Good evening parish,
This is the time to be slow, Lie low to the wallUntil the bitter weather passes. Try, as best you can, not to let The wire brush of doubt Scrape from your heart All sense of yourself And your hesitant light. If you remain generous, Time will come good; And you will find your feetAgain on fresh pastures of promise, Where the air will be kind And blushed with beginning.
- John O’Donohue
Though we may be weary of ‘sheltering in place,’ hope endures as we give of ourselves to one another. I am grateful to the Irish poet John O’Donohue for reminding me of the incomparable value of a generous soul. Easter cannot resist the heart that gives itself to another…
Tomorrow morning, 7:30 am, our Men’s Breakfast group will meet via zoom to be nourished by a devotional and fellowship together. Later in the morning, Joel and Janet Irish will be distributing pre-ordered syrup from the church parking lot to benefit Sophia’s House, which has been established in Lewiston to give at-risk women a new beginning. On Sunday, 10 am, I invite you to join us for our livestream worship service on the church facebook page. It will also be posted on the website for later viewing (www.auburnmethodist.org). Church school and youth group will also be meeting via zoom. At 2 pm on Sunday, there will be an online fellowship opportunity to visit with church friends. I will send the zoom link for that meeting in a separate email. I have attached the notes from last Sunday’s message to this greeting.
We applied, and have been approved for, a Paycheck Protection Program loan through the CARES Act of Congress. This will cover payroll for 2.5 months. With careful documentation and receipts for qualifying expenses, we anticipate this will be forgiven and converted into a grant. Praise God!Also, with the latest guidelines from our Governor, services will continue online through the month of May. Pentecost, the last Sunday of May (5/31), will be a special online United Methodist connectional service with New England Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar preaching.
If Phase 2 of the ‘re-opening’ goes as planned, starting in June, we may be able to physically gather for worship with revised protocols and groups of less than 50. More on that as the time approaches. The campus will continue to be closed during May, but Administrative Assistant Carla Daigle will be available at the church office on Tuesdays from 9 to 12 n if any wish to call for assistance. Please feel free to call me as well if I can be of help, (207-753-1275).
We are grateful to Peter Poliquin, Gary Bain and Chris Bain for cleaning the church parking lot of sand deposited from winter plowing. THANK YOU!It looks great. Sue Macomber has been voted in as our new church treasurer, so transition and training have begun. In behalf of the church, I want to thank Ken Bard for his hard work as treasurer and for helping us with more efficient protocols going forward. We are grateful to Sue for her willingness to take on this important work in our behalf. I also want to thank Elaine Hemenway for her assistance through the winter months. Carla, too, is helping with some of these responsibilities and she is doing a super job. Marcia Hennessey, financial secretary, and Donna Stewart are also doing a great job on the income part of the equation.
Please know that you continue in my prayers, and, until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.
Easter grace,
Pastor Steve Bascom