Brunswick (1974–1986).  In recognition of his leadership in the church, Don was asked to move to New York City to become the Executive Officer of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church (1986–1998), one of the largest legislative gatherings in the country.  Don received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Yale University for his life’s work.  In retirement, Don and Susan lived in Intervale, N.H., Castle Rock, Colo., and Brunswick, Maine.

More here-

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/12/12/obituaryrev-canon-donald-a-nickerson-jr-d-d/

Maine’s Episcopal bishop praises St. Philip’s Church’s community work

From Maine-

“Serving others is a particular strength of St. Philip’s” Episcopal Church in Wiscasset, Bishop of Maine Thomas Brown told attendees at the Hodge Street church Sunday.

Brown told them their work for others is one of the ways they are living their lives without regret and worry. Too often people spend too much time thinking about life after death and not enough on living their lives right now, he said.

Missions based at St. Philip’s include Help Yourself Shelf (HYS) food pantry, Bargain Basement and – with First Congregational Church of Wiscasset as an equal sponsor – Feed Our Scholars and Feed Our Scholars/Set for Success, longtime member Gretchen Burleigh-Johnson said. First Congregational also heavily supports HYS, she said. And from 4 to 5 p.m. Nov. 14, a Souper Supper of broccoli cheese soup, breads, dessert and drink is planned. “All are welcome, no charge. There is a can for donations if people choose to support the events,” she said about the suppers held the second Thursday of the month, through March. St. Philip’s members and other volunteers put on the suppers at the church, 12 Hodge St., St. Philip’s senior warden Jon Young said.

More here-

https://www.wiscassetnewspaper.com/article/maine-s-episcopal-bishop-praises-st-philip-s-church-s-community-work/126810

Maine Episcopal Diocese Consecrates 1st Openly Gay Bishop

From Maine-

The Episcopal Diocese of Maine has consecrated an openly gay bishop for the first time.

The diocese says Rev. Thomas James Brown was ordained and consecrated its tenth bishop on Saturday in a ceremony that drew more than 900 people to St. Luke's Cathedral in Portland. Twenty-seven Episcopal bishops and more than 100 clergy from Maine participated in the service.

Gene Robinson, the retired Diocese of New Hampshire bishop and the first openly gay bishop, says Brown "stands on the shoulders of many other LGBTQ priests."

Brown is originally from Michigan and trained at parishes in California and his home state. He has also served in Vermont and Massachusetts. Brown says he is "especially grateful to be welcomed by loving and wise bishops in New England."

More here-

https://www.necn.com/news/new-england/Maine-Episcopal-Diocese-Consecrates-First-Openly-Gay-Bishop-511769862.html

And here-

https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Maine-Episcopal-Diocese-consecrates-first-openly-14041829.php

Portland church searching for person who dropped off wedding album at yard sale

From Maine-

Someone dropped their wedding album off at a Portland church, perhaps by mistake, and now church members are trying to find its rightful owners.

The mystery couple’s wedding day was likely 60 or 70 years ago.

Their wedding album was found three days ago in a box of books someone donated to the Trinity Episcopal Church yard sale in Portland.

"It could have come from someone's basement and they didn't realize it was in there,” parishioner Celia Brown said. “Could have come from someone's attic."

More here-

https://wgme.com/news/local/portland-church-searching-for-person-who-dropped-off-wedding-album-at-yard-sale

Maine Episcopalians elect openly gay bishop

From Maine-

Hundreds of clergy members and laypeople convened Saturday in Bangor to elect a new bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Maine. Pending confirmation by the other Episcopal dioceses, the Rev. Thomas James Brown, 48, will be the first openly gay Episcopal bishop in Maine and the third ever elected in the U.S.

“I did not see this coming. I am of course delighted and thrilled,” Brown said in an interview Saturday night.

A majority of the 261 clergy members and laypeople elected Brown after three rounds of balloting at the Cross Insurance Center. Brown will be the 10th bishop selected by Maine’s Episcopal Church in its nearly 200-year history. He will replace Bishop Stephen Lane, who is retiring after leading the church for 11 years.

Brown has been the rector for the Parish of the Epiphany in Winchester, Massachusetts, since 2009. Before that he spent nine years as a rector for a parish in Brattleboro, Vermont, and was the director of alumni and church relations at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkley, California, after receiving his master’s of divinity at the school. Brown was ordained in 1998.

More here-

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/02/09/maine-episcopalians-elect-new-bishop/?fbclid=IwAR3OsGsiYWdi5Xw0IOIMio5AgKbMdbEzNa_S39qCqjWZprbL5B6xjx0lyKk

Episcopal diocese reports record applicants for next bishop

From Houston (But I don't know why. Must be  a slow news day)-

The Episcopal Diocese of Maine says it had a record number of applications for its next bishop.

The Press Herald reports 27 clergy members were either nominated or applied to replace Bishop Stephen Lane, who is retiring next year.

The diocese says it narrowed the field to five candidates who will go up for election in February.

The five finalists are the Rev. Kenneth Brannon, of Idaho; the Rev. Thomas Brown, of Massachusetts; the Rev. Anne Mallonee, of New York City; the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton, of Washington; and the Rev. Janet Waggoner, of Texas.

More here-

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/texas/article/Episcopal-diocese-reports-record-applicants-for-13404903.php

Canon Janet Waggoner on slate for next bishop of Maine

From Ft. Worth-

The Rev. Canon Janet Waggoner is among the candidates on the slate announced on Thursday, November 8, 2018, by the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine.

The electing convention for the 10th bishop of Maine will be held on Saturday, February 9, 2019 (with Saturday, February 23, as a snow date) at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine.
“I am humbled and delighted to be invited to continue this journey of discernment with Episcopalians in the Diocese of Maine,’ Waggoner said. “I am grateful to the Discernment Committee for their diligence, care and leadership as they have guided the process to this point. I ask your prayers for me and the other nominees, and for all in the Diocese of Maine who are prayerfully engaged in calling their next bishop.”

Bishop Scott Mayer said, “I have full confidence that Canon Waggoner has the gifts and experience to serve the Church as a bishop. Janet, her family, and the Diocese of Maine will be in our prayers during this upcoming period of discernment. May God’s will be done.”

More here-

https://episcopaldiocesefortworth.org/canon-janet-waggoner-on-slate-for-next-bishop-of-maine/?fbclid=IwAR2Z-8xoUpEtfviX9pdPYBF4bb_44gAafVaYohpQ8u17ynrA3HLA0bNTTA4

Local collection on display at The Wall That Heals

From Maine-

Sometimes a place becomes real when you can touch it.

Reaching on Thursday for a crystal chunk on a table in the parish hall at Christ Episcopal Church, Robert Egloff said, “This is from Cambodia.”

The rock is part of a collection of items that Egloff has assembled over years of collecting.
This week, it’s on display at the church, which has opened its doors for events in conjunction with The Wall That Heals, the display of the traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial just across Dresden Avenue in the Gardiner Common.

On tables that encircle the parish hall, and even overhead, items from Egloff’s collection shine a light on the era of the Vietnam War, a tempestuous and turbulent time in American history.

There are uniforms, caps, hats, insignias, weapons, Life magazines, helmets, record albums of pop and rock music popular in the 1960s and 1970s, transistor radios, a tape recorder and political memorabilia from the period, as well as a parachute complete in its pack and one suspended from the ceiling.

More here-

https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/07/19/local-collection-on-display-at-the-wall-that-heals/

A child is never a negotiating tool

From Maine-

A Joint Statement from Bishop Robert P. Deeley, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, and Bishop Stephen T. Lane, Episcopal Bishop of Maine
 
Every so often an issue emerges in public life that compels us, as faith leaders in Maine, to join together. The convergence of World Refugee Day and the current administration’s zero tolerance policy of separating families who present themselves as asylum seekers at the southern border inspires us to speak with one voice.

The family is the foundational element of our society and should be preserved whenever possible. To state the matter simply: tearing children from their parents is immoral. It does not reflect the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth whom we follow, nor the values upon which this nation was founded. Our faith calls upon us to respect the dignity of all persons as children made in the image of God. Our faith calls upon us to welcome the stranger. “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:33-34).

More here-

https://www.timesrecord.com/articles/opinion/a-child-is-never-a-negotiating-tool/

First woman ordained priest at Christ Church in Gardiner says experience ‘joyful’

From Maine-

The path to becoming an Episcopal priest is a deliberate and well-trod route that thousands have followed.

Kerry Mansir’s route started in a different spiritual location, followed a different map and took in different experiences.

None of that mattered on Saturday, Jan. 20, when the Rev. Kerry Mansir was ordained as a priest at Christ Church Episcopal in Gardiner — the first ordination in the church in about four decades and the first ordination of a woman that anyone can remember since Gardiner’s oldest church was the first parish to join the Diocese of Maine in 1820. It’s also where the first bishop of the Maine diocese is buried.

“I was teary-eyed. I have been a participant in many ordinations in my 35 years,” said the Rev. Stephen Muncie, the priest in charge at Christ Church. “This one felt sort of exceedingly joyful and deeply moving. We all had some tears, and it was due to Kerry.”

More here-

https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/01/28/first-woman-ordained-priest-at-christ-church-in-gardiner-says-experience-joyful/

When you’re the only one who shows up to church

From Maine-

All of Portland seemed to be in a bad mood that Sunday afternoon not too long ago. The sky was spitting rain in intermittent bursts, frustrating both the people who had gone through the trouble to bring an umbrella and the ones who hadn’t. Longfellow Square had become a knot of traffic; drivers honked at jaywalkers, who cursed back, as I rounded the corner on my way to St. Luke’s Cathedral.

I opened the church door. Inside, it was silent.

Had I gotten the time wrong? I was new to Portland and I’d only been to St. Luke’s, the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine, once before – and that was for the busy, colorful morning service. I felt a pang of dismay as I hovered on the threshold, deciding whether to investigate further or just go home. Through the open door, I could smell the distinct fragrance that seems to emanate from every old church: incense, candles, flowers. I stepped inside.

More here-

http://www.pressherald.com/2017/01/01/what-happens-when-youre-the-only-one-who-shows-up-to-church/

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church & Property Up for Sale in Augusta

From Maine-

“We’d love to see it continue as a church, obviously as you look around with the windows and everything, it’s beautiful,” said Reverend Rebecca Grant, with the St. Mark’s Church.

Since 1885, the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church has been worshipping with, and caring for, the Augusta community.

For 150 years, the St. Mark’s home next door has housed elderly, indigent women. But the building has been closed since December of 2014, and now the entire property, including the church, a historic rectory, and a parish hall, is now up for sale.

“Because we simply can’t afford it any longer. We have a small congregation and these buildings cost tremendous amounts of money to heat, to maintain. If you look around this one, you’ll see early signs of deterioration and we just don’t want that to happen to it,” said Grant.
More here-

https://wabi.tv/2016/07/19/st-marks-episcopal-church-property-up-for-sale-in-augusta/

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, properties for sale in Augusta

From Maine-


St. Mark’s Episcopal Church and related church-owned properties are for sale, a move that could displace the city’s food bank, a warming shelter and a pantry that provides soap and toiletries to the needy.

Also for sale is a historic home the church used as a rectory.

And the adjacent St. Mark’s Home, which provided housing for decades after it was donated to the church in 1871 to serve as a home for poor and indigent women, will be given away by church officials, along with a roughly $340,000 endowment. That’s if an organization comes forward with a solid plan to take over the facility and continue its mission of helping people in need.

More here-

http://www.pressherald.com/2016/07/17/st-marks-episcopal-church-properties-for-sale-in-augusta/

We have right to be safe, but as a nation we are failing to make it happen

From Maine-

The recent shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs and the mass murder in San Bernardino are frightening reminders of the unprecedented level of gun violence now assaulting our country. In each of the last few years, more than 30,000 of us have become victims of gun violence, often at the hands of a friend or family member, or at our own hands.

Headlines about terrorism and mass shootings blind us to the fact that there are daily shootings of dozens of people across the country — more than 80 a day. In Maine, there were 158 firearm deaths in 2013, the last year for which there are published statistics from the Centers for Disease Control. That’s nearly double the number in 2003 (82).

More here-

https://www.centralmaine.com/2015/12/11/we-have-right-to-be-safe-but-as-a-nation-we-are-failing-to-make-it-happen/

Portland, Falmouth churches to welcome Episcopal leader

From Maine-

The head of the Episcopal Church in the United States will make two stops in southern Maine this weekend as her term winds down.

The Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the 26th presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, will visit churches in Portland and Falmouth, where she will celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary.

Jefferts Schori, who is from Nevada, will hold a town hall-style meeting on April 25 from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. at St. Luke’s Cathedral, 143 State St.

She will be at St. Mary's, 43 Foreside Road, Falmouth, on April 26 at 9 a.m. to preside and preach at a worship service marking the church's 125th anniversary.

More here-

http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2015/04/21/portland-falmouth-churches-welcome-episcopal-leade/230533

Unsung Hero: Katharine Babson of Brunswick, priest with a world view

From Maine -

 Katherine Babson was first drawn to the priesthood as a little girl.

“I’d walk into the church and wander around, wondering what the mystery was all about,” she recalled.

Several years later, while a student at Williams College in western Massachusetts, Babson told an administrator she felt called to be a priest. “I didn’t know where that came from, as there were no women priests in the Episcopal Church at the time,” she said.

Soon after that conversation, Babson went along on the first Williams in India program. The experience moved her so much that she briefly considered pursuing a doctorate in Indian art.
More here-

http://www.theforecaster.net/news/print/2014/08/04/unsung-hero-katharine-babson-brunswick-priest-worl/206108

In Bath, monthly food truck helping those in need get through lean times

From Maine-

They weren’t thinking about Thanksgiving, that day of feast and excess, when they arrived by the dozens at Grace Episcopal Church on Tuesday. They were thinking beyond that, to the days and weeks between now and Christmas. They were thinking about how to keep their cupboards, refrigerators and bellies full until then.

Once every month, a food truck parks in the back lot of the church about a mile from the center of Bath. The sides roll up. Volunteers spread the food out on tables. Fresh produce. Bread. Frozen chicken.

Unlike food trucks that serve gourmet cooked meals, this one is a food bank, supplying those in need with the food they’ll need to get through the lean days.

Everyone who comes gets a number for a place in line. In groups of 10, they go through the line, filling their bags or their boxes or their wheeled carts with food. They can take as much as they want, no questions asked.

Kimberly Gates runs the operation, but it belongs to the community, she said.

More here-

http://www.pressherald.com/news/In_Bath__monthly_food_truck_helping_those_in_need_get_through_lean_times_.html

George H.W. Bush is witness at same-sex marriage in Maine

From The Washington Post-

Another prominent Republican has come out in support of same-sex marriage — or at least, in support of one particular same-sex marriage.

Former President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara served as an official witnesses Saturday at the Maine wedding of Bonnie Clement and Helen Thorgalsen, co-owners of a Kennebunk general store. Thorgalsen posted a photo on Facebook of the 41st commander-in-chief signing a set of documents for them at an outdoor celebration: “Getting our marriage license witnessed!”

No big statement from the ex-prez’s office. His rep Jim McGrath confirmed his and wife Barbara’s presence at the Kennebunkport wedding: “They were private citizens attending a private ceremony for two friends.”

In an email from their honeymoon in London, Clement told us they’ve known the former first couple for years and were thrilled they accepted the wedding invitation. Thinking about “how monumental this time is in our lives” and “how blessed we are to be in their lives,” they decided to ask them “to really personalize it for us” as witnesses.

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/reliable-source/wp/2013/09/25/george-h-w-bush-is-witness-at-same-sex-marriage-in-maine/

Hulls Cove minister, wife head to Uganda in retirement

From Maine-

The former Episcopal priest for the Church of Our Father in Hulls Cove and his wife could have kicked off their retirement next month by renting an RV and taking a cross-country trip.

Instead, the Rev. Chuck Bradshaw, 62, and his wife, Beth Bradshaw, 61, will be working for the next three years at the

The priest will become principal at the school and Beth Bradshaw, a former ed tech at the Connors Emerson Elementary School in Bar Harbor, will teach English and music.

Bradshaw said Wednesday that he first heard the call to become a missionary while in the seminary in Pennsylvania in the early 1990s.

“One of our neighbors was a student from Uganda,” the minister said. “I was to quit school and go back with him but Beth and I had three small children then.”
Lutaaya Theological College and Vocational Center in Uganda. The school, associated with the Worldwide Anglican Communion, is located in Mityana, a city made up of refugees and merchants about 50 miles west of the capital Kampala.

More here-

http://bangordailynews.com/2013/08/23/living/hulls-cove-minister-wife-head-to-uganda-in-retirement/