Peoples Roots

2012-02-02T16:11:00.000-08:00

HistoricalRoots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 71 Epilogue 5
During the years of 2009 and 2010 a number ofchanges took place that enhanced the programs and activities of Peoples Church.Many of those changes were spoken about in the last episode of this runninghistory of the church. Those changes were associated with missions of Peoples. At
this point I would now include in the changing life of the church the change inthe music opportunities of Peoples. While the choir will be celebrating 100 yearsof continuous choir operation in the year 2012 as far as the record shows there had been relatively few directors and organists before our present director,Debbie Cole. We do know that the first recorded organist was Evelyn York, who once married was Evelyn Tilton. In the 1930’s Evelyn continued to be associatedwith the choir. She in turn was followed by Dora Campbell Ayres whose husband,
Phil, was a well known tenor in the Peoples choir and then in others. Dora was also the sister of Walter Campbell and Warren Campbell as well as sistersGertrude and Marion. Marita Gould took Dora’s place as organist when Dora wasunable to fulfill that role. Malcolm Cass played the organ for the first time when his father Walter was appointed to pastor Peoples. Later he became the regular organist and choir director once his military commitment was over.Marita continued to serve as Malcolm’s assistant for over 25 additional years. Two other women played the organ on a limited basis during Malcolm's 60 plus years of service to Peoples. One was Carolyn Faucett and the other was Dianne Yoshua.
In her commitment to the Peoples music program, Debbie has endeared herself to a growing
number of choir members as well as the congregation. She has restored the Bell Choir, which was
organized and endowed with a bell collection and directorship by Janet Fifield,
in the name of her mother, Betty Wallace, in the year 1982. Janet in turn was succeeded by Marita Gould as director and in this role Marita led both an adult bell choir and a junior
bell choir. Doug Greer after a hiatus of a few years revived the bell choir a few years ago. Debbie has brought some special music to our services and hasbeen welcoming to both people with vocal talents beyond the choir as well as instrumentalists.
While the choir is relatively small, it is growing and many of the anthems that are sung are very inspirational adding much to thespiritual life of church services. On any given Sunday there may be anywherefrom 8 to 12 singers. Choir members are from all adult ages. This is also true
of the Bell Choir with some members of this group not in the singing choir. Oneobservation that needs to be made is that a Junior Choir which had long been atradition at Peoples has not existed for a few years. Usually if the Sunday school is strong and growing that is also true of the Junior Choir. Since the Sunday school has been growing the hope would be that within a short time a
Junior Choir can be reestablished. Certainly such an opportunity for children
can only be offered if some adult or adults can come forward and dedicate manyhours to this endeavor.
Periodically other opportunities to develop musical and performance talents also are a vital part of the mission of Peoples. In thelast few years, once a year a variety show has been organized in order to display in performance what primarily members of the church can do. A variety
show perhaps in some instances is better used to define what takes place since it is sometimes difficult to define what is considered to be talent. Comedy, Singing, and Instrumental have been viewed and heard in these shows. Bands such as Apollo 13 and Angus and theRock Dogs graced the beginning of the Variety Show in 2010, but many of Peoples own performed as well. Paul Obie played a haunting melody on the harmonica while Pastor Jamie and daughter Faith gave a fencing demonstration. Dena Arrison and Faith also played the piano. Mariah Bowker and Merrill Kaiser entertained us with their singing talents. Pastor Gwyneth led us in a comical
physical exercise and Betty Smith sang. Young Aaron Matthews read some of his own poems and sang as well. Among the unusual but entertaining acts was Jason House, a master of the bagpipes, being supported by his two children, Eliza and Ian. Sally Smith did her infamous comedy act and Chris Ward and Dan Doughty sang a duet. The Ushers who usually serve as greeters and hand out bulletins again came to the stage and offered, “Mary’s Boy Child” with a Calypso beat. A good time was had by all participants while the MC for the last two of these
extravaganzas has been Dick Matthews.
As an aside Dick, like many members of Peoples in the past, has recently been elected to serve in a local government position,that of school board member. His election was unusual in that he ran as a write-in candidate!
The history of South Portland’s city government has been graced with many folks who were members of Peoples Church. In previouspages of this history you may recall the names of Etta Robinson, Ray Henley,Mal LeShay, Bernal Allen, and Earl Nicholson among others. Many have served on commissions and committees and several members have graced PTAs and have also
been teachers in the school system. Others have been instrumental in local service clubs and through those organizations have brought joy to the elderly as well as children. Their spiritual life has continued beyond the local church and carried out in service to the community. Two of the folks in the above list also served in the state legislature. Presently the son of Brad Morrison,
Terry, is serving in that state body.
We are all asked to serve the Lord and our fellow man.

2010-04-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 70 Epilogue 4
The Story Continues: Involvement In Missions
As mentioned in the last episode the Church Life Committee joined the leadership of Missions, Fellowship, Discipleship, the Lay Leader and the pastors together for planning activities that all of the above mentioned areas were engaged in. Involvement in local missions included collecting food for the Food Pantry housed at the First Congregational Church, serving meals on 5th Wednesday of the month at the Wayside Soup Kitchen and serving meals at the Root Cellar four times a year to those that participate in their worthwhile programs. Even more recently Missions, under the leadership of Carol Bruneau, has assisted in the Root Cellar’s Christmas Angel program.
A connection with Southern Maine Community College was made after initial discussion in the Church Life Committee. In 2008 an on campus religious Bible Study group was organized with leadership being both from the pastors and from the laity of Peoples. We have continued to provide assistance when asked by the group who now assists students get acclimated when coming to live in the dorms on campus and meet regularly as a campus authorized group with their own leadership.
Another activity heading into its 4th year is the sponsorship of an International Extravaganza. Well attended a meal is served featuring the foods of foreign cultures. Attendees are given a recipe to prepare and bring with them. Families in attendance have a great time of fellowship eating together and then experiencing presentations from folks who have either grown up in a foreign culture or who have been on mission trips. Those in attendance have heard and seen presentations on missions in Ecuador, Russia, Tanzania, the Philippines and Cuba. At the first of the Extravaganza’s Merrill Kaiser announced and launched the most ambitious Heifer Project the church had ever sponsored. The goal was to collect enough money to supply what Heifer called an “Ark”. The Sunday school as well as general membership took on this project with gusto. Merrill thought that it might be three years to collect $5000, but in reality the total was collected in just about one year. This was remarkable in the light that Peoples people were supporting many other activities as well.
A major activity for Church Life and Missions in particular was getting out the message for UMCOR (United Methodist Committee On Relief) on the needs of those that live on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico that were so devastated by especially Hurricane Katrina. Peoples also served as the repository not only for what we collected, but also for many other churches in the state of Maine. It was from this point that UMCOR sent a truck to pick up what had been collected. In 2010 again Peoples became the drop point for churches collecting health and layette kits that would be used to replenish the supply that had already been sent to Haiti following their horrendous meeting with destruction caused by an earthquake in January of this year.
While much focus on church life and missions may have come from the Church Life Committee it is also within the work of the United Methodist Women to involve themselves in the support of various missions. Long the supporter of Red Bird Mission in Kentucky they still continue to do that today. Locally they continue to supply such items as mittens and hats to the Teen Center in Portland.
Another ministry with a mission that has expanded in its mission is the Shawl Ministry that was started on February 4, 2006. The intention of this group was to make prayer shawls to be given to folks that were either in need of comfort as a result of hospital visits or experiencing extreme grief or relocating to such places as nursing homes. A small cadre of women meets once a month after working on their own to knit these comfort giving wraps. A few others while not meeting regularly have been contributors to this ministry and mission as well. At this time in March of 2010, 89 shawls have been blessed with many already distributed. In addition to the shawls the Shawl Ministry has also taken on a mission with Mercy hospital to provide Hearts for Healing Pillows to primarily women who have had cancer treatment and find them useful in buffering their bodies from, as an example, automobile safety belt. In a few instances men have also found such pillows comforting. They are distributed at Mercy Hospital’s Oncology Department where a partnership has been developed to continue this form of comfort for years to come. Additionally The Shawl Ministry when not devoting time to shawls and pillows has also with the help of outside friends provided both the Barbara Bush wing of the Maine Medical Center and the Oncology Department with knit hats, some for as small as preemies.
Many folks usually without notice have been involved in local missions by assisting folks who need rides to doctor’s appointments, providing meals for others who may need meals for a period of time due to illness or other reasons. Some members have donated clothing to various local shelters. Some others have volunteered their services to mow and rake the church lawn or a needy housebound member or friend.
Together and separately the traditions of providing service that have been written about in the past continue today and that opportunity for service has encouraged other members of the Peoples community to take part as a group and silently as individuals.

2010-04-13T15:32:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 69 Epilogue 3
The Story Continues: Visions and Applications
The Vision for 2006 was developed through a program titled “Righting the Ship” This was not a reflection on anything that was not done right in the past, but instead was to look at what areas of church life needed to be balanced. As is the case throughout any history it is a good idea periodically to examine the strengths and weaknesses in the operation of any organization. Peoples has a history of doing that and usually with success leading to altered directions.
The program was called an “Intreat” as opposed to a Retreat because the participants began the day with a worship service at Bug Light Park and then adjourned to Ellis Hall as opposed to a location away from our church home. The areas of church life that were developed were Evangelism, Discipleship, Worship, Missions and Fellowship. Those in attendance discussed how to make our church and its family more welcoming and at the same time getting members to reach out more to missions in the community. From the impetus of this program a number of initiatives were developed including a new Alpha session as well as Purpose Driven Life course. Another direction led to an important but short lived program titled “When Women Pray” which was held at the home of Linda and Doug Greer. There was concern expressed for how Sunday school offerings might be improved and later there would be the desire to work with other churches in resurrecting teen groups that had become somewhat dormant locally. The Intreat gave the new pastors, Jamie and Gwyneth Arrison an opportunity to see what the concerns of Peoples were and for the members who participated to see what goals the new pastors might have as well.
Out of this same session were a number of attempts to develop new forms of worship held at different times during the week or weekend. The first of these opportunities was called “The Gathering” and it was held on Saturday evenings. This was successful for a time, but with little growth and interest on a Saturday night what next was developed was a meditation service following the Taize format. This also worked successfully for those that wanted meditation, but again in time interest faded. In late 2009 a Meditation service was revived on an every other week basis on a Sunday night.
In early 2007 the third program developed by Rick Warren, called 40 Days of Community got underway with several small groups meeting in the homes of some of the members. The impetus to carry out this study/service program was again one of the needs discussed in the Intreat of the previous fall. The study with 8 to 10 people in each of five or six groups was to study together and to develop a local mission project to be engaged in during the 40 Days of the program. Some of the groups continued to meet after the 40 days was over carrying on study and projects together even to the time that these pages were written in 2010. As a follow-up in 2009 the fourth Warren program, 40 Days of Love, encouraged some of the existing Bible study groups to study God’s lessons of Love.
Late in that same year, but again a spin-off activity of the Intreat was the development of the first Community Awareness Fair held in the Spring of 2007. Earle Harvey and Rosemary Herd were the primary developers of this program to bring displays in from many of the local missions that we supported, or other local services that we wanted to promote and support with a way of getting volunteers. Some of the missions that Peoples supports nationally and internationally were also advertised. Some 20 local agencies and organizations used videos and picture boards along with speakers to show what they represented. People who came with children found games and free food. This was the first of three such programs that Peoples has sponsored. While the first was in the Spring each of the others have been held in early fall just before the opening of Sunday school. The focus has been more toward getting kids interested and coming to Sunday school, but there has also been plenty of activity for adults who attend as well. More games and food have been made available as this event has become a part of the fabric that continues to make Peoples a Welcoming Congregation. The most recent edition of the Fair held in the fall of 2009 included Pony rides as well. As part of welcoming members to the church we were able to purchase and wear either aprons or t-shirts. Andy Folley, the leader of the growing Sunday school, thought it might be neat if they could pass out t-shirts to the youngsters in the Sunday school. This was accomplished and during the first day of Sunday school all of the present students were given a t-shirt to wear for events at church. This along with a new learning center based approach has allowed membership to grow and prosper in the ways of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Along with new approaches to learning a number of church members, some of which having had little Sunday school teaching experience have come forward to assist in the quarterly teaching approach. Membership in the Sunday school has expanded, and more parents have taken part in the lives of their children. Sunday school for youngsters has brought new life to that part of the church life program. While not immediately a target for education, Teens were a concern that Pastor Jamie Arrison became involved with. In 2009 a new program was launched for teens in the greater Portland area. The program meets on Sunday afternoons and has given an outlet for a number of teens to meet and to get involved in fun and spiritual activities together. At this point its appeal is primarily to young teens primarily of middle school age in the belief that as these new members become older teens they will stay together and recreate active UMYF groups locally.
Much of the church life activities that are mentioned above and others has been coordinated by a group originally developed called Discipleship and more recently known as the Church Life Committee. While the number of folks that are members of this church has declined in recent years many ministries had been placed in the hands of individuals. In order to encourage each other those ministries responsible for Education, Missions and Fellowship have been brought together in the above mentioned group and often have planned programs together. In the next Epilog we will look at some of the programs that have drawn Education, Missions and Fellowship together beyond what has been mentioned in this episode.

2010-04-13T15:28:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 68 Epilogue 2
The Story Continues: Stewardship and Safe Sanctuaries

In the fall of 2004 the stewardship program was carried out through the able hands of Chris Bowker. As an older member of the congregation it was thrilling to see and feel the presence of the Lord in the hands of many younger folks who were taking numerous leadership roles such as the role that Chris had taken on. Linda and Fred Wade, Hank and Ellen Dunn, Dan and Ruth Doughty, Mike and Robyn Gray, Kathy Brann, Marilyn Voter were among those that assumed new roles or continued serving the Lord and Peoples in significant ways. Along with those previously mentioned the Kamilewicz family, the Morrisons and the Snoddys all assumed important roles in the life of the church. This is not to say that many who had been committed to long term service at Peoples didn’t continue their active and vital roles in leadership and followership.

Perhaps one of the single most significant additions to the policies of church operation that was approved by the church body in 2004 was the Safe Sanctuaries Policy. Marlene Tordoff had discussed Safe Sanctuaries with Rev. Richard Swan of Thornton Heights and in turn brought it to the attention of the Staff-Parish Committee at Peoples in August 2002. A voluminous booklet was put together under the leadership of Chuck Kamilewicz and a sub-committee of the Staff-Parish Committee and adopted by church conference in May 2004. Originally the task force consisted of Pastor Bill Beddie and his wife Cynthia, Chris Bowker, Wendy Diffen, Kari Fileo, Theresa Folley, Linda Greer, Rosemary Herd, Joanne Kamilewicz, Barbara Nelson, Marlene Tordoff and Chris Ward.
The gist of the document primarily concerns itself with the safety of the property and parishioners. Most of what that was addressed concerned itself with making young folks safe and secure. Locking of doors to checking out the credentials of adults working with children was all part of the package. Likewise, it is possible to address those who work with elderly folks quite easily as well. Requirements and standards for staff/volunteers, Screening processes, responding to allegations/misconduct, general information and directions are included as are the forms necessary to operate the program are included in the booklet held on file in the office. It is sometimes difficult to see that such a policy
is necessary in a church setting, but this is obviously a reflection upon the times that we now live. An annual orientation for those working with children is supposed to be a must with this program.

There had been a number of incidents reported in the media of abuse taking place in church settings by both the paid staff and volunteers. Safe Sanctuaries had been implemented in many United Methodist churches during this time frame although some churches with few youngsters have not seen the necessity of adopting such a program. It should be in place in the eyes of many young families who today are looking for a church home. It is also important that church members periodically look at the policy as a reminder of what the policy is designed for and what it is to do. Periodically it may also be necessary to revise the wording of such policies. This also may serve as a reminder that many policies that were implemented years ago are still in effect, but present membership may not be aware of. Among the items that in the last 30 years have not been revisited would be a job description portfolio that describes not only the work of paid employees, but also would describe the duties of group leaders. Another area that was significant in the past was the work of the Loan and Scholarship Committee. Many thousands of dollars were given as scholarships and others as loans. There has been little record of those loans having been repaid so they might be loaned out again to deserving students or students to be.

At the annual meeting of the church in 2005 the Reverend Michael Davis DS reminded the gathered throng of the Mission and Vision statements of this church that had been adopted in 2000.
Vision: “We accept God’s love for us as demonstrated by Jesus Christ. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we will create and nurture an environment in which a diversity of people can develop and deepen a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our actions as individuals and as a congregation in the local community and the world are a result of our commitment to the Lord.”

Mission: “As Peoples United Methodist Church we take our mission as Jesus words, “to go and make disciples”. And John Wesley’s exhortation to “spread scriptural holiness within and beyond our local community.”

Certainly the meaning of both the vision and mission statements played a prominent role in the creation of the Safe Sanctuaries policy. Mike’s reminder of what our beliefs are should and do play a part in whatever we as a church strives to achieve in our discipleship within and without this church. Sometimes we need that reminder to keep us focused and on track.

In order to ensure that, the leadership of Peoples prepared in August of 2005 an Intreat otherwise known as a Retreat. Use of the term “Intreat’ simply meant that we didn’t go away for this workshop on the future of Peoples, but basically stayed home. The Intreat was a good way of having the new pastors, Gwyneth and Jamie Arrison become more familiar with who we were. It also gave us the opportunity to get to know them better as well.

2008-10-24T06:32:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 67 Epilog 1
The Story Continues: Worship opportunities Expand
Ushering in a new era in the life of Peoples, a group of the less than mid-life members of Peoples, began an experiment with a Sunday Night Contemporary Service. Chris Bowker and Mike Gray took the lead in initiating a relaxed atmosphere service with a lot of singing of modern Christian songs and praying for each other and others. Little in the way of a sermon was heard, but testimony of those present was encouraged. It was a difficult program to continue and while it served the needs of a few folks, the lack of numbers and the busyness of those who attended eventually led to the idea of a Sunday evening service being placed on hold.
A few years later under the original leadership of Pastors Gwyneth and/or Jamie Arrison a Taize Meditation service would take the place of the above mentioned service. Candles representing the life of Christ and those present would give focus to those in attendance. Clara Lee Street and Betty Lane became leaders and advocates for this type of service.
Likewise, a midweek service usually either held on Wednesday or Thursday nights had been led for a number of years by Kathy Brann and or Earle Harvey. Janice Malcom, Wealthy Harvey and Kit Pike were some other faithful attendees. Most of their evenings were spent in prayer for folks who had requested prayer through prayer cards submitted in the regular Sunday morning church services as well as through direct request to members of that group.
Prayer calls or messages have been passed from member to member either through a phone calling system originally developed by the Neighborhood Ministries founded by Hillie Cass or through an Internet prayer line that has been led by several individuals most recently by Susan Angell. Susan Angell had also taken charge of sending birthday and anniversary cards to folks related to the church. This activity had been faithfully carried on at first by Christine Darling and then continued through the faithful work of her sister, Carolyn Teeter.
In addition to the worship opportunities that are discussed above, small group studies such as Nicky Gumbal’s Alpha, and Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life, Church and Community involved large number of church members in Biblical study. All ages of folks got together in homes to learn about Jesus and how he would have us act with each other and others. Bill Beddie led a special study on Angels in his last year with us. This study was held in the home of the Tordoffs’ and was attended by nearly a dozen folks. Likewise Art Tordoff led a group on Sunday mornings through a Biblical study using the stained glass windows of the church center the study. Each member of the class chose a particular window to present to the rest of the class. It was particularly meaningful when Eric Greer, a young high schooler, chose the window of Jesus as a boy in the temple. Eric was to us that young person teaching we elders the meaning of that moment in the life of Christ.
Peoples Church has often been the center of community life as one can discern from many of the episodes that we have already included in this history of Peoples Church. Ushering in the Twenty-first century we find that the facility is still used by many community groups that include Alcoholics Anonymous, Meals on Wheels, Boy Scouts, Aerobic Fitness Programs, a Day Care and until recently a Square Dance Organization. While in the past there have been members of the church engaged in many of these organizations that is not necessarily so. We will say that many of the organizations, however, do employ the volunteer services of church members.
Many members of Peoples have entered the ministry through the portals of this church. In most recent times the following have chosen to serve the Lord in pulpits or as lay speakers. Annie Britton and Mike Gray have both served churches as pastors while continuing theological studies. Chris Ward, Merrill Kaiser, Linda and Doug Greer and Art Tordoff have all taken courses and./or served as lay speakers in recent years. In another location in the book you will find a list of all the folks who have entered ministry or have had further theological study having found their foundation here at Peoples.
One of the most unique ministries that any member of the church had engaged in was the work of Kevin Malcom through his international contact ministry called Circle of Friends. 2004 was the 10th anniversary of this program that during that year continued to reach out to Christians in as far-flung locations as Kazackstan, Afghanistan, Scotland, South Africa, Israel and Algeria. Churches in these areas joined churches and Christian groups in messaging via the Internet love and compassion for folks in this worldwide net of Christian friends. One of the peak moments in the life of this organization took place on the evening of August 22, 2004. Kevin and members of the Circle of Friends celebrated Just One Day at a designated time together in prayer. Those in attendance can recall meeting on the steps of Peoples, with candles and being led in prayer by Pastor Gwyneth at the same time others were doing the same thing elsewhere in the world. Those present could feel that they were not alone and that there is promise and hope for everyone in this world.
Circle of Friends was a unique connection to the rest of the world and it was sad, to say the least, that when the Lord called Kevin home that the mission that he had been so fervent in supporting came to a close. The organization, loosely constructed, was a testament to the will of a man, Kevin Malcom, and his love of the Lord and this world.
Peoples has continued to serve in Mission in other ways. Members periodically show their desire to support mission needs in Maine. Both the Salem Economic Ministry, located in the Carabasset Valley and the Downeast Migrant Blanket Program have been supported from time to time. A continuing relationship with the Methodist Red Bird Mission in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky has long been the supported organization at Christmas time. New toys are brought to the Hanging of the Greens and Candle lighting ceremony and placed under the tree. Later they are gathered up and shipped to Kentucky through the efforts of the United Methodist Women. We did a few years ago sponsor a visit of the Red Bird Traveling Craft Show. This gave members at the time an opportunity to see some of the folks that actually run the mission in Kentucky. Peoples support of world needs has led us to support many needy folks through the efforts of the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Sometimes it has been through the collection of items like health and school kits while at other times we have collected and sent flood kits, layette kits among other items that have given members a sense of being part of a world community of need.
Service to the local area has long played a role in the life of Peoples, as has already been mentioned. Over the last 20 years or so the Sunday School has led the collection of food for the Food Pantry that is housed at the First Congregational Church. Periodically they have also been responsible for collections of paper goods for the same purpose. Peoples has also had a crew of varying sizes that have served meals at the Wayside Soup Kitchen in Portland whenever there was a fifth Wednesday in a month. Three or four times a year other members of the church have brought a meal to the Root Cellar located on Washington Avenue in Portland. Each of these meals at the Cellar has been followed by a worship service led by one of our pastors. As many as 15 members of all ages have been engaged in these local missions.
Perhaps the one aspect of mission that no one at this point has engaged in from Peoples is a short term or long-term mission trip to elsewhere in the United States or to a foreign location. Some individuals have talked about the possibility for quite some time, but beyond investigation nothing has come of it. This would be a worthy goal to achieve, but in the meantime the means by which Peoples has been involved in mission activities have been inspired by the Lord, sometimes through the work of one person and other times by many.

2008-09-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 66 Year of Celebration
The year was 2003 and it was time to experience the life of Peoples United Methodist Church. The roots of Peoples predates the celebration that was experienced in 2003
As you have read in the earliest of chapters in this history of Peoples the first Methodist group meeting for our predecessor began in 1839 in what would today be called Willard Square. The area was then known as Point Village. The village was surrounded by farms and looked over Simonton’s Cove. The village church divided its membership and one congregation developed on the Bowery Beach Road. Today this would be on the way to Two Lights on Route 77. The other congregation, odgkinH
150 years ago in 1853, opened the doors for the first time to a Methodist Episcopal Church in the section of Cape Elizabeth that was labeled and known as Cape Elizabeth Ferry Village. Both are important dates in looking at the overall history of Peoples, but it was 1853 that began a long and continuous relationship of the church with Ferry Village. As you have also found out the name, Peoples, was not added to the name of the church until a vote took place on that matter in 1888. All of that information is recorded in more detail in some of the earlier chapters or episodes that have been written within this history.
The doors to the Ferry Village church opened officially on January 26, 1853 even though construction was not yet complete. It was appropriate that we launched our Sesquicentennial Celebration on Sunday, January 26, 2003. A year in the planning, money was raised primarily from selling a church cookbook titled, Fruits of the Spirit.
The recipes included were collected and ordered by committee members Rosemary Herd and Cynthia Beddie. Kevin Malcolm through his Circle of Friends program had also collected a number of the recipes included. Many other parishioners also contributed their favorites. In time all of the books printed were sold and the legacy of Peoples cooks lives on.
Members of the committee all contributed to the success of each event that took place during the year. It is important in my estimation to list those dedicated parishioners and thank them for their efforts in showing that Peoples can be a close and friendly place to call our spiritual and sometimes social home. Reverend William Beddie and his wife Cynthia were integral to the success of the celebration. Also contributing were Christopher Brann, Carol Darling Campbell, Malcolm and Hillie Cass, Mike and Robyn Gray, Belle Graney, Joanne and Chuck Kamilewicz, Brad and Betsy Morrison, Danielle Seidl, Sally and Betty Smith, Becky Snoddy, Kevin Malcom, Max Brown, Doreen Gay, Rosemary Herd, Marlene and Art Tordoff and Chris Ward.
Invitations had been printed through Max Brown and were sent out to all parishioners and former parishioners. Former pastors who were still living and their families were also invited. Bishop Susan Hassinger and District Superintendent Gary Shaw were invited and did participate in the gala celebration. Interestingly on the very same day, First United Methodist Church, from which Peoples roots developed was celebrating their 200th Anniversary.
A souvenir booklet was put together by Art Tordoff and with the computer expertise of Pastor Bill Beddie. The cover showed pictures of the church as it was in 1853 and as it was changed around 1928 on the corner of High and School Streets. Two pictures of the present structure at 310 Broadway complemented the other two. A brief history of the church and its parishioners was the first item included in the booklet. This was followed by a Sesquicentennial Minute prepared by Art Tordoff as if it were Steven Hubbard, the master builder of the church’s Sunday school program. During the church service, printed in the booklet, many of the songs sung and elements of the church service mirrored what likely took place 150 years ago. A call to worship prepared by Pastor William Wood for the 75th anniversary was also used. Pastor Bill attired in an outfit emblematic of 1853 preachers gave the sermon as if playing the role of Uriel Rideout who served as Pastor at the time the new church was opened. Many people participated in the service as ushers, greeters, scripture readers and singers. Dr. Malcolm Cass as he had for many years arranged the music, led the choir and played the organ. The Grace Notes and Witness, two musical groups from the recent past were reunited as groups and sang during the service and at the celebration that followed.
Many folks that had moved distances from the church and had taken up residence in other communities returned to share in the celebration. A beautiful late winter day made the driving easier for these folks to come from distant homes and return safely.
Brad Morrison with the assistance of Chris Ward, Rosemary Herd and others prepared a meal of Seafood and Corn Chowder along with Anadama and White rolls with a variety of crackers. The meal prepared was also an adventure in history as those items would have been among items served at the church in 1853.
The program that followed included a discussion by Uriel Rideout, Steven Hubbard and Mrs. Jeremiah C. York and musical presentations by the Gracenotes and Witness. A skit by Sally Smith called, "Go Tell Aunt Rhodie" had the attendees in stitches. Those who knew the songs sang some patriotic songs from past variety/minstrel shows. Bishop Hassinger gave a brief message before moving on to her next appointment at First Methodist Church. Another highlight relative to local church history was the panel of elder members of the church that told about some of their recollections of the past. Belle Graney, Betty McGouldrick and Dr.Malcom Cass and Hillie regaled us with stories that many of us had never heard before. Before the celebration was closed with an old fashioned hymn sing, several former pastors in attendance came forward to answer as a panel the question." What role has life related to Peoples Church played in your spiritual and social journey?"
Each of those pastors offered prayers for all as this portion of the celebration was closed.
In March the Nurture Committee put together an interesting Family Night that encouraged people to share a meal and baby pictures. Many people submitted pictures and then the game was to guess who’s baby pictures that were submitted went with who in reality were now older. Some of the pictures came from the distant past and others were relatively recent. Again this event proved to be a community builder and we all learned a lot more about some of the folks that we had come to church with every week. Rosemary Herd took the lead on this activity that certainly was a highlight that many would like to repeat in the future.
The next significant event of the year served also as a unique means of celebrating. Through the efforts of Chuck Kamilewicz and Paul Obie we were able to acquire a motorized trolly on April 27, 2003. While initially paid for through monies raised by the sale of the cookbook, a free-will offering collected from those riding the trolly netted enough to pay for the rental. Three separate times were set up for the "Trolly Tour" that visited many locations that had connections to Peoples. We visited homes that were at one time owned by parishioners or served as parsonages for the pastors of the church. We saw locations where parishioners formerly gathered. We visited Point Village and Ferry Village and eventually ended up for refreshments at the home of Doug and Linda Greer where Linda greeted folks as they exited the trolly. Those who stopped for refreshments were able to pick up the trolly for the remainder of their trip back to Ellis Hall. Art Tordoff and Belle Graney gave everyone on board an oral narrative of the Trolly Trip. As a souvenir of this day everyone was able to take home a copy of the booklet that had been prepared by Dorren Gay and Belle Graney. Again the weather was wonderful and nearly 80 folks took advantage of the opportunity to share church history and the day with each other.
In May as part of the continuing celebration a Variety Show was held. Directed and led by Mike Gray and wife Robyn many acts of music, dance and comedy showed the talents that parishioners possessed. Often people may go unnoticed because a performance appears to be out of the character of the person, as we know them. A lot of fun was had in preparing this event and a lot of surprises in performance came from the Pastor, Sally Smith, Jean Swanson and the Ushers simply because their acts were somewhat unexpected. Obviously those with more known talent such as Mike and Robyn and Chris Ward as well as others were perhaps more expected, but certainly entertaining too. Money raised from this helped with the general funs of the church.
In July another event drew the finance committee and sesquicentennial committee together for a two-pronged event simply labeled a Yard Sale and Strawberry Festival. All kinds of parishioners again gathered together to bring all manner of "used thing" and "treasures" together for the perusal of neighbors near and far. Barbara Nelson headed up the Yard Sale. The Sesquicentennial Committee gathered a number of folks together to pick fresh strawberries at Maxwell’s farm. Cenise MacKinnon headed up the picking party and then the women of the church made all manner of "strawberry goodies" for sale and eating. Luscious strawberries, home made biscuits and loads of whipped cream made the day for those who savor the delicacy known as strawberry shortcake. Many other women made cakes and muffins and /or helped to serve. The most significant outcome of this event was the church community building that was a part of the event.
The Sesquicentennial celebration theme continued throughout the remainder of the year. The Sunday School was able to celebrate 150 years of existence at the end of the school year in graduation ceremonies. Likewise the Church Fair in December and the Hanging of the Greens both carried on some of the celebration that had begun in January.
While looking back on the history of the church can be fun, interesting and necessary the true value in looking back is to see what is necessary to carry on and build on the legacy of an institution’s past. Doreen Gay was most responsible for the banner that hangs in the sanctuary that does an excellent job of illustrating Peoples Legacy. We individually need to look at it from time to time and let it lead us to think of where we are going as a church family.
To close out the year of celebration we did have one last gathering associated with the Sesquicentennial and that was to have a church wide afterglow party in January 2004. At this event we used it to get ideas together in a Retreat format to determine where we might use what we had spent a year reviewing and use that to make plans for our future.
This episode in the life of Peoples was intended to be the end of a historic journey. It is, however, only fitting to realize first that this is not the end of the journey for Peoples, but just the beginning of a continuing story of service and care to others and to our Lord, Jesus Christ. Since it has taken five years to get to this spot in the journey, the writer will include a few more episodes as epilog in order to show that Peoples still is dynamic and genuine in its love of the Lord and love of our fellow men, women and children.
erd, ette McGouldrick, Marlene hhERDillie and Malcolm Cass, Mike and Robyn Gray
ank Dunn, Merrill Kaiser

2008-08-19T09:52:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 65 Preparing With Love For the Safety of All
Note: In the last edition of Roots we indicated that the Sesquicentennial Celebration year would be included in this edition. The editor believing that there was still unfinished business has taken the liberty to place the history included in this edition before the celebration which will most definitely be included in Edition or Episode 66 and perhaps more. Thank you for your understanding. AJT
The world around us in this new century and millenium seemed to be increasingly dangerous not only away from American shores but also within its borders. Increasing misuse of weapons in the hands of civilians and even young people seemed to have led to needless tragedies. When several cases of abuse of children were reported in the news in homes as well as through what were considered to be safe environments for children panic developed in some circles. At the least a whole new perspective for safety needed to be developed by many children serving organizations. Churches were not excluded from this need. The considered innocence of Sunday schools had been violated in a number of cases involving church volunteers as well as some serving as pastors in local churches.
The response to this in the United Methodist Church was the creation of a Safe Sanctuaries program. At Peoples, Chuck Kamilewicz headed a task force of parishioners to develop a policy that would bring about a Safe Sanctuaries Policy. Any other churches seemed to lag behind, but through Chuck’s efforts a strong policy was developed. The policy provides directions on how Sunday school and any other program involving children needed to be operated relative to adult personnel and their relationships to children of all ages. This policy also led to some modifications in the structure and use of the building including the placement of glass windows in all of the steel reinforced doors throughout the building. Many of the policies that were considered appropriate to church run functions would also effect the operation of a Day Care program operated within the building by an outside supervisor.
The policy developed by Chuck and the other members of his task force has become a model for other United Methodist churches as well as other organizations to follow.
The pastor appointed in 2000, William Beddie was very supportive of the policy and offered a number of suggestions while letting parishioners work out the fine details of the program.
Pastor Bill gave stability to the pastorate overcoming years of instability caused by the "swinging door pulpit" that seemed to have been a part of the previous four or five years. Still long time members of the church departed for other churches, other towns, or as sadly in some cases, death. Many of the church leaders were aging and could not be expected to continue in that capacity, but many of the middle age parishioners that would be expected to move into leadership roles were among those that sought church life elsewhere. This is not to say that those that remained were not willing to move into leadership roles. Among those that were most active were Brad and Betsy Morrison. Together they revived the youth groups and led the young folks on many an adventure. The Morrisons would also be responsible for developing a coffee fellowship as well as serving on many committees including trustees and Staff Parish. The spirit of learning of God’s grace was enhanced through the continued sessions on Alpha held in the home of the Dunns, Ellen and Hank.
The United Methodist Women continued to function and serve the church by raising funds for church, mission and the support of the scholarship program. Monies were raised through the annual Christmas Fair that might be labeled Winter Wonderland or A Victorian Christmas or Christmas Around The World. Most often this fair was held the first Saturday in December. The women continued to spearhead the monthly bean suppers with help from an increasing number of men. Most often seen in the kitchen were Chris Ward, the Snoddys, the Nelsons, Doreen Gay, Ted Greer and Charlie Lyons. Others often seen working the crowd would be Hillie Cass, Belle Graney, Kay Robinson, Linda Greer and her family. Others would serve important roles like Mary Ann Wheeler who would be the ticket lady. Later in the history of bean suppers other significant participants would include Janice and Bob Huelin, Becky Gottleib, Chris and Mariah Bowker, Jody Fyles, Kathy Brann and most assuredly Peoples own angel, Susan.
United Methodist Men continued to function although less actively than in the past. The men would meet on the same evenings as UMW and receive a meal before they would meet separately. Numbers dwindled as membership aged. Often men could be seen assisting at the suppers and at the fair. Men continued to meet for fellowship and some men trekked to Purdue University in Indiana for an international meeting of UMM. Those attending included Pastor Bill, Merrill Kaiser, Earle Harvey, Tom Nelson and Doug Greer. We have been told that not all was roses on this long trip, but some of the men not only received inspiration from the great speakers at the conference, but also from chasing a little white ball around a green lush meadow nearby.
Considering that the church had seen many changes in the pastorate in a relatively short time, the same would be true for the District Superintendency. Gary Shaw succeeded Don Rudelevige. Gary was the DS at the time of our sesquicentennial but then he was moved to another district and was followed by Paul Chang. Paul Chang was soon moved to another position and his position was split by a husband and wife team, Jan and Mike Davis. Each time that a change occurred in District leadership it also seemed that the District had increased in size making it very difficult for Superintendent’s to reach out to individual parishes with some degree of closeness. It seemed from this writer’s point of view that the availability of leadership on the District and Conference level was becoming more remote. At one time the District we were in was simply known as the Greater Portland District. Then it became the Southern Maine District and today the district, known as the Tri-state District encompasses churches in southern Maine, northeaster Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.
In spite of this Peoples people remained active at the Conference level with Pastor Bill, Wanda Stahl Hodgkins the growth coordinator, Hank Dunn and Merrill Kaiser playing significant roles. Andrea Hodgkins continued to play a significant role with the youth at the New England Conference.
In the local area the Casco Bay Cluster became stronger with member churches consisting of Peoples, West Scarborough, Cape Elizabeth, Thornton Heights, First Methodist and Elm Street all adding to the mix. One of the long standing activities that the cluster developed was the series of Lenten Services that were held prior to Easter as well as the Good Friday that was traditionally held at Peoples. Sharing information about what was taking place in each church was a bonus since it was much easier to plan local church functions that would complement each others activity calendar.
Adding to the life of Peoples in June of 2003 was a Recognition service and banquet, long overdue for those who were serving the church as employees. The following were honored for their service: Pastor Bill, Growth Coordinator Wanda Stahl-Hodgkins, Secretary Maryjean Raymond and Dannie and Linda French who had been serving as sextons. Marlene Tordoff who was serving as chairperson of the Staff-Parish Committee presided over the festivities.odgkinH
ank Dunn, Merrill Kaiser

2008-07-23T05:42:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 64 Peoples Church Enters a New Millennium
In the last episode of Roots we found that the world had questions about what it would be like in the new century. The people of Peoples also had questions that we tried to develop answers for during the 1990’s through God’s wishes and desires for us. Several folks were engaged in direction setting through previously mentioned Focus and Implementation groups.
One of the truly significant activities that members of Peoples saw as a crying need was in the area of handicap accessibility throughout the building complex. A group was formed from various aspects of church life and presented to the church as a whole a campaign that was called "Celebrate the Faith". Several members of the Trustees served under Tom Nelson, Dan Doughty and Betsy Morrison to make this project a reality. Dr. Brad Call was hired from the Methodist Foundation to oversee the Peoples Project. Handicapped accessibility was the major priority although paying off the parsonage mortgage, sprucing up the vestry and refurbishing Ellis Hall were all included in this project. Money was pledged throughout 2001 and by the end of the year a good portion of the estimated need was pledged. A substantial sum of money was borrowed, interest-free from the New England Conference in order for the project to get underway in 2002. March saw some destruction of the floor and wall between the Breezeway and the vestry. More "shoring up needed to be done as water damage to the underpinnings was realized when the cavity under the breezeway was exposed. The purpose of ripping up the floor and wall was to make a wheel chair elevator and widened stairway possible. That was perhaps the single largest portion of the project but not the only portion of handicapped accessibility. A ramp was built in the vestry along the Broadway wall to the level of the existing elevator. In turn that elevator had to be replaced to make way for a three stop rather than two stop elevator. In Ellis Hall, the former nursery was divided into a handicap accessible rest room complete with baby changing facility and the remainder of the old nursery was turned into a storage area for Meals on Wheels and Sunday school materials.
Additional physical changes to the church property was to put new replacement windows around the perimeter of the vestry and kitchen. With new tiling on the floor throughout the area, new ceiling tiles, patching of cracks in the wall and paint supplied by members of the church the vestry became a much more serviceable and bright area for day care and church functions. In time the ceiling tiles in Ellis Hall were replaced and lowered making it more efficient to heat. Along with the replacement of the ceiling tiles was the replacement of lighting fixtures that would make lighting more effective as well. Members of the trustees and other church volunteers also took out the divider panels in Ellis Hall before the ceiling folks did their work.
Last but by no means least, the mortgage on the parsonage on Mussey Street was paid off. It was also during this time that Trustees went ahead and upgraded a number of the exterior features of the parsonage. The entire house was reshingled and painted and the boards in the front porch and on the back deck were also replaced and painted. Several rooms in the house were also repainted and refurbished. Members of the Trustees and other volunteers did much of this work, but Fortin Construction was the company hired to do the shingling.
Members of the church can take some pride in this project in that it was generally completed within the original budget and on time. The inspiration for handicapped accessibility really came from two young ladies; Mallory and Alisha Wade and their parents Fred and Linda. Because of their needs many other folks have been able to participate in the life of Peoples anywhere in the building. The pledges and accommodations that had been made paid for the majority of the project upon completion.
This was also a time when all of the Mission Shares that were requested from Peoples was paid in full. Since that time it has been difficult to pay the total amount even though the finance committee has sponsored a number of initiatives to assist in paying more than the pastoral benevolence fund obligations.
Part-time janitors had served peoples for many years. The last of those to serve were Danny and Linda French. It was at this time that Trustees felt that it would be better to have a janitorial service come in and do the work a couple of nights a week. The nights that were chosen were Wednesdays and Saturdays. While Danny and Linda had served well as had most other folks who had served in that capacity it seems that the janitorial service has provided a more than adequate cleaning job with its professional equipment and man (woman) power. Trustees also felt that this might be a way of saving some money. With the same thought in mind Finance chose to hire a payment service to handle to checks and monies of the church relative to employees. At the time the pastor(s), church secretary, growth coordinator and janitors were employed by the church and this service was seen as effective again in removing difficult issues from a church member serving as treasurer as in the past.
During the summer of 2001 a group of folks from Peoples including Hank Dunn and Rosemary Herd went to a gathering at Gordon College to hear Nicky Gumbel who was the founder of the Alpha Movement. Inspiring was the word that described the program and so Hank with the help of Ellen, Rosemary and Pastor Bill began planning for Alpha to be part of the life of Peoples. Over the next few years the Dunn household served as the hosting home for a series of Alpha sessions. Over 50 members of the church and other folks from outside membership were invited weekly to the Dunn home to eat and to see and discuss another episode in Christian understanding from the perspective of Nicky Gumbel. The book, Questions of Life, was divided into 15 chapters, each of which would serve as the guide for one week. Those that participated had a good time together, had an intimate personal learning experience and found fun and fellowship in the process.
Eventually what was felt and learned through the Alpha program led to a series that we will talk about later that was produced by Saddleback Church’s Rick Warren and Associates. Over the course of three years Peoples People would again gather together in private homes and use Purpose Driven Life, Purpose Driven Church and 40 Days of Community as continuing Bible and application to life studies.
Other events that were inspired during this time included a Men’s Breakfast that would allow men of the church to get together on a monthly basis for simply good food and good conversation. Launched by Hank Dunn in the Fall of 2001, he encouraged Brad Morrison, our resident master chef, to initiate the breakfast program with some of his early morning delicacies. Over the first few years of the breakfast as many as 15 to 16 men of all ages would meet at 7:30 on the second Saturday of each month. Sometimes there would be a church activity that would follow such as a Spring cleanup or an ushers meeting. On some occasions because of the nature of what else was scheduled a few women might on occasion participate.
In the summer of 2001 Peoples hosted a visit by the Red Bird Mission traveling fair.
Folks from the Red Bird Mission in Kentucky, sponsored by the United Methodist Church traveled to Maine to sell the wares of folks from the Mission area. The van was filled with all manner of hand made objects that were neatly set up and displayed in Ellis Hall. The doors were open to the community and a number of items made their way to households in the South Portland area. Those running the fair would also trek on in Maine to other Methodist churches to do the same thing. Red Bird Mission in Kentucky is the recipient of new toys and gifts that we have collected for many years during the Christmas season to send to the mission for distribution throughout Appalachia.
Peoples has been a resource of development for people interested in becoming pastors and lay speakers. At the turn of the millenniums the two latest members of the community that entered study leading to Methodist ministry included Annie Britton who would matriculate at Boston University School of Theology and Mike Gray who has continued to take courses through Bangor Theological Seminary. Both have served churches in the conference. Mike has served as pastor of the Old Orchard United Methodist Church while Annie left local pastoring and has worked on a doctorate in Theology. The following members of the congregation have taken beginner and advanced courses in Lay Speaking: Linda and Doug Greer, Chris Ward, and Merrill Kaiser. Much later Art Tordoff joined this group.
In 2003 the 150th anniversary of Peoples Church would be held. Early in 2002 a committee was formed to prepare for this momentous occasion. Doreen Gay, Tom Nelson, Chris Ward, Rosemary Herd, Belle Graney, Brad and Betsy Morrison and Dr. and Mrs. Malcolm Cass joined Art Tordoff on a planning committee that would meet on a regular basis for a year to conceive, plan and carry out a series of activities that would celebrate Peoples Heritage on January 26, 2003.
We will spend more time and space in the next episode on the events that surrounded this series of Sesquicentennial events.

2008-06-23T04:39:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 63 The World Enters a New Millenium
Fear seemed to grip the world as a new millennium approached. We were fast becoming a digital world and in what way and how would the year 2000 effect records and the way people were doing things. As the minutes and seconds ticked down to 12:00 Midnight on December 31, 1999 what was going to happen? Other than a few minor glitches it seems that life on this planet went on much as it had for as long as man has been on this earth.
In the few days that followed January 1, 2000 President Bill Clinton became the first President to visit Viet Nam since Richard Nixon had done so in 1969 under much different circumstances. This was also the first year that a Pope, John Paul II had visited Israel since Paul VI had in 1964. It was the one of many trips that this most admired Pope of modern times throughout the world took to talk with political and religious leaders of all different backgrounds. Everywhere the Pope would travel he was greeted by common people of all religious affiliations. It was a gray day indeed for the world when this great Patriarch of the church died in 2005 as a result of declining health and the flu.
In 2001, George W. Bush, the son of a previous President, was narrowly elected to his position over Democratic Senator Al Gore. An era of what some would say was controversial decision making was ushered in brought on by changing mores and morals as well as difficult world situations for the United States and all the other countries of the world. It wasn’t the fault of any single person that controversy arose for it seems that Americans seem to thrive on controversy.
Many of those issues were superseded by a single day of events, the magnitude of which was unlike any other that had ever taken place in the history of the United States. The date, September 11, 2001 was the day when Terrorists hijacked four American commercial jets. The terrorists piloted two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York killing thousands in the building and bringing the towers down in a pile of rubble all in a matter of minutes. Shortly after that a third plane was flown into the Pentagon in Washngton, DC. The fourth plane was to fly into the Washington area as well, but because of some extremely brave folks on this doomed plane it was retaken and crashed with all lives lost in a Pennsylvania grain field. The Portland area’s connection to this day of modern infamy as one team of hijackers began their flight to New York on a flight out of Portland.
Patriotism and support for America was at a high. Flags flew everywhere. Support for the troops who were to fight against terrorists within and without the country was at an all time high. Recruiting for military service also increased. Memorials were erected for the fallen and both fire departments and police received encouragement and blessings from people of the country as well as other countries. "God Bless America" became a second national anthem and both "America" and "America the Beautiful" joined the "National Anthem" in all sorts of group events. Prayer was for a time encouraged in any sort of gathering, not just in a church, a synagogue or a mosque. While many had lost their lives and the nation mourned their loss it was also a time when Americans felt good to be Americans and were supportive of each other. There were instances of where attacks on some Americans took place because of the belief that because someone professed in a particular religion that they had a connection with the terrorists. As time has passed most Americans are of the belief that is not so and attempts at interfaith dialogue has increased.
Involvement in the affairs of both Iraq and Afghanistan increased by 2003. An offensive was launched against Sadam Hussein and his administration because the American government felt he was developing and storing Weapons of Mass Destruction. Within the year Sadam was captured and put in prison. Later he was executed and one would think that some form of peace would be restored. No weapons of the type mentioned were ever found, but certainly the record of people being put to death by Hussein’s regime could easily be noted. What was thought to be a quick end to Iraqi problems was not so and even at this writing in 2008 the difficulties linger on. Afghanistan, a country whose serenity had been broken by the movement of Russian troops into the country would also experience destruction and upheaval for a number of years. Into the breach American troops were sent originally for advice only. Again, in 2008 American troops are still committed to try and locate the hideouts and bases of Al Quida terrorists in or near that country. Tribal warfare has long caused difficulty in this region of the world and one of the Afghani groups that are presently "the enemy" are called the Taliban.
Weather was in the news in 2004 with both a series of hurricanes that plagued especially the state of Florida and a Tsunami that hit the coasts of several Indonesian Islands. Several help groups, many based in the United States provided aid of all kinds to the disaster struck areas. Methodism’s own disaster relief program, UMCOR, rushed assistance to these areas. Local churches were quick to replenish some of the assistance that had been stored for such events. There were other natural disasters that would take place both in the United States and abroad. Perhaps one of the disasters most noted in 2005 was the results of Hurricane Katrina that raked the Gulf Coast of Alabama, Mississippi and especially Louisiana. Locally Peoples United Methodist Church became the hub of an UMCOR collection effort for food, cleaning supplies, and school supplies among other items. More on the local effort will be forthcoming in a future edition of the Roots series of articles.
While for many years many folks have warned of Global warming and other destructive environmental practices, it was the former Senator Al Gore in 2006 who helped produce and release a film titled, "An Inconvenient Truth". This film brought to the attention of folks around the world the necessity to work now toward developing a greener, more environmentally friendly, world. The film insisted that if we fail to begin that effort soon, the result would end in increasing catastrophe and destruction of the sustaining of life on this planet. Senator Gore won a Nobel Prize as a result of his efforts in this realm.
What is the legacy of the past century in relationship to where the world and America is today? What must we as people do to preserve the world that we insist that we love? How are we to work, play and associate with people who may be different from ourselves
in the way we look, the way we think, the activities we love and the beliefs we have? Some of what we have brought into this century can and possibly will create more difficulty but there is ample evidence and knowledge that was developed in past history that can, should and will, if we let it, guide us to a more harmonious and peaceful world.
Let us not forget that God above provides us with what we have and have developed. He has given us the power to develop, but he has also given us the power, if we choose to use it, to preserve!

2008-05-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 62 Outside Organization Effects Local Church Actions and Activities
Let us begin this break with a brief look beyond the local church and see what was evolving first in the United Methodist Church. From the research that this writer has done I have found little "new history" from the time of the merger in 1968 with the United Evangelical Brethren Church. At the time that merger took place United Methodism could claim over 11 million members worldwide. Since that time membership in North America and Europe has significantly declined. This has also been a phenomenon experienced by other mainline Christian churches including the Catholic Church. While this can be seen in collected membership statistics it is also true and provable that United Methodism has grown significantly in Asia and Africa.
Those folks becoming pastors over this same period of time have seen a significant growth in the number of women who have become pastors while over that same period the number of men has dramatically declined. Another statistic to note is that the number of folks hearing their "call to ministry" have, in many instances, been at an older age. Many have experienced work in a number of other fields before becoming pastors. Since 1980 there has also been an increase in the number of women appointed to serve as District Superintendents and Bishops of the United Methodist Church. The first female Bishop in the United Methodist Church was Marjorie Matthews who was not appointed to that position until 1980.
A number of critical issues have added struggle to United Methodism. The church has made position statements on such far ranging issues as nuclear power, world peace, human sexuality, environmental concerns, abortion, AIDS, Evangelism and World Mission. All members did not agree upon some of those positions. Many members may have been bothered and in disagreement with the stance of a particular statement. As a result some members have taken leave of the church because they did not agree with a stance taken by leadership that may have seemed distant to the feelings of the local church. We can look at history of the church in just the state of Maine and find differences politically and socially from one end of the state to the other. When geographically speaking the United Methodist denomination like many others is global in organization it is difficult for all to be in agreement with statements that the denomination are to uphold. Perhaps, in part, it is for reasons such as this that many smaller denominations or singular parishes seem to be growing while the denominations that try to be all things to all people are struggling. Some of the above taken from "History: Our Story" found on the website of the United Methodist Church at UMC.org/site/c/w/4kmnilth/b.1720691/k.B5CB/History.Our Story.htm.

There may also be a feeling that the leadership of the church has become more distant from the local church and its needs and thus the decline in membership has been dramatic. An article included in the Portland Press Herald on Tuesday, February 26, 2008 and commented on by Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, supported this feeling.
While not directly related to the commentary above it is important to know that the last revision of the United Methodist Hymnal was done in 1989 although since then the United Methodist church has created a more modern supplementary song book called, The Faith We Sing. The last revision of the Book of Worship was completed and accepted in 1992. Every few years the Book of Discipline is revised and updated. At the time of this writing there is a proposal for a new hymnal and the international church has asked for suggested submissions which is one way of keeping some contact with local parishioners.
The New England Conference was reformed with a signed agreement on July 16, 1992. This newly re-formed Conference came as a result of merging the conferences of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and parts of Connecticut and Rhode Island. Many church leaders from the Maine and New Hampshire Conferences felt there would be value in the merger, but many were also afraid of its consequences. While the resources that are available from a larger conference can be gratifying there are some that feel the personality and character of the church changes organizationally. The significance of each local church to some seems to have been diminished especially in the remoter areas of the new conference.
Resource personnel have been hired as well as support staff. This calls for increased Mission Shares from local churches that struggle just to keep the doors open. Some District Superintendents have told local churches to take care of their own financially first and yet others have placed the emphasis on the conference.
In order to save money conference leadership has cut corners in some areas by reducing the number of resources available and have placed some of the burden on those that remain employed. With redistricting having taken place in the last few years the burden on District Superintendents to serve local congregations has also increased. In the relatively newly formed Tri-State District the number of local congregations that a superintendent is responsible for has increased exponentially thus reducing the number of occasions when the person in that position can effectively be in good communication with local pastors and their constituents. Part of this phenomenon is financially driven as opposed to spiritually driven. These comments from 2008 are a break in the chronological development of Peoples Roots, and a bit editorial. This writer would say that we are fortunate at present in having a husband and wife team of superintendents that have effectively been able to divide the district in half. Mike and Jan Davis have been more effective in reaching out to local congregations than a single person could possibly do if responsible for the full district.
Another step in the ladder of leadership has been in the creation of Clusters within smaller areas. This is not a new phenomenon locally because there was a cooperative parish that linked the churches of South Portland and Cape Elizabeth in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. The Casco Bay Cluster is its successor and was formed in the 1990’s. This organization meets once a month and today includes the four South Portland churches, Cape Elizabeth, West Scarborough and Buxton. Together the pastors and the laity of these churches plan Lenten Services, have held a revival, hold a training program for members and advertise each others activities. On occasion other Cluster have been invited to send folks to participate in the activities of the Casco Bay Cluster. In 2008 there is talk about the possible merger with the Greater Portland Cluster. Interestingly that combination would basically be the shape, size and membership of the District presided over by a Superintendent as late as the 1960’s.
Many of the decisions of the local church are made in relationship to the organizational structure of the United Methodist Church that we have included in the preceding paragraphs. In our next installment of Roots we will make reference to world and national events that have altered our way of thinking and praying.

2008-04-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 61 Promise and Direction
This edition of Roots has reached a milestone in that if each of these additions to the Peoples News Letter had been included on a monthly basis this would begin the Sixth Year of its journey to attempt a meaningful history of the history of Peoples Church. Begun prior to the Sesquicentennial Celebration in January of 2003 it is still the writer’s intent to include significant events in the life of Peoples before publishing all of them as a book. At the same time as we have been collecting general history of Peoples we have also been putting together a somewhat more definitive history of the pastors and their families that have served Peoples and a listing of those members of the parish who have entered the ministry from Peoples. We have also solicited brief family histories of both living and deceased contributors to the church and we also expect that we will be able to include all of the memorials that have been given to the church to honor members of the church family. It is not to late for folks to contribute to the family history segment since that portion of the book-to-be is perhaps yet another year away. Anyone who has interesting stories about people and events in the life of the church that has not shared them with me, I would still appreciate receiving them for inclusion in the final book. I do hope that to this date you have found the Roots column on the blog and in the Newsletter meaningful in understanding how heritage of a church family plays a vital role in its present directions.
While our previous episode in the life of Peoples seemed quite gloomy because of change and loss, the ship did not sink. As a matter of fact and course, Peoples was represented quite well at the New England Conference. Diane Yosua and John Cadman were the churches voting delegates to the Conference. Melissa Yosua, Dan and Matt Yosua, Katie Yosua, Justin Harvey and Chris Brann represented the youth of the church extremely well. Reverends Andrea Harvey (Youth Coordinator), Priscilla Dreyman (Spiral Arts) and Wanda Stahl (Church Growth Coordinator) and our new pastor, Reverend William Beddie were all ministerial representatives with ties to Peoples. Diane was the writer of the conference report to Peoples on that occasion and for the 2000 Peoples Annual Report. One of the major issues that presented itself for the first time was the issue of Inclusiveness/Reconciliation on the issue of Homosexuality. In her report, Diane was somewhat aghast at the political tactics that were used by the Reconciling Task Force which presented to the body of the whole a New England Declaration. Diane reported
that they declared that homosexuality is "a good gift from God and is compatible with Biblical teaching which at that time was still considered to be a stand against what is written in the United Methodist Discipline. While the issue had been presented before and it would be again it has proved to be rather contentious each time.
Diane also mentioned how absolutely proud she was of the involvement of so many Peoples’ youth in the proceedings of the conference. Melissa Yosua was the Vice President of the New England MYF and Matt and Dan were active as they have been since with the technical and computer operations of the Conference. During the year 2000 the youth raised over $7000 toward youth ministries of the conference by challenging all of the member MYF’s in what was known as the Penny Challenge. It just so happened that the Tri-state District of which Peoples is one church won the year-long contest that ended at this the 2000 Annual New England Conference. Another method of raising money that the youth concocted was to have a bigger than life size cardboard mockup of Bishop Susan Hassinger that was used to encourage conference attendees to have their picture taken with her. Finally Melissa and other members of the youth cabinet presented a bill to the assembled delegates to support a Conference-wide youth leader. After presenting their message to the Conference, voting delegates approved the creation of such a position.
In the Church Profile that was drawn up by the Staff –Parish Committee and concluded on April 20, 1999 the following questions were answered about the future of Peoples. Where is God leading the church? What are its goals? To these questions the respondents wrote: "Over the past few years, many feel we as a congregation have lost track of where God was leading us. The primary goals of the church at the present time are to more intentionally focus on nurturing the spiritual life of its members through Disciple and other small groups within and beyond the congregation and improve communication within the congregation and to the local community." "What kind of leadership skills does the church need to meet its short and long term goals?" was then responded to.
The response to this question was as follows: "Restoration of some degree of tradition was one inclusion. Normality after a really tumultuous four-year period in the life of the church was another of the suggestions." As we look back on these suggestions from the perspective of time and as the Cabinet also did we were looking for someone as pastor who would lead and listen to a diversified congregation by age and interest. Someone who would be expected to lead, but also to share that leadership with lay members of the congregation.
District Superintendent Donald Rudalevidge introduced Reverend Doctor William Beddie from the former New Hampshire Conference and who had pastored a number of churches in New Hampshire to Peoples Staff –Parish Committee. In Bill’s introduction to us he said that he would be a "back to basics" preacher on Christ Jesus and his words in the Gospels. His preaching would carry the basic message of developing a personal relationship with God through Jesus from whom all God-centered changes take place for individuals, the church and the community.
Fred Yosua became the leader of the Church Council when Lisa Alexander stepped down. Fred was well organized and called all leaders of groups to develop Mission and Vision statements. This was a direct follow-up to the directions that had been presented by the Focus and Implementation Committees. In addition he proposed that all leaders and groups using their new mission and vision statements develop action plans that would be followed up through the Church Council. Some were reluctant to do this, but this was an excellent suggestion for making each task group or formal group accountable for their existence. As long as Fred was leading the charge for accountability it worked and worked well. While we had gone through some relatively, at least in some peoples’ minds, nonproductive years it was the work of folks like the Yosuas that kept things perking.
In our next episode we will take a short break from our local history. We will take a look at some of the changes that had taken place in the greater United Methodist Church. We will also look at some of the features of worldwide news at the beginning of the Twenty first century.

2008-03-17T12:21:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 60 Trials and Tribulations
In the Spring of 1999 the Staff Parish Committee met with District Superintendent Donald J. Rudalevige and together felt with Reverend Bill Schuster that it was time for him to be appointed to another parish. Bill was appointed to Keene and Marlow, New Hampshire. This would not be an easy appointment for Bill since he was legally blind and would have to tend to two flocks rather than one. Some folks at Peoples actually felt that this was unfair to him and some actually felt that his time with us was too short. Movement from parish to parish is a part of the itinerant system and yet difficult for some folks to understand given the fact that the previous pastor of Peoples, Linwood Arnold, was the only previous pastor at Peoples that many had known.
Shortly after the announcement that Pastor Schuster would be leaving, District Superintendent Rudalevige brought a new pastoral candidate to be interviewed by the Staff Parish Committee. The new pastor, Reverend Charlotte Nachbar was then serving the Newport, Rhode Island United Methodist Church. This petite middle age woman had formerly been a guidance counselor in schools around Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Charlotte was unique in other ways as well. It is obvious from the church pastoral records that she would be the first woman to hold the pulpit at Peoples. Additionally her family history was in the Jewish tradition. Her husband Bob and their children remained members of the Jewish faith. One of the promising elements of Charlotte would be her knowledge of Judaism and especially the Old Testament. While Andrea Harvey and Diane Yosua were the first to lead the Disciple, Bible Study Program, Charlotte would lead a second class of newcomers and older members in this very popular study program.
Reverend Charlotte indicated in the goals she announced that she would increase the involvement of the congregation in the area of the elderly housing locations near the church. She professed to have an open door for ideas and discussion with parishioners. She wanted to develop opportunities for newcomers and to work closely with Reverend Wanda Stahl, the Minister of Church Family Life. Charlotte would like to have provided more of a blend of traditional and contemporary religious music. Additionally she had indicated that she wanted to develop a number of learning opportunities in addition to Bible study.
Life in the church took new directions under the leadership of Charlotte, Wanda Stahl and Andrea Harvey with a number of members playing active roles in a continuation of programs as well as new ideas. Andrea Harvey, who had led the Sunday School and the Youth Group for a number of years again had the young folks actively engaged in a musical. This time the musical was titled, Children of Eden. Another outstanding production drew a number of very talented musical teenagers into the MYF and into the production. The production again was a hit among all who attended. Reverend Nachbar was able to see some of the rehearsals before becoming ill.
Charlotte went to the hospital in January 2000 for an operation and had a bad reaction to the anesthesia putting her life in jeopardy. Her recuperation would be rather lengthy. In the meantime fill-in pastors from the congregation and the District Superintendent himself took turns for a period of time preaching. When Charlotte’s recuperation continued Reverend Sherwood Treadwell was appointed to serve as an interim pastor. The congregation for the most part fell in love with he and his wife Nancy. A long time pastor in the old New Hampshire Conference, Sherwood was a well-traveled and beloved leader of congregations wherever he had been appointed. Most recently he had retired from the Church on the Cape located in the Maine village of Cape Porpoise, He and Nancy both enjoyed their time with us. Within a couple of months, Sherwood found the reoccurrence of back problems and then was forced to once again retire. Most folks felt very sad when Sherwood could no longer be with us. Most were in hopes that the Treadwells would have been with us for a long time.
It now appeared that Reverend Charlotte would not be able to return to Peoples because of her health. The District Superintendent would return to Peoples and announce that Reverend William Doughty, another retired pastor would be appointed as the second interim pastor of the year. Bill and his wife Shirley had in recent years retired to the Portland area to be near their son, Bill Jr. who was serving as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Portland. Bill Sr. had spent most of his preaching career in the Western Massachusetts/Northern Connecticut District of the United Methodist Church. Because of a heart condition, Reverend Doughty would have to limit the amount of time that he could spend on the affairs of Peoples.
These were extremely trying times for the faithful members of Peoples. While many of the lay folks pitched in and helped carry on activities like the already mentioned "Children of Eden" the ship was, in a sense, without a true captain. The ship seemed to be somewhat rudderless. Some of the crew each time a change in pastoral leadership took place would take time to explore spiritual offerings in other churches. The membership began to be depleted. Some very active members of the church were no longer here to take the lead. Many of the members who had been active for several generations were now aging and were ready to cease the leadership roles they had long held.
It may be said that these times were the "desert experience" for Peoples. Enthusiasm was not expressed as it had been in the past. The creative juices were hard to turn on. Leadership seemed to fall into the hands of fewer and fewer folks. Spiritual guidance and inspiration seemed hard to experience by many at Peoples. The trials and tribulations felt by continuous changes in leadership were hard for folks to cope with on the one hand, but in time would act as the inspiration for others to come forward and lead.
The position of Minister of Church Family Life held so ably by Wanda Stahl-Hodgkins for a number of years would also come to an end. Wanda, who had been working for several years on a Doctorate in Theology at Boston University School of Theology, asked for permission to leave with the purpose of completing that work. Reluctantly the church accepted her resignation and she completed that work in 2000. Reverend Doctor Wanda then was appointed to be a Director of Resource Ministry for the New England United Methodist Conference. She and her family would soon leave the area to reside in Scarborough making the West Scarborough United Methodist Church their new membership.
We have mentioned Andrea Harvey several times. About the same time as the rest of the upheaval, Andrea completed her theological studies at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Wenham, Massachusetts. Her desire was to serve the youth of the Conference as she had done at Peoples for many years. Actually she had had an association herself with the Peoples MYF since she had been a teen member. It was shortly after the success of Children of Eden that Andrea moved from the city and declared her membership elsewhere.
Mentioned earlier in this episode in the life of Peoples was that several people became more active than they had previously been. Even though Ellie Malfet had passed away as a result of an automobile accident, the fall beginning of activity was still kicked off with a concert by the Patterson, New Jersey Presbyterian Gospel Choir. In the year 1999, the Choir from Paterson led off our program year for eleventh year in a row.. Under the able and remarkable leadership of Lloyd Reese the choir again gave a masterful and inspirational concert. Diane and Fred Yosua from Peoples at that time made the arrangements and it was expected that this group would continue to come and visit and bring us their message in song.
This was an era of song when many folks shared musical talents as soloists, instrumentalists or as members of the choirs. Many of the young folks who had come to Peoples in part because of the musicals were rapidly coming to the end of their high school careers and would head off to college or often to seek life elsewhere.
Scholarships were awarded to Chris Brann and Amy Tordoff. Both young folks had been active in Youth Activities at Peoples and both were matriculating at Gordon College in Wenham, Masachusetts. We were, in a real sense, bidding goodbye to many of those teens who had been active since infancy at Peoples.
Kit Pike had willingly accepted the challenge of leading the Evangelism work area. She proposed a three-year plan to build a small group into a formidable force to go and seek disciples through visitation. It was a daunting task. The original small group at the end of year one was decimated because those folks found other conflicting needs. Kit started again in the second year, but getting folks to commit their time and talent for the long haul was not easy. What did work was getting several individuals to subscribe to the Louis Palau campaign that was held in Portland. Several members of the choir joined the Palau Crusade Choir and some of the young children sang in the children’s choir. A few actually worked on the Crusade when it took place and helped in the follow-up activities.
This rather dry time of years in the desert in the life of Peoples seemed much longer and did have a longer effect on the congregation and the health of the church body than anyone would have hoped. Much of the difficulty was internal, but it was also, from this writer’s point of view a sign of the times in general.
Having been associated with other organizations it appears that there was a similar downturn in membership of organizations like the Lions and Kiwanis. It was a difficult time to get folks engaged in the life of the schools beyond the first few years. It was a time when people were perhaps very self-centered and wanted time for themselves. This probably was a phenomenon that had been working on the American public for a couple of decade, but it is obvious at this time that membership commitment and loyalty to tradition suffered.
In our next episode we will look more forgivingly at the times that approached and entered into a new millennium.

2008-02-15T07:25:00.000-08:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 59 Focus Focus Focus
The other major initiative during the years that Bill Schuster was the pastor was the formation of a group of parishioners with Bill and Growth Coordinator, Wanda Stahl, for the purpose of initially developing a Mission and Vision Statement for Peoples. Such an action was not uncommon in the 1990’s. While Peoples and the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church among other church-related organizations were developing these directional statements this was also the case in schools and business as well. It was not unusual for a member of the group formed at Peoples to be also working on mission and vision statements in more than one endeavor. Working on such statements may have indicated that many people and organizations had felt that the organizations that they were members of had were in fact lost in determining directions for their respective organizations.
At Peoples those who served on this unique committee included folks of all adult ages. Hazel Beecher, Doug and Linda Greer, Steve Ives, Kit Pike, Claralee Swanson (Street) and Art Tordoff were parish members volunteering or volunteered for the tasks that were yet to be determined. While this was a new group there had been others during the 1990’s that had been formed that were developed to determine directions for Peoples in the coming millennium. One significant group was titled Vision 2000 and had seen some influence on church matters earlier in this decade. This new committee became know as the "Focus Group". Members of this group would get to know each other very well over the next couple of years.
The first task of the members was to get to know each other and to develop skills of discernment. The feeling was that if we learned to listen to the will of the Lord, it would come and be the principle guide in what we were to do. The committee then gathered and analyzed membership statistics and information gathered by observation. The third phase in the collection of data process was to discern what Peoples was called to be within and without the local community. Determining the wording of mission and vision before presentation to the congregation eventually brought the work of the focus group to a conclusion. As a member of that group, I found the meaning of discernment in the way all members began to think, share, develop and trust in each others thoughts in coming to consensus with the help of God’s guidance through and in each of us.
Eventually the congregation accepted the resulting mission and vision statements. That acceptance took place in 1998.
The mission statement as accepted reads as follows:
"As members of Peoples United Methodist Church, we take our mission as Jesus’
words, :to go and make disciples" and John Wesley’s exhortation to "spread
scriptural holiness" within and beyond our local community."

The vision statement also accepted at the same time reads:
" We accept God’s love for us as demonstrated by Jesus Christ. Empowered by the
Holy Spirit, we will create and nurture an environment in which a diversity of
people can develop and deepen a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Our
actions as individuals and as a congregation in the local community and the
world are a result of our commitment to the Lord."
While few folks ever committed these to memory, the statements have been found in church bulletins and the newsletter, web site and blog spots. Periodically groups at Peoples have indicated that the statements need revision, but in looking at the meaning of the words already included have found ties to the New England Conference mission and vision. They have also looked at the deep meaning and felt that the words have been worthy to remain as they are. In this writer’s opinion it is good to review and determine the meaning of those words not only as a look at the past but their meaning in the present and for future planning as well.
In seeing the value of the statements, those who worked on their creation also were compelled to determine what the Core Values of Peoples were felt to be. While there may be others the team found agreement in the following 10 Core Values.
We strive to be a church family bound together by the Spirit of God, loving one another as Christ first loved us.
We seek to practice a faith that is informed by scripture, tradition, experience, and reason, upholding truths in the Old and New Testaments as a guide for both our faith and practice.
We value the power of prayer in discerning the presence and leading of God.
We are grateful for all that God has given us and seek to give all that we can in time, talents, gifts and service to the work of the Lord.
We seek to create a place where everybody particularly our children and newcomers, can grow spiritually and make a valued contribution.
We seek to carry out and support efforts for the redemption of both individuals and society.
We strive to cultivate leaders who are led by the Spirit of God.
We seek to create and maintain a church structure that will enable us to minister faithfully and communicate effectively as a congregation and remain connected to the larger church.
We strive to faithfully maintain our buildings and property because they belong to God.
We seek to follow Wesley’s formulation concerning theology: in essentials, unity; in nonessentials, diversity, in all things, charity.
The above is really the legacy upon which Peoples Church has operated throughout its existence. There is no reason to have believed that present membership would not continue to operate with the same values. It is nevertheless important to keep the Core Values in front of us and to visit them from time to time as a check on why we are here and what we are responsible for as individuals, small groups and as the whole church body.
The next step of the focus group was to suggest how the mission and vision should play out in the life of the church. The recommendations that were brought forward were in some cases implemented, but as we review them below they can be a direction for folks of the future as well. The areas of church life that were identified in this document were Spiritual Life, Leadership, Communication, Fellowship, Stewardship and Unity/Diversity.
In the area of Spiritual Life the focus group recommended a restructuring of the congregation into a network of small groups which could become an organizing unit for ministry and administration within the congregation and would also provide opportunities for worship, study, service, and support for all interested members.
Under the theme Leadership it was recommended that the administrative structure used at that time be changed and that the Administrative Board and Council of Ministries be joined into a new Church Council.
The third area identified with recommendations was the field of Communications. The committee recommended that the work of the Newsletter Task Force that had been appointed by the Council of Ministries be supported. This group would recommend, at a later date, improvements that should be made in the written communications of the church.
The fourth area of concern was labeled Fellowship later to be known as Nurture. The recommendation presented was to provide more opportunities for members of the congregation to gather together for fun and fellowship.
Outreach was the third area that the focus group made recommendations for . The committee felt that the church needed to be more intentional about identifying and reaching out to newcomers who visit worship. The congregation should continue to be educated about our evangelistic responsibilities in and out of church. We should explore new ways and maybe some old ways of greeting new residents in our neighborhood and reach out to the unchurched. Church leaders should explore for the church as a whole possibilities for and implementation of ministries within the local church. Finally, the focus group recommended exploring and implementing ways of being in mission around the world.
Four recommendations in the realm of Stewardship were included in the document that was produced. These recommendations included Ways to use people’s time and talents more effectively. A survey of the congregation should be done regarding their understanding of pledging. The feeling of the group was that it was necessary to communicate expectations for giving among new and present members. The final recommendation was to implement ways to encourage "in kind" contributions such as providing a service such as writing, accounting, giving rides, lawn maintenance etc..
Many of the above suggestions were developed over the next few years through a follow-up group known as the Implementation Committee. This group with some holdover members of the Focus Group continued to offer meaningful suggestions to already existing church organizations and groups.
It is the opinion again of this writer that those documents that are held on file or at least mentioned in this installment of Peoples Roots could be visited for ideas and directions.
From the perspective of writing this installment of Roots 10 years after its original announcement that many of the issues faced now are similar if not the same as they were at that time. Likewise documents that are still available for perusal and that we have noted from time to time in this series of church vignettes not only tell us about our past but have application in the present and for future generations.

2008-01-28T06:32:00.000-08:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 58 Celebration as the Millenium Approaches
With the change in pastoral leadership in 1996 the members of Peoples Church found it difficult to make adjustments to new pastoral leadership after 17 years with Lin Arnold. As was said in the last episode, Bill Schuster, was elated at having been appointed to Peoples and he indicated this in his opening sermons and statements before the boards. He indicated he would not rush to seek change, but would serve as the Lord indicated he should and would seek to meet the needs of the congregation with them.
On January 4, 1998 a celebration was held honoring the 50th anniversary of the opening of the sanctuary at 310 Broadway. The booklet, prepared for this event, was dedicated to H. Travers Smith who was the pastor at Peoples at the time of the move. The Remembrance also found in the bulletin was dedicated to Dr. Malcolm Cass and his wife, Hillie for their long years of dedicated service to Peoples.
Within the celebration booklet was the printing of the original formal bulletin. Reverend
Lester L. Boobar, the District Superintendent, and the Bishop of the Boston area, Lewis O. Hartman had participated in that first service. Fifty years later the festivities were presided over by Pastor Bill Schuster. Also participating in the event were former pastors; Lin Arnold, 1979-1996, William Chamberlain, 1957-1963, Blake Ellis, 1963-1971, and Irvin Koelker, 1971-1979. Katherine "Kit" Smith, the widow of Travers Smith was also in attendance and offered recollections of her time spent as the "First Lady" of Peoples with her husband.
A capacity gathering filled the Sanctuary for the celebration service and later Ellis Hall
for a meal and some celebratory presentations. Art Tordoff served as the Master of Ceremonies. Llewelyn "Tuck" McGouldrick, George "Jimmy" Darling, Gary Chamberlain and Nancy Tordoff Olson all gave presentations recollecting the significance of activities at Peoples on their young lives. Three of the four had spent time in ministry in their adult years and the other had become extremely active with their family in other churches. Their messages all reflected on how Peoples church and the membership had played meaningful roles in their early years. Each of the Pastors who had participated in the church service prior to the celebration spent some time adding to the memories of all by expressing thoughts about the role that Peoples people had played in their lives among their ministerial appointments. Two of those pastors had gone on to serve as District Superintendents.
Peoples Church has celebrated its existence on several occasions. Time passage has often been the trigger that has led to celebration. Those celebrations, such as the one above, however, allow to surface the real reasons for celebration, not just the longevity of its existence. These are celebrations of how Peoples has provided a spiritual home for its members and friends. It has been a training ground for young folks in teaching and learning about the application in life of Biblical principles and moral growth. Peoples has provided opportunities for individual, small groups and the church as a whole to serve each other, the community that we live in and the nation and world that we are but a small minute speck of activity within. Celebrations such as the one above helps to renew and revive the spirit that has guided the church over its many generations of existence and life.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary on Broadway, the church was filled with parishioners and former parishioners and friends of Peoples. The attendance in itself was a testimony of what life and activity through Peoples has meant to a truly diverse group of individuals and families. Those continuing the celebration in Ellis Hall numbered hundreds. It was the last time that we would be able to share experiences with some of those attending yet the memories of that event and others serve to build strength in continuing to serve the Lord in the many ways that he would have us serve.

2007-12-20T12:44:00.000-08:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 57 Long time pastorate ends/New Pastorate begins
In 1995, then church historian, Dr. Malcolm Cass, reported that with the new Conference year, Pastor Linwood "Lin" Arnold would begin his 17th year of service to and with the Peoples community. Little was it known that it would be Lin’s last year with us. At the end of the Conference year in 1996 Lin would leave to serve the School Street United Methodist Church in Gorham, Maine. Lin and his wife Judy had both graduated from South Portland High School some years before and were very comfortable with their "home" surroundings. They had served in Newport and South Berwick before coming to Peoples. They first lived in the parsonage on Beverly Street and then moved to the home purchased by the church for a parsonage on Muzzy Street. The old parsonage was sold to Doug and Linda Greer who were long time members of Peoples.
While serving as pastor, Lin and Judy raised four sons all of whom graduated from South Portland High School. In turn each of these young men were valuable members of the Sunday school and Youth Fellowship. Their love of music and sports attracted a number of young folks to the Peoples program especially when the Youth were engaged in putting on remarkably polished musicals in Ellis Hall. Matthew, Tim, Pat and David can all be remembered for their roles in these productions as well as those held at the high school.
Judy was active with Sunday school, serving a stint as the Superintendent of that institution. She was a vibrant member, always with a smile and a good word to say for someone and was involved in several other church activities. She was also a wonderful support for Lin as he ministered to his flock of parishioners.
Lin’s easy going nature and willingness to share leadership were but a few of his attributes. He was a good listener and was able to make his insight useful in church matters. Not only was he active in leading the Peoples flock, but he was also active in the Maine Conference.
Peoples was growing in various ways during this time. The work expected of a pastor became great enough to lead to the hiring of what was sometimes referred to as the Growth Coordinator mentioned in a previous episode. With the new position Lin could continue to develop those skills that he was best at and at the same time allow leadership to expand into areas that had not been covered as well.
Many people who joined the church during Lin’s pastorate had known no other pastor, or at least in an itinerant system, which is what the Methodist system is. Most frequently if one looks at the record of past ministerial appointments the average length of stay would be three to five years. Frederick Olsen who served from 1916-1926, an appointment of 10 years, had previously held the record. Blake Ellis, 1963-1971 and Gene Koelker, 1971-1979 were next in length of service to Peoples.
A major church party ended the formal relationship that the people of the church shared with Lin and his family. As is the case when a pastor does not move far from his original parish some members will follow them to the new church or seek other church locations because, to them, the pastor was the church. Some may have left because they were dissatisfied with other parishioners and yet others may have been dismayed at the appointment process.
Some folks will wait until the new pastor "settles in" to determine whether they will stay or seek spiritual shelter somewhere else.
A transitional service of leadership took place on Wednesday, July 20, 1996 in the sanctuary. Leadership passed from Lin to Frederick "Bill" Shuster. 40 people were present at the service. Bill had most recently served as an Interim Pastor at Thornton Heights and prior to that had had long-term service as Chaplain at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston. Bill was somewhat older than Lin and brought a new dimension to Peoples. His wife, Jan, became very active in Sunday school and would often perform during the Children’s service with her puppet, a Duck. Young children were rapt in the story when the Duck was present.
After the number of years that we had had with Lin, many folks found adjusting to someone else as pastor difficult. It is this writer’s belief that anyone who would follow in the footsteps of a long-time beloved pastor would have had the same difficulty making adjustments to new styles of pastoral leadership.
Bill was a remarkable man in his own right. Although he was legally blind, Bill, became a good visitor, one of his many assets. There were stories told that while he was unable to drive a car and Jan was not always available for the purpose it would not stop him from visiting folks, sometimes several blocks away from the church! No one that I can recall that have become pastors at Peoples have ever indicated how happy they were in being appointed to Peoples as did Bill. He indicated in his first services that change would come only slowly and with proper calculation and the support of the congregation. He was not one who would make change simply because he was a new pastor. In the first Annual Report produced under Reverend Schuster, he said: "As I see it, the pastor, his or her skills, experience, talents and idiosyncrasies are at the disposal of the church and its ministries. Exactly what of me would be relevant will not be necessarily known until the moment it is needed. Therefore, I try not to pre-decide for the church on how the parish needs to utilize me and what I have to give. The way I, in my pastoral role, can best support the parishes ministry will be an on-going, dynamic negotiation with the whole parish."
From the wording in the preceding quote Bill was a master with words. His sermons were often quite intellectual and could be very stimulatingly related to the messages of the Bible. He was a leader who was serious in letting others share in the operation of the parish. It was he that was most supportive of the "Focus" group that prior to the millennium tried to set some directions for the parish in the early stages of the 21st Century. He shared that leadership with Wanda Stahl who then was serving as Growth Coordinator/Church Family Life and also working on a Doctorate at BU. The work of the Focus group and the booklet it produced did serve as a good directional guide for a few years and still influences the work of the church today through the Mission and Vision statements that were generated from that group work. Wanda’s work with this group did help her in time in writing her Doctoral thesis with the title, "Revitalizing Local Churches: Engaging Congregations in Personal and Social Transformation Through Small Faith Communities".

2007-11-20T12:26:00.000-08:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 56 Sometimes It’s the Little Things
Sometimes the contributions that people make are easily forgotten because at the time they are not reported or recorded or haven’t been hailed as a major achievement.
That is certainly the case in the life of a church. Some of the items that will be recorded in this edition of Roots were one-time events while others may have taken place over several weeks or for that matter several years.
The contributions of one gentleman who was a long time member of Peoples until he moved with his mother, Elsie Johnson, to be with other family in New Jersey was Tommy Johnson. Tommy might be labeled a hero by a number of folks. Tommy was born with what one would think was a debilitating illness. Tommy, however, might be seen walking all over town, going to and supporting all of the high school and professional teams in the local area and working at Goodwill. At Peoples, Tommy was one who served at one time as the President of the Methodist Men and was a member for many years of one of the adult Sunday school classes. Tommy’s job relative to church services was to service the pew racks. He would faithfully check the pew racks for tracts, prayer cards and pencils. He would make sure that they were well supplied with reading tracts and would sharpen and replace pencils.
At the time that UMW encouraged the men to participate in the operation of Church Bean Suppers, Tommy bought 3 NESCO Roasting ovens, the same ovens that are used in preparing the beans even at the time that these episodes in the life of the church are being compiled. Many little things that Tommy was responsible for may have often gone unnoticed simply because there was no need to question whether the aforementioned needed to be done. Relative to the Bean Suppers it was always expected that Tommy would be the dispenser of tickets and the collector of money as people entered Ellis Hall.
While it may sound like something insignificant Hillie Cass and other members of UMW launched the collection of Campbell soup labels. Over the years thousands of these labels were collected and taken to the Cerebral Palsy Center in Portland. With the contributions of other collectors the Center was able to gain access to many physical training devices for their clients. Several items were added to their playground over nearly 20 years of collections.
Family life activities was chaired by Randy Pike and under his leadership a second "Mystery Ride" culminated in a picnic and game time for those participating at Wolf’s Neck State Park in Freeport. During the following winter Family Life sponsored a Midwinter Ball, the first of which was chaired by Ruth Doughty. Members of the church as well as those too young to be members yet and friends gathered in Ellis Hall to celebrate "Family" by dancing, listening to music and having a great meal exquisitely presented by resident chef, Brad Morrison.
Many times Brad has been willing to cater or take the lead at church functions that called for food to be served. Whether a meal after a church service or the treats prepared for a special function at church Brad could usually be found in the kitchen or at the buffet table with his broad smile and keen wit to share with those who have come to sample the delectable eats that he has prepared.
It should also be noted that Randy Pike as a trustee for many years went about the business of maintaining the financial trusts and also was the man to go to if something around the church needed repair. Certainly his efforts and the time dedicated to church business often went unnoticed by the majority of parishioners yet much appreciation is extended from those who had the opportunity to work with him. The contributions of the Pike family are quite numerous. Kit as mentioned earlier maintained the Cradle Roll for a number of years, but we also need to note that her music and art have graced the sanctuary and other church locations as well. Their three daughters were also active in the programs of the Sunday school and youth groups. These contributions are all given through the grace of our Lord and their dedicated involvement and shared talents are forever significant contributions to the life of Peoples Church.
Several individuals have taken turns in the last 20 years serving as Lay Worship Leaders. While serving on a monthly basis the volunteer might be responsible for a Call to Worship, Opening Prayer, reading of the scripture, and participation in first of the month communions with the pastor. Some who served in that position saw it as an opportunity to give a mini-sermon or a testimony, which may not have been the intent of the position. Presentations were usually very interesting and certainly gave the congregation a more in-depth look at the person holding the position and that person’s walk with Christ. Sometimes the person who was willing to serve in this capacity was quite surprising in that they might be quite shy in general, but would carry an unbelievable message in this role. The persons who volunteered represented all ages. Those willing to serve in this capacity might have been of school age while others might be the eldest members of the church body. Each person carried their own unique messages to the congregation, each an important contribution to the life of worship at Peoples.
Bridget Ramsdell was in part responsible for the continuation of the Toddler Nursery every Sunday. When she was not serving in that capacity she was responsible for making sure that there was a twosome signed up to take care of the youngest children every Sunday of the year. In that regard Peoples was well in front of the day when it became required to have at least two adults, not related responsible for caring for nursery through Junior Church.
Steve Ives who had served as Lay Leader then became responsible for the Stewardship Campaign. He said that while the amount of money pledged fell short of the goal in meeting the budget in 1994 it was a testimony to the Faith of the parishioners that Peoples would go ahead with the approved budget and work on meeting future needs as we progressed. He also was appreciative of the fact that some of the older leaders stepped aside and allowed some of the younger parishioners to take the lead, also showing their faith in new leadership.
Jim Braley was a gentleman who assisted the church program in a number of ways. He assisted with the Sunday school for a number of years with opening and closing exercises. He also was there when Andrea Harvey needed his help in a variety of ways with the MYF. His exploits with Witness, the men’s singing group, have already been noted. I would also wish to call the reader’s attention to the fact that Jim also headed up the Vision 2000 initiative. All the involvement of Jim may have gone unnoticed except for those that worked closely with him in these endeavors. Jim served without the need for recognition, the sign of a true Christian at work for the glory of his Lord.
Kathy Brann and Audrey McRae were two females that took on the task of keeping junior high age youth interested in the church. Faithfully they would meet with young men and women every week during the school year to learn more about the Lord and to have fun in the process. JMYF served as a good feeder program to MYF. Often when MYF had a major activity the JMYF may have been invited to participate.
Andrea Hodgkins Harvey grew up through the Sunday school at Peoples where her mother was a Sunday school teacher and one time church school superintendent. Her sister Hillary also came through the grades as did her brother Brian. Her father could often be seen working on some electrical problem anywhere within the church property. Andrea stayed with the church through school and through college staying in touch with the Sunday school and the MYF. In time she became the MYF coordinator and eventually the Sunday school superintendent. Of her exploits with the youth of Peoples noone would doubt her importance. Certainly the Sunday school and MYF children had many outstanding experiences many of which involved performance and music. The Psalty plays that she directed and the three musicals that teens performed in the 90’s were truly outstanding and attracted a number of teens to Peoples. They had a chance to perform and at the same time fellowship with other teens in an atmosphere of true spiritual meaning generated by the message of the plays and music. Any of these teens would not have had an association with church unless they had been invited to participate in "Joseph and His Technicolor Dreamcoat" or "Godspell" or "Children of God". Andrea dedicated much of her waking hours to young folks. Those were not the small things that we have made the subject of this episode in the life of Peoples. There are two items that I would like to recall that need to be part of this record that Andrea was responsible for. First and foremost, I think of the garden that was first developed by Andrea and the children of the Sunday school as a memorial to her mother Lorraine. That garden still exists today and while it from time to time has fallen into neglect survives today as a blossoming piece of land that can provide a place of solemnity just a few paces from busy Broadway. Others have had ideas about how that garden should look and a garden club of sorts eventually grew from membership to take care of that small plot. The garden area has also come to serve as a memorial to others with a bench placed there in memory of Bob Porter. Bob was a long-time active member of the Men’s Club, whose body was laid to rest in Arlington Cemetery in Washington, D C. This history is most concerned with what took place at Peoples until 2003, the year of our Sesquicentennial, dating from the establishment of the church in Ferry Village. We would add that the American flag and the pole that it flies on at the edge of the garden was erected as a result of a campaign led by Tom Nelson and Chuck Kamilewicz to raise money to honor those who have died in American wars in 2004. At any rate Andrea initiated the garden. The other item that may be small, but showed Andrea’s modernity and preparation for the future was that as Sunday school superintendent she was responsible for buying the church’s first computer.
While most of us have come to take the computer for granted in our lives. Andrea saw the initial value of such an instrument and went out and purchased the computer and then passed the bill on for payment. There may have been a slight struggle financially because of her forwardness, but at any rate the computer ---and those that have become integral to church operation since was initiated by Andrea. Many of the things that Andrea did while at Peoples went unnoticed or fanfare only took place after an action was taken.
Certainly there are many more seemingly "little things" that have been done by church folks that have not been included in this episode of "Peoples Roots". There is still time in the writing of these documents to mention and admire the "little contributions" that members of Peoples have done that are worthy of mention. If it were not for the little things of history many of the big things would never have taken place. When you read this episode or any other I welcome you input either by adding it as a commentary on the Blog or sending a note to me for inclusion in this series that have now spanned four or five years of writing. It is our desire that at some point in the near future we will have completed our task and will be able to publish a complete set of the episodes as well as a lot more material on families, pastors, memorials and organizations. We also hope to include pictures that would augment the value of such a collection.

2007-10-19T07:54:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 55 Spiritual Education and Development
Significant in the history of Peoples Church has been the provided opportunities to expand one’s knowledge of the work of the Lord, Jesus Christ and how his Spirit is carried with and through us. Sunday or Sabbath school has been the traditional source of those connections. Periodically there has been a real upswing in the spiritual education opportunities for adults as well. The period of the 1990’s was one of those decades that provided many opportunities for all in the realm of spiritual learning or education.
Judy Arnold led the Sunday school program in the early ‘90’s. Under her leadership there were 26 people who either taught in various age groups or served as support personnel. One hundred and thirty children ages pre-school to Senior in high school were in regular attendance. During the summer of 1992 a Vacation Bible School was held. The theme of this VBS was " Son Mountain" Adventure. Skits, songs and crafts were significant elements in the success of this venture. One of the members of the church that played a significant role in developing crafts was Cenise MacKinnon. Assisting in the operation of the VBS were Wendy and Peter Grannell. The area of the VBS was decorated appropriately with the trappings appropriate to an adventure. Leaders of the VBS for this year were Tina Hamilton and Audrey Reed. Names that appear as significant movers and shakers in the life of Peoples sometimes are for relatively short periods of time, but play a meaningful role while they are in our presence. Some of the folks that are important to us have moved away, moved to active membership in other churches or have passed away. We miss them all.
In the realm of including in our church others that spent a relatively short time with us, but played significant roles were Sue Ann and Forest Krause. Eventually the Krauses left us when Forest accepted a position as a physician in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Along with Carol Spady the three were actively engaged in helping to form a group titled, B.A.S.I.C.S. The translated meaning of the letters stood for Brothers and Sisters in Christ Single. Carol was a young woman who taught French at Memorial Middle School. The purpose of the group was to get folks generally in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s together for spiritual development as well as fellowship. I do believe that Hank and Ellen Dunn found that group rather inspirational for them as well. This group also had strong appeal to folks of that age beyond the walls of Peoples membership.
Adult Education was spearheaded by Nick Hanna. During his relatively short tenure two adult Sunday school classes were held. The Bethel series that introduced many new folks to the word of the Lord continued during this era and was led by either Jim Darling or Guy McLellan. Well over 200 members and non-members of Peoples experienced the graces of the Bethel program. During the Lenten season in 1994, 10 folks were blessed by being a part of a study group called "10 Brave Christians." Again, sad to say, the contributions of Nick and his wife Ainsley and their two children were short lived as they moved away.
A Lay Witness Mission was held in the early 90’s led by David and Claralee Swanson. 15 members of the church joined David and Claralee in hosting and preparing this event. The design of a Lay Witness Mission was to serve as a program at the local church level that would focus on God’s World and our role in it. Cottage meetings were held in the homes of parishioners. The cottage hosts were responsible for inviting neighbors in to talk about the role of church in individual communities and to a degree encourage some folks that may have been unchurched to join us. Folks from away would serve as guides in these cottage sessions and would also lead in Bible study and discussion at the church.
These "away" leaders would also lead the church service at the end of the weekend asking local leaders to join them. The Spirit generated by these infrequently scheduled events seems to have carried the church at a spiritual high for many months especially if they were held in the fall. Spring events, from the record, while initially significant and useful usually lose the fervor generated because of a lack of action taking place in the local church during summer months. The Lay Witness Mission at this time was seen as a way to extend the influence that had been generated for many folks through Tres Dies. This had been the first Lay Witness Mission held at Peoples in over 20 years. The Mission provided church members the opportunity to see that Evangelism should not be considered an option for the local church, but in reality a meaningful part of church and community life.
It was during the Mission that the Sunday school staff for the first time developed the program of "Prayer Hearts". All of the Sunday school children were photographed and their pictures placed on a red paper heart. The hearts were distributed to adults, other than family members, in church on a given Sunday. The purpose was to bring together in prayer the adult with the pictured child. This project was certainly an evangelistic approach to knowing the children of the church and to developing the spiritual connection for the adult.
Elllie Malfet, another truly Christian woman and member of Peoples who was with us all to short a time certainly had a lasting effect on Peoples. It was she who had come to us from the Patterson, New Jersey Presbyterian Church. While here she was our connection to the Gospel Choir of that church. She had been a member of the choir and every fall for several years she encouraged the members of that church to come north and perform at Peoples. Some of those years the choir members were housed in the homes of parishioners.. The concert became the highlight, as may already have been mentioned in previously written episodes of "Roots", of the beginning of fall activities. Several years running Peoples experienced overflow crowds for their quality musical renditions. Many lessons were learned by church members and the Spiritual level of their presence and performance joined two groups through this one lady, Ellie, that otherwise never would have happened. I can still hear the strains of the choir on several of their numbers. If I may I would have to say that I was particularly moved by Ellie’s solos and the choir backup on "Never Alone" and "His Eye is on the Sparrow" and Lloyd Reese’s "God Is" just to name a few. Sadly the relationship ended some years later when first Ellie died in an auto accident on the way to New Jersey to practice with the choir and Lloyd, the choir director died of a heart attack.
Music has definitely been a part of our Spiritual Education, much of which we included in the previous edition of "Roots".
Ellie Malfet, who was the mother of Meg Queior, also brought us in close contact with Missions and Missionaries. She inspired us to write to and support Methodist missionaries especially in Latin America. Additionally she was among the group of local United Methodist Women who developed the initial contacts we had with the Methodist-sponsored Red Bird Mission in Kentucky. You might also see Ellie serving as part of the Sunday school staff or involved in the Methodist Youth Fellowship. You might even have seen or experienced her presence in the church office when the secretary was ill or on vacation.
While we think of Sunday school as the beginning of spiritual training for children and adults the maintenance of a Cradle Roll was considered important to stay in contact with children who were baptized at Peoples. Kit Pike was one of those folks who were responsible for maintaining those records during the decade of the 90’s. Kim Brown followed Kit in turn. Kim reported that 14 youngsters were on the Cradle Role in 1994. Looking at the records in 2004 only one of those children listed had remained an active member of Sunday school or joined the church. Kim was the wife of Bill Brown who was active in the financial end of church life. Once the children were of Sunday school age they were invited to be part of that program. Sometimes that contact fed the Sunday school and for other children, as mentioned, sadly would not see the work of the Lord in church activities again.
The Youth programs again during the early years of the 90’s saw programs led by Connie Campbell and Cathy Cook with Intermediate Youth and Cory Decker, Stephanie Wells and Sally Newell participating in Senior MYF programs. Andrea Hodgkins Harvey was certainly the primary advisor to high school children and later the Sunday school. While fun and fellowship was always a part of MYF life there was also importance placed on spiritual development and Christian life-style and service to others.
Lay Leader Dan Queior contributed richly to Peoples emphasis on spiritual development and service. A program that he led as Lay Leader was titled, "Love Does Work". In a brochure he developed he said that, "Love does work obviously because a lot of work gets done at Peoples----lovingly." He went on to say, " We are to bring others to Christ
By welcoming them in to our Christian community at Peoples and into the larger Christian community of the church." Dan was a take action person who made sure that the programs he was suggesting were developed and would follow those actions to completion or make sure someone did. Dan was the husband of Meg. Meg’s dedication to her Lord eventually led her into the ministry where she completed her ministerial training at Boston University. Dan was a teacher of Industrial Arts at South Portland High School who moved when Meg received her first ministerial appointment at the Richmond, Maine United Methodist Church.
illie Cass

2007-09-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 54 Music To Our Ears
In the early 1990’s, Peoples Church boasted a strong music program that included people of all ages. Begun in 1982 the Albarjanna Family Bell Ringers were still performing at periodic church celebrations as well as elsewhere. Marita Gould had become the director of this organization when Janet Fifield, the founder of the Ringers, stepped down from the leadership position. Marita was responsible for leading 10 Ringers on these occasions in its tenth year of operation. Those who attended church or a performance were always entertained and inspired whether the ringers were adult or children. Especially meaningful were their performances at Christmas time when they played a variety of carols or at Easter when they played before the service and set a tone for special worship.
With no adult bell choir in 1994 Marita organized 12 young persons to become the bell choir. Membership since that time has fluctuated between adults and children and has had several lapses in operation. Doug Greer since the late ‘90’s has periodically brought the bells out of storage.
Not to be outdone by the Bell Ringers was the Junior Choir under the direction of Hillie Cass. Twenty-one children were listed as members of the Choir in 1992 with that number growing to twenty-four in 1994. The children in the junior choir included most levels of elementary school and also included some that were in middle school. So many young children had joined the choir that there were not enough robes for all. Ellie and Parker Wells donated fabric to make additional robes and Sylvia Hahn was responsible for making that fabric into robes that would match those that already existed. It should also be noted that on a previous occasion with robes being scarce, money was contributed to a fund for robes by selling and dedicating carnations honoring mothers past and present on other’s Day. One has to remember that like their Senior Choir counterparts these young folks sang an anthem every Sunday and most would also be present at choir rehearsals every Thursday after their school day was completed. With children entering the choir at an earlier age many of the anthems had to be learned by heart since some of the children still had difficulty reading. During that period of time Grace Corey assisted Hillie and the children by playing the piano. A break between Sunday school and church was made for the children to practice one last time before their anthem during the Sunday worship service. Children performed well due to their dedication as well as that of Hillie, Grace and Malcolm.
While we have applauded the musical efforts of bell ringers and junior choir the Senior Choir has also served to inspire and to ignite the spirit of the Lord in all of us. In 1987 the Senior Choir celebrated its Seventy-fifth anniversary of continuing operation. It might be noted that celebratory reference the Senior Choir will be 100 years old in 2012! In the mid-90’s 17 members of the adult choir were joined by 10 exceptionally gifted teens in forming the largest Senior choir for many years. Meeting every week for a rehearsal, the choir would follow the rehearsal with an anthem and the leading of music every Sunday from September through June. Soloists and other combinations of singers would fill in the musical needs in the summer. Gracenotes, a woman’s singing group from Peoples and Witness, a group of men frequented the chancel on many Sundays during the summer or at special occasions during the year. It was always inspiring to hear the accapella renditions of Gracenotes and the guitar background of Witness. It was certainly sad in the musical life of Peoples when both of these groups ceased to operate. We were able to bring the members back for a reunion concert when Peoples celebrated its Sesquicentennial in 2003. We can also recall the contributions of families like the Pikes, Doughtys and Arnolds sharing their musical talents on a given Sunday. Instrumentalists also participated in church services and other special occasions. Sara Pike and Andrea Harvey shared their musical talents on flute while David Anton Swanson played the saxophone as did Matt Arnold and Paul Queior. Mike Gray was another extremely talented musician that shared his music by voice, trumpet and piano. Certainly the teens of that time had a tremendous amount of musical talent that included the musical renditions of many including Tim Arnold by voice, piano and trumpet. Amy Tordoff also contributed her dancing talents by creating a spiritual dance to the tune of "Lord of the Dance". One might also remember Meg Queior with her Autoharp sometimes accompanying Gracenotes and sometimes as a solo instrument. While he rarely sang alone, David Hodgkins, surprised an audience with his rich baritone voice.
While David and Wanda were engaged in the musical groups mentioned above they were both instrumental in launching the Stephens Ministry at Peoples. This was a program to train folks to be visitors, visitors to homes and hospitals. David and Wanda had special training in this program. A small cadre of adults joined Dave and Wanda and launched the program. Training included developed knowledge in listening skills that might be used in the homes of parishioners and would include developing some comfort in response to folks that were grieving for a lost member of the family or a friend. There was hope when this program began that teens might also be enlisted in the program.
While Wanda and Dave were with us she was a student at Boston University training to be a diaconal minister. While taking classes in her own program she also served as a counselor to ministerial candidates in the Master’s program at BU. In time Wanda worked to earn her PHD at the same institution and submitted her dissertation titled, "Revitalizing Local Churches: Engaging Congregations in Personal and Social Transformation Through Small Faith Communities." Raising two young children, taking high level courses and serving as the Church Growth Coordinator during part of this time had to be stressful. Some of the activities that Wanda led through Stephens Ministry and the Growth Coordinator position gave her some food for writing. When it came time for Peoples to develop from the Vision 2000 Conference Emphasis and later the church focus group Wanda was instrumental in keeping the direction of these committees focused and on task. While many members of the church may have not had direct knowledge of what was taking place those that worked with Wanda and Bill Schuster knew what directions were being laid and where the church appeared to be going at the end of the 20th century.
As Growth Coordinator, Wanda continued some of the practices that had been instituted by her predecessors and developed some that she thought would be appropriate to fill the gaps of program that always seem to exist. One of those activities was a series of Women’s Retreats. Some women and men had had the experiences of Retreats through the Tres Dies program. There was a group of young women most of whom were mothers of young children who found the spiritual retreats led by Wanda to be helpful in facing the daily tasks of life.
Wanda, in time, might use the experiences of small groups that she initiated and carried out as part of her research in preparing for her final doctoral presentation. Peoples profited greatly by the leadership and direction that Wanda provided. Certainly it would be wrong not to include the support that she sustained from her husband, David.
Wanda and Dave left Peoples for a new home in Scarborough. Wanda was hired by the New England Conference as a Resource Coordinator and continues to serve the Conference in that capacity to the present date.
illie Cass

2007-08-15T06:26:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 53 World Wide Events at the end of the 20th Century
As has been the practice of this author and editor I find it significant to set the stage for events in the local church by taking a quick, broad look at important events that have influenced us locally from a global perspective. The Lord has created a magnificent world that we live in and it is our responsibility, as Christians, to at least share in the caretaking of this planet called Earth and to be concerned for all peoples who reside therein.
Christians world-wide in the 1990’s could look at a number of instances where the walls of evil that separated people from each other were breaking down. There could be a great sense of optimism for what was yet to come as a result of change, a sense that good was in fact triumphing over evil. At least this might be so from the perspective of an American looking at that change.
In Part 46 of this series we mentioned that in Europe the world witnessed a dramatic change in political differences. The Wall that had been erected between East and West Germany was brought down and the two Germanys were reunited in 1990. We also mentioned that through the efforts of Michael Gorbachev and his successor Boris Yeltsen
the Soviet system was abandoned and several countries that had been under Soviet rule were now free to form their own countries. I remember that a group of students from South Portland under the leadership of Social Studies Department Chairman Lorne Goodell took an exciting trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia as study groups were encouraged to see the changes and openness of the new Russian system. One of my students who went on this trip, Angel Swiger, came home and brought me a significant little chunk of cement. On the way home the group had stopped over in Berlin on the way home to the United States. The students had gone to "The Wall" and were able to take chips from the wall that was then being dismantled. What a symbol of freedom! A symbol that was just as valued as the American flag, which all to many of us take for granted. Rarely in the course of World History had something so dramatic as the dismantling of the Berlin Wall been seen or felt by folks living on American soil. The writer, however, does not discount those instances that have taken place on American soil that were so significant for generations of people experiencing past events personally.
One of the first major changes that was seen beyond the Iron Curtain were the changes that were taking place in Poland, a land that had rarely seen its own independence as it had long been an area that would be occupied by eastern rulers as well as the west. Lech Walensa became the President of post-Communist Poland. He had been a labor union leader that led protest marches that eventually was a factor in restoring home-rule to the people of Poland. As a result of this successful freedom movement many of the other eastern European countries that had either been controlled under Hitlerian Germany or later under the Soviet domination again were free to control their own destinies. The Czech Republic and Slovakia which had once been "a put together) settlement of the First World War were now separated. Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary again were free to do their own bidding. Some historians and political scientists felt threatened by all of the independence especially in Southeastern Europe. Stronger countries had taken advantage of all the small independent states of the area leading up to the First World War and here they were again. Countries such as Bosnia, Serbia, Herzegovinia, Croatia and Macedonia have all been carved out what had formerly been Yugoslavia. As recent history has recorded much fighting has occurred in the area making the political and religious climate in the area shaky at best.
The independence in the area has certainly opened up new fields for missionaries from the Catholic and Protestant worlds of religious thought. Some conflict has arisen because the dominant religion in some nations, however, has been Muslim. From the Christian perspective though all of the independence achieved by these nations is another sign of light in what had been a dark area of the world.
Venturing to the South again the light of freedom has been a very significant part of changes that have taken place throughout the continent of Africa. Primary to this change in the time of the 1990’s was the work of Bishop Desmond Tutu and political leader Nelson Mandella. Jailed for over 25 years, Mandella was released in 1990 as a world outcry finally reached the ears of South African leadership. Once released free elections were soon held and Nelson Mandella was overwhelmingly voted to lead the new South Africa. The bloodshed and slaughter that many whites in particular thought might take place because of atrocities whites had brought to blacks throughout "white rule" never took place and the transition to shared rule went remarkably well from an outside perspective.
In North America the North American Trade Agreement was signed between the United States, Mexico and Canada. Some businesses did not welcome the relationship because profits might not be as great or companies as favored in the buying and selling of goods at home. The long-term effect has been to bring the value of dollars and pesos more closely in line. Some long-term effects for Maine have been to see more visitors in the state from Canada in particular. On the other hand it may have been the cause of some businesses especially in manufacturing to go elsewhere. Some folks even those who have lived locally may have moved elsewhere and effected the number of individuals going to church or seeking membership. To some degree the number of folks that are on the welfare roles may also have increased. Certainly this would not be the single cause of unemployment but could be a contributing factor.
American businesses were not totally concerned with where they could expand in the United States. Companies such as Disney opened sizable amusement parks in both Europe and Japan during this period of time. MacDonalds and its hamburgers even found their way to Beijing, China. Many American corporate logos dot the landscape of foreign countries. Locals do not always like to see those images over and above those of local vendors. Often the image projected by America seems to be one of corporate greed. The same image has sometimes bee laid on the church and missionaries as well. It is not that huge amounts of assistance haven’t been shared with foreign countries around the world as well. As a nation the United States has been unequaled in the amount of sharing that has gone to other countries from the government as well as churches and other charitable organizations. The United Methodist Church as one example through United Methodist Committee on Relief has distributed millions of dollars worth of aid in areas hard hit by devastation. Methodism is heavily involved in mission work in many countries of the world as well as at home. It depends on which image is projected by people on the ground all over the world which image becomes "the record" for all the others. Again the light of the Lord does shine in the human care shared between most Americans especially those sponsored by churches, and those that we need to support on a daily basis elsewhere.
The launching of the Hubble Space Telescope by NASA in 1990 was not without difficulty and for some not without trepidation. A number of flaws in design led the Telescope to be less than effective when it was first placed in orbit. God has given men great wisdom and through computers and wireless communication with the telescope many of those errors were correctable. On later space flights men were able to make those final adjustments and because of that we have a much more accurate view of the heavens beyond us. By studying what is beyond we know more about ourselves as well. We know that God is much greater than we could ever imagine. He is the creator of all the universes that the Hubble has been able to locate. We also have reason to than the Lord more for what we do have on this Earth. Knowing that I hearken back to the first paragraph of this edition of Roots to again emphasize the need for preserving what we do have, taking responsibility for making the most of what the Lord has provided and not just take advantage. We have a legacy to preserve for future generations what God has already revealed to us and see that confirmation is given through his allowing us to study our history and past and to use our minds to create a better life for those that follow.
Another rapid expansion of the 1990’s that has brought both its good and bad elements to us is in the area of communication. With the invention of the computer and its linkage to fiber optics today we can communicate vocally and on-line with little regard to where we are on the globe. AOL was the first of the Internet e-mailing systems that introduced us in the early 1990’s to a whole new way of communication. It is easy, with the addition of other electronics devices to communicate in writing and orally to almost any location you can think of on the face of this earth---and beyond. Getting humanitarian aid and developing understandings between disparate peoples has resulted from that initial introduction to intern-continental communication. Certainly the means of sharing these pages through a Blogspot was not even thought about when AOL was introduced in 1992 and by 1994 had over a million subscribers. We do know, however, that Internet communication has to continuously be "on guard" for illegal use of the systems. As subscribers we need to have Anti-virus protections on our computers so we are not taken advantage of. Terrorists in recent years as well as abusers of people have taken advantage of computerization and communication to place in effect their insidious plots. As Christians we to need to be protected in what is often the unfriendly world even of communication. We need to be able to use that communication to promote the good.
While we find many instances in the life of the world that have brought change for the good, worldwide folks still struggle with thoughts and ideas of how we all should look and work with each other. It seems to be the focus of discontent among some nations especially involving the United States centering on differences of opinion that involve politics, economics and religion with various nations in the Middle East. This is an area of the world where even within religious thinking of the same religion there are violent confrontations, often fatal for some, between its believers. The threats of exporting the violent aspects of some groups linking religion with politics have led to several years of struggle among neighbors and with distant outsiders. Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm have kept the United States and other countries as police forces especially in Iraq.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait, an ally of the United States, in 1991 it signaled the United States that swift action needed to take place. That action was short-lived, but the ramifications of that involvement simply led to the deeper involvement of Desert Storm.
Religion is a piece of that continuing difficulty which should have led Christians to spend time looking at the religion of the majority in the area to understand differences as well as similarities in the beliefs of Islam.
One bright spot again that took place in the 1990’s in the Middle East was the awarding of Nobel Prizes jointly to Itshak Rabin and Shimon Peres of Israel and Yassar Arafat of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Formerly these folks were at war against each other. Over a long period of time served as a mediator led these men to come to a respectable agreement over the division of territory and a joint attempt to restore peace to the area. During the same period of time the long-standing conflict between the Irish and Protestants in Northern Ireland came to an end after Mainer, George Mitchell brokered a settlement between warring forces.
We may look more optimistically to the future because some of what we have seen, heard and witnessed in the 1990’s . We need, however, to be continuously reminded that the past is littered with instances where the armor of the Lord had to be worn by Christians in order that right might be restored with or without might. In 1993, a film of major impact on any one who saw it was released. "Schindler’s List" produced by Steven Spielberg portrayed important elements of the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 1940’s. What Oscar Schindler did to try and save friends who were Jewish was symbolic of the sacrifice people, Christians included have needed to take against evil in the past. My wife and I saw the film on a snowy night in either January or February. What was so dramatic to me with the timing of having seen the film was that the snow when we came out of the theater reminded me of the ashes that floated over the countryside at Aushwitz. A reminder of the ashes of thousands of folks who had been sacrificed simply because of the religion they professed. The Holocaust of that era was certainly not the only one in the course of human history nor the only one that occurred in this century. People of Armenian background or Cambodian upbringing have been a part of our heritage or are own recollections. Even the 1990’s saw genocide occurring in Africa in Rwanda. We are not so far from the past afterall. Even American religious cults have seen their end in horror. Jim Jones and his followers in Guinea and the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas are reminders of how religious groups have sometimes misinterpreted words from the Bible and have not encouraged others of the love that emanates from the living God, Christ Jesus.
Terrorism, however, in 1993 raised its ugly fangs on American territory. Some of this terror was instigated from beyond the shores of the United States and other incidents were bred at home. In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed for the first time. This attack was an omen of things to come. In 1995 the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed with the loss of lives being 168. It was an American by the name of Timothy McVeigh that was tried and convicted of instigating this shock to America’s heartland. In 1999, Columbine High School in Colorado was the scene of slaughter of students and teachers as a result of two dissatisfied students who disapproved of school policies and the beliefs of some students. They in turn killed themselves, but again part of a community that was thought safe was no longer so. Tragedy and shock have continued to part of American life in spite of the fact that so many merciful acts had taken place at times in the 1990’s.
This is certainly not the whole story of the 1990’s but what we have reported does give the reader a picture of joy and sadness all rolled into the period of ten years.

2007-08-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 52 New Ventures

For generations the women’s organizations of the church and the men’s groups had operated separately. In 1987 with dwindling numbers and the offer of a monthly meal from the United Methodist Women the United Methodist Men decided to meet on the same nights as the women, being fed by the women and then separating for their meetings. Bean Suppers also became a shared experience with men offering their services to cook and to help set up the hall. Christmas Fairs while still thought to be the women’s activity saw the men setting up a table with home made wooden goods for sale.
The first pictorial directory was commissioned, produced and made available to parishioners simply for having their pictures taken in 1981. Olin Mills, the first photographic company commissioned by Peoples for this project would make its money by selling pictures to parishioners. Photographers from Majestic Marketing of Cleveland, Tennessee in 1984 produced the second directory. The church returned to a contract with Olin Mills two years later followed by another contract with Majestic in 1990. Over the course of the next decade, Peoples would return to Olin Mills twice more. The Pictorial Directory is a collection of member families and individuals with pictures showing staff members who had served the church and activities that had taken place in church life. In looking at such collections it is rather amazing to see how quickly the life of the church and its members change.
One of the most popular seasonal publications that Peoples has produced is the Advent Meditation book. Produced for the Advent season the booklet is a collection of meditations produced by members of the parish. Contributors use the design of writing and organization found in Upper Room meditations. From the records it appears the first publication of this seasonal reading was 1987. People, both members and friends of Peoples have looked forward to these booklets annual publication. The variety of themes and the quality of the writing never seems to get old and remains as meaningful years later as when first produced and read.
Under John LaPointe’s direction and leadership, Peoples became involved in the operation of the Wayside Soup Kitchen. Several members of the church would be responsible for preparing the meal, setting tables and cleaning up whenever there was a fifth Wednesday in a given month. Sally Newell, Dave Hodgkins and Tom Nelson have all taken their turn as coordinator of our efforts with Wayside. Originally the Wayside Soup Kitchen was operated out of the Emanuel Baptist Church on High Street in Portland. Several years later a number of social services including the Wayside were merged into a facility known as the Preble Street Resource Center. While the numbers of volunteers from Peoples has shrunk considerably over the last 20 years, an active group of 10 to 12 still appear on the appointed date.
When Sunday School opened in 1988 staff members were all wearing the new Peoples United Methodist Church red and white sweatshirts. Andrea Harvey had made the suggestion along with Judy Arnold. Any church members found that they wanted to buy a sweatshirt also. Certainly wearing the sweatshirts beyond the doors of the church was good advertising and a way of showing your connection to the church. Rally Day that fall was set up like a Palestinian Market Place. The children had the opportunity to involve themselves in bead stringing, ty-dying of tee-shirts, weaving and eating of near-eastern foods. Young folks were enthused with the activity and the membership stayed strong. In order to continue affording children’s celebrations CeCe Laberge, a member of the Sunday school staff had the idea of coming up with a "crafty auction". The Sunday school staff and students as well as other donators contributed crafts for the October auction. The very first "Crafty Auction" raised $800 for the operation of the Sunday school. The "Crafty Auction" would continue to held in the fall each year for several years to benefit the operation of the Sunday school. In time reluctance on the part of some folks to continue to set this project up for the Sunday school led to the auction being taken over by the Trustees to raise general funds for the operation of the church.
Over times thousands of dollars have been raised and the church is especially grateful to Doreen Gay for the continuation of that activity.
Other activities of the Sunday school that year included to annual cookie bake. Youngsters would gather in the Ellis Hall kitchen and with the help of Sunday school staff bake many cookies that would be distributed on a pre-Christmas Sunday morning to the elderly housing on Broadway. More cookies than could be distributed at that location were taken by John LaPointe to homeless shelters for distribution. In December of 1988 the total number of cookies distributed totaled 1879. That figure set an increasing standard for the years to follow.
Another new venture that was begun was inspired by Meg Braley. Having young children, Meg, thought it might be appropriate to start a program called Junior Church.
This would not be a program for infants, but children, generally 4 to 7 years of age that might not sit well during the whole of a regular church service. Children would be excused from church service about the time of the offering or after a children’s sermon to go downstairs or to Ellis Hall. There the intent was that these children, separated from infants, might develop a positive and rewarding church experience. Children would learn to share ideas and prayers. They would also learn to minister to each other. There were 4, 3 person groups of adults that would rotate in administering the Junior Church. Volunteers usually included parents of the children who would be in that age group and any other parishioners that were willing to volunteer.

Some of the activities started earlier in the decade of the 1980’s continued under the astute leadership of Belle Graney. While mentioned in an earlier episode in the life of Peoples Church, support of the local Cambodian refugee population continued with housing, employment, food, and medical services still being coordinated. Support of the Heifer Project was a part of the routine mission activities of church and Sunday school. Meg Quieor served as the coordinator for those efforts in the late 1980’s. Several members of the congregation took part in the annual CROP Walk in the spring of 1989.
Young and old alike took part in this joint mission project with other area churches. The route for the CROP Walk began and ended at St. Albans in Cape Elizabeth. The route travelled along Shore and Cottage Roads to Highland Avenue in South Portland. The route crossed to Stillman Street over to Sawyer to Cottage and back to St. Albans where a prayer service was held and goodies served after the walk.
Peoples, through the leadership of the Sunday school and UMW, also found 1988 as the first year of a continuing relationship with the Red Bird Mission in Kentucky. Each year good and new toys are collected and are gathered at the Hanging of the Greens night in the church sanctuary. Children bring the collected toys to the Chancel area and place them under the Peace Tree. UMW takes the responsibility of boxing the toys and sending them to the mission.
Having changed the frontal look of the church in the earlier 1980’s the old sign which had served the church since moving to Broadway and which had been donated by Ken Webber was no longer easily visable. Permission was granted to remove it and the Men’s Club commissioned Scarborough Sign Company to carve and install a new one in front of Ellis Hall. Jim Darling was one of the principal advocates for the sign which has now graced the lawn in front of Ellis Hall for nearly 20 years. From the record it appears that the design of the sign was created by Dan Doughty. John Robinson, John Campbell and Clyde Ward were instrumental in seeing this project to completion.
1988 was also the year that Pastor Lin led a contingent of 10 parishioners on a trip to the Holy Lands. Many folks from other churches were on that trip. Those who took the trip and those who continued to be inspired by their stories for years thereafter felt the inspiration gained by being in the presence of those Holy places. Each time that Pastor Lin would baptized a child or an adult after his return he would anoint them with water from the Jordan River.
Some exciting changes took place through the Worship Committee headed by Marlene Tordoff. There were 12 folks that were on the committee which included representatives from the music programs, ushers, tract supervisor, junior church and nursery and the altar and communion stewards. For Mother’s Day orders were taken for carnations that would be placed on the altar for mother’s living and deceased as well as sisters, sisters-in-law and friends. Carnations would be taken after the service and given to the person in whose honor they had been dedicated. For Father’s Day several fruit and vegetable baskets were filled with vegetables and fruits in honor of fathers of the present as well as the past. These baskets were then taken to group homes such as Youth Alternatives for their use. The names of the women on Mother’s Day and the men on Father’s Day were listed in the church bulletin. The last time the United Methodist Church published a full-size hymnal was in 1989. The worship committee led the way at raising funds for the number of hymnals we would need. Enough was raised through dedications that nearly 200 were purchased as well as special editions for the organist and large print editions for sight impaired folks. Enough money was raised that a continuing fund was available for several years in case any needed replacement.
As one can see many activities were instituted and brought life in many forms to the inner and outer being of Peoples Church. This series of episodes in the life of Peoples has been primarily through the research of one person with the help of those that have primarily held the positions of historian or leadership in the church before. I encourage anyone and everyone to submit their recollections for publication. We have been working on this endeavor since 2003, the sesquicentennial year, and hope to complete the work within another year.

2007-07-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 51 Evangelism in Action

Pam Harris as the Work Area Chairperson for Evangelism said, "If you would like to be a member of the Evangelism Committee all you have to do as an associate minister is to greet someone who sits next to you in church. It is also permissible to take note of who is missing and give them a call. We need to encourage one another and ask a friend or neighbor to come to service with you. Share your gifts and talents, as we are ambassadors for God. " Excellent advice and for some in our midst those are easy tasks to perform, but for others it seems very difficult. That advice is as important to maintain in the present time as it was at the time that Pam said it in 1989. Some folks followed the advice on a regular basis. Gifts made to the church, as has been mentioned earlier in this history toward making the sanctuary handicap accessible, in a sense, was related to evangelism While used occasionally, the elevator has been used more frequently over time.

Ada Tordoff served as lay leader at the age of 75 and could always be called on to give a meaningful prayer or to represent the church in that role. Ada had been active in many others aspects of church life before this time. Evangelism also penetrated the realm of church life through the family coordinators. Judy Arnold and Jane Wiggin and Connie Campbell headed this area of endeavor. All members and friends were invited to picnic at Fort Williams and on another occasion a Disney Movie and Potluck supper were held. In the fall of 1988 a scavenger hunt took place in the form of a mystery ride. 10 cars loaded with people of all ages took off with directions to locate an item or place based on the map directions given. After traveling a number of miles and sometimes being sidetracked by directions that were well written, but poorly understood, all 10 car loads of people ended up at Range Pond in Poland where we played games and shared picnic lunches. This fun event had been put together by Judy and Ruth and Dan Doughty.
Perhaps the most successful family event that got underway during this time would be the annual family camping trips. Initially started when the Arnolds, Queiors and Tordoffs landed on 3 separate lots at Mt. Blue State Park. A great time was had by sharing campfires and meals and games on the three campsites even though everyone knew that Judy was just being a good sport by being there. There was also plenty of time to commune with nature and also with our good and gracious Lord. So successful was this first trip that the following year a group campsite was reserved at Mt. Blue and several more families joined the camping program for a weekend or a week. The third year saw an increase again at another group campsite at Mt. Blue. Eating, boating, swimming, hiking and fishing were among the activities that Peoples people enjoyed doing together.
Sunday morning was a time set aside to worship and pray together. In the fourth year of the camping program a number of members of these "expeditionary forces" felt that they needed something that Mt. Blue could not provide----running hot water, showers and flush toilets. Alas, the search finally realized that these amenities could be found at Peaks-Kenney State Park located on Sebec Lake in Dover Foxcroft. A smaller campground, but one that seemed to meet most everyone’s wants and desires became what appeared to be the permanent home of the Peoples summer campers. Some folks come for weeks at a time while others have come for a couple of weekend nights. At one point in the mid-90’s there were 85 men, women and children together at Peaks-Kenney.
When the members of this camping party trekked through the woods or paddled by canoe to our "cathedral on the lake" for Sunday morning service there were more members of Peoples there than there was back on Broadway in South Portland! If you were there you might find that the original three families were still there but had been joined by the Greers, Pikes, Doughtys, Branns, Braleys, Dunns, Hodgkins, Grays, the Campbells, Annie Britton, and many more families and friends. Evangelism in nature really brought us close to God in a fun and family atmosphere. While the success of the camping peaked in the late 90’s there are those families that are faithful to the camping experience and continue to welcome anyone who wishes to join them. Try it, I am sure most people would like it!
As was mentioned in Part 50 of this history, evangelism was spurred on by the need to have another regular staff member who would serve in the title role of Church Community Development Coordinator. The purpose of the role was to help in assimilating neighborhood ministries, do some visitations and coordinate others in visitation ministries. This part-time position began in July of 1988. Nancy Tordoff, who had grown up in the church was hired to fill the position. She had graduated from Oral Roberts University, had taught for a few years in the South Portland schools and then gone to Asbury Theological Seminary to earn a degree in Christian Education. Following that she had served as Christian Education coordinator at the Medina, New York United Methodist Church. Returning to South Portland she accepted the above named position and also was rehired to teach in South Portland. After serving in this role for a few years, Nancy, was replaced for a short time by Casey Collins who within a short-time went on to serve as the first Pastor of the Good Shepherd UMC in Gray. Priscilla Dreyman then took the position and recommended that the title of the position then become Minister of Church Family Life. Priscilla went on the spend all of her time in the local mission field operating the Spiral Arts Program on Munjoy Hill in Portland. Wanda Stahl-Hodgkins replaced her in turn Under Wanda the position again changed its title. The position was then referred to as the Church Growth Coordinator. . All four women who held the position worked hard to help the pastor and to help build the church body through evangelistic activities.
One of the significant evangelical programs that members of Peoples became involved in during the 1980’s was involvement in the Tres Dias Movement. Under the leadership of Pastor Lin many members of the church went to the Oblate Mansion in Augusta for weekends designed to deepen relationships with the Holy Spirit. Weekends were held for men and women separately. Several dozen members over the years first attended as participants. Many of these folks would return over the course of time to assist in the operation of the program. Many felt strengthened by the nature of retreat away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life returning to Peoples or other local churches ready to assume significant roles in the operation of their local churches.

2007-05-21T17:14:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 50 Peoples People Involved in Ministry
We have mentioned periodically several names from the Peoples congregation that actively sought to enter the ministry or have become lay speakers who have served in many capacities within the church and in other locations. At Charge Conference in November of 1985 District Superintendent Lynne Josselyn and the body present recognized the pursuit of ministry of Jerry Garthoff and Scott Folsom. The continued pursuit of ministerial study was also recognized for Nancy Tordoff who would return to South Portland after having served as a Christian Education leader at the Methodist Church in Medina, New York. Jerry entered study at Gordon-Conwell Seminary in Wenham, Massachusetts and Nancy had matriculated at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Both Jerry and Scott after much soul searching did not complete studies. In addition both Earle Harvey and Guy McLellan advanced their work in church activity by completing Lay Speaker courses. Guy spoke at many church services both at Peoples and other churches while being a significant force in other areas of church life at Peoples. Earle spent a number of years actually serving as a Lay Speaker on Long Island in Casco Bay. Both of these men over the years have contributed significantly to the life of Peoples and set examples for others to follow.
At this same charge conference District Superintendent Josselyn presented Bishop Bashore’s evangelistic thrust titled, Catch the Spirit". Under this banner locally the charge for the year was to continue a retirement preparation task force, intensive Bible study through the Bethel Bible Program, an intentional welcoming program, investigate the possibilities of hiring an additional staff member, make full utilization of the new computer and to develop an inventory of all church property. These tasks were assigned to the proper organizations within the church and over the course of the next year many of these goals were carried out.
Neighborhood Ministries not only stayed in contact with church members that may need contact on a regular basis, but the members of this ministry heard from a number of representatives of community agencies. The purpose of learning about these agencies was that it would allow the members of this church organization to have information on where they might suggest the homebound or those who were ill could seek assistance. Pastor Lin honored members of this ministry and that of the Sunday school as well for nurturing members of the congregation.
The Sunday school during this time was presided over by Andrea Hodgkins Harvey. A young woman with many creative ideas, she led a very active staff and children in the study of the Bible. She also was able to enlist adults to assist in a number of musical presentations by the Sunday school. Several Psalty the Song Book productions were held usually at the end of the year and the performances were well attended. At a later time we will present the inclusion of the several full-length play productions that were performed by children of all school ages that were first class in their operation. It was an age when Peoples had an extremely large number of young folks that had outstanding musical talent. Finances of the Sunday school were bolstered through the efforts of Cecelia LaBerge. She was the member of the Sunday school staff that had the idea of a "Crafty Auction". She and others went out to get items that could be bid on and encouraged many of the crafts people of the church to make their specialties and then donate them for sale at the Auction. Hundreds of dollars were raised via this means for several years and made it possible for many of the programs mentioned above or in later episodes to take place.
The proposal for adding another person to staff was given to the Staff-Parish Relations Committee. Pastor Lin suggested that there were a number of gaps in having the church prepared to follow-up especially on visitors and new people to the church. What was developed was a position known as Growth Coordinator who would work in developing and coordinating most Welcome programs and then create new ones.
The holder of the position would also serve on the Neighborhood Ministries, but would not necessarily head the program. The person holding this position would work 20 hours a week and answer to the Pastor. Over the course of time three folks served in this capacity: Nancy Tordoff, Casey Collins and Wanda Stahl-Hodgkins. Those who were to hold the position would need to be committed to Jesus Christ, have strong organizational skills and be open to God’s leading. The creation of this position certainly was looked to be helpful in fulfilling the year’s theme, "Building Bridges". One of the new programs initiated was a pie/plant ministry. When a new person or persons would come to the church and have their names recorded then someone within a short time would visit the home of the new people and give them a freshly baked pie or deliver a plant in the name of Peoples Church.
1985 was also the first year that a Worship Committee was formed. The committee members were all folks that had something to do with Worship operation. The pastor, music leaders, ushers, tract supervisor, greeters were among those that were included as well as others who were members of the congregation, but had particular interest in this area of church operation. One of the first issues that was discussed concerned the amount of noise that seemed to emanate from the back of the church as people were coming to church. Many thought that the sanctuary should be quiet and meditative, but others felt that Peoples should be a warm and friendly welcoming church. The two sides of the issue have led to many suggested changes over the years, but it seems that entrance to the church sanctuary remains a difficulty many years after that discussion.
1985 was also the third year of the Bell Choir that had been organized and founded by Janet Fifield. She had also been the donator of the Bell set in honor of her sister. Mrs. Fifield was the choirs first director and by 1985 there were 17 adults and 9 children who had become members of this program. The Bell Choirs in the early days would play periodically on special occasions such as Christmas Eve and Easter. The choirs also performed at the Phippsburg Community Church, Unity Methodist Church and at the English Bell Ringers Convention in Keene, New Hampshire. For much of that time Cenise MacKinnon served as Bell Choir Steward by securing and maintaining any of the apparatus belonging to the choir. Over the years the choirs have regrouped under the leadership of Marita Gould and Doug Greer.

Many of the names that have been included in not only this edition of Roots, but certainly many from years before are no longer with us, yet the church known as Peoples United Methodist Church continues to serve the immediate and greater community. In doing research for each of these Roots episodes I came across something that I had said in an administrative board meeting in 1986 that I feel is still appropriate to say today.
" We have witnessed as we continually do, and as history records, the births and
deaths upon which a parish should pause and reflect. We search for meaning in
death as we do in life. We find that through religious education and Christian
living that it is all part of God’s marvelous plan for all of us to participate in the
meaning of that plan. God has given us all the ability to learn, to participate, to
share and to care for each other and the world beyond. May the lessons of our
church history and the people who have contributed to it encourage us to
continue in the near and distant future."

2007-04-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 49 Being Involved and Being Sensitive To Others Needs
History is the story of those who participate, who do the work, who end up in the columns of historic documents, but every once in a while there is a statement made by someone that hints at the need for more folks to be involved in the life of an institution.
In an Administrative Board meeting held in 1984, Pastor Lin with the blessings of the chairman of the board pleaded with members of the Board that if you are going to be a member of the church and if you have been elected to an office or volunteered to serve the church and the Lord in some manner then you need to do just that. The title for this episode in the life of Peoples came from that same statement. If you have chosen or been selected for service then it is absolutely necessary to be involved in the life that we share together. While not all of us may be in agreement with where that involvement should be we all need to be continuously sensitive to the thoughts and needs of others, both in the church and in the community around us, however, broadly we interpret community. Even in the time that this article is being written this should be an important statement for all of us to consider rather than leaving everything for just a few members to be responsible for.
Another thought associated with this statement is that there needs to be room for all to share both leadership and followership roles in the life of the church.
One of the means of sharing that all of us need commitment to is raising of funds that will keep the church vital financially. While we would like to think that the primary reason for existence of a church is spiritual it cannot exist without financial campaigns. Several different themes have been used for stewardship campaigns over the years. Pam Harris as Stewardship Chairperson in 1986-87 and those who assisted her ran a program called Pony Express. Several satchels were prepared with pledge cards in the satchel. The intent was that the first person on a list in each satchel would fill out their card and deposit it in the satchel then that person would deliver the satchel to the next person on the list. The process would continue until the last person on the list would return it to the stewardship committee. A system of monitoring where the satchels were kept each satchel moving within a time limit. The system did not permit people filling out cards to see what others already had filled out. One advantage of the system was that people would also get at least one visit from someone else in the congregation. Some folks felt this was an imposing process and didn’t like the program while others found that the visit brightened their day. In retrospect it was one program that got most of the church folks involved in the process.
While during the life of Peoples a number of programs had engaged members of the church in serving others. We have heard about many of those groups and activities throughout the pages of the Roots series. During the mid- 1980’s Reverend Lewis Beckford and his wife Joan co-chaired the Council of Ministries. Lew had been a Methodist pastor for many years and throughout his service to the Methodist church had been an activist when it came to community issues. This husband and wife team continued their interests by bringing a number of social concerns speakers to Peoples. Interest in Social Concerns led to a congregational survey created by the Beckfords to see what feelings folks had about the issues of the day. The survey found that the church should first be supporting family concerns and their relationship to the U.S. Government and what it supports. They found that church members were concerned especially with budget cuts effecting children and families. They found that more should also be available for making it possible to reduce nuclear arms. A third area of concern analyzed from the results was in the area of stress related to job security.
One of the results from the survey was that a well-attended Stress-related workshop was held and led by the Beckfords and the Hladkys. This workshop was followed up by a series of speakers. Others from the congregation assisted the Beckfords and Hladkys in putting this series of program on.
Active involvement in church life was certainly a prominent feature of the music program of Peoples also. Boasting 18 to 20 singers in the mid to late ‘80’s, the choir under the direction of Dr.Malcolm Cass, sang every Sunday until after the Annual Maine or New England Conference from September through June. Many of these singers would be among the soloists who sang during the summer services. Ron Tripp, David Swanson, Norm Jewett, Kevin Tordoff, Lou and Anthony Harvey, Kit and Randy Pike, Ellen Randall (Dunn), Chris Darling, Carolyn Teeter and Marilyn Voter were all on the soloist list for the summer of 1987. Special singing sessions were mentioned in the previous episode of Roots and included singing on a regular basis at 75 State Street and at least once a summer the Choir trekked to Empire Grove Campground in Poland for Vespers on a Sunday night. They also were prominently featured on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Hanging of the Greens and Christmas Eve. Commitment was not just in these named sessions, but with a regular choir practice each week. While choir members were busy in making music, most of the members were also active in other aspects of church life as well.
It was actually during this period of time, for example, that Chris Ward became the chairman of the annual Christmas Fair and many choir members would assist her in that endeavor which is perhaps the activity longest in duration in the life of Peoples. There is arguably no other single activity in the life of Peoples that has exemplified the spirit of a large group of parishioners working together for a common cause. While it was primarily an activity of the women of the church it was during the ‘80’s that men were active with a booth. Men actually put on a ham supper on the evening of the Fair as well as preparing a variety of products. Some very fine wooden articles were usually made by the men and sold at their table. The Sunday school also became involved in preparing their own items to be sold, proceeds of which usually went to Sunday school projects. Usually all of the rest of the money earned would filter through the UMW and much of the money served as a gift to the church at the end of the year.
A major financial commitment of the 1980’s was for the church to begin to make the sanctuary accessable to the handicapped. This project would also ensure that Peoples was open to all folks handicapped or able bodied. Prior to this major change entrance to the sanctuary was across a very narrow wooden platform at the main door and up the steep stairs to the worship area. With a gift in memory of Lou McGouldrick followed by gifts from several others a fund was established to provide easier access. Bernie Bruce and his company began by building a platform of cement and brick at the main entrance of the church. Ordering several sections of precast concrete that would serve as a ramp to the platform followed this. According to the records of Mr. Bruce he believed that it was Belle Graney that recommended that the facing of the project should blend with the church proper and therefore brick was used for that.
Once the building of the entrance was complete then the installation of an elevator took place. Cleverly the building and installation of a two stop elevator used space that was to the left of the entrance lobby and would exit in what was once a men’s cloak closet on the sanctuary level. While few folks availed themselves of its use over the early years in more recent times it has grown in use by not only those folks that use wheelchairs, but those that find it difficult to use the many steps that at one time were the only connectors to the sanctuary.

2007-03-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 48 Strength in Numbers, Purpose, and Faith
Members of the leadership team including the Pastor, Lay Leader and leadership in the Council of Ministries proposed in 1981 that all committees meet with full membership. The Council in order to encourage that to happen proposed that all member organizations of the Council of Ministries should meet in their regular meetings on the same evening on which the Council was scheduled to meet. That was to a degree possible, as the number of members who were willing and able to serve was more numerous than was possible in the early Twenty-first century.
One of the areas that needed to improve in the operation of Peoples was in the area of Outreach. During the mid-1980’s Peoples participated in a number of ecumenical endeavors including a "Jesus Celebration" on the Eastern Promenade, a summer concert of Christian music held in the summer. Some of the music groups that had been formed at Peoples were actually involved in that concert.
It should be noted in this era that the Peoples choirs were very busy helping church members celebrate weekly in church services. The choirs also ventured beyond the doors of the church and brought religious music to the high rises for vesper service and also accompanied Pastor Lin to Empire Grove for vespers during the summer in the town of Poland. It was also not uncommon to see and hear Peoples choirs at joint concerts with other Methodist choirs. Two locations particularly stand out. One of those joint events took place at Thornton Heights United Methodist Church. A mass choir was developed and an April Cantata at Easter was the result. The other outside performance was a grand occasion that celebrated Methodism in Maine at Maine’s "mother church", Chestnut Street United Methodist in Portland.
Not to be outdone, the Junior Choir under the tutelage of Hillie Cass also had road engagements beyond the church walls. A couple of the most memorable later in the decade were to Washington Avenue Methodist Church where at that time there were few youthful members. Reverend Lew Beckford was their pastor at the time and invited the choir to participate in their service. In time the Washington Avenue Methodist Church became the Rainbow United Methodist Church. For years Korean Methodists met at various area churches including Clark Memorial and Thornton Heights. Today the majority of members at Rainbow are from Korean backgrounds.
Names of Youth Fellowship leadership that should be remembered were those of Audry Greer who served as President and assisted by Karen Darling as Vice President in 1980. The following year the leaders were Walter Greer who served as President and was ably assisted by Amy Joslin (Wellington). At the time the advisor to the Youth was Pat Sawyer.
Guy McLellan who developed a system of zones, which would help to keep in touch with members, led evangelism. It was also a system designed to have zone leaders also get in touch with the unchurched in their neighborhoods. 19 leaders volunteered to be the focal person in each zone. Cottage meetings were for a time held and these meetings were used to disseminate information about the church and to a degree serve as fellowship groups as well.
As the reader can see many activities were available to church members and others who were seeking a church life as well. This activity continued in the area of missions. We have already mentioned the most significant mission experience in the life of Peoples in the last installment of Roots as being our sharing with Cambodian refugees. Beyond that significant involvement of many members of Peoples there was a strong emphasis on giving to other worthy causes as well. Through the United Methodist Church large contributions were extended to the Black College Fund and the Pyburns who were Methodist missionaries that were mentioned earlier in this series. We continued to support the Heifer Project and Ethnic minority churches throughout this nation and the rest of the world. During the year, 1983, Peoples was visited by mission speakers from China, Pakistan, and Guatamala. A group of young folks that were members of "Youth With A Mission" returned from a short term ministry in Columbia and performed in Ellis Hall a play titled,"Toy Maker and Son."
Locally we supported a young man from Zimbabwe, Tendai Kundeshora, who was a student at the University of Southern Maine. Some members of the congregation were active in supporting the hospital chaplaincy program through gifts of money. The Sunday school started its support of the Food Pantry located at the First Congregational Church with a collection of food during the Thanksgiving period. The women of the church successfully launched a Nearly New Shop. This operation provided low cost or no cost clothing for anyone who needed it. A mature years group continued to operate in Ellis Hall on a regular basis until the Southern Maine Agency on Aging began using Ellis Hall as a meal site and center for its Meals on Wheels program in the area. When folks who were members or related to the church were in need of food because of a tragedy or sickness, a Meals Ministry was launched and continues to the present day. As time passed the responsibility for some of these activities fell in to the hands of others while other activities just seemed to fall away.
Another significant creation was that of the Ministerial Loan and General Scholarship Committee. Bernard Bruce initiated the fund for loans and over time moneys were earned and collected to build up the fund. Several ministerial candidates would benefit from the low cost loans that might be gained from the loan fund. The recipient for the loans had to be in a certified theological program. The intent was that once the recipient was established in ministry of some kind they would be expected to begin repayment. As a result the fund would perpetuate for other ministerial candidates in the future. Designed primarily for those who would have been active at Peoples, it might have been used by other candidates if they had a need and our own had been taken care of first. The scholarship program was organized later in order to consider any young folks from Peoples who planned going on to educational institutions regardless of the program they were enrolled in. While most young folks who have gone on to higher education benefited from this program the rules for who would gain a scholarship changed to a degree over the years. Most of those folks who had received money from the loans have over the course of time repaid those loans. In addition to the scholarships that were passed out through these general funds, the United Methodist Men sponsored a scholarship that was given to one young man or young woman graduating from South Portland High School who was also a participant in programs at the Boys and Girls Club near the church. In the early days of the scholarship program a number of activities were held to earn money for the program. One such activity that took place two years in a row was a supper that was sponsored by Hannaford Brothers supermarkets. Bud Sawyer, a local radio personality and a Maine humorist, Joe Perham, hosted the program that accompanied the meal. Hannaford donated all of the food and the entire fee for the supper was donated to the scholarship program. In time that option for raising funds was not available, but parents of students that were ready to go on to college often sponsored a meal or an entertainment to support the fund. The first four scholarships awarded in this program went to Walter Greer and Steve Perry at USM, Mark Tordoff at UMO and Anthony Harvey at Emory.
In 1983 the Pastor Parish Relations Committee reported their support for the ministerial candidacies of Dick Clark, Nancy Tordoff, Steve Perry and Anthony Harvey. Many more would follow these names over the coming years.
By 1983 the annual report noted that the membership of the church had grown by 40 over the previous year. Some of this change can be attributed to the influx of Cambodians that became active in church life. Our young folks were also growing up and joining the church as well. Pam Harris who was now in charge of the Sunday school reported that Sunday school membership was 118. While most of this number were children of school age there were also 4 adult Sunday school classes in operation. The first of the Cookie Bakes was held prior to Christmas and the children delivered many dozens of succulent creations to the residents at 425 Broadway. The Sunday school celebrated many times during the year and the membership stayed steady. One other innovation of that period was the creation of a special program for Sixth graders. In preparation for gaining membership at Peoples, children spent the entire year studying John Wesley and the Methodist Church. Through this program the children gained a good understanding of the church they were joining.

2007-02-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 47 The Life of the Church at a High Point
In Pastor Arnold’s report to the Annual Conference of the church in 1981 he believed that folks who were seeking to celebrate and grow in their faith attended the regular worship service on Sunday. He and others were beginning to realize a need for some worship experiences to attract those who as yet do not know Christ. He suggested that exploration for an alternative worship service that might be held at another time take place. Out of those explorations there was an early Sunday morning service launched. This service often attended by around 40 people continued for a number of years. In analyzing who attended this service it was in time found to have attracted some new folks, but more often served as an alternative for many of those who previously were regular church attenders. Eventually that second service was abandoned.
Peoples was alive in a number of other ways as well. For a few years the Sunday school and the middle schoolers developed a puppet ministry. The puppets went on the road to the high rises for the elderly and performed on occasion in church services.
For adults, Reverend Arnold had heard of the Bethel Bible Series and with financial support from the church was sent for training in that program. The training took place in Madison, Wisconsin. Before going for the training, Pastor Arnold put together a cadre of folks to be taught as teachers for the program. Among those who would serve as teachers were Jim Darling, Pam Harris, and Guy McLellan. Once their training was complete, people in and outside of church membership were recruited to take one of several classes in what proved to be an in-depth two-year study of the Bible. Nearly 100 folks were the initial students of the program held on Sunday mornings and a couple of other times during the week. It was a program in which most of the material was presented by the teacher and not much give and take was allowed in order to make the program would be completed in the proper amount of time. Students did have a loose leaf notebook that had readings to be done each week and the teacher was assisted by a large religious painting that was symbolic of the Biblical passages that were the center of the lesson each week. It was an ambitious program for both the teacher and the students, but in the long run was a very effective program for those that were loyal and faithful to its purposes and goals.
One of the most ambitious mission program that Peoples was ever engaged in was held in the early 1980’s. This was an era in which many folks in Southeast Asia were displaced from their homelands by war that had first begun in Viet Nam, but eventually spread to Cambodia and Laos as well. Catholic Charities locally sponsored an ambitious project known as the Cambodian Refugee Resettlement Program. Peoples through the leadership of the Pastor and a team of church members worked with the program to help resettle a number of individuals and families from that war-torn region. The committee that was formed also had contact with the World Relief Corporation, the New England Office of the American Friends Society, Care International, and the U.S. State Department especially in its embassy in Bangkok Thailand. Most of the refugees that we would be serving were at the time in refugee camps in Thailand.
A Refugee Resettlement Committee was set up with a number of sub-committees which included committees for clothing acquisition, finance and job opportunities, household furniture, housing, kitchen and food committee, language committee, shopping and household orientation, medical, social, transportation, congregational education and public relations. The chairperson to oversee all of these sub-committees was Susan Clark and Nancy Harris served as secretary. Names of folks who were very prominent in this endeavor included Jim Darling, Dick Clark, Belle Graney, Judy Arnold, Merle Darling, Earl Nicholson, Dale Shaw and Bill Harris. Also engaged in committee matters were Evan Rickert, Jean Allen, Joan Beckford, Becky Ryder, Karen Tripp and Lelia Moore.
During the period of time that this project was in full swing in the early 1980’s the number of Cambodians who were assisted in some form numbered 90. Some were very old while others were very young. One story that was told was of Tev Chea who reportedly gave birth to a baby boy during her escape to Thailand. It was said that she delivered the baby under a tree, got up almost immediately and continued her trek to freedom. Not all of the folks stayed for any length of time because some found members of their families living elsewhere in Maine or the United States and quickly moved on. It was interesting to be in church one Maundy Thursday when Pastor Arnold was preparing to baptize many during the service and then to bring them in to membership in the church and before the evening was finished it appeared that 40 were baptized.
As one would look around the sanctuary today (2003) there are no Cambodians. Some still live locally, but many have scattered to be with other members of their own nationality. People can take pride in the fact that members of this church served unselfishly to bring security, love and direction to these folks who had been uprooted from a culture that they had known and placed in a culture that at the time was quite foreign to them.
Leadership in the church was divided between an Administrative Board that would meet on a monthly or every other monthly basis alternating with a Council of Ministries. The Administrative Board served as an umbrella organization of both administrative functions and Ministry functions. It was a clearinghouse of all church activities. On one side of church organization it represented the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee, Finance Committee and the Pastors. The other side of church activitiy included Christian Education, Music, Missions, Social Concerns, Scholarship and other activities through the Council of Ministries. Even the Cub Scouts, Boy Scout and Girl Scout organizations were represented through someone who served as a liaison from the church to them.
During the year 1980 Ten Goals had been set by the Council and were reported in the 1981 Annual Report to have been achieved. Among those activities were several that have had long-term runs. Perhaps the longest running activity begun in 1980 was the annual Easter Sunrise service that was begun at Fisherman’s Point overlooking Willard Beach. Held at the break of dawn each Easter morning this service welcomes not only members of Peoples to each Easter’s glorious sunrise, but many folks that make this an annual event even though they may not have any other direct association with Peoples.
At the time of this writing the church membership is looking forward to the 27th anniversary of our original sponsorship of the event. If this writers memory is correct there have been less than 5 occasions in all those years when it could not be held at Fisherman’s Point and had to be relocated to the church sanctuary.
Another unique contribution to the community that began in 1980 was the formation of the Peoples Community Band. Started as a suggestion at a Council of Ministries Meeting, the band was thought originally to be an outlet for members of the church to renew their interest in music of all kinds. Some members of the church did join, but as organization was open to all members of the community many more folks from outside the church joined. For the first few years one concert a year was practiced for and practices were held in Ellis Hall. As the band took on a life of its own, Ellis Hall was not large enough for practice and the band was soon practicing regularly at Mahoney Middle School. That was also a convenient location since Eric Berry, the band director for South Portland schools, was hired to direct the Peoples Community Band. For several years an anniversary concert continued to be held in Ellis Hall and was always well attended.
Growing away from Peoples, the band eventually changed its name to the Casco Bay Concert Band. Grace Corey, while she was able, continued to serve as secretary and liaison with the band until her health became such that she no longer could hold the position. She was the last direct link between the band and the church. The band became regional in membership and continues to operate today from Gorham.
During Lent the Pastor led a number of members in a program called 10 Brave Christians. Members would rise each morning and do some spiritual leading and devotions. Once a week the members would get together to discuss what they had read and pray for other members of the congregation. In some ways it was a predecessor of the many small group studies that would become a part of the life of Peoples over the next quarter century.
It may have been mentioned in an earlier episode of this series of historical vignettes about Peoples Church, but it was the early 1980’s when Janice and Earl Nicholson were recognized with the Maine Conference Social Justice Award. Earl and Janice had worked with Native Americans on a reservation in Nebraska for a couple of years, Janice as a teacher and Tennis Coach and Earl as a business consultant. There have been Peoples people who have served in many capacities locally as well as far distant places.
In the arena of education several of the teachers of the Sunday school had the opportunity to take part in Teacher training academies both in the local area as well as others that were held in conferences south of Maine. Teachers were well trained and students were enthusiastic in their response to the Lord. Pastor Lin and a gentleman who in time would also become a Pastor of the Maine and New England Conference taught the high school class. That young man was Steve Perry. One of the projects that they shared was teaching the teens the whole of the Bible in a 4 year program.
It was not unusual for the church administrative board to develop a yearly theme. In 1980 that theme was, "We have a Dream" which had been inspired by the famous, "I have a Dream" speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

2007-01-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 46 1980’s Dark Clouds and Silver Linings in the Life of the World

Many events took place in American and World Affairs as well as here at Peoples in the 1980’s that would alter our countries culture and our own local culture as well. To begin with, it wasn’t unusual especially at Men’s activities sponsored by Peoples to find ashtrays on the tables at meals. That was true at least until Ellis Hall was opened. The presiding fathers of the church, even though they may have smoked cigarettes, declared that smoking would not be tolerated within the hall by any group. In 1980 cigarette sales had reached $600 billion and interestingly the fastest growing group of smokers were teenage girls. In 1982, Surgeon General Everett Koop denounced cigarette smoking and Congress passed a law that a warning about the hazards of smoking needed to be placed on every pack of cigarettes sold. Since that time increasingly public buildings and places have been placed off limits to cigarette smoking and the use of tobacco has been in decline. So much so that even the major tobacco growers and cigarette manufacturers have had to diversify their interests in order to survive. It is rather strange today to see a company like Philip Morris actually advertising anti-smoking pursuits especially to teens. For many years Winston Cigarette products sponsored the top stock car races, but NASCAR and Winston in the last two years have dropped their affiliation. At Peoples we are many miles and thoughts from even considering open smoking of tobacco products within the confines of the church property.
Unfortunately it seems that young people in particular had found other substances to abuse. Marijuana at first seemed harmless to many, but in time stronger forms of illegal drugs became available. Crack cocaine was moving from city streets to more rural areas along with heroin and other man made abusive drugs. The highways and byways of Maine were not immune from this influx. Alcohol, which had long preceded many of the aforementioned drugs, remained the social drug of choice. Again in the hands especially of young people alcohol could and was abused increasingly in the 1980’s.
Another devastating phenomenon presented to American Culture and the rest of the world was the spread of the lethal AIDS epidemic. Sexually transmittled, AIDS has been responsible for killing millions of people worldwide. Families have been wrought asunder on every continent of the Earth. Cities and towns across America have not been spared this deadly, debilitating and death causing illness. Most of us have been touched by someone we know having passed away after suffering in excruciating pain from this illness. Not as much publicity seems to surround AIDS today even though it still lurks heavily in some areas of the world even now. Medical science has found causes and has developed medicines to soothe the anguish of the illness, but it is still a worldwide illness still looking for a cure.
Viciousness and attacks on important people seemed to have increased in the 1980’s. President Ronald Reagan for example was shot in an attempted assassination and that was soon followed in Rome by an attempt at killing Pope John Paul II. Both survived
but who would have believed that someone could get close enough to both of these significant people in the same time frame to fire shots at them. As a result the Vatican on the one hand and the U.S. Government on the other felt a need to increase security. This of course was only the beginning of a trend of violence and terrorism that would continue to be more severe as the years between then and now passed.
Tensions in the early 1980’s still ran high between nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union. Tensions were so high that the United States boycotted the Olympic Games that were held in Moscow in 1980 and the Soviets reciprocated four years later by not attending the games in Los Angeles. It was in 1987, however, that the winds that would blow out of Russia and into neighboring countries carried the radiation of the world’s worst domestic nuclear disaster. A meltdown of a nuclear plant outside of Kiev, Ukraine in a town called Chernobyl took place. Numbers of people killed and or effected were not widely published, but the assumption is that the effects to those living at the time and since have had wide spread medical repercussions. The other wind that seemed to be blowing came as a result of Michel Gorbachev’s succession to leadership. Glasnost, his program to help the economy of his country began the ultimate thaw of the Cold War and the warming of relations with especially western countries. His lead would within a very short time bring an end to the Soviet Union and the restoration of government to those peoples that had been brought under the Soviet umbrella of control that had begun in the 1920’s. The division between an Eastern and Western Germany came to an end in part because of the changes in the Soviet Union. It was a glorious time when the Berlin Wall, the real symbol of oppression since the early 1960’s in Europe was taken down sometimes in large chunks and other times in slivers chipped away by those that could get to the wall and take away a souvenir. The official date of opening the Wall was on November 9, 1989. Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990.
This was also the decade of tensions of a racial nature in South Africa. Killing and torture were frequently reported in the world press. Black leaders were often thrown into jails and never heard from again. The world through press, economic sanctions and demonstration eventually would prove effective in throwing over the existing government and attitudes and an unbelievable change in government took place later in the early 1990’s. In February 1990, the Prime Minister of South Africa, Frederick William deKlerk effectively began the movement to bring an end of Apartheid by declaring himself in favor of a democratic government. This did not make him particularly popular with his own political party and two or three more years of bloodshed continued until the elections of 1994 when the ANC party was victorious and Nelson Mandela, a moderate spokesman from the Black populations became the Prime Minister. What was thought might be a reign of bloodshed in reverse never came about and the institution of Apartheid has not reappeared.
It was the era when famine killed thousands of people in Ethiopia and Somalia. Tons of food and medicine were sent to the region by worldwide help organizations too late to save many lives but in time for others. Even 20 years later the specter of famine and need still exists in those countries.
In Latin American, Nicaragua for a time grabbed the limelight when Daniel Ortega and his political party known as the Sandanistas took control of the country. His direction of leadership was socialistic even though there were times when he made overtures of peace to the United States. It seems the USA continued to support a political group called the Contra. While Ortega eventually left office later in the 1990’s, the elections in Nicaragua in 2006 have returned Ortega to a position of leadership, with little publicity outside of that country. We do mention such events and countries since they ultimately have an effect on the missions programs of the United Methodist church operating inside and outside of the countries mentioned. In neighboring Panama the leader of that country, Manuel Noriega, appeared to be a threat to US policy in Latin America also. The United States implicated him in the Drug Traffic that flowed into the United States. Noriega was captured, tried in the United States and placed in prison in sunny Florida where he is still serving time today.
In 1983 tensions in the Middle East were intensified when the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon was bombed and 63 people of many backgrounds were killed. A short time later the barracks housing United States Marines was truck bombed and 248 marines were killed and many others wounded.
In 1986 tragedy struck the United States space program when the Challenger in late January lifted off and exploded before it achieved orbit. Other space ventures had had scary moments and tragedy, but this one resounded across America and the world like no other. Feeling very secure in what some thought was the routine of rocket flight, NASA had carried out a contest to seek an additional traveler on the Challenger foray into space. The recipient of that opportunity was a New Hampshire science teacher, Christa McAuliffe. Knowing that a teacher was on this flight, coverage of the event was more than had been given live coverage for many years. The flight was timed to coincide with school being in session so millions of children could watch this flight. Shortly after lift off something went tragically wrong and all members of the flight crew including Ms. McAuliffe plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. No one survived. Young folks and adults were traumatized by this event. Certainly the tragedy of this event would intensify the need for security on future flights of space shuttles. The irony was that it wasn’t the last tragedy to befall the program.
As has been shown in this episode the world continued to experience tragedy, but life for those that survive continues on. In a relatively small town church like Peoples some of these things that have taken place in the world seems distant at best, but with the TV News cameras found nearly everywhere and the connections that we have with so many people we are not immune and living in a vacuum. The people of Peoples have responded with care through mission, through prayer, and through concern for others both near and far. In our next few episodes we will take a look at Peoples connections at home and away during the turbulence of the 1980’s.

e had previously served at Newport

2006-12-18T08:22:00.000-08:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 45 Memories of Christmas Past

We all have memories of Christmas seasons past as children, as teens and as adults.
Some are pleasant while others may carry a great deal of sadness as a result of events that might have disrupted what most of us would believe is the most joyous time of the year.
Some of you have helped share this journey down memory lane with me and have recalled events that have come from the past, but definitely have an impact on where we are as a church and as individuals today.

The first of you who responded to me was Doreen Gay who sent the following message via e-mail, certainly a method of communication that was unheard of when most of us was young. Her response to the questions given was as follows:

It would have to be Christmas Eve service.... When I first started attending Peoples in 1992, our congregation was much larger in membership. My fondest memory of those early years, were of Christmas Eve services where the sanctuary would be overflowing with regular attendees, extended family, and visitors. The sites and sounds of the evening's events, starting with the live nativity, the hugs and warm Christmas greetings from folks you see each week, to the visiting members from away, to those just joining us for the evening, was so exciting. The church was busy and lively with the anticipation of the evening's event.

This was a time in my life when my boys were strong of faith, still in school, living at home, and were active in the church. While my husband doesn't attend church regularly, he always attends Christmas Eve service, so it was especially wonderful to have my whole family with me. The sounds of singing, the telling of the Christmas story, the ringing of the bells, and the laughter and love of my church family would overwhelm me with tears of joy. While services since that time have been very special it has never felt the same, it was a moment in time that I cherish.
Doreen Gay
Within an e-mail from Rosemary Herd was the following message which she chose to share about past events in her life and the life of Peoples Church:
I hope you can make some sense of my memories, as they are a combination of things that I remember.
First, as a child, I remember that we were given Bible verses to memorize. The vestry was packed and we would each individually walk to the microphone that was on the stage and recite our verse, after which we would receive a small bag of hard Christmas candy. Of course we would be dressed in our finest Christmas clothes.
Second is the Christmas fair. This was before the days of Ellis Hall. The vestry would be filled with Christmas crafts, baked goods, candy. knit wear and aprons. Behind the stage magic was being done with greenery. Wreaths and centerpieces were made and the evergreen smell mingling with the baked goods out front was phenomenal! And then to top it all off, there was a supper served that night. I have no idea how they managed to move the fair things and still set up tables for a ham dinner.
Third and lastly, one of the fondest memories was Aunt Hillie taking the junior choir into Portland and we sang Christmas carols inside on the steps at Porteous, Mitchell and Braun. One year I think we were even broadcast on the radio. (Porteous was the largest in town department store until it closed its doors and was replaced by the Maine College of Art.)
Ro
In an interview with Chris Ward she also remembered singing with the Junior Choir on the First Radio Parish Church of America. This was a program eventually included on early morning WCSH- TV programming. The pastor at the time of visitation by Peoples’ Junior Choir was Reverend Case. Chris also recalled the leadership of the Junior Department, which included Betty Ward, Lillian Tripp and Ginny Lee. She recalled that usually it was the Junior Department that may not have been the cute part of the annual Christmas Pageant, that was reserved for the little children, but it was the department that played the major roles. As a member of the MYF, Chris recalled that the Christmas season was a time when everyone piled into cars and toured the nursing homes in the area including the one that still exists on Anthoine Street.
During the early ‘60’s and later there were Sprague’s Nursing Home on Front Street, Hillside on the corner of Preble and Broadway and the Bayside on Myrtle Street that we would all go and sing carols for the residents.

Chris also recalled some of the folks that use to work on the Christmas Fair. One of the big elements of the fair was the Greens table. Baskets, Swags, Wreaths and other Fir based displays for home and yard were one of the centerpieces of the Fair. Hillie Cass, Nancy Harris, Lucille Johnson, Lillia Moore were some of the long remembered names, While thinking of names Chris also recalled that Sylvia Hahn, Merle Darling and Marlene Tordoff also spent many hours preparing this table for the Fair. Other tables that were wonderfully supplied with goods were the Knit Table with untold pairs of mittens, baby sweaters, vests and the like. Another table exclusively sold aprons. Aprons were available for men, women and children and were colorfully displayed. The old vestry and Ellis Hall still wring with the contributions of Dot Blackinton and Kathleen Robinson on aprons or candy. Ethel Farnsworth was there and you could always see Ada Tordoff and Esther Miller working in the kitchen. And who could forget the chairman for so many years Elsie Perdew. You would also find Ellie Wells scooting around with a variety of hats that she wore. Millie Pleuler and Carolyn Fawcett also made their contributions. The men’s first venture into the Fair was a ham supper that they put on late in the afternoon. It gave another opportunity for people to come in for a meal and to look at the goods for sale that were still available. In our recollections we are sure that we have failed to include some folks that played an integral part in “The Fair” that served this church not only as a money maker, but was one of the social highlights of the year. Folks from the community and those that may not have played active roles in the life of the church always managed to be here on Fair day. The spirit of family is certainly a part of the holiday season and the life of this church.

Another activity that we talked about in the interview was the Live Nativity that has taken place for many years prior to the Christmas Eve service each year. Several families have served as Mary, Joseph and Jesus. I’m sure we have not thought of all that have served in those roles but a few have included the Dunns, Pikes, Folleys, Marstons and Crossmans. To add to this role to make it more complete please submit the names of others that we have forgotten and we will add them to the list for posterity.

Lastly, in this conversation we talked about the impact on the individual, the church and beyond of the Advent Meditation booklets. There have been some notable contributions of parishioners in writing these daily devotionals for the Advent Season.

In a note passed to me in church on Thanksgiving Sunday Pam Beal sent the following message about her recollections of Christmas past. Here is Pam’s message:
“The Christmas Eve service is so very special. When the individual candles are lighted and “Silent Night” is sung, a peace comes over the congregation as we sing. The words, “Silent Night, Holy Night become real as that moment becomes moving and holy. I have been filled with great anticipation as I /We celebrate the birth of our savior.
What a kaleidoscope of memories---from the light events such as the church fair, fun times of making advent wreaths, hanging of the greens, lighting the candles on the advent wreath, the nativity---live no less--- ringing the bells at the end of the Christmas Even service, and most of all the most solemn of times as we all reflect and anticipate and sing especially, “Silent Night”.

From Kevin Malcom we read:
I thought long and hard about the many times in my life that the Christmas season here at Peoples has played a part in my love of the season, the memories I treasure and the way I am still in awe of how mankind was changed by the birth of a tiny, precious baby in a place so far away. One of my personal highlights of each Christmas season was the lighting of the Circle Of Friends candle and the symbolism it has come to show. I imagine our friends in so many far of lands doing the same thing during the course of Christmas Eve, and I wonder what their services are like. Is it a church in the hot jungle or humid South Pacific, or one with cold, whipping winds and snow in Russia or Kazahkstan. Is it a huge, historic cathedral type of church like London or Italy? A modern, brightly lit church like Pretoria or Poland, or a small, simple building with just a bible and a cross like Mexico or Cape Horn. And sadly I worry for some like Beirut or Palestine where the pews, pulpit and Choir loft must be searched before the people enter. How blessed I am to enter the front doors of Peoples Church and step inside, joined in spirit with thousands of others around the globe and sharing this night with so many!

The following is what Belle Graney sent to me:
One of my happiest childhood memories of Christmas at Peoples Church (when it was located on the corner of School Street and High Street) was the annual Christmas concert when one at a time all the young children stood on the stage and recited a piece. After that we all received a fancy Christmas box of hard candy (As recorded earlier the box of hard candy was still around in the 1950’s.) We waited excitedly for the Sunday school Superintendent (my Uncle John Woodbury), to call our name and we would walk up to the tree and get our box of candy. The concert and the program went on for hours and I can remember falling asleep with my head in my mother’s lap (Etta Robinson). The candy boxes came flat in a big bundle and the candy came in bulk in one large box. My mother was active in the Sunday school so when we older, we would all sit around the dining room table, fill the boxes together and my mother would write all of the children’s’ names on them.

In my own life at Peoples, I can think of a number of things that have really stood out from childhood through the teen years and into the various stages of adulthood.

I think as a child I was terrified to get up in front of an audience and give a recitation in front of a crowded vestry of parents and fellow Sunday schoolers. It is hard to think back at that time and believe that would eventually lead to the courage to teach as my lifetime pursuit. I too remember the reward of the evening being that box of hard candy that Rosemary mentions in her account. I can say that I don’t believe that gave me the desire to have hard candy except at Christmas time in the fancy Christmas box.

In the same vein as a young teen I joined others my age and younger in a Christmas Pageant that told the nativity story. The year I most recall was probably a year that I was in junior high or my freshman year in high school. Miss. Ruth Allen led us in preparing the pageant that would be held in the sanctuary. Miss. Allen, who had grown up in the church, was at this time serving as the advisor to the Methodist Youth Fellowship. It must have been around 1952 or 1953. She belonged to the women’s organization of the Oddfellows, I believe known as the Rebeccas. Like many such organizations these organizations in their religious ceremonies would wear rather elegant robes and dresses. On the occasion of this reenactment we “players” in the pageant were festooned with these robes, especially if we were playing the part of one of the Kings. I remember especially Karen Freitas (I believe that was her first name) playng the role of the angel and singing the song, “There’s a Song in the Air.” I still carry that angelic image of her and the way she sang the song. I also remember playing the role of one of the Kings and wearing that heavy but heavenly robe and carrying something that represented one of the royal gifts to the manger.
That sounds easy to do, but while you were striding slowly down the center aisle of the sanctuary with the pews filled on either side, I had to sing one of the verses of “We Three Kings”. Again an enlightening experience because as a young man I did not have the comfort level to do what I was called to do in this role. Again it was an activity in the life of Peoples Church that was helping me to gain confidence in facing my everyday world of school and community.

Some years later I remember my own children being involved in Sunday school pageants. I remember a pageant within a pageant when our son Mark played the role of a father and Jane Koelker, the minister’s daughter played the role of mother. This pageant was held again in the cozy confines of the vestry with the room filled to each of the walls with parents and friends. So filled was the room that many of the small participants had a hard time finding seats in the room.
Within the story that surrounded a typical American family at Christmas time was a traditional church Christmas pageant with the children playing the roles of the nativity while a series of student narrators read the story. Small children had their angel wings and sang several of the significant carols that echoed the story of the nativity. It was especially blessed when the smallest of the children came forward to sing “Away In A Manger”.

Our daughter, Amy, recalls that in the pageants of her era that she often played the role of the narrator or announcer.

The above were the reminiscences of those who wrote them in time to place in this edition of Roots. If you find time to think of what your Christmas memories were and wouldn’t mind sharing your piece of history feel free to write those ideas down and send them to me. I would very much like to be able to place more memories of significance in future episodes of Peoples Roots and History.

2006-11-18T06:01:00.000-08:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 44 Youth, Service and a new Pastor

Looking at the walls of the vestry, the MYF in 1977, saw them rigidly blank. Not to deface the plainness that existed on those walls, the young folks painted a series of panels with scenes of how they depicted The Creation. These panels were framed and mounted in a floating condition for all to see. This display of the talent of these young people, would grace the walls of the vestry for a number of years. During this time period all ages of youth of the church were asked to participate in church services and to share their love of the Lord with the entire congregation. Several of the teens were asked and did serve on most of the boards and committees of the church on a regular basis. Many older teens served as teachers or assistants in the Sunday school. In an era before the Safe Sanctuaries Initiative all events that involved children were presided over by at least two adults.
In reading the records it was during the year 1977 that the first mention of Meals on Wheels and Peoples involvement was mentioned. John Robinson and Vic Green were among the first to sign up to make home deliveries of meals for shut-ins. While not many people may have known it John Robinson was perhaps one of the best male visitors of shut-ins. He had a number of "friends" that he would visit on a regular basis, sometimes taking them out to events and more often just visiting and chatting. Most young people have a recollection of John by remembering the tall, graying usher with the tremendous smile and a handshake that he would share with them. How important those young men and women felt because John shared his warmth and care for them when they came or left church.
The first collections for the Food Pantry housed at the First Congregational Church were solicited at Thanksgiving time in 1977. While the appeal was to the entire Congregation
The Sunday school collections have always been the most significant with the eyes of young children lit up with the growing pile of solicited goods growing until the culmination on Thanksgiving Sunday. Peoples has continued to contribute to an increasingly used ministry. On several occasions during recent years a second appeal has gone out to restock the shelves to which Peoples has answered the call.
It has been rare that members of Peoples Church have been called away for missionary service, but in the late 1970’s, Janice and Earl Nicholson chose to serve through VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) on a Native American reservation in the state of Nebraska. While there Janice taught school and tennis to young men and women while Earl served as a business consultant to the tribal leadership. It was my privilege upon their return to the parish to submit their names for the Social Justice Award of the Maine Conference. They were chosen to receive this award in the early 1980’s at a banquet given in their honor. The banquet was given at the Maine Conference of the United Methodist Church held on the campus of the University of Maine at Farmington. Yours truly was asked to speak and make the presentation on that occasion. It was certainly a thrill to serve in this capacity for two folks that were perhaps my mother and father’s dearest friends.
In early summer of 1978, a group of singers from Oral Roberts University made a stop at Peoples. The Epiphany Singers gave a concert in the sanctuary on the weekend of June 9 and sang again in the church service on that Sunday. Many of the church families housed the student singers for the weekend and some long time friendships evolved from that experience.
At about the same time a group of Scottish Exchange students came to spend three weeks with local families and to attend classes at South Portland High School. Art Tordoff, as advisor to the high school Key Club was in part responsible for housing them. 16 students were housed for three weeks with 16 different families. The time to set this up was very short, as they were to have gone to another high school in Massachusetts. For some reason that experience fell through. Not all of these students found their way to Peoples church, but at least two did. Sandra Mackie and Fiona MacPherson both attended church here during that time. Sandra stayed with the Tordoffs and has continued to have a "family" relationship with them since. The girls had the opportunity to speak about their native country, Scotland, in the Sunday school.
In 1979 we bid goodbye to Reverend Gene Koelker and his wife Betty, as they were now to serve the conference at Clark Memorial in Portland. The years that Gene and Betty had seen the membership stay steady and the Sunday school remained strong.
The new appointment was Linwood Arnold. He had previously served pastorates at Newport and South Berwick in Maine. Lin was a graduate of South Portland High School and had been an active member of the youth group at Elm Street, where his father served as pastor. Judy Baker also attended that youth group and in time became Lin’s wife. When they arrived at Peoples they were a young family with three male children; Matt, Tim and Pat. Their pastorate and I mean "their pastorate" was spirit filled with not only Lin’s input and activity, but that of all the members of that family. This is not to detract from the spirit of other ministerial families that have served the church, but it would be rare that so many members of a family became directly involved in the activities and health of the congregation.
One of the active committees of the late 1970’s was the Social Concerns Committee. In 1978 and 1979 the following programs were sponsored by this committee: "Diet for a Small Planet" which was a program designed to help folks with proper eating habits. This was followed later by a banquet that was given to all the Mothers in the congregation on Mother’s Day. It was this committee that started the practice of giving a carnation to all the mothers in church on that day. Perhaps the two programs might have seemed at cross-purposes yet both of these programs were well attended and received.
A program titled, "On Prejudice", was centered around a film that had been produced by Bill Cosby, who also was the principle narrator. This was also the era when substance abuse became a primary concern among young folks and this committee was then also responsible for putting together a family night program on the subject.
The Missions committee also coordinated a variety of programs, which included a series of speakers on local and foreign missions of the Methodist Church. A smorgasbord meal was a feature of one of the nights. On another occasion, Janice and Earl Nicholson gave a slide/talk on their time spent with the Santee Sioux in Nebraska. On yet a third occasion a group of women from the Greek Orthodox came to demonstrate and encourage us to participate in learning Greek dancing. Within the realm of missions programs the first mention of the Methodist Redbird Mission was during this time frame. The United Methodist Women adopted a connection with Redbird as did the Sunday school. The program at church centered around toys as gifts that would be collected as Christmas time, then boxed by the UMW and shipped to Kentucky. Thus began a long tradition of sharing with that area of the country on a regular basis.
It was at this point that Peoples prepared for a long period of time without having to worry about who our pastor would be. Lin would be with us for 17 years. One of the legacies of Lin would be the number of folks that would enter the ministry during his tenure. We will spend some time with those folks and their names in a future episode of this history. In our next episode we will take a general look at some of the significant events of the 1980’s to set the stage for the era.e had previously served at Newport

2006-10-19T16:19:00.000-07:00

Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 43 Socializing and Serving

Created in the 1950’s by a number of couples, the Kupples Klub was still a fun organization to be part of in the ‘70’s. At one time the Klub was exclusive in inviting only married couples to belong, but eventually with an increase in the number of singles, the Klub would eventually change its name to the Saturday Niters. Originally the organization would meet on a monthly basis, but by the mid-70’s it was meeting only four times a year. Glen and Carolyn Fawcett who were active in all aspects of church life also served a term as Presidents of this organization. Glen was for many years the Financial Chairman and Carolyn served for some time as superintendent of the Sunday school. Both talented in the arena of music the Fawcetts sang in the choir and Carolyn on occasion would fill in for Dr. Malcolm Cass on the organ. She also assisted Hillie Cass especially at junior choir rehearsals playing the piano for practice.

While the Fawcetts were the Presidents of Kouples Klub, a young couple that had grown up in the church, Phil and Paula Woodbury served the organization as Vice Presidents. This was also the time frame when the Woodburys other major function was to serve as MYF advisors.

Among the activities that would take place at meetings was a Progressive Supper usually in the late Spring, a Lobster Bake in the Fall and an Ice Cream Sundae Party and the exchange of gifts at Christmas time. The March meeting usually had something of an Irish theme and a variety of different activities would take place during that time.

It was sad to see the Fawcetts, as active as they were, called away by Glen’s business. Carolyn was replaced as head of the Sunday school by Janice Nicholson and much of the financial matters of the church would be handled by a finance committee headed by Earl Nicholson, Janice’s husband.

During the mid ‘70’s the WSCS (Women’s Society of Christian Service), forerunner of UMW sponsored a series of hobby classes. Among the hobbies that you might learn was painting, chair caning and knitting. At the end of the classes a night was held to display the projects that participants had made. Some of those items in turn would be sold during the annual Christmas Fair.

People of this parish have often found good reasons to hold celebrations and turn them into major spiritual and social events. Since it was the 200th anniversary of the United States of America in 1976, Dr. Cass and others proposed and held the first Heritage Sunday celebration to be held at Peoples. Bishop Carroll, the bishop for the Maine Conference was invited and he and his wife attended. He gave a special sermon in late May in the sanctuary. A meal, sacrificial in nature followed, with the raised funds of $200 going to Bishop Carrroll’s special appeal to fight world hunger.

Another event that was held to celebrate the Bicentennial of the United States was a gathering of Methodists from Southern Maine at a well-attended service at the Mother Church of Maine Methodism, the Chestnut Street United Methodist Church. One of the significant elements of that service was the musical presentation of the mass choirs. Peoples’ Senior Choir was a part of that celebration that saw the sanctuary filled to capacity.

The Choirs were busy not only making their musical contributions within our own building, but venturing forth to be heard in concerts elsewhere. At Christmas time the Senior Choir, led by Dr. Cass, participated in services sponsored by the American Guild of Organists and performed at Woodfords Congregational Church. This writer would like to note that this annual concert is still held at Woodfords, the collection from which supports the Chaplaincy Program at the Maine Medical Center. The irony in 2005 was that no musical group actually represented Woodfords in the concert. The Youth Choir
likewise took their talents on the road. They sang at the Broadway East Vespers, Washington Avenue Methodist Church, and sang on the First Radio Parish Church of America radio program. In the mid-1970’s there was a steady 16 to 20 members in the Youth Choir.

On the occasion of Heritage Sunday in 1978, Peoples United Methodist Church celebrated its 125th Anniversary. A committee had been working for a few months in preparation for the celebration. Reverend Koelker, Guy McLellan and Ernie Blackinton were the primary movers and shakers for this event. Our special guests on this Sunday in May were the former Pastor, William Chamberlain and his wife ”Midge”. Bill had been with us from 1957-1963 and at the time of this celebration was serving as the District Superintendent. During the week prior to the celebration Midge gave a presentation to the United Methodist Women. The program that was developed for this occasion was dedicated to Dr. Malcolm Cass who had been the organist and choir director at Peoples on a permanent basis since 1946. Many folks who had been members in the past were welcomed back to celebrate with those folks that were still active in the affairs of the church.

In using Ellis Hall for Sunday school a new approach to presentation was tried in 1974 called the Dynamic Curriculum. This was a Sunday school program that had been developed at another local area church. Since the rage in public elementary education was to follow an “ open concept” and Ellis Hall was really designed for this type of teaching, the Dynamic Curriculum, we thought would fill that philosophy well. Various learning centers were set up around the hall and age groups would work at one area for part of the teaching/learning time and then that group would go on to the next. Opening and closing exercises would begin and end the hour program each Sunday. Not all experiments work well and we found that by the end of the year most students and teachers for that matter became tired of the routine and didn’t leave enough creativity with the teachers. It also appeared that the program would not change substantially in a second year, and therefore, the program in the second year was abandoned. The Sunday school then went back to a grade level curriculum produced for Cokesbury, and because there were two separate programs it was possible to have fresh material each year. The one major change that was retained and continued to develop over a number of years was a program centering on John Wesley and the History of Methodism for 6th graders. Pam Harris taught this course for a number of years. The program worked especially well in developing young men and women to join the United Methodist Church and knowing the church they would be joining substantially more than in the program that this one replaced.

The Peoples Christian Education department played host to a “Teachers-Get-Together” sponsored by the cooperative parish. Well attended, the various Sunday school personnel were able to share ideas and curriculum materials. Several presentations were made that called for the use of the technology of the day. Overheads, Tape Recorders and motion picture projectors were in use at the time.

The United Methodist Men knowing that they would be sponsoring a variety show and wishing to use Ellis Hall for the performance felt the need to build staging for the purpose. Several 4 x 8-foot platforms were built out of 2x 4’s and plywood. Each of the platforms were quite heavy and would need as many as four men to move them. It was a project that was well worth it and everytime there was a need to use a stage the platforms were used to elevate the performers. The major issue with the platforms was where to store them when not in use. Eventually it was the garage that had formerly been a part of the parsonage property would be used for that purpose. It was quite a struggle to bring those platforms back and forth when needed, but it was the only alternative to performing on the same level as the audience. The first show that was performed with the stage was a Variety Show that was labeled, “Off Broadway” and directed by Earle Harvey. Hilarious, funny and with some poignant moments some members of this church became rather famous or shall we say infamous. This 1978 program ushered in a series of really outstanding annual musical and humorous events. Who could forget Sally Smith and her comedy routines as well as those performed by Jean Allen and Jean Swanson. Musical renditions of old and new songs were performed by people of all ages. One truly memorable song stands out from the deep bass of Len Darling Sr. How deep he was in his rendition of “Old Man River”.

Much greater emphasis was placed on foreign missions of the Methodist church in the period of the 1970’s. Several women participated in leading the congregation in developing strong ties with the missions of the United Methodist Church. Perhaps other than the women, who have already been mentioned relative to mainly local missions, no one was a greater advocate for our foreign missionaries than Elsie Hoyt, wife of David who has been mentioned relative to Temperance and the tape ministry. In an annual report for 1974, Elsie wrote: “ The church’s doors open outward so God’s people can go out to be about their father’s business. Through missions we go from the church, out into the world, to show Christ and his love to mankind. The mission of the church is to act as the instrument through which the love and concern of God for all men can be made real.”
The statement that she made then should continue to be a significant part of our church’s mission and philosophy for serving the Lord today. Elsie Hoyt practiced what she in a sense preached as an advocate and participant in the missions of the church.

2006-09-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Part 42 Activity Abounds in 1970’s

Sometimes reading the records of church bodies adds a humorous moment once in a while, at least as interpreted by the reader. In 1971 as Reverend Blake Ellis and the rest of the membership were making plans for the Annual Meeting of the church, Reverend Ellis asked the meeting body if they thought that food and drink should be prepared for what might be a long meeting. Interestingly the body voted against having any food or drink at the upcoming meeting. Now that had to be a first and only in the history of the Methodist Church and especially Peoples. This proved later to be somewhat embarrassing as the presiding District Superintendent, Travers Smith, and his wife Kit were at least looking for coffee and some sweets. Alas none were to be had until someone ran out at the last minute to put on some coffee and to buy some “store-bought” variety of sweets. This must have been the last time that such a phenomenon occurred in the life of Peoples.

The historical records seem to indicate that most of the time while not alone as a Methodist Church in South Portland we often stood alone to serve our area of South Portland. Every so many years, however, a District Superintendent might suggest that the Methodist churches in the area could improve their service through some cooperative agenda. In the early 1970’s a Cooperative Parish Program was originated with 5 churches participating; the four in South Portland and Cape Elizabeth. Regular meetings were held and both lay and pastoral membership were in attendance. The first members of this organization from Peoples included Mahlon Johnson and Carolyn Fawcett. It was even suggested that perhaps all of the churches that were part of the Cooperative Parish would gather together in one church in order to hold the annual meetings for all of the churches. It appears that one church could not be decided upon, therefore, the practice of individual annual meetings continued.

One successful venture of the Cooperative Parish was to sponsor a School of Missions. In 1972 the theme was “ Reconciliation in a Broken World”. Local and outside speakers made presentations on the theme. Workshops were held on 5 nights in January and February. Each meeting was held in one of the 5 churches of the Cooperative Parish. While the numbers in attendance were relatively small the program was considered a success at getting people from the parishes together. The cooperative parish committee also thought that the youth program in each of the churches would benefit from a jointly hired Youth Ministry Coordinator. This was done and the first and perhaps only person to hold the position was Mike Davis. Mike Davis was a product himself of the South Portland School System and was then undertaking theological studies. This Mike Davis is not the same as the one who would serve as District Superintendent with his wife Jan of the Tri-State District at the time of this writing, 2006.

One other activity that was sponsored during the summer months through this organization was a program that allowed parishioners to sample Sunday services in each of the 5 churches. For five Sundays in the summer only one of the churches would be open. One of the pastors would serve as the pastor in a church other than their own. Services were well attended, or at least they looked that way since there were very few empty pews on any of those Sundays. The church that was open on that Sunday provided special music. This was not a brand new idea since the practice had been followed in the 1950’s for a few years.

Mentioned previously in this continuing saga of Peoples was the name of David Hoyt. Long active in the Christian Civic League and Temperance organizations, he played a vital role in the life of Peoples as well. He began one of the long-standing ministries of the church in the early ‘70’s. It was he that initiated the tape ministry. Purchasing the original recording equipment, he was responsible for recording church services on tape and then transporting manufactured tapes to all of the shut-ins that were related to church life. Faithfully he would spend hours copying the tapes and then delivering them to as many as 17 shut-ins around the city. Eventually the ministry became too much for one person and he then enlisted two other folks to assist him. As of this date (2006) the tape ministry is still faithfully maintained and delivered to shut-ins and others who may miss a service on occasion for some reason.

One of the big events on the church women’s yearly calendar was to sponsor the Christmas Fair. I mention women in particular as this event was fully sponsored by the WSCS which would eventually become United Methodist Women. Christmas of 1971 was the first year, however, of male involvement. At the invitation of the women, the Men’s Club sponsored a Ham Supper at the conclusion of the fair. The youth would not be involved in the operation of the fair for several more years.

The men would raise funds through the twice a year Clam Suppers. These funds would often be used to help maintain the properties. The Men’s Club also made substantial contributions in support of Boy Scout Troop 23 and Cub Scout Pack 23. Many of the men served in counseling and leadership roles. Both the troop and pack were well known in Scouting circles for their well-rounded programs. Folks who were a part of the Scouting program during that era and beyond have fond memories of fund raising and, I’m sure, especially the Tom Watt Kits. Others would remember volunteering to support camping and outing opportunities or a cold winter night at Bates Cabin located on the property of Camp Hinds.

Hillie Cass and Belle Graney have had a long association with various missions and mission programs that have been sponsored in the name of Peoples Church. Among the first to consider recycling was a program to recycle cans and bottles. The aforementioned ladies began this in 1971. The notion of recycling was in its infancy locally and nationally and their involvement drew greater awareness to the issue of how we might as a nation renew what resources we have. Hillie and Helen Jewett were also responsible for helping to create a Senior Citizen program that was held on a regular basis for the community in Ellis Hall and was known as the Mature Years Program.. Puzzles were acquired, fitness instruction was provided and movies were sometimes shown. Refreshments were also provided. This program was a predecessor to the program eventually provided by the Southern Maine Agency on Aging as part of the Meals on Wheels program. Hillie, Belle and others, including Elsie Hoyt, were also in close contact with Camp Waban, which provided programs for handicapped folks in York County. Necessities for the Camp were collected in the form of paper products and food and delivered to the camp. A spin-off of the Camp Waban project Belle and Hillie also began a collection of S and H Green Stamp books that would go toward the purchase of a bus for the Cumberland County section of the Augusta Mental Health Institution. It is obvious that 50 Green Stamp books would not do the job, but along with those collected by other organizations the bus was purchased and delivered.

It was also during the 1970’s that Hillie Cass also began the “save the soup label” campaign for the Cerebal Palsy Center. Campbell Soup and associated products would supply institutions with various pieces of equipment that were especially suited for young folks afflicted with neural muscular diseases. The soup labels are still collected in 2006 for the Cerebal Palsy Center for much the same reason.

In October of 1972 a Lay Witness Mission was held at Peoples. Earle Harvey who at this time also served as the Chair of the Council of Ministries was chosen to head this endeavor. Small prayer and concern groups were held in homes of parishioners. A significant series of worship and commitment services were held over the weekend. A banquet of celebration helped the church membership to be closer with each other, the folks who had been with us for the weekend and most importantly, Jesus Christ, our Lord. It was a truly meaningful time for all. In retrospect the Lay Witness Mission did for the church membership at that time what several other programs would be used for spiritual development later.

Reverend Gene Koelker, new to the parish when former Pastor Blake Ellis became the District Superintendent, was particularly concerned for people in the age group of 25-40 range. It seems that age group as it has aged has remained rather small in the life and leadership of the church. We will see later what effect that might have on the life of this parish, and for that matter all parishes.

Tidbits:
By 1973 four former pastors of Peoples had also served or were serving as District Superintendent. Lawrence Porter, William Chamberlain, H. Travers Smith, and Blake Ellis.

Presidents of the Methodist Youth Fellowship in the early 1970’s were Marilyn Darling, Gary Webber and Nancy Tordoff.

Carolyn Fawcett served as the Chairman of the Sunday School in this period of time.

Evelyn Tilton retired as the pianist for the Junior Choir and was replaced by Wealthy Harvey and Carolyn Fawcett.

The membership committee acquired a map of the greater Portland area and placed pushpins in the locations where parishioners lived. This document was kept in the pastor’s study and gave leadership an idea of how spread out the parish had become.

New Methodist hymnals were available in 1972. Donations led to the fund for the new songbooks. The old hymnals were donated to Camp Mechuana and others went to the North Sebago United Methodist Church.

Two church services were initiated in October of 1972. The belief was that younger church attenders would come to an earlier service. The earlier services were attended by about 40 in the year of life the service had. Ironically many of those that attended the earlier service were actually older members of the parish,

Ron Messer the pastor serving the Eliot United Methodist Church (2006)was the President of the Peoples United Methodist Senior Choir in 1972.

2006-08-24T08:13:00.000-07:00

Part 41 Major Changes in the church property

Since the move of Peoples to its new home at 310 Broadway in 1946 little had changed to the property physical structure. Yes, there was a new organ in the chancel and the parsonage next door had been converted to an education building. When that occurred the parishioners purchased a new parsonage on Beverly Street, a location away from the busyness of Broadway. While an interesting and useable property with many amenities it seemed that the trustees felt that there was something constantly being repaired at that property and so by 1972 a sub-committee of the Trustees began looking for a suitable new property for a parsonage. Larry Philips was the head of that sub-committee. At that time no other property was found and the trustees decided to stick with the Beverly Street property.

The most ambitious physical project that the people of the parish would undertake was to construct a building designed to give the Sunday School ample room to serve the youth of the community. Initiation of the project was late in 1969 with completion three years later. This project would also give the church and its organizations a flexible space that could be used for a number of as yet unnamed projects and activities.

Dr. Allen Regan of the United Methodist Church Board of Missions was hired as the consultant. The building committee from the church included Earl Nicholson as the Chairperson with the following members of the church serving on the committee: Mahlon Johnson, Bert Farnham, John Robinson, Ernest Darling, Ada Tordoff, and Carolyn Fawcett.

Wilbur Ingalls was hired as the architect for the project. In the final design the proposed new building would have a large open area that could be used as a large gathering area or be divided by folding partitions into smaller units within the whole. A church office, a women’s parlor, a nursery, a kitchen, restrooms and utility rooms were built into the design. The new hall would be connected to the main church building via a glassed in and roofed breezeway. The entire building would be constructed on a slab with all piping embedded in the concrete. The building was to be covered by a flat roof. The plans were displayed prominently before the building campaign began. A vote was eventually taken to undertake the project and while some folks were reluctant to adopt such a project, the project was passed and bids for construction were readied by June 1970. The financial campaign had begun some years before and therefore preliminary money for architectural fees and campaign moneys had already been raised. Initially the campaign called for $80,000 to be raised by pledges. The estimated cost of the project given by the winning bid was in the vicinity of $110,000. The construction firm of Langford and Low submitted the winning bid. The estimated time of construction was 5 months. In the long run cost overruns amounted to approximately 2.5%, considered good at that point in time raising the final cost to around $125,000.

Before the building could be built there was the need to raze the old education building. Larry Philips found 4 companies that would submit bids. Interestingly one of those companies submitted that they would like to move the building to another location at 388 Broadway. That bid and offer was accepted making way for the construction of the new building. It was quite a sight to behold to see this three-story property being moved from its old location to the new one. The move actually took place during the night to avoid a total disturbance to traffic on heavily traveled Broadway.

Actual construction began in August, 1970. The original estimate of five months to construct the building was revised to a longer period for completion.

Knowing the cost of the new building pledges ran high and each of the organizations of the church participated in raising funds or purchasing the furnishings that would make the new hall a home for the community. The Youth Fellowship as reported by President Marilyn Darling would raise $450 through a Slave Day and Spaghetti Supper. The first gift to the new facility was the gift of the Pastor’s desk given by Reverend and Mrs. Louis Staples. The WSCS and Manter Class were responsible for purchasing the furniture, tables and lamps, and rugs for the Parlor. The Nicholson Family was responsible for supplying the money to furnish everything that would make the Nursery the best-furnished room for small children in any of the South Portland churches. It was a bright and colorful room equipped even with a toilet as well as cribs, and bookcases that had been built by Harold Craigs. A Cheshire cat clock hung on a wall and the tail serving as a pendulum counted off the minutes that children were there. Toys, books, jump seats, a high chair and many other needs were available for the tots that would use the facility each Sunday or when there was an event in church or the hall on other days of the week. Marlene Tordoff had the responsibility of acquiring the furnishings and everything else that made this location the hit that it was. The Naomi Circle purchased miscellaneous kitchen needs such as bread baskets, salt and pepper shakers and sugar and creamers. The spinet piano in the hall was a gift of Glen and Carolyn Fawcett. The project moneys paid for other furnishings including: tables and chairs and the caddies that held them. Coat racks and hangers were also included in the budget. The cutting table in the kitchen and the stove and dishwasher were as one might expect part of the budget.

Once the building construction was underway it was also necessary to have a committee that would meet to determine proper uses of the property not only by church members but others as well. Rules of use were established and costs for rental were determined. Interestingly the Men’s Club who had sponsored Fried Clam Suppers for years were happy when the Conora and then Harmon Clam Supper people could bring their own cooking van rather than bringing the friolators into the new building. “No Smoking” signs were placed in specific places in the new building. Community groups would pay $5 an hour for the use of the hall and an additional $10 an hour for Sexton fees. An additional $2.50 would be charged per hour if the kitchen were to be used. Church members wishing to use the hall would only have to pay the sexton fee, providing they needed the sexton. No outside group could use the hall for fund raising purposes and absolutely no alcohol could be used on the property. Because there was some pilferage that took place throughout all of the buildings in the initial years of the new hall the Administrative Board finally took a vote to make sure that the church and hall doors would be locked, not left unlocked as had been the practice before.

The five months originally expected to complete the project beginning in August of 1970
was obviously not enough since the Trustees didn’t sign off with Langford and Low until October 1, 1971.

One of the first requests by an outside user came from a Mrs. Smith who ran a Day Care and was looking for a larger space than her own home. Initially she only wanted to use it for 3 or 4 months. All things considered her request was denied. Another denial of use was given to the Bahai community who wanted to use the facility to show a film on the Holy Lands.

The pastor at the time of construction was Blake Ellis. Just as the project was reaching completion the Maine Conference of the United Methodist Church had appointed him to the position of District Superintendent. He would succeed a former Peoples pastor, H. Travers Smith in that role. At the banquet held in his honor at the conclusion of eight years of spiritual service, the Trustees announced that the new hall had been named Ellis Hall in his honor.

Ellis Hall has been used by many church and outside organizations over its 35 years of service, but the building has had its pains as well. The piping that had been embedded in the concrete began to leak leading eventually to a total revision of the piping above ground within a few years not without heavy cost. . The flat roof construction of the building led to sagging during the winter months when there was heavy snow. This extra weight placed a great deal of stress on carrying beams and that stress in turn did not allow the dividing panels in the main hall to function. A hip roof was built atop the flat roof for substantially more money, but appears to have answered that issue.

2006-07-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

Part 40 Our World Experiences Social and Individual Change

Periodically it is important to take a look around us, beyond the doors of our world, our sometimes close-knit world of Peoples United Methodist Church. The United was added as a result of merger with the Evangelical United Brethren Church and the Methodist Church internationally in 1968.

For the United States we would leave the Viet Nam War officially in 1975 in great part to the demands of a protesting public who had grown increasingly discontented with government policy in that region. The loss of life had grown, as had the cost in dollars, dollars that many felt could have been spent more wisely even at home. It was not often that “The War” was a topic of sermons on a Sunday, but certainly was often the center of conversation by members of the church.

Protest and social activism grew during the early 1970’s on other issues as well. In 1971 the United States Constitution was the recipient of the addition of Amendment 26 which led the right to vote for anyone over the age of 18. In a number of states including the state of Maine the drinking age for a period of time was also lowered to 18. One of the philosophies that contributed to both was the belief that if a man could be drafter into service at 18 they should be allowed to vote and to drink as well. Many arms of the Christian community were supportive of the right to vote, but were reluctant to extend the drinking age downward. Abuse of that privilege was often abused and eventually a number of states including the state of Maine raised the age again.

The Equal Rights Amendment for women was passed in the Senate but after seven years it failed to reach ratification by 3/4ths of the states. The movement at least certainly raised the attention of all to the position of women in various aspects of life and while injustices even today still seem to exist the impetus of that era seemed to have a lasting effect in the equality efforts for women.

Politically the war, the economy, and dishonesty in electioneering led to first the resignation of a Vice President, Spiro Agnew and later the first resignation of office by a sitting President in American History. Richard Nixon was that President. Just 10 years before these events took place the American Government must have known this turmoil would happen. Because of other circumstances the Senate and the legislatures of the states approved of Amendment 25 to the Constitution. This provided a new method of succession in the event that the President and/or the Vice President were unable to continue their duties. At the time neither the President (Lyndon Johnson) nor the Vice President were in the best of health. The line of succession would have then gone to the Speaker of the House who was in his late 80’s and then the President pro tempore of the Senate who’s age was 96. Following that the line would go through cabinet members who had been appointed officials rather than elected. Amendment 25 allowed for the President with the advice and consent of the Senate to appoint a new Vice President (Gerald Ford) to take the place of Mr. Agnew. When President Nixon resigned later, Mr. Ford became the new President. In turn once in office, Nelson Rockefeller through the same process became the Vice President. The irony in this process led to the first President and Vice President to have gained those positions without having a public election. Certainly this was not the intent of the Amendment, but since it was part of the highest law of the land its interpretation led to this form of implementation of the succession process.

The 1970’s were the period of introducing soft contact lenses. It is the period when the CAT scan was introduced. This instrumentation was actually created by EMI records from vast amounts of moneys earned through the sale of Beatles records. It was the time of Dr. Henry Heimlich and the Heimlich Maneuver. On another serious medical note lung cancer became the second most common cancer in women. It is rather ironic that cigarette and other tobacco sales hit their high point during the mid ‘70’s. According to those who keep statistics on serious illness the last-known case of smallpox was reported worldwide in Somalia in 1977. 1978 was the year of the first reported “test tube” baby, Louise Brown, who was born in London, England. While Louise was being born in England, the Roe v. Wade case legalized abortion in the United States. On the other side of life the Supreme in 1972 brought an end for execution for criminal actions yet reversed that decision 5 years later.

Some great strides were made in the arena of technology and transportation. Frederick Smith at age 27 founded Federal Express in 1972 giving the U.S. Postal Service its first major rival since Railway Express. Nike Inc. founded in the same year set in motion a revolution in the athletic shoe industry. Primitive word processors were introduced in offices providing text editing on the machine. Microsoft as a business was founded in Seattle by Paul Allen a 22 year old and his partner, 19year-old Harvard dropout, Bill Gates in 1975. The following year college-dropouts, Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs found Apple Computers in a garage. Fax machines and word processors become standard in office computerization. 98% of all American households had at least one television.

In addition to the war in Viet Nam the United States were concerned with rapid changes that were taking place in the Soviet Union, China and India. The mid-east was not without conflict with Arabs and Israelis sniping at each other. Some of the difficulties that involved especially the Middle East led to the first major spike in the price of oil products in the United States. The small country of Lebanon appeared to be on the verge of civil war. Northern Ireland was terror filled as it had been off and on for several decades.

In the realm of entertainment moral values seemed too many to have taken a dive from before the influence of the Viet Nam Conflict. Broadway productions included Cabaret, Pippin and Grease while on the TV screen was MASH and in movies was The Godfather. Don Maclean’s American Pie was the major record hit of the year 1971.Foul Language, sexual content and violence all were more obvious in what was presented to mass audiences. American Culture was in a state of change. Many would frown on those changes, but few would respond with strong voice to these changes except perhaps in ever decreasing enclaves of moral maintenance.

The purpose of this entry in the history of Peoples United Methodist Church may seem a little strange, but at the same time we need to see what outside forces would have an influence on the life and directions that this church would take.

2006-06-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

Part 39 Before We Leave the 1960’s

The tumultuous period of the 1960’s was filled as already noted with national issues of major import. Likewise it seems that the same period saw a number of Peoples folks in transition. It was a time when Peoples hired a retired pastor, Louis Staples to act as the primary visitor to shut-ins and others who could not come to church. While he was ill some of the time that he served in this capacity, it did allow the church to be present in the lives of those who no longer could be in church on a Sunday morning.

A long-term servant of the Lord, Granville Nickerson passed away in 1966. He had served in a number of capacities and at the time was the long-time secretary for the Official Board. In a thank you to the church, his wife, Alma, quoted from Granville the following, “ Only one life ‘twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.” Alma had grown up in the church, her family, Doughty, had long been active in the life of the church. The Nickerson’s also raised two children, Charles and Stanley.

Three families that had become prominent in the life of Peoples moved from the area leaving the congregation at a loss, that would in time be overcome by others who grew into positions of leadership. Harvey Woodbury and his wife Margaret moved to the Rockland area where he would continue active in the Methodist church especially in Camden. He also continued his long-term association with the Boy Scouts of America.
Their three children, David, Patty and Phil, all graduated form South Portland High School before they moved.

Armand and Sylvia Hahn had been instrumental in the life of the church while they raised four children, Paul, Suzanne, Gretchen and Linda. “Bud” as he was called, worked for Sealtest Ice Cream and when that company was bought by Breyers, a Chicago based company, the family moved to the Chicago area. Many years later they would return to the Portland area and continue actively in the life of the church. Sylvia was especially loved by Sunday School children and the Girl Scouts. Many of those that would come in contact with her knew her as a fun-loving, full of life, willing to do almost anything for the Lord type of person.

The third family that had made an indelible mark on the life of Peoples and who would leave during this same period of time was Irving and Ethelyn Willey. Having the children grow up and move away the Willeys were invited by the youngest of their children, Susan, to move to the Wallingford, Connecticut area., which they did. Irving had operated a well-known filling station for many years on the Cape Elizabeth line. Ethelyn was active in Mary and Martha Circle as well as WSCS and Irving had served on Trustees. Irving was a very out going and caring individual whom everyone just loved to be around. Years later they moved to Union, Maine to be in an area where two of their children, Eleanor and Marcia, had settled. Irving continued to work until he was well into his 80’s. Both became active at the Union United Methodist Church also known as Peoples. As an aside there are all-tolled 7 United Methodist churches in Maine that use the name Peoples. The Willey children included Everett who served as a police officer in South Portland and Wendell who lived for many years in California.

As each of these families readied themselves for their respective moves, the church provided going away parties and gifts for each family. In a thank you note from Sylvia she reported that her new home was to be called “Mud Manor” because of the condition of the yard when they arrived. She also said in the note, “”We miss you all, but you haven’t seen the last of us yet.” How prophetic she was especially when we were able to welcome them back to the area 20 years later.

To party perhaps was one thing that Peoples members became noted. In September of 1965, Hillie Cass and other members of the WSCS provided a party on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the former pastor, H. Travers Smith and his wife, Kit. Travers was serving as District Superintendent at this time and the planners of this party invited folks from many other District churches as well.

Two of the folks most active at Peoples during the period from the 1940’s to 1970’s were Dave and Elsie Hoyt. They too, raised three children while here. The eldest of the children, Charles, became a Methodist minister and the youngest, Laurel married a pastor in California. The middle child, Jeanne, married a man from Scarborough who later became a teacher. Elsie’s father had been one of the Methodist pastors who served Peoples, Reverend Charles Perry. Both Dave and Elsie were active in the Temperance Movement in the state of Maine and Dave was also a member of the Chrisitan Civic League. In 1965, the Official Board, in part, at the insistence of the Hoyts, sent a letter of commendation to Governor John Reed, on his continued opposition to Sunday Sale of Liquor. The governor responded by thanking the Board and also indicating how he had come to the decisions that he had. Later it was Dave Hoyt that began the tape ministry that still is distributed to a number of shut-ins. In the early days of this ministry he was it.
He made sure the services were recorded, then he would make copies and to finish off
the project he would distribute them as well. Elsie, on the other hand, was a leading proponent of the Church Women United Organization. This organizaton consisted of women representing several Christian churches in the Greater Portland Area. The group included Catholic and Greek Orthodox women.

The mid’60’s saw a variety of projects adopted by church members and or the organizations of the church. New choir robes were purchased through the efforts of the WSCS. The WSCS was also responsible for purchasing a 16-MM movie projector for the church. In a sense it was ironic that the Men’s Club and the Youth groups used this piece of equipment more than the women’s organizations. ”.

. The Men’s Club with a membership of nearly 70 Men sponsored two teams in the Greater Portland Christian Men’s Bowling League. Sometimes the men bowled at the YMCA Lanes, but later graduated to the Big 20 Candlepin Lanes in Scarborough. This organization did much to support Cub Scout Pack and Boy Scout Troop 23. Many of the
Many of the men were advisors or served as Cub and Troop Masters. One other activity that the Men’s Club supported was a Senior High Boys Church Basketball Team that played weekly in the winter months at the Portland YMCA. Their sponsorship provided uniforms, practice space and the coaching expertise of Bill Harris.

A lot of the money raised by the Men was through the sponsorship and operation of Fried Clam Suppers. The Men hired a company called Conora from Higgins Beach to cook and prepare the food. Later a Mr. Harmon who continued the Fried Clams “on the road business” for a number of additional years .

350 new hymnals with purple covers were purchased and used beginning in the Fall of 1966. During September all of the local area Methodist churches got together at Chestnut Street to celebrate the new hymnals by having a “Hymnfest

An interesting activity that was probably spawned by the Ecumenical movement of the 1960’s was a series of get togethers with members of Holy Cross Church. Reciprocal visits to services at both Peoples and Holy Cross were attended by over 70 parishioners from each church. Another ecumenical activity that took place was a trip to Temple
Beth El on a Friday night to witness a Jewish service. A social hour took place after the service so that more questions that our parishioners might have could be answered. No reciprocal activity appeared to have taken place.

Under the leadership of Glen Fawcett, Chair of the Commission on Missions, a successful School of Missions was planned and held with the theme, “The Affluence and Poverty Dilemma for Christians.” Other Methodist churches in the area were invited to participate.

In addition the Commission on Missions allowed Peoples people to have a presence in serving the needs of the Pride Training School for the Handicapped in South Portland and to be of service to the Pineland Center in North Yarmouth. We also helped financially in assisting a Gorham State College (USM) on her mission to the USSR. Internationally a collection was taken to support the India Famine Relief Initiative of the Methodist Church.

Ada Tordoff was serving as head of Membership and Evangelism during most of this period. In reporting membership in the Sunday School it was reported that the number of students and adults attending totaled 925, an average of 231 per week, for the four Sundays in the month of March 1965. In the month of April, which included Easter Sunday, the number of communicants averaged 341. On Easter Sunday alone, 553 members and friends of the church attended the one church service held. People sat in extra seats across the back, sat in another pew that is no longer there and some overflowed into the Pastor’s study. It was probably the attendance figures that originally led to the purchase and installation of a sound system that would also be heard in the vestry.

Tidbits:
The South Portland Fire Department in May 1966 cited the boiler room for its lack of fire retardency.

The Men’s Club sponsored Father and Son nights and the WSCS sponsored Mother and Daughter nights.

It was also during the mid 1960’s that the Pastors could stop hollering out the message as the first of the sound systems was purchased and installed, by the Brooks Bible Class.

As early as 1965 there were thoughts that the Maine Conference of the Methodist Church would merge with other in New England.

Bishop Matthews began an initiative to raise money for the library at Claflin College. Our Official Board voted to pay our portion which amounted to $9 to $12 of the $300 assessed for the Greater Portland District.

Dave Hoyt suggested that the church make sure that a library be considered when the new Education Building was built. He indicated that he had a number of books that he would donate and encouraged others to do the same.

The trustees invested in the lighting system that would show the beauty of the stained glass windows to the outside world at night.

2006-05-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

Part 38 Youth Play a Role through Mid’60’s

Prior to 1939 the Methodist Episcopal Church churches did have a group for teens called the Epworth League. The name of this organization was used by some of the arms of the Methodist Church, but not all of them. Beginning with that year, the year of a major merger, that formed The Methodist Church those concerned with the youth programs of those churches that came together adopted the name, Methodist Youth Fellowship or MYF, as the name that would carry on. It still would be a few years before that name was adopted throughout the Methodist church system.

By the early 1950’s MYF at Peoples was underway. One of the first church activities of the decade that the Youth participated in was an annual Public Lawn Festival held on the grounds of the church and parsonage held in June 1954. George Darling, Ron Tripp, Evelyn McKenney, Laurel Hoyt, Mary Brown, Paul Frost, Joanne Lowell and Mary Brown were among the members of the MYF that put on a musical and dance program at the festival. George and Ron were among those that served on the planning committee for the event. Later it was reported that a new Youth Council was organized at Peoples with Laurel Hoyt, Ron Tripp, Joanne Lowell and Louise Worthen served as the officers. The Council also included adult advisors who included the Reverend Elbert Parkhurst, Mr. and Mrs. David Hoyt, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Darling, Mr. and Mrs. John Tordoff and Miss. Ruth Allen.

In 1955 two youth members of Peoples, Laurel Hoyt and Ron Tripp, held offices on the Greater Portland Youth Council which was an organization of youth that included Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Episcopalians and Lutherans from the Greater Portland area. One of the major endeavors that the Youth Council sponsored was an Easter Sunrise Service each year at Fort Allen Park in Portland. While some churches were reluctant to allow local church youth to dance on the premises, the Youth Council did sponsor a dance at Trinity Episcopal for a number of years.

In part, because of his membership and leadership position on the Greater Portland Council, Arthur was chosen to participate in the United Nations Caravan in the fall of 1957. Several young folks from various denominations in Maine spent a week in New York visiting and studying the United Nations and its message to youth in general and Christian Youth in particular around the world. As part of his obligation, Arthur was invited to speak to a number of youth groups throughout Southern Maine.

For a number of years the youth of Peoples maintained a close association with the Greater Portland Youth Council as the leadership mentioned above eventually was replaced by two other young folks from Peoples, Arthur Tordoff and Paul Hahn. Memory has it that both participated in Easter Sunrise services one of which was held at St. Lawrence Congregational Church on Munjoy Hill, due to the fact that several inches of snow had made access to Fort Allen Park impossible. St. Lawrence today serves as a home for a number of theater groups. As late as 1963, Art Tordoff who was then serving as the advisor of the MYF was asked to give the message at the Eater Sunrise service.
The giving of this message was shared with Gary Chamberlain, eldest son of Reverend William Chamberlain, pastor at Peoples at this time.

Within the church the youth served in a number of capacities and sponsored a number of activities including lobster stew suppers. It was always a pleasant time when Peoples either hosted or went to meet with other youth groups usually in the Greater Portland area. Among the favorite groups to meet with were Clark Memorial, Peaks Island and Congress Street Methodist. Perhaps most memorable were the rallies that were had on the state level. One such gathering in 1956 had been in Wilton. Young folks were put up in homes for the weekend and enjoyed the short amount of time that we had with host families in Farmington, Livermore Falls and in Wilton.

The advisor for the MYF during these formative years was Miss. Ruth Allen. Miss. Allen had long been a member of the Peoples Church. She was very active in the church choir as well as serving in this capacity. Sometimes the members of the group would think that she was a bit too straight-laced. She certainly was a moral influence on us at a time when most of us were looking to expand our boundaries. As those of us who were influenced by Ms. Allen would today believe, her influence was perhaps what we needed. She was willing to take us almost anywhere to serve the Lord and to gain more confidence in ourselves even if we could not participate in some of the activities on a Sunday that were sponsored by other churches that we had get-togethers with.

Chris Darling (Ward) as President of the MYF reported that in the year 1958, the Senior MYF had sponsored “Canteens” for the Intermediate MYF, had given money to UNICEF, and had themselves taken part in a” Christian Convictions on Smoking and Drinking” program. Two years later the officers were Tommy LaGuire, Bertha Mandoff, Linnea Halko, young Malcolm Cass and Joanne Robinson. Most significant to this group were the number of Rallies that several members took part in. They mentioned in particular those that were held in Hallowell. Sally Taylor was the President of MYF in 1962. One of the activities that Sally mentioned that was most interesting was a series of programs that the Fellowship had in learning about other religious groups. They went to the Greek Orthodox Church, Temple Beth El, and Holy Cross as part of the program. Later in the year this group sponsored an International meal that was open to the church public. A German exchange student presented a program on Germany. A lot was included in the program in the fall of 1962 with developing a greater understanding of Methodist missions around the world.

Nancy Bruce serving as President in 1963 reported that Sunday evening programs were based on five areas of Faith, Outreach, Witness, Citizenship and Fellowship. A retreat began the fall planning at Camp Mechuana, an idea that had been initiated in the previous year. Money was raised for St. Jude’s Hospital and UNICEF. The Methodist sub-district MYF met at Peoples and heard Father Murphy from Holy Cross speak about differences with the Catholic Church. Christmas gifts were sent to a school in Puerto Rico and later the Youth sponsored and held a Midnight Christmas Vesper service.

In the following year President of Junior MYF, Wayne Taulbee, reported that the Intermediate Fellowship was strong with about 12 regular members. They were involved in a number of activities and that the other members serving as officers were Kathy Johnson, Kathleen Curry and Jeff Lavigne. The Senior High MYF at this time was led by David Tordoff and supported by Martha Robinson, Pam Parmenter, and Sandy Allen. David also served on the State MYF Executive Committee. The Maine Annual Conference Youth Rally was held in Westbrook in that year. Rallies were also attended by Peoples Youth at Mechuana and in Gorham. Again raising funds for worthy causes was part of the year with funds going to ALSAC and UNICEF. The report that had been submitted by David closed with the following prayer:” Help us, oh Lord, for we must be the ones to set the example—by Your help, we can be the Light in school today, and in the World—tomorrow.”

The leaders of the Junior High Youth group during this period of time were Mrs. Edna May Ellis (Reverend Blake Ellis’wife) and Bonnie Craigs. During this same time the advisor of the MYF was Arthur Tordoff who had just graduated from college and was beginning a teaching career at South Portland High School.

In 1965 leadership of the Junior MYF was taken by Bob Ellis and later in the year followed by Ronald Diffen. At the Senior level the leadership was presided over by Glenn Taulbee and assisted by Dave Porter, Jean Ellis, and Vern Taulbee. It was reported that the major topic of discussion and study concerned the war in Viet Nam. Activities during this year included volunteer time at the Pride Training School.

This is a picture of the years of youth organization at Peoples in the middle years of the 20th Century. More of the history of the Youth at Peoples will be forthcoming in a later edition of this series, Roots of Peoples. Looking ahead we will next be looking at events that took place in the decades of the 1970’s.

2006-04-20T08:03:00.000-07:00

Part 37 Civil Rights, Missions: Local and otherwise

For nearly a century the United States government had been on record that all men should be free. The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) was thought to guaruntee that. The Fourteenth amendment (1868) added citizenship as a privilege and responsibility for all men who had formerly been slaves and the Fifteenth Amendment (1870) presumably guaranteed all men over a given age should have the right to vote. It seems, however, that
over the course of time state laws that came to be known as “Black Codes” or “Jim Crow Laws” abridged those rights. Even the Supreme Court had judged that schools could be “Separate as long as they were (appeared) Equal” as found in the Plessy vs. Ferguson Case (1896). Even when the Methodist Church merged several elements of Methodism as late as 1939 equality was questioned and the Central Jurisdiction was a body created specifically for black members of Methodism.

In the 1950’s Civil Rights for Blacks gained the spotlight first with the notice of a little black woman who refused to move to the back of a Birmingham bus. Rosa Parks who died in October of 2005 was that woman. She was jailed and this in turn led to the first significant protest led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Violence was a part of the 50’s for these folks and many religious leaders both black and white took up the cause. The results of another court case, Brown vs. Topeka School Board (1954) paved the way for desegregation in southern educational institutions in particular. The North was not immune for soon bussing became the issue in order to ensure that segregation did not continue even in cities like New York, Philadelphia and Boston. To a degree the change of school lines even in Portland, Maine was the result of desegregation. It seems that while South Portland had few black families they too had felt the pains of segregation when their children were guided to pursuits that may have been below their abilities. I recall coming into the teaching profession in the 1960’s and finding one of my best friends from college having difficulty finding a job in education, even in his home town, which happened to be Portland.

The civil rights struggle began to wane when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Amendment 24 were added to the national law code. Equality of Civil Rights issues for all is still present with us today. Perhaps because our own community had not experienced the wrath that seemed to dominate the pages of the newspaper and the television screen we felt distant from the issue. It was, as has been mentioned in a previous episode, that it was because of the increased awareness of equal/civil rights that the Maine Methodist Conference and Peoples Church discontinued minstrel shows. New evidence and wisdom led Peoples people to honor loving all people by following the Lord’s wishes.

While we may have remained somewhat aloof at the struggles of Blacks in America, we were very much aware of the plight of Blacks in Africa. We had visits in the 1960’s from the Pyburn family, who had long been in Methodist Mission work in Africa. Later they would be stationed in Southeast Asia. Peoples remained very close to this family. The Commission on Missions sponsored a series of African Safari nights during the winter of 1961. In another series of programs the discussion was on “Our Problems with Alcohol”. It was reported by Helen Jewett that these meetings were especially well attended by members of the Methodist Youth Fellowship. Half of the Lenten offerings during several of the years in the 1960’s went to Missions support. The Methodist churches in the greater Portland area jointly sponsored a School of Missions. Certainly this church was deeply engaged in the support of missions and missionaries, near and far.

As mentioned earlier, it was during the 1950’s that our first association with Heifer International began. Sunday School association with this organization also continued. Heifers, goats, sheep and chickens were all saved for by the Sunday school and supported by the adults of the church throughout the 1960’s and beyond. A highlight of our relationship to the Heifer Project came in the fall of 1962 when Reverend Chamberlain went with a delivery crew of Heifer Project workers to British Guinea in South America. Later in the winter his trip and the slides that he took was the subject of one of the more successful family nights of that era.

The most ambitious project of a missionary nature was yet to come but not until the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. That project which we will include later was a multi-year commitment to assist Cambodian families in resettling in this area.

One of the other elements of mission that began to develop at Peoples during the 1960’s was the hiring of a second pastor with the specific intention that this person would serve as a visitor. Retiring at this time from many years in the pulpit was Reverend Louis S. Staples. A kind and generous man, Reverend Staples with his wife continuously visited members of our church who might be home bound, in the hospital or in nursing homes. This new ministry to Peoples kept those folks informed and a part of the church life. Countless miles were trod and hours given to the work of Peoples by the Staples. In addition Reverend Staples filled the pulpit at Peoples when Reverend Ellis was off. Reverend Staples also filled the pulpit at several other Methodist churches and those of other denominations in his retirement. It was certainly a blessing to have the Staples in our midst throughout the period of the 1960’s.

A note to John Robinson who was then the head of the Pastor Parish Relations Committee from Reverend Staples in December of 1965 read:
“Dear John:
After considerable thought, it is best for me to request a furlough
without pay as of December 1, 1965. This will ease my mind and be in
time to save writing a check.
I had no idea I was running into such a spell as I have had this Fall. The last time the Doctor came I talked with him to see if I should resign. He said no. So he evidently thinks I will get back on my feet in time. So I feel that if you wanted to consider it a furlough I could be at lease and take up the work when able. I don’t imagine, at my age, that I can expect to continue much longer. In my mind I still feel young, “as a man thinketh.”
After enjoying Christmas Sunday, I had to take to the bed again. Evidently the thrombosis in that knee was not wholly absorbed, or I did to much in the three days I was out.
Thank you for taking care of this. We have been very happy in our retirement work The fellowship in Peoples Church is unsurpassed.
Very cordially yours,
Louis S. Staples”
The dedication and love of Reverend Staples for our Lord is evident in this simple note of asking for a leave. Reverend Staples was already in his late 70’s or 80’s at the time of this request.

While the second pastor or administrative position took a hiatus for a number of years after Reverend Staples held the position, it would return during the 1980’s through the 1990’s and used in a variety of capacities.

One other activity to include at this point in the unfolding stories of Peoples that needs to be included is the membership’s involvement in the development of a Christian Coffee House in Portland. This initial attempt at being “on the street” was known as “The Gate” and found a home among the storefronts in what was once known as the Lafayette Hotel. The location was off the center of the downtown area and became an effective ministry for many years. The Gate Association consisted of representatives from a number of area churches who would raise money for the operation of this location and also gather individuals to keep the coffeehouse in operation. Peoples was one of those supporters both in the form of financial donations and in the supply of personnel to operate and counsel young folks who were invited to drop in, drink coffee and other beverages, play games and enjoy from time to time entertainment, often presented by themselves. In time the cost of support went up and the amount of support decreased. Likewise the number of young people who would avail themselves of the opportunity to sit and chat diminished as well and the Gate closed. Ironically such a location might have even been more appropriate in 2003 since directly across the street from this location the former Columbia Hotel, serves as a co-ed dormitory for the University of Southern Maine.

Long before Meals on Wheels was created and housing for the elderly was provided, the Christian Social Concerns Committee of Peoples formed a Mature Years Club. Members of the church would once a month go out to private homes and bring 16 to 20 elderly folks to the church education building for games, discussions and snacks. Sally LaVigne served as the chairman of this program of outreach. Certainly the change in living conditions for the elderly and programs provided through elderly and low cost housing supplanted the need for such a program housed here at Peoples. Programs that were popular in the past sometimes see themselves returning because of new needs and purposes.

To complete this episode in the life of Peoples we need to include the mission activities of Earl and Janice Nicholson. This couple had become active in the early 1950’s at Peoples. Earl was very much involved in Men’s Club and other church bodies while Janice who became a teacher at South Portland High School was active for many year’s in the women’s organizations and the Sunday School. At the end of their working careers the Nicholsons volunteered to spend a year on the reservation of the Winnebago (Santees) Indians in Nebraska. Earl worked with the tribal council with his business acumen while Janice taught science as well as tennis. At the end of their commitment to the tribe they returned to remain active in the life of Peoples. It was my pleasure upon their return to nominate them for the Social Justice Award of the Maine Annual Conference. It was also my distinct honor to present them with a plaque at Maine Annual Conference held at the University of Maine at Farmington on Saturday, June 14, 1980.

2006-03-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Part 36 So many issues

During the late 1950’s and into the 1960’s a tumultuous era of change was introduced to the American people. It was also a time when the innocence of a previous time came to a crashing end. It was a time of losing trust in others and it seems that while the “good times” seemed to continue it was also the worst of times. It seemed that American people could have almost anything they wanted. What was the use of taking years to save for something that could now be paid for on time. It might have been this alone that caused people to lose faith in the sense that what we should be allowed to possess was not as a result of our own ability to acquire what we wanted and desired, but that it was the will of God to provide what we needed and could share with others. While people became, in a sense, greedier for possessions it was also a period of unprecedented sharing with those in the world that had less than we. It was a period of growth in mission for churches, but also the American government became the most giving government that had ever existed on the face of the earth. The Job Corps at home and the Peace Corps overseas for the most part brought American ingenuity to some of the most poverty stricken areas of both our own country and the third world countries scattered around the world.

This was an era that spawned the most difficult police action that the United States ever became engaged in. The War in Viet Nam went on and on. Corruption in the government of South Viet Nam did not make American support of that country very popular. The zeal of North Viet Nam to win on their territory eventually caused many of the American troops and the American people to become disillusioned as the casualties mounted. Draft Riots at home and displays in other countries that were anti-American became more the rule. The turmoil over involvement in this war was not the only difficulty that had an effect on American people. People who were members of churches including Peoples were divided over which side was the right side for America and the world, if it is possible at all to say there is a right side in any war.

A number of social changes played a major role in changing the fabric of American culture. The ease with which a divorce could be achieved played and continues to be a major factor in family change and structure. The creation of the birth control pill also played a role in developing new mores in relationships or as many would say, helped American mores to decline. Adding to the difficulties presented by an increase in alcohol consumption was the introduction to many of the drug culture. At one time, it was thought that drugs were a problem only in the seamy locations of the largest cities. Not so as the ‘60’s progressed. By the middle of the ‘60’s marijuana was the new drug of choice. Many who thought this new drug to be less harmful did not have the opportunity to know what long-term effects might result. Other more powerful drugs such as cocaine and heroin would in time grow in use and several chemical drugs came into the abuse picture. Ironically the drug of choice for many before this was nicotine found in chewing tobacco, cigarettes and pipe tobacco. The consumption of these products has generally declined over the years although the percentage of women using tobacco increased while male consumption took a dramatic downward turn. It was not unusual for ash trays to be found on the tables at church functions or at the least seeing many men lined up on the sidewalk after a church function socializing and smoking.
As a teacher in the local high school one of our teacherly duties was to check the boy’s rooms to prevent students from smoking cigarettes. In the late 1960’s and beyond we found that the duty became more than simply “catching smokers.” We found that some of the darker corners of the school might be the gathering place for the young who were smoking something other than tobacco and perhaps even making exchanges of money for a bag of weed.

As the use of drugs and alcohol increased it seems that other related crimes also increased. There was an increase in break-ins and robberies. One of the actions that churches including Peoples took for the first time was to consider locking the premises. In 1959 the church official board ordered the doors of the education building to be locked. It would still be a few years before the whole of the church property would be locked, but that happened also. There were eventually some cases where the choir room was pilfered and personal items stolen even during church services while the choir and congregation were in the sanctuary.

In 1960, the trustees with the approval of the official board began to set rental fees for the use of the property. While natural to gain some remuneration for the use of the facilities it was also increasingly necessary to replace chairs and tables, repaint walls, and generally be more deliberate in maintenance of the property in part because more folks took less pains to take care of property.

In the early 1960’s the parsonage on Broadway as mentioned became the education building. This building was a driveway away from the church. On the other side of the education building was a garage and driveway and on the other side of that an open, but well manicured lot. The local boys often found that a convenient place to play ball given the fact that there were few open lots left in the neighborhood. Unfortunately or not , the trustees with the official board concurring decided to post No Trespassing signs on the property to prevent the destruction of this grassy area. Little did anyone know at this point that no more than five years later a campaign to move or raze the old parsonage/education building and build a new education/community facility would be under way. Certainly looking back to this period with 20/20 hindsight this action looks different than perhaps it did to the decision-makers of the church at that time. As I look back to the period I do recall that Peoples hosted the Maine Annual Conference in 1962 and that beautiful lot became an off-road parking facility for the many who came to Peoples for this once in the lifetime event for Peoples Church.

Periodically the front stairs of the church have been a gathering place also for local young folk. In 1961 the church fathers petitioned the city to place a streetlight in front of the church. Whether any damage had been caused to the property as a gathering place or not the effect of the new streetlight contributed to a reduction in the number of young people who gathered in that location. This episode is reminiscent of one reported earlier in this series of historical accounts. The front stairs of the old church in the village also had been a gathering place for the young men of the village on hot summer nights. Lights were erected in the 1920’s to also light the front of the church at that time. Ironically it was reported at that time the lights erected simply gave more light for more young men to come and “hang out”. Interestingly if one recalls those young men were avid listeners through the open windows of the sanctuary when local and travelling evangelists would speak from the pulpit.

We need remind the reader, however, that the 1960’s had their blessings as well. Membership at Peoples held strong at least on the books. The record keepers then claimed membership at over 600. Regular attendance at Sunday services was in the range of 200. The numbers in the Sunday school were still in the range of 200 also. The church received a number of gifts in this era. A set of offering plates was given in memory of Etta Robinson in November of 1959. A set of communion plates was received in memory of Blanche Pitts in 1962. Mrs. Leona Woodbury gave the grillwork that covers the organ pipes in 1962 with no expense left to the church. Later the Woodbury family added a set of chimes to the organ in Leona’s memory. The first sound system installed in the church including microphones and amplifiers and was given by the Larue family.

In 1961 a campaign to purchase the new Methodist hymnal was undertaken with many of the retiring hymnals being given to Camp Mechuana. The WSCS (Women’s Society of Christian Service) found the funds to purchase new tables for use in the Sunday school and for events held in the Vestry. The tables that were being replaced were six feet long with heavy-duty screw-in legs. The new ones were a big improvement over the old ones.
Some of the chairs purchased at that time were the green metal ones that are still being used in 2003. Larry Philips was responsible for installing in 1967 the spotlights that light the stained glass windows that face Broadway. At that time an outdoor spot was trained on the Rose window. When a new roof was built on Ellis Hall that spot was taken down and not replaced. Albert Hodgkins over the years did a number of electrical projects. One that he did in 1967 was to set up the signal between the organist and the ushers in the form of a warning light system.

Editorial Afterthoughts: Throughout this series of episodes in the life of Peoples, the writer has periodically included a look at what was happening beyond the walls of Peoples and its community of members. The purpose of looking beyond is to give a broader perspective of the times and the influence of regional and national and worldwide events on the local church community. A historian, by the nature of the position he/she holds, is responsible for reporting facts that would include people, places and events. It is also true that a historian is an interpreter of history and therefore is expected to place a personal perspective on what is written and reported. As the writing of this history continues there will be more people among the readers who will have lived the historical story that is presented and not see that story through the same eyes as the writer. This writer, therefore, encourages anyone who reads these articles with a different perspective on the content to submit their view. Again, as a research historian, I encourage additional perspectives to be submitted and published. This would certainly make the final product, The Roots of Peoples when completed a more definitive record of our churches history.
Art Tordoff

2005-10-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Part 35 Who to call when you need it fixed

Many folks have dedicated much of their life to The Church and there is no exception when considering those who have dedicated themselves to Peoples. In researching church records and documents from the 1950’s through the early 1980’s a name that comes up many times was Bernard Bruce. Some times “Bunny” was working as a trustee and other times his company was the successful bidder on larger church projects. It is not hard to believe that a number of the activities that he engaged in at church were also on his own.

The first instances of where Mr. Bruce was involved was in the installation of the wood work around the Rose Window which in turn was followed by weather-stripping and installation of outside doors both at the church and the parsonage which then was located as stated earlier on Broadway. Not all tasks that Mr. Bruce took on were large. Mr. Bruce installed all the small cardholders found on the back of the pews in the late 1950’s.

In order to advertise church events group leaders would place their advertising on walls and doors with tape. In time the goo from the tape would become difficult to remove and become unsightly. Mr. Bruce suggested that bulletin boards be placed throughout the church at entranceways and in the vestry. The suggestion was accepted and Mr. Bruce again volunteered himself to create and then install them. Many of those bulletin boards are still in existence throughout the church building.

In 1959, the steeple on the church was painted. It appears that the job fell to the Bruce Company which was done at a reasonable price. One of the bonuses of that contract was that Bunny ascended into the Bell Room, checked the condition of the bell, changed the rope and oiled the Bell’s bearings. It may have been the last time that was done although it may have been done again in the 1970’s when the outside of the steeple was vinyl sided.

When the new parsonage on Beverly Street was moved into and the old parsonage was vacated it again was Bernard Bruce and company that helped convert the old parsonage into an education building. It was he and his company that built a large fire escape from the second floor, a necessary activity in order to make the building compliant for safety purposes. Radiators were installed in the basement and the entire interior of the building was refurbished with paint.

Every time something needed to be repaired it seems that Mr. Bruce was called to fix it. Alterations were made inside the education building to allow for egress to the fire escape, bulletin boards were installed, changing the sinks and countertops in the Beverly Street parsonage, preparing the lofts on either side of the chancel for the new organ and its pipes, and installing the organ chamber grill work after installation were all projects that Mr. Bruce’s versatility was engaged in. The first cracks that appeared in the vestry wall in 1959 called for Mr. Bruce also. The stage floor in the vestry, renovations in the parsonage and the pastor’s study all claimed the expertise of this master of repair and construction.
With Pastor Chamberlain and his family moving in to the Beverly Street parsonage, the trustees wondered whether it was necessary and feasible to build a garage next to this house. Bernard Bruce was charged with investigating this possibility. Estimates of the project were developed, but at this time, and for that matter, for any time in the future, it was decided that the church did not have the money to afford this project.

In 1963, Bernard Bruce was called on to replace the linoleum and refurbish the kitchen in the parsonage for a cost of $600. For another $900, Mr. Bruce painted the parsonage and redecorated the front bedroom in September of 1963. Combination windows were also installed at the Beverly Street parsonage at that time.

It fell to Bernard Bruce to do an inventory of needs in 1965 and again in 1966 of items that needed to be tended to in the parsonage and church. The lists were extensive with some of the items being easily taken care of by members of the trustees and church while others were to be taken care of by professionals when money permitted. The exterior of the church was ready for scraping, puttying and painting once again in 1966 and it was the Bruce Company that submitted the estimate that was accepted. Sometimes it seems that the church and trustees were not always ready immediately to pay for the projects that Mr. Bruce had contracted to do.

In 1969 a building committee was formed to begin a drive to build a new education building. Earl Nicholson was chosen as the Chairman of this committee. Wilbur Ingalls was chosen as the architect to design this new edifice and eventually Langford and Low Construction was chosen to erect what eventually would become known as Ellis Hall. The building to be erected was built with a flat roof over the center of the building with four blocks of rooms built extending beyond the main roof. Basically all of the piping was placed in the cement base pad. This building was constructed and in use by 1971. Among the first groups using the building shortly after completion was the Mary group of young women, the Sunday school and a meeting of the Southern Maine United Methodist Men. Neither Mr. Bruce nor his company was engaged in the original building of Ellis Hall. We mention this note here because within an 8 year period, the parishioners began having some major construction difficulties with the new building. Pipes began to break below the slab and major reconstruction needed to take place with the piping eventually reconstructed above the surface, much of which can be seen at nearly roof level. At nearly the same time the heavy weight of snow on the flat roof began to produce rivers of leaks. The amount of weight on the roof also began to press down on the roof preventing the separator panels in the main area of the Hall to buckle or not open. In order to correct at least the roof issue Bunny Bruce and his company again was hired at a considerable amount of money to correct the problem. It was decided that flat roofs don’t work exceptionally well in snowy areas of the globe. What Mr. Bruce did was to elevate the roof and build the replacement roof with a four-way pitch that would prevent snow and water from accumulating. To date the repairs that were made at that time seem to have corrected the problem and Ellis Hall since has been host to many a celebration both for members and those wishing to hire the hall for activities.

After the original completion of Ellis Hall, the trustees and others suggested that the main entrance to the church was not handicapped accessible. The family of Lou McGouldrick also was interested in purchasing and installing an elevator from the main entrance of the church to the level of the sanctuary. Others contributed to the fund as well. The result on the outside was the construction of a new bricked and cement entrance platform with an adjoining ramp for wheelchair accessibility. The project to construct, build and supervise the outside entrance was awarded to Mr. Bruce and company. It is obvious that this project was one of the pioneer projects for handicapped accessibility in a public building in Maine. From that time it took until 2001 to begin the upgrade that now allows the entire Peoples complex to be handicapped accessible.

The last major element of construction according to the available records that I have had that involved Mr. Bruce concerns itself with the preparation of the present parsonage for livability. When the home at 154 Mussy Street was put up for sale in the early 1990’s the trustees and the church thought it wise to negotiate its purchase. The house, built in 1910, was found to be of good construction and relatively ready for occupancy. Mr. Bruce was hired to modernize the kitchen, build a storage area to the back of the house, and to build a large deck. The Arnolds, the Schusters, the Nachbars and the Beddies have now lived in the home and all felt its comfort. Now the Arrisons; Gwyneth, Jamie, Faith and Dena reside in the house and all have Mr. Bernard Bruce and others who have worked on the house lovingly since for the convenience and beauty of the latest home to serve as a parsonage, the fifth parsonage in the history of Peoples United Methodist Church.

While there are many other individuals, men and women, who have contributed much to the history of Peoples, Bernard Bruce stands out as one of those major contributors, who’s dedication to God, Peoples’ United Methodist Church and to the people of the church and community is one for us all to emulate.

Little would anyone know that that little boy in the junior choir in the late 1920’s would have grown to have contributed so much to the Lord’s work.

2005-10-18T07:56:00.000-07:00

Part 34 A Beehive of Activity

In the 1950’s, Peoples was a beehive of activity. The Boy Scouts had sponsored a troop since 1918. Originally it was number 3, meaning third in the nation. At some point the number designation became 23 which was the recognizable number at Jamborees, Camporees and camping experiences from the late 1940’s to the present day. Joining the longstanding troop were Cub Pack 23, and an Explorer Post in the 1950’s. Over 100 young men and their families were engaged in scouting experiences during that period of time. Not to be outdone the young women of the church and community joined a healthy growing organization of Girl Scouts, including Brownies for those not yet old enough for the older organization. It was always a pleasure to see large number of Scouts attending and with families participating in Scout Sundays for the males in February and the females in March. While Troop 23 continues to provide young men with skills development the strong feeder program of Cub Pack 23 ceased its operations in the 1990’s. One would assume that the reason for this was a lack of willingness to lead on the part of parents and the many other activities available to children in the local area. Beginning in the 1920’s there was also a group of Campfire Girls that made their home at Peoples. According to Hillie Cass who was a member, Betty Ward was the leader of that group. Ms. Ward in the 1940’s to late 1950’s was also the leader of the Junior Department of the Sunday School. One of those memorable experiences that members of the Junior Department were fortunate to experience was the annual picnic held at the Ward cottage on Long Island during the summer months. This writer cannot recall when that event was held in any weather other than the most beautiful conditions a Maine coastal outing could experience.

This also was an era when the Epworth League became the Methodist Youth Fellowship for high school age youth. Ruth Allen was the long time advisor of the Senior Youth. Under the leadership of Mr. John Tordoff and Josephine Wood an Intermediate Fellowship was also organized and thrived. These organizations helped to augment the Christian education program of the Sunday school. Sunday morning Sunday School attendance during this time averaged 330 children and staff. Conditions were unbelievably crowded at a time when Ellis Hall didn’t exist. It was the overcrowded conditions that prompted the Trustees and other leaders to convert the parsonage next to the church into an Education Building. A new parsonage was purchased on Beverly Street. Until that time, the Senior High Sunday classes were often held in the sanctuary since there was no where else that wasn’t inhabited by either the Primary or the Junior Department. Some who can still remember the divided wall, remnants of which can still be seen in the vestry, served as the division between being a child and being a maturer worldly 10-13 year old.

The Maine conference had purchased a camp on Lake Narrows in Winthrop, which opened in the early 50’s. Many young folks of school age took advantage of the camp for weeks at a time. What a beautiful location and how inspirational it was to have a campfire under the tall pines, looking up at the stars and singing, “We are climbing Jacob’s ladder.” Monies left in the Walter Campbell Fund were used to provide scholarships for Peoples kids to go to Camp Mechuana. Later the Hahn family added to the scholarship fund and over the years perhaps 100 young members of this parish have enjoyed the beauty of that spot, a place to meet with other young people from all over the state. Equally important to the teens meeting as a Youth Fellowship, were the opportunities made available to attend youth rallies all over the state and to enjoy the company of others at joint youth fellowship meetings.

Fellowship in the form of socializing for the adult members of the church community were not neglected either. The Kouples Klub took care of the socializing needs of a large group of young to middle age couples. Later because the organization wanted to be open to all adults the organization changed its name to Saturday Niters. Originally the organization met to eat, talk, dance, watch films and play games once a month. As the group aged it met four times a year. Usually the fall meeting was a lobster/clam bake, at Christmas the members met at someone’s home and had a gift swap and carol sing. In the spring the entertainment might be a speaker, musical group or a game competition, but whatever the plan food was a part of the package. In May or early June the “Niters” met for a Progressive supper. Hors d’ouvres were served at one or two houses, the main course at someone else’s home and finally dessert at a third or back at the church for an evening of continuing entertainment. Alas interest waned, primarily in the desire to lead and the group ceased to function in the early 1990’s.

An active men’s club developed during this period of time at Peoples. In 1957 one of the projects that the men’s club engaged in was the painting the parsonage exterior. There was a question of liability if someone was hurt by falling from the ladders. Ernie Blackinton was put in charge of seeing if this would be a problem. The church insurance apparently would cover this kind of activity so the men got their ladders, paint buckets, brushes and scrapers and proceeded to do the outside of the parsonage next to the church. The men’s club was responsible for not only doing the job, but paying for the supplies as well. There had been talk in trustees that if the men had not done this project and a professional had to be hired that the trustees would have to remortgage the parsonage in order to afford the project. The Men can claim several other projects in this era. One such project was the purchase of the American Flag and the Christian Flag that would be properly displayed in the Chancel of the Sanctuary. Another was that in 1958 the men purchased two directional signs, one being near the present library on Broadway and the other on the corner of Mt. Pleasant cemetery. These signs gave direction to Peoples Church. Another project that was proposed by Walter Winchenbach was to plant ivy along the Broadway side of the church. After consulting plant growers and masons it was decided not to do this as ivy fully grown was discovered to do great damage to mortar and brick construction.

During the first 10 years that the sanctuary was used flooring was simply two-colored brown tile. In 1958 bids were taken on carpeting the sanctuary aisles. Several bids were received and Gulian’s Carpet Company was chosen for the project. Carpet would be extended into the aisle area between the two choir lofts. A muted red was the chosen color. Gulian’s said that if the trustees could make a decision by the following Monday they would install the carpet for $1700. While the trustees delayed a little that bid was chosen and accepted by the carpet company. The other two bids were for $2400 and $2800. The decision obviously was quite good at the prices for that period of time. Carpet has graced the aisles ever since.

In looking at membership of the trustees during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s you will note that the entire membership was male. Walter Winchenbach, Granville Nickerson, Irvin Willey, Malcolm Cass (President) John Robinson, Victor Green, Armand Hahn and Bernard Bruce were the primary members with Harvey Woodbury also serving as Custodian of Legal Documents. It would not be for several more years before a woman was chosen to serve on this significant committee of the church. Bill Chamberlain was the pastor at this time. In the next episode of this continuing saga of the church the writer would like to single out one member of this group that often is overlooked in his gifts to Peoples church, that being Bernard Bruce. All of these men played significant roles in church life over a number of years, but when it came to repair, patching and full time construction of the property, Mr. Bruce is the example that others since have emulated.

2005-10-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Part 33 Sunnyside Up or Was It?

Another activity that became very popular in the late 50’s was the annual Sunnyside Minstrels. Not uncommon from the 20’s through the first few years of the 60’s, the Minstrel Show served primarily to entertain local audiences that grew in size each year the Minstrel Shows were held. The Shows also brought out the talent of members of the congregation, in some cases, never before known or for that matter never seen again! There was comedy performed mostly by the Endmen, individual singing, vaudeville type skits and tableaus, choral extravaganzas and good plain fun. Endmen carried on conversations in the form of corny jokes, sang a solo and/or danced, played musical instruments all in black face. Those who can remember those days might recall the antics of Earl Nicholson, Ernie Arey, Phil Allen, John Eastman, Red Timms, Normy Jewett and John Tordoff. Who could forget the song stylists like Hillie Cass, Dottie Blackinton, the Allen kids and little Davey Swanson. Then there was the Minstrel chorus that perhaps engaged as many as 20 folks of all ages. All of the musical pieces involved the inimitable piano impresario, our own Dr. Malcolm Cass. Lest we forget the whole show was held together by Mr. Interlocutor, Bert Farnum, Kevin Malcom’s grandfather. The message of what was intended was wrapped up in the words of the theme song, “Sunnyside Up”. It was an age of innocence when considering the black face of the endmen and the jokes that were made. It was also an age when those involved were proud to sing the meaningful and moving lyrics of a Negro Spiritual or a patriotic American song such as, “When the Saints Go Marching in” or “God Bless America” with gusto.

The above was not uncommon throughout New England, but times change and people grew to realize that what is fun for some can be misery for others, namely those that appear to be made fun of. The issue of Minstrel Shows in New England and specifically Maine became a human relations issue of the Maine Conference with a lengthy statement made and agreed to in 1962. The following is from the Maine Conference Journal of 1962.
“We resolve that the Methodist Church discourage the demonstration and execution
of any type of activity inclined to reflect unfavorably upon any racial or national
group. Of especial concern to Methodists should be the cessation of minstrel
shows and like entertainment which perpetuates a stereotype of the Negro as an
amoral, vagrant, and non-contributory member of society. We refer you to the
following statement prepared by the Rev. M. Ronald Beinema, Sixth Street
Congregational Church, Auburn, Maine, for the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.
Minstrel Shows in New England
In most New England towns the Minstrel Show is not looked upon the same as it is in
southern, or even some midwestern towns. Here the Minstrel Show is considered by most
people to be only a vehicle for the presentation of a “variety show” with jokes (often
without dialect), stunts and music performed by amateurs. Even the music is often
“modern” and not of the “Old Black Joe” variety. Without that it is not thought to be a
Minstrel.
Also, the number of Negroes (remember this was in 1962) in a typical New England town
is so small—or non-existent—that the idea of a Minstrel Show that embodies the use of
“black face”, Negro dialect—jokes and songs could be offensive to anyone is considered
absurd. People ask: “Who does it hurt?”

In addition, most New England Minstrel Shows do not tell Negro jokes but rather blackface and dialect as one might use a mask to portray a character on stage. The jokes themselves are almost always “told on” the assembled audience. The ridiculous costumes, dialect, blackfaces, etc., are all merely vehicles for what is otherwise a straight variety show. (Blackface and minstrel numbers had become nationally well known through two well-known actors of the 1920-1940 period, Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor.)

What then is wrong with this typical New England Minstrel Show, and why should we be concerned with it? Perhaps the best way to get at the answer is to state some of the misconceptions about New England Minstrel Shows and answer them one by one.

First, it is often said that the Minstrel Show is a way to elevate Negro music for which the American Negro should be proud and grateful. This assumption that the music used in a Minstrel Show is Negro music is a common misconception. Minstrel music is not Negro music but “song and dance pieces which more or less caricature the primitive Negro.” They are for the most part composed by white men and though they dealt with the more obvious traits of the untutored Negro, they were by no means Negro music.

Secondly, it is often said that the Minstrel Show is not designed to caricature the Negro, but merely to serve as a vehicle for telling jokes on the assembled crowd. Be that as it may, whether by design or by accident, the Minstrel Show nevertheless does present a distorted caricature of the American Negro, which is neither healthy nor American. And the presence or absence of Negroes in a given community does not minimize the disservice that is being done to the American Negro! In fact, where no Negroes live in the community, the caricature that the Minstrel Show perpetrates is even more insidious since there is no standard readily available to contradict the impression made. Children and young people especially, are given the idea that all Negroes are like the ones enacted on the state of the local town hall or community club. And the Negro caricature that is most often portrayed there, is one in which the Negro is made to appear stupid, unfaithful, unreliable, lazy, awkward, loud and a drunkard. This is not done maliciously, but in a “caricaturish” fashion, which in many ways makes more of an impression than any direct, frontal assault could do.

Third, it is said that if the Minstrel Show, is objectionable because it uses dialect jokes and caricatures racial characteristics, then this sort of sensitivity in its ultimate would make all humor based upon national or racial characteristics impossible. To this we say, not true! Caricatures of national characteristics such as Scottish, Irish, English, etc., are not the same category. These groups are secure, and therefore, fair game—within bounds. But groups that are struggling for legal rights and equality in a society are not fair game—especially not if the “game” is perpetuating the very stereotypes and misinformation which every sensitive non-prejudiced person is seeking to correct. The American Negro is not unlike the “Handicapped” person, about whom no one makes jokes with impunity (At least according to the preparer of this statement and we agree this should not be done.) And more than this, jokes and caricatures of the Scottish, Irish and English are basically “good” stereotypes, in that they take what are otherwise admirable qualities (thrift for the Scottish, tenacity and pride for the Irish, reserve and propriety for the English.) and taking these, caricature them. Something very different is involved in the caricaturing of the American Negro. None of the fine and noble qualities of Negroes are caricatured; only the unflattering and ignoble ones.
Let us finally come to the recognition that the typical New England Minstrel Show is just
as much a blight upon the nation as “Little Rock”. Let us recognize this, and with mutual
understanding and vigor, do all we can do to undercut the “Acceptability” of this practice
in our New England towns and cities.”

Thus the end of an era came. “Variety Show” headlined the marquis of local community groups including Peoples Methodist Church. Gone were the endmen, the blackface, the dialectical telling of jokes. No longer was there a Mr. Interlocutor, but instead an Emcee. Many of the same songs were sung and the chorus still dressed in frilly dresses and white shirt, bow tie and black pants. The show would go on, but America and we at Peoples had learned much during the 1950’s about our Black brothers and the struggles they had been going through. We needed to do our part in recognizing that all men, women and children should be treated equally and have equal opportunities including common courtesies that were increasingly less obviously reflected in the Minstrel Show.

Editorial Afterword: Sometimes a part of an institution’s history may raise issues when looking at that issue from the perspective of a period of time removed from the era that is illustrated. The above inclusion is just one of those subjects that raises issues. It is hoped that by reading the entire episode the reader can feel that nothing happens in isolation. It is hoped that those who read this history might sense the innocence of participating in a minstrel show in the 1920’s through 1950’s. Time, and sometimes a very short amount of time, changes that feeling and we as Christian brothers and sisters accept that as past and have our eyes opened to a better way of developing brother and sisterhood.

2005-10-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

Part 32 One Hundred Years and Growing

1953 was the year that Peoples Methodist Church celebrated 100 years since the church was built in Cape Ferry. A celebration was planned and the committee was made up of Mrs. John B. Tordoff, Mrs. Granville Nickerson, Henry A. Nelson, Mrs. George Robinson, Mrs. Walter Winchenbach, Mrs. Irvin Willey, and Harvey D. Woodbury. Some of the leaders of this celebration group were representing families that had been a part of the church for many years while others rather recently had joined the church. The celebration in that year was to be a Friday evening dinner. The pastor at the time of the celebration was Lawrence Porter who would be leaving the Peoples pastorate in this year and becoming the District Superintendent.

Members of the planning committee represented some interesting and varied backgrounds. Mr. Nelson was a tobacco company salesman, Mrs. Tordoff was married to a meatpacker, and Mrs. Nickerson’s husband worked for the Maine Central Railroad. Mrs. Robinson had been one of the first women to serve in the Maine legislature among a variety of other activities including the responsibility of developing the first welfare program to be found in South Portland. Mrs. Winchenbach’s husband had been one of the founders of the Portland Rubber Company. Mrs. Willey, a housewife and mother, like many of the other women on this panel was married to a very successful gasoline station operator. Mr. Woodbury, like his father before him, had served in the administration of the Maine Steel Company that was followed by the Portland Copper Works. We mention the backgrounds of members of such committees to show how the congregations’ membership had changed from primarily the farmers and fishermen that had originally come together one hundred years before to start the Cape Ferry church. Certainly a large percentage of the church membership had also worked in fish processing with several sardine canneries to be found along the shore on Front Street.

At the same time that the church was celebrating its 100th year since establishment at Cape Ferry it was also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the formation of the Peoples Methodist Choir. Celebrating with a concert, the choir, under the direction of Mrs. Albert Tilton included Mrs. Emma Hamilton, Norman Jewett, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Winchenbach, and Mrs. John Woodbury. The resident organist was Dr. Malcolm Cass. Many more members of the choir participated in this event. Music has always played a significant role in the life of Peoples Church.

During the late 50’s, as mentioned in Part 18 a fund drive began to replace the old organ and to purchase the organ that graces the sanctuary today. Other elements of the fund drive at that time were to convert the parsonage next door to the church into an education building. Additionally since the parsonage was to be used for other purposes it was necessary to search for a new one. Eventually a home on Beverley Street, a few blocks distant from the church, was purchased and our pastors lived there until the 90-year-old home at 154 Mussey Street was purchased and the Beverley Street home was sold to the Douglas Greers who were members of the church.

At the time that the side stained glass windows in the sanctuary were dedicated the cost of placing the three windows in the back of the church was considered to be too much for the congregation to support. Since the mortgage was not paid off some of the conservative members of the church felt that the church should concentrate on reducing the existing debt before taking on any more. It wasn’t that the leadership wasn’t interested because the trustees were allowed to go ahead and find out what the cost of the three windows would be. Trustees and the church membership had been pleased with the stained glass work and installation of the story windows on either side of the sanctuary. Whittimore Associates of Boston, Massachusetts had also created the Rose window in the chancel. The trustees negotiated again with this company to create and eventually install the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension with proper symbolism at the base. After representatives from the company measured and on paper created the designs for each a letter in 1952 indicated that the cost would be $3500. It was actually another four years before the trustees felt that they could launch a memorial campaign that in time would pay for the windows. By that time and making sure that the windows would be double casement with double steel ventilators incorporated in the two side windows the trustees were ready to hear another cost figure. The new figure was $4150.00. An agreed to down payment of $1384.00 on the windows was made and the rest would be raised through contributions and paid annually over the next two years. Can you imagine the cost of such quality artwork today? Certainly those cautious handlers of funds in the 1950’s had found a way to provide long lasting beauty for years to come. More importantly their love of the Lord, Jesus Christ and his ever present Spirit remain with us and surround us every time we worship, pray and become Spirit-filled in this sanctuary.

The 1950’s was a busy time at Peoples. At the same time that the stained glass windows project was nearing completion the last payment on the church mortgage was made to the Division of National Missions of the Board of Missions of the Methodist Church in the amount of $1318.17. Albert S. Adams who was the director of this Methodist Division wrote:
“ Please convey our best wishes and thanks to your church people for the fine
way this loan was cared for. I know it will be a day of gratification and rejoicing
when you celebrate this financial victory, and trust that it will lead to many such
victories both financial and spiritual in the future.”
Mr. Adams also said:
“ If you are planning a mortgage burning ceremony please do not burn the
original documents but some substitute. It would be well if the original
Mortgage Deeds be retained in the archives of your church, probably in your
safety deposit box.”
This certainly was fair warning for those that might have thought that the true burning of a mortgage meant the real deeds.

Dedications of a new church cannot be completed before a mortgage is fully paid off. The Dedication Ceremony of the church officially took place on February 2, 1958, which was just ten years and one month after the opening of the full church building. From the forward of the booklet prepared for that celebration:
“ Many things could be said about a book which is published at the time of the dedication of the church. The dedication time is a time of great rejoicing. It is a time of success. It is the culmination of years of hoping, praying, planning, building and responding to obligations. We are a privileged people as we come to participate in the dedication of The Peoples Methodist Church.”
And:
“As we see the work of Christ in the life of our church, may we, in faith and assurance, dedicate not only our church but our very lives to the service of the Master.”

These powerful words should be as important to us in 2005 as it was for the members of Peoples in 1958.

Significant leaders of the church were involved in the dedicatory service on Sunday, February 2, 1958 including Bishop John Wesley Lord, District Superintendent Lawrence D. Porter, Pastor of Peoples from 1949-53 and Reverend William Chamberlain, Minister of Peoples at that time. Later in Reverend Chamberlain’s career he would also serve as District Superintendent.
A Dedication Banquet had been held on the previous evening with the Reverend Travis Smith as guest speaker. On the evening of the second of February, a Family Fellowship was held with Box Lunch supper, informal hymn sing and a display of church mementos.

2005-06-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Part 31 A Decade of Celebrations Amid International Conflict

The war years were over, or so everyone thought, but the year 1950 ushered in a conflict in the Far East, this time in Korea. Thousands of American servicemen saw overseas time protecting the independence of South Korea, a country that had evolved shortly after the close of World War II. It had been in the hands of Japan during the war years and even before that the country had been known as Chosun China. At the end of the war Korea had been divided in half at the 38th Parallel. Influenced by the Communists of both China and the USSR, the North Korean army crossed the line and invaded South Korean territory. Through the newly formed United Nations the United States and several other member nations dedicated themselves to throwing back the invaders and supporting the notion of freedom in South Korea. It was not an easy task to get the Security Council to agree to this endeavor since even one veto from the “Big Five” members of this council would cancel the possibilities of entering the conflict. The vote to enter was taken on a day when the representatives of the USSR were peeved at the actions of the United States and others and therefore were not present when the vote was taken. Three years after entering the conflict the war was over. American leadership had changed at home and since the North Koreans had been driven back across the 38th parallel and were losing additional land they sued for peace and a long-term overseeing commission was left to iron out the details. Prisoners of war were released yet thousands of lives had been lost in the conflict.

Perhaps there are many people who would read this paragraph on the Korean Conflict and wonder why it should be included in this document regarding the history of Peoples United Methodist Church. There are several reasons among which was the fact that some of the membership of this church and certainly relatives of its members saw military service directly in Korea or at the least served in support capacities for the war effort. Equally there were members of the church that outwardly advocated against such action so far from home and with the belief that involvement was not what the Lord would wish us to be engaged in. The other major item that struck the writer of this chapter was that the Methodist Church had been building religious and political force in Korea since 1930, but its growing membership was emphatically effected by the invasion from the North. Some leaders of the Korean church were rounded up and never heard from again. In some similar instances in the past the persecution of a religious group, Christians in the past and most recently to this time Jews, steeled themselves with the support of the Lord Jesus Christ and survived what could have been another Holocaust. One can only see the magnitude of influence that the Methodist Church had on Koreans in the days, years and decades after the war was over. The Korean United Methodist Church, overcame the persecution of the invasion years and grew strong in the work of the Lord. As an arm of Methodism, today, it has a spiritually powerful influence in Korea. Additionally we know of the strength of Methodism among Koreans who have made their homes in the United States, in the New England Conference and even locally as found at the Rainbow United Methodist Church in Portland. At this writing the beloved Superintendent of the Tri-state district is Paul Chang, a gentle man whose influence has been felt on the local level, district level and conference level.

That conflict may have come to an end and yet conflict continued to grow with the USSR and its influence over Eastern Europe and the Far East. The Dulles Doctrine proclaimed in the mid-1950’s said that the United States would continue to defend countries in the Far East, just as the Truman Doctrine had left United States influence on Southeast Europe in the late ‘40’s. Missionaries of the Methodist church and others serving in the mission fields found themselves often in difficult conditions. In many instances missionaries were pulled out of their locations and sent elsewhere because their national affiliations feared for their lives. In several instances that was proved to be true and some missionaries lost their lives because their goodness and belief in the Lord were a threat to opposing political philosophies.

The period of the 1950’s saw the influence of the Methodist church in every corner of the globe expanding to meet ever mounting social and spiritual needs of a multitude of suffering souls. It was a period of time when the missionaries were always in the prayers of local parishioners and local Missionary societies or other church organizations were very active in supporting missionaries in the field whether in Africa, Asia or South America. One does not usually think of the need for mission work in Europe and North America, but Methodist mission representation developed on those two continents as well
While the Methodist Church had started an overseas relief program in 1940, the great impetus of need in the 1950’s strengthened this program and in 1968 this program became known as UMCOR or United Methodist Committee on Overseas Relief. Likewise another international organization that has periodically been supported by initiatives from Peoples is the Heifer Project which had begun in 1944 with a shipment of cattle to Puerto Rico. Peoples involvement began in the late 1950’s and has continued periodically since then.

From 1957 to 1963, the pastor of Peoples was William Chamberlain. It was probably during his ministry that Peoples became close for the first time to the Heifer Project. The students in the Sunday School came to church one Sunday and found a Heifer calf in a pen on the front lawn of the church. The reality of what would be sent to help develop herds in other countries was visibly observed in the presence of that calf. Later in Reverend Chamberlain’s career he actually worked on a crew that delivered calves to a site in Latin America. Since that time other shipments that Peoples have raised funds for have included more calves, chickens, goats, and pigs. Usually the Sunday school has been the sponsor, but this project has also been supported by both the Men’s and Women’s organizations.

2005-06-22T07:42:00.000-07:00

Part 30 Memorial Dedications

A little more than a year after the new sanctuary was opened for services the church celebrated with a special service to dedicate the stained glass windows that grace the sanctuary as well as other significant appointments in the chancel. The date was March 20, 1949. Place yourself in the pew that you may have greatest remembrance of or in the choir loft and picture yourself in that setting at 11 AM on the aforementioned date. You were probably seated by one of four ushers; John Robinson, Donald Barnes, Raymond Greenlaw or Bradford Seabury. You have heard the nearly 20 member junior choir sing, “Thine Forever” by Tillotson under the direction of the Pastor’s wife, Kit Smith and Mrs. Granville Nickerson. You also witnessed the sixteen or so member Senior Choir march in from the back of the sanctuary and follow the junior choir with their anthem, “Sanctus” under the direction of Mrs. Albert D. Tilton. A second senior anthem was sung titled, No Shadows Yonder” by Gaul. You had become settled in your pew to the strains of the pipe organ played by Dr. Malcolm Cass during the Organ Meditation and Prelude. On this occasion you heard Franck’s “Chorale in A Minor” followed by “Benedictus” created by Reger. After singing hymns and a responsive reading, the pastor took the scripture for the day from Psalm 91. Reverend Smith’s sermon followed and was titled, “The Foundation.”
As part of the regular Sunday morning worship service the Lay Leader, Mr. Henry Nelson, said, “In the name of the donors of these Memorials, I present them to the Church as memorials to be dedicated to the glory of God.” In response the President of the Trustees, Walter W. Winchenbach said: “ For the people of this church, we accept thee gifts as sacred trusts, and shall guard them reverently, in honor of the faithful and devoted lives to whose memory they are given.” Pastor Travis Smith followed with: In the faith of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I dedicate these memorials to the glory of God, and in the memory of the servants whose names we have read; in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The dedication was followed by a dedicatory prayer offered by Reverend Smith. “Almighty God, without whom no words or works of ours have meaning, but who dost accept the gifts of our hands as tokens of our devotion, may these memorials which we now dedicate to thee be enduring witnesses before all thy people of thy faithful servants. And may our lives be joined with thy faithful ones in a deeper consecration to thy kingdom.”

The stained glass windows depict The Life of Christ and were designed by William R. Jack. The windows on the side walls of the sanctuary are The Nativity, The Boy Jesus In the Temple, The Good Samaritan, The Sower, Jesus Preaching in the Boat, The Good Shepherd, Gethsemene and The Last Supper. On the back wall of the Sanctuary are the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension. They were not dedicated at this time since they had not yet been ordered. The Founders Window above the main entrance to the church was rededicated, but the Tree of Life that seems to be a natural border for the Founders was not placed in that location until much later as well.

In addition to the dedication to the windows the Pulpit, Lectern, Altar, Baptismal Font, The Bible, The Cornice, Right and Left Hymn Boards, Offering Plates, Organ Console and the Narthex Lantern were all dedicated on this date. While it has not been indicated to whom these elements were dedicated, that information will be available at a future date when an appropriate book, in the works, is published. New hymnals joined the dedicatory celebration as well.

Information found in this edition of Roots has been taken from the bulletin for the described date. It is also interesting to note what else was going on in the life of the church and times. There was a regular weekly Sunday night church service and that on this date the pastor would give a second sermon titled, “The World Mission of the Church”. Henry Nelson and Walter Winchenbach would serve as ushers on that occasion.

A Father and Son Scout Booster night was scheduled in the vestry for the next day, Monday, March 21. The program was to consist of movies and a magician as well as supper. All of this could be enjoyed for a grand total of $1.00 for both the father and the son! On the next night the Mary and Martha Circle was sponsoring a Fashion Show that featured women’s clothing from Porteous, Mitchell and Braun. Tickets were available from any member of this group.

In the very same week, on Friday night, the Wesleyan Guild was sponsoring a Conora Fried Clam Supper in the vestry. The price per person was $1.50. It was a good thing to plan such an event on the Friday night as opposed to Saturday so that the cooking fats and smoke would dissipate by the time church was to be held on Sunday.

Scheduled for the fourth Wednesday in Lent the Reverend Lester L. Boobar, Superintendent of the Portland District of the Maine Conference was scheduled to speak at the Peoples Methodist Church sponsored Lenten Service. His topic was “ The Family Needs Christ”. The sponsor of this even was the Methodist Men. The average attendance for these services was 80 and remember this service was not a cluster service, but this church alone.
Included in this bulletin was a note to remember to contribute to the “Denial Offering” for the Needy.

Some ideas that come from the past need to be left there, but the value of historical documentation is that perhaps some of those old ideas may have found their time in the life of the church again. It is also possible that what was in the past can never fully be reimplemented under the format of its time but may be brought back via some other means.

2005-06-13T07:39:00.000-07:00

Part 29 The New Church rises, but not without controversy

The beautiful new sanctuary of Peoples Methodist Church saw its first service held there on December 21, 1947. The Lord’s Supper was served at 8:00AM and the first formal worship service was held at 10:45 AM on the same day. At 7:30 PM a Christmas Candlelight Service closed this eventful day.

The formal opening of the church and sanctuary took place at 11:00 AM on the morning of January 4, 1948, three and a half years after the groundbreaking had taken place. Bishop Lewis O. Hartman was the main speaker. In his remarks he stated that the building of this church was the greatest undertaking on the Boston area during this quadrennium. District Superintendent Lester Boobar led the worship and Pastor Smith formally opened the church.

Seating in the sanctuary was made more formal through a financial gift that Meredith and Leland Trefethen had made that allowed new pews to be installed. In keeping with the motif of the pews the lectern was dedicated to Reverend Felix Powell, the Pulpit dedication was to Reverend Walter H. Cass and the Altar was dedicated to Reverend Charles A. Brooks. Each of these items were had the cross and circle etched in gold on the face of each, excepting the altar which was embossed with the Greek symbol for Christ.

While the whole church was now ready for service and services there still seemed to be some pain existent between the church trustees and the architect who had been chosen years before to design and oversee the construction of the church. One of the bones of contention seemed to be in the manner and materials that the ceilings in both the sanctuary and the chancel were completed with. In an effort to save some money in construction and finish costs the architect, John Howard Stevens, offered a suggestion to use a Craftex paint over plasterboard on the ceiling of the sanctuary as opposed to the original call for lathe and plaster. In a response in 1946 from the trustees it was indicated that that would be okay although it was a reluctant agreement. Mr. Stevens had also indicated that the Galli Company would not cover any of the “tie-ins” near the upper side walls to give the look more of a gothic connection to the exposed beams. Mr. Stevens had also suggested that the Chancel would be finished in a plain white paint, not Craftex which again was agreed to by the trustees. Upon completion of both areas there appeared to be agreement on the Sanctuary ceiling in that it appears that all concerned thought it looked good. Mr. Stevens felt that the seams between plasterboard sheets, in a study that he did one evening with the lights on made the seems to obvious. His recommendation would be to add “fake rafters” divisions in the chancel ceiling at two-foot vertical intervals that he thought would blend better with the beams in the sanctuary. Trustees thought at this time that it would add too much to the cost and voted against it at this time. Mr. Stevens did suggest that when the parishioners were ready to add the organ pipe grillwork that they could do the raftering at that time. As one can witness today, the chancel ceiling is still plain and the rafters were never added in that area.
Another issue that seemed to raise some controversy was that members of the trustees wanted to have some of the memorial windows from the old church placed in the sidewall on the Broadway side of the sanctuary. Already it was known that the windows that would grace Peoples Church would in time be ordered and installed. If the old windows were to be included according to the architect it would throw the symetry off since the old memorial windows would not be the same size and it would mean that the window areas would have to be cut differently. There was a great deal of controversy over whether to include them or not. The decision that was finally made was to have at least one of the new windows dedicated to the family honored by the original memorial windows. What happened to the old windows after that date is a mystery because nothing seems to be recorded about what happened to them.

The trustees asked for several other changes in the plans and it appears that the architect and workmen agreed to make alterations, sometimes well after the original plans were followed. From the letters of Mr. Stevens it sounded as though he felt he was being blamed for the need for change and that he shouldn’t charge additional monies for those trustee desired changes. As historian I have not been able to find finished copies of trustee requests to Mr. Stevens and therefore a full picture of how the trustees saw Mr. Stevens work is difficult to show.

Another area of some disapproval apparently surrounded the choice of electrical wiring and fixtures for the sanctuary and chancel. Someone must have given some form of approval on the trustees, but when they saw the amount of light available once the fixtures were installed there was a claim that the lighting had not been approved. Lighting was dim and bulbs would be difficult to change once installed was the claim of the trustees. They were correct, but it took until 2004 before any real change in lighting augmentation took place in the sanctuary.

In another note from Mr. Stevens to the trustees dated October 7, 1948 he said:
“As to the ceiling of the sanctuary, it was proved that the material specified was approved by your committee. The only alternative was a plastered ceiling which would have cost much more, or the Craftex treatment that was given it at much less cost than the plaster would have been. No fair-minded man in reviewing this situation would ever rule that an architect must pay for the mahogany because his client didn’t like spruce. When the architect has tried to get effects at low cost and the client, after approving, decides that something more expensive is what he wants, it is clearly up to the client to pay for it. This argument applies to the chancel ceiling also, as well as to many other items we have discussed in the past, which your Board has so graciously dismissed.
My final decision is to accept your check for $835.90 and call it final settlement, under protest.
When you have occasion to total up the valuation of the church, (not the cost to you), be sure you add in all these donations your architect has made, because they are part of the cost of the church, and quite a large part.
I hope the donation of $300 for memorial windows will be earmarked as in memory of John Woodbury. He was a gentleman.
Sincerely,
John Howard Stevens “

The original final bill submitted by Mr. Stevens for his services had been reduced by almost $1000. The trustees thought that they had been overcharged by that amount. There is no indication that any further transactions took place between the trustees and Mr. Stevens. It looks like the project was completed on a note that wasn’t very friendly yet still with Mr. Stevens showing his respect for the relationships that had originally been established through Mr. John Woodbury.

As we look at the stained glass windows that Grace the sanctuary and the chancel today we know each is dedicated to a family or an individual that has served this church in the past. The Rose Window that graces the Chancel high above the altar was dedicated in memory of Mr. Woodbury and was in part made possible through the generous gifts of architect, John Howard Stevens.

2005-06-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Part 28 Building a New Church

On June 17, 1945 the last services were held in the old People’s Church located at the corner of High and School Streets. Reporters from the local press were there and took pictures and interviewed some of the oldest members. The Morning service on that Sunday included a reading by the President of the Board of Trustees, John B. Woodbury. Appointed pastor of the church in May of 1945, Reverend H. Travers Smith gave the sermon. At the conclusion of this service the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper was served. One hundred and twenty five knelt at the altar rail for communion. 200 folks were present.

Later that same day the Methodist Youth Fellowship conducted an evening service at 7 PM. This was the last service held in that church building.

The very next day, June 18, the men of the parish began dismantling the church, prior to the work by the working/wrecking crew. Some of the timbers would be saved from the old church to be used in the construction of the new church. Timbers that were dismantled found there way eventually to the new church where they would serve as support of the organ lofts to either side of the chancel. The organ was also dismantled and
put in storage for later restoration and installation in the new church.

On June 24, 1945 the congregation began meeting in what was formerly the Cole Memorial Universalist Church and at times known as the Townshend Club. This building was and is still located on the corner of Sawyer and Cole Streets diagonally across from the present location of the Lyric Theater (formerly the South Portland Church of the Nazarene). Services would be held in this location until the new Peoples’ Church was built for use on the corner of Harriet and Broadway.

The building committee who were members of the trustees and were entrusted with overseeing the building project included; John B. Woodbury, President, Walter W. Winchenbach, Vice President, Raymond E. Henley, Secretary, C. Jason Tilton, Walter W. Campbell, John Berdeen Sr., Granville E. Nickerson, and Edgar Steen. The reader may wish to note the fact that no women served on the building committee. As was mentioned in the last part of this continuing history because the country was still under war time conditions the War Production Board had to give permission as a “wartime emergency” permission to build the building.

Even before the lot for the new church was cleared, tested and then excavated, the trustees purchased the home on the adjacent lot, 312 Broadway, with the intention of it being used as the parsonage. Groundbreaking for the church was celebrated on July 25, 1945. Purchase of the new parsonage was in June 1945 with the Reverend Smith, his wife Kathryn (Kit) and baby Edson moving into the home in August of the same year. The home had formerly been occupied by the Richardson family and at the time of purchase at $6000 was 18 years old.

The architect that was hired to design the new church was John Howard Stevens of Portland. The architect communicated with the building committee regularly and on occasion would meet with the Trustees as a whole. Through the bidding process the company of Googins and Clark was hired as general contractors. Subcontractors named in the records included York Electric and the Willman Company was hired for painting purposes.

The original plans for the church included a vestry in the basement. The vestry would be used for the Sunday School. While it was not the original intention of trustees to use the vestry for anything else it became home to the congregation until the sanctuary was ready for occupancy. A fully operational kitchen, a boiler room that would house a coal-fired furnace large enough to heat the whole plant, a stage area with two class rooms behind it and two rest rooms completed the design of this area. The primary use of floor space above the vestry would be used as a sanctuary with a raised chancel area to the south end of the room. To either side of the chancel there would be two rooms large enough to house the pipes of the organ then in storage. Below the organ chamber to the right of the chancel would be a ladies parlor. On the Broadway side of the sanctuary would be two closets that would be found to either side of the main entrance to the sanctuary. The closet to the rear would be used as a men’s coat and hat closet and also the room where the cord to pull the bell in the steeple would be located. The other closet would hold miscellaneous items used in church services. The original plans also showed that there would be enough area at the rear of the sanctuary to provide a sound proofed glassed room to be used as a nursery during church functions. While most of what is written here was in fact the way the church was built, the nursery was not part of the final building for several reasons. Those reasons included the added cost this would bring to the church and another was that no glass available at that time was as soundproofed as the architect and builders felt was possible in 1946-48. Another factor that eliminated the nursery was issues that use of space would give when designing, constructing and displaying the stained glass windows that eventually would grace the sanctuary.

Groundbreaking for the new church began on July 25, 1945. Work on the new building was suspended during the winter months, as there was a wartime shortage of bricks available. Construction was begun again in the spring of 1946. The downstairs vestry and the shell of the sanctuary were completed by November of that year. The first sermon, given in the vestry by Reverend Elwin Wilson, was spoken on December 1, 1946. Reverend Wilson was the District Superintendent at that time.

The formal opening of the vestry was delayed until December 15, 1946. The following individuals contributed significantly to that “grand opening”: Bishop Lewis O. Hartman of the Boston area; Dr. William Vernon Middleton, Executive Secretary of the Board of Missions and Extensions at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Reverend Elwin Wilson, District Superintendent; and the Reverend H. Travers Smith of Peoples. Trustees at that time were slightly changed from the group that graced the Trustees when the decision to move from the Village was taken. Those serving on trustees at this time were led by President Walter Winchenbach and included Granville Nickerson, Harvey Woodbury, Walter Campbell, Malcolm W. Cass, C. Jason Tilton, Meredith Trefethen, Wilbert Brown, Ray Henley, and John Berdeen Sr..

The trustees took advantage of the guests and proposed that the people of the church would continue to work toward completion of the church building. Dr. Middleton indicated that he thought another $2000 in grants might be possible from his board. By this time the cost, which originally was estimated at $43,000, had risen to a completion cost of $75,000 with a number of the original plans and materials being changed to stay within this stated cost. Assisting in the payment of costs was at least $10,000 in gifts already granted from Home Missions and Church Extensions. Beyond the outright gifts the same organization extended loans of $36,000 toward completion of this dynamic project. In the final analysis nearly 40 % of the cost was still left in the hands of the parishioners at the time of building. Certainly the membership was appreciative and grateful for the assistance that the greater Methodist church had granted in building on Broadway.

2005-06-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

Part 27 Peoples Leaves the Village

The need to move from the Ferry Village area, home to Peoples Church since 1853, was necessitated by the dramatic change in demographics afforded by the building of the two shipyards at the beginning and throughout World War II. Many of the “Village boys” signed up for active duty or were drafted into the Navy, Army or Marine Corps. Many of those “boys” would never return to the part of South Portland they had called home. The principal reason for not returning was the removal of 170 to 180 homes that had been razed or moved out of the area. If the average household was four at the time one could easily ascertain that nearly 1000 people would have been displaced. Even some of the local business folks, while continuing to operate their businesses in the village actually moved out of the village.

The trustees of Peoples Church began looking for a new site to build a new church. Several sites were considered, but two figured prominently in. One of the sites would remove the base of operation to a lot across the street from the Cape Theater. This theater, built in 1939-40 was a movie house built for the entertainment of local families and armed forces personnel stationed at Fort Preble and Fort Williams. Today that theater serves as the home to the Portland Players and is known as the Phyllis Thaxter Theater. The thoughts supporting that location was to take advantage of the traffic on Cottage /Shore Road and perhaps attract a number of folks that were stationed at the two forts. The principal arguments against that lot was that it was to far away from the Ferry Village base even though ironically that lot was only a block away from a location on Chase Street that was thought to be a good location for a mission church proposed in the 1920’s. That location also was only about two blocks from where the first meetinghouse was located on what today would be Pillsbury Street.

The site location committee turned its sights to a location next to a home at 312 Broadway. It was on the corner of Harriet Street. At the time there was also a double lot available opposite this lot. Both lots were large enough to build a church. The positives in selecting either lot was that it was closer to Ferry Village, it was on a very busy thoroughfare and a lot of traffic would pass by to and from Fort Preble and the shipyards.
It was also very close to the home of John Woodbury, the President of the Board of Trustees. His home was diagonally opposite the lot that was settled on.

In order to build a church during the war years the trustees had to apply to the War Production Board for a Certificate of Necessity. The Board granted the certificate indicating the “war necessity” of building the church. The lot at 310 Broadway was chosen and a major fund raising campaign was begun. One needs to remember that many of the families that had formerly been active participants in the life of the church had left because of military service or had moved because of displacement. The numbers remaining were much fewer and building a new church had to be daunting to say the least.

Reverend H. Travers Smith wrote an interesting letter dated June 6, 1946 to District Superintendent Reverend Elwin L. Wilson that describes some interesting material relative to costs and the difficulty of raising funds.
Reverend Elwin L. Wilson
226 Bradley Street
Portland, Maine

Dear Mr. Wilson:

As District Superintendent of the Portland District you are familiar with the conditions which have necessitated the building of the new People’s Church. At the outset of the war a Shipyard was built in the section of Ferry Village in South Portland adjacent to the former Church lot. In order to make room for this vast project 170 house were demolished or removed from the parish area causing great damage to our parish and the Church. This necessitated the building of a new Church in a different location rather than repairing the old building as had been contemplated by the parish in times past.
When the new site was chosen and the application made to the War Production Board for a certificate of necessity to build the Church a Certificate was granted on the grounds that this building project was of a war emergency nature.
When the estimates for the new building were first brought in by the architect it was thought that the entire building could be built for a cost of $43,000. However, last July when the bids were received back from the contractors it was found to our dismay that prices had been rising even as we planned the building of the Church. Prices for the building ran from $75,000 upwards. After many sessions with the architect and obtaining advice and help from a neighboring Catholic priest as to methods of cutting costs we were able to bring the figure down to approximately $56,000. We did not contract for the entire building at that time, however, because of the fact that the Certificate of Necessity authorized only the building of the complete basement and the shell of the Sanctuary and we proceeded on that basis contracting for the same with Googins and Clark at a figure of $46,270 for this part of the building.
Due to the fact that we were not able to contract for the building of the entire church we are now faced with the fact that we will have an unfinished Sanctuary when the present contract is completed in September of this year. Since the beginning of the building project two financial campaigns have been conducted in this parish. The first one netting us $16,751, and the second one $12,930 in pledges. The second campaign will be completed by December of 1947. The people, none of them well-to-do have given as generously as possible, as you know, in most cases to the degree of great sacrifice. It is noteworthy that the total pledges of $29,681 cover only a period of three years on the part of about 150 people giving.
This last year the old Church was torn down for the materials for the new Church, meanwhile the people have been meeting in an inadequate abandoned Church building. The quarters are small and cramped, the building is old and out of repair. No meetings other than worship meetings can be held in this building because of the inadequacy of the plant. The people have met this situation courageously! They have put up with these poor conditions both in the Church School and Sunday morning worship loyally. I have wondered at the teachers patience as well as the patience and loyalty of the other parishioners who have had to put up with these impossible situations.
A glance at the enclosed financial statement will show you that we are facing a crisis if we cannot receive outside help from some source or other. We are to receive a $20,000 loan, as indicated, but this is to be paid back 4,000 per year beginning January 1948 and so will tax the people heavily for the next 6 to 7 years to the utmost.
We cannot overestimate the importance of morning worship in the lives of Christians and the needed inspiration received by them in our Church Sanctuaries, yet we face the probability of being without a Sanctuary and therefore an adequate plant to carry on the work of the parish. These facts concerning this Church situation together with the information that you have already obtained in your personal contact with the parish give you a rather complete picture of the situation and I think you will agree the people are doing everything in their power to bring this Church building to final completion.
Facing the situation squarely I have been hoping of late it would be possible to obtain $10,000 from the Crusade for Christ. I note that they are aiding similar situations, and since this is a war emergency program I feel that we are worthy of a gift from this fund. Will you be willing to contact the right source in regard to this matter?
The need is urgent and the time is short, I hope something can be done immediately to ease the situation, as all other available sources have been contacted.

With best personal wishes,
Sincerely,
H. Travers Smith
Minister.

The Crusade for Christ had only been initiated in 1945 and was an available fund of money through national Methodist Church offices in Washington, D.C..
In the next part of this history we will explore the closing of the old church and the opening of the new church.

2005-06-10T07:18:00.000-07:00

Part 26 Storm Clouds Around the World Reach Home

In the 1930’s the growing clouds of war in Europe and the Far East was to upset the hearts and minds of many people living in the United States as well as locally in South Portland and the Greater Portland area. Many folks ancestry traced back to those overseas countries that may not so long ago been called home. Still recalling the devastating nature of the “Great War” of 20 years ago, local folk believed that type of devastation would never again be visited upon this world. As the rise of Hitlerian Germany, Stalinist Russia and Mussolinian Italy loomed through their use of military weaponry, people here at home looked at their incursions among innocent people with mixed emotions. Some wanted the United States to “stay clear” of what was going on and yet it became increasingly difficult for an American Economy to survive when boycotting goods from those countries and for that matter, Japanese controlled areas on the face of the globe as well. There was the notion that perhaps they would fight it out among themselves, but when they began invading the domains that were homes for other nations, political, social, economic and humanitarian ideas and initiatives helped develop mixed messages at home.

The American government finding that it was increasingly difficult in this age to be isolationist began involving itself on the fringe of what became open conflict especially after the Germans invaded Poland on September 2, 1939. Even before then the United States government authorized the gift of 50 old destroyers to England for the purposes of guarding the merchant convoys that were guided from American and Canadian ports to England. The United States Congress passed the Lend Lease Act in 1940 to provide all types of military and humanitarian aid to the peoples of England and Russia in particular.
Eventually some of the ships guarding the convoys across the Atlantic were American and manned by American sailors.

On the sixteenth of September 1940 Congress passed the Burke-Wadsworth Bill better known as the Selective Service Act of 1940. While we had not declared war as a nation we certainly were committed to a side and it wasn’t Germany or Italy! All men between the ages of 21 and 35 needed to register for the draft. Over the course of the next year 1.2 million men were added to the ranks of the American military forces under this bill and all this before a declaration of war. While most of the war buildup was toward European aggression there were warning signs that the Japanese threat was looming in the east. In October of 1940, President Roosevelt proclaimed an embargo on the sale of scrap metal to any country other than Great Britain. This was especially directed at Japan, which paradoxically was still negotiating for scrap metal in Washington on the day that Admirals Yamamoto and Nagumo were launching their infamous attack on Pearl Harbor over a year later on December 7, 1941, a day proclaimed by Roosevelt to “live in infamy”.

Here in South Portland, Ferry Village was to witness a transformation that would radically change the landscape. During World War I, a stretch of Front Street had been converted to a shipyard to build “Ocean class” cargo vessels. The size of that yard was miniscule in comparison to what was about to happen. In December 1940, ground was broken at Spring Point on a shipyard that was authorized to build thirty vessels for the British much like what had been built in World War I. The East Yard as it was referred to was known as the Todd-Bath Shipbuilding Corporation. Later in 1941 another shipyard was developed by the South Portland Shipbuilding Corporation and was often referred to as the West Yard. Eventually both were combined and known as the New England Shipbuilding Corporation. Over the course of the next five years the combined output of the two yards was 266 Liberty ships for American use and the thirty that were originally built for the British. At the peak of production 30,000 workers were employed on three shifts. Most of the folks who worked there had had no previous training (85%) and their total amount of preparation before going on line amounted to about 30 hours. The first ship built in 1941 took 279 days to build, but two years later the Liberty Ships were ready to go in about 52 days.

As an aside many of these new vessels were captained and crewed by graduates of the Maine Maritime Academy that was founded in 1941.

The effect of the shipyards is many fold. An increase in population as a result of shipyard needs led to the building of Stanwood Park, temporary housing on outer Highland Avenue, a development where the High School and its facilities stand today, Sunset Park in Thornton Heights, Redbank and Cape Elizabeth Park. A few apartment homes that were built in the vicinity of Margaret and Mussey Streets were the total amount of building that took place in the eastern part of the city.

The effect on life in Ferry Village, however, was markedly different. In order to make way for the shipyard and its sprawl all of the homes on streets between Preble and Cushing’s Point were razed or moved to locations away from the area. Between 170 and 180 homes fell into these categories. When the shipyards were built it was necessary to run a railroad line to the yards from Rigby. That line would be used for not only the shipyard, but also oil shipments. The land was taken by eminent domain. Once the rail cars arrived in the shipyard it was necessary to have several rails for sidings. The impact of this “rail yard” was that it caused Preble Street to be reconfigured. No longer would Preble cross Broadway and head for High Street directly, but instead would merge with Broadway and head South where it would them loop around the southern end of the yard and continue passed the new end of High Street and merge with Front Street.

Membership at Peoples Church located at the long-held corner of School and High Streets began to seriously decline as many people moved away from their traditional family locations. The whole of Ferry Village was changed forever. The theater closed as did the hardware store. Auto sales were gone from the Village and the schools in the area also closed. Coles’ Market came to an end and the remaining homes began to lose their luster. The Village was home originally to three schools, two of which were closed and either torn down or boarded up before the end of the war. The Pleasant Street school, later named the Hutchins school, would remain open until the late 1950’s, but eventually all of the students from the Village would find the Henley school, that once served as a high school serving all of the children in the area as an elementary school.

By the time World War II was over and the shipyards were closed only a few businesses of significance remained at the center of the Village. Campbell’s Market, Louis Rich and Sons, Dow Drugstore and Anderson’s Market served as the center focus of economic activity. The trolly system that connected South Portland with Portland came to an end in the 1930’s and was replaced by the Portland Transportation System. Even more transportation became more personal with the advent of automobiles. The small stores of the village would have difficulty competing with larger supermarkets and the first of the strip malls and as the owners died so did their businesses. Today, the Village houses none of those businesses and is for the most part strictly residential.

With all of the aforementioned changes it was felt that Peoples Church could not survive in the village. The walls of the structure had stood the ravages of time, but the trustees and members in general realized that it would cost more to repair the building than to build anew. They realized that the base of population had shifted and it would be difficult to continue with the small base that the Village provided.

2005-06-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Part 25 The Methodist Church is formed: Effects nationally, statewide and locally

Before and after World War I many church leaders of several denominations took on a pacifist sentiment. The Methodist Church had been divided in America into four major bodies’ The Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Protestant Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the African American Methodist by the effects of the Civil War. Even earlier the more evangelical arms of Methodism had split, but in the year 1922 were rejoined within their own framework. All of these constituencies advocated pacifism, but were certainly interrupted when America had entered World War I.
Having seen the devastation and destruction of the “Great War” many church leaders and members advocated for a world that would never go to war again. A great hope and desire that we all know was superseded in its destructive power of property and lives only a few short years later.

One of the major causes that the various Methodist bodies took up was the cause of abstinence. Not exclusively, but with a great deal of enthusiasm against the evils of alcohol, Methodists were among the leaders that led this nation into the pronouncement of Prohibition. While alcoholic beverages had been around since time immemorial it seems that certain religious forces felt unsafe in the 1840’s by the cultural practices of certain refugee groups that also seemed to be of a different religious persuasion. These refugees from hunger were thought to imbibe more heavily because of their plight. Several states then prohibited the making, delivering or partaking of alcohol. One of the leaders of this movement we have already discussed was Neal Dow of Portland, Maine. Eventually proposed on December 18, 1917 and ratified by Congress on January 16, 1919 the Prohibition Amendment, Number 18, prohibited the manufacture, sale and transporting of “intoxicating liquors” anywhere in the United States. This went into effect one year to the day after the ratification. The impetus at this time was that many felt that “The War” had changed men and that alcohol would make them dangerous to others, especially women. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was very active in the state of Maine in supporting this. Many good Methodist women and later men were active members of this organization not excepting members of Peoples. Even after prohibition was lifted by the passage of Amendment 21 the remnants of prohibition remained in many Maine towns until well into the 1950’s, often due to the efforts of the WCTU. At the time that this episode in Peoples history was being written, November of 2004 recent local elections in some of the small towns of western and northern Maine still were successfully voting down permission to sell liquor within the confines of those locations.

Doctrinal disputes took on the characteristics of “spiritual politics” in this same period. Division within the administrative arms of the Methodist bodies and within churches was often hot and divisive. Liberal, Fundamentalist and Neo-orthodox camps were formed and much argument pervaded conference discussions. Episcopacy was one of those areas of controversy that was especially difficult for the Methodist Protestant Church to swallow since they had never operated under that type of organization. There also was continued controversy over what was called the “Central Jurisdiction” even after merger occurred in 1939. The “Central Jurisdiction” was that arm of the Methodist Church that had been known as African-American. This segregationist policy showed that Americans and yes, Methodists, were not ready in some parts of the country to consider everyone equal. Central Jurisdiction was the only jurisdiction that was not based on geographic lines. This separation that was authorized at the onset of the Methodist Church did not come to an end until 1967 when the merger between the Methodist Church and the United Brethren took place. We will include more about that merger in a later part of this history.

While the Methodist churches were merging in 1939 with still unresolved issues, the Evangelical United Brethren Church was formed in the early 1950’s after more than 20 years of negotiating. One of the practices that was questioned before this merger occurred centered on the ordination of women. The United Brethren had accepted ordination of women since 1889, but in order for merger with the Evangelical Church that right of ordination was rescinded. Obviously in the civil rights activities of the 1960’s and before merger with the Methodist church, not only the ordination of women, but also their right to ascend to the episcopacy would have to be allowed.

These changes that were taking place in the administrative structure of the church nationally and beyond were influenced by the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Not exclusively American, the depression was felt worldwide. The cost of the First World War, punishment to the defeated nations, and the struggle of moving from a war time economy to a peacetime economy had a resounding effect on trade, society and politics.
Some nations struggled at the hands of others as the storm clouds of war loomed over the world landscape. The discovery of “nations without” around the world led to an increase in missionary work overseas as well as the poverty stricken areas most prevalent in America. Local churches raised goods, money, and food to help those in greater need in spite of the fact that most folks were suffering in ways they had never experienced before.

The national merger of Methodist elements in 1939 had an immediate impact on Methodism in Maine. One of the first accomplishments of the Maine Conference had a major effect on the emphasis on youth. Junior High Youth even before Senior High saw change through its organization at a camping session held in East Waterboro in 1939. Interestingly the group was named “Metchuwana”. In time the camp that was eventually bought and purchased on Lake Narrows in Winthrop, in 1947 later carried that same name minus the T. A Camping Commission resulted for all Methodist camping experiences in Maine and in time the experiences provided opportunities in the out doors year round for all ages, young and old.

In order to have a conforming name for all youth groups within the merged bodies of Methodism the name ” Epworth League” was dropped in favor of Methodist Youth Fellowship. Epworth League had been used as a name in the Methodist Episcopal Church, but not in the other arms of Methodism.

At a special meeting of the Maine Conference held in the same year it was voted to close the Eastern Maine Seminary. That institution had been the primary educational institution
of learning for Pastors “down east” until this time, as Kents Hill or the Wesleyan Seminary was the principle location for training pastors in western Maine until about that same time. For pastoral training it seemed that Boston University’s School of Theology was becoming the primary choice for Methodist training in the New England area.

Ladies Aids Societies had their conversion to Women’s Societies of Christian Service (WSCS) in 1945.

A much-needed Pension fund was established for the entire Maine Conference in 1948 and a companion fund for Camp Development was established at this time as well.

Reverend Alfred Ives was appointed in 1951 to become the Youth Director of the Conference. Reverend Ives was well known and some years later finished his pastoral placements at First Church in South Portland. He also was the father of two well-known pastors of later years. Christopher Ives served a number of churches in central and southern Maine and Cliff Ives after serving at a number of locations became the Bishop for the West Virginia Conference.

As an aside the conference records show that in 1961 among pastors of Peoples Church in South Portland, Charles O. Perry 1930-38, the father of Elsie Hoyt, passed away. Lawrence Porter, 1949-53 and later a district superintendent retired from the ministry. F. William Schuster who would be pastor from 1996-99 was entering his first year of ministry.

In the next edition of this continuing history we will back track to look at the impact of World War II on South Portland and the need for Peoples to move its base.

2005-06-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

Part 24 Owning Property and its Ramifications

While it seems that the inheritance of property and its management by a church might be an answer to long term financial stability the examples of such incidents from the 1920’s and 1930’s might lead one to a different conclusion.

The primary inheritance came from the will of Ms. Julia Boltonhouse who had been a long time active member of the parish. Her father, Edward, had willed the family properties to her and she in turn willed those properties to the church. One of the properties was located at 155 High Street and was considered the family home. The house is still located at that spot today. Its location is between Dyer Street and Pine Street. The first mention of these properties was as early as 1918 in the church records. The church trustees, once Julia died, managed this house. They decided that it could serve as a rental property. Initially work was done on the property to make it a rental property for three families. Each of those families would pay $25 a month for their apartments. Remember that late in the 1920’s that the country and therefore, South Portland as well suffered from the Great Depression. The folks who rented these apartments were not always able to keep up payment and were often in arrears. Being a Christian institution it was difficult for the church to follow procedures of removal and frequently had to absorb the cost of housing these folks (who were also parishioners). Before the church was out of the rental business and because our own payments to the banks was at least 8 months in arrears a collection agency, E. C. Dyer Company was hired. Things were so bad in January 1937 that a credit we had with the Dyer Company was used to pay interest at the bank on the loans. Rather than pay what they owed some of the renters moved out leaving nothing on what they owed. Collections were made, new tenants paid their rents, yet the church was so far behind the Official Board at the request of the trustees gave them permission to refinance the loans providing additional monies to make needed repairs of that building. At the time of the refinancing with the South Portland Building and Loan Association the mortgage of the Boltonhouse property was separated from that of the parsonage for perhaps obvious reasons, especially if the Association instead decided to foreclose on what was owed them.

Additional financial effects of the time were the reduction of general property values due to the deterioration in the village. The reduction in values included the church, the parsonage and the Boltonhouse property in the village.

While not collecting the rent that they should have, the church through the trustees still had to maintain the property even though they were not collecting the rent to pay for the cost of upkeep. On some occasions the general budget had to find room for the cost of paying some of the expenses which included taxes. While the normal properties of churches such as the church building and parsonage were considered tax exempt any other properties owned by churches were not. Granted when looking at taxes of that day versus today they seemed to be much lower they still were an expense that needed to be paid through church ownership.

The second property that had come into the possession of the church was also through Julia Boltonhouse’s will. This property was a cottage at Old Orchard. There is some confusion in the records as to whether this property was in Old Orchard or at Pine Point in Scarborough. This cottage and land had been where the Boltonhouses had invited church groups for picnics and retreats for many years. There was one reference in the records to a Sunday School Picnic that had been held there early in the century. The excursion by available land means would have been impossible except by way of the train. The train would cross the Fore River from Portland via a trestle that linked the Portland waterfront with Turner’s Island. The train would proceed to the “Cape Elizabeth” station in Pleasantdale located at the crossroads of Broadway and Evans Street. There the picnickers would board the train with all of their summer gear and proceed through Scarborough and across the marsh through Pine Point to either the Old Orchard Beach Station or the Pine Point Depot, where the able-bodied would disembark and walk to the Boltonhouse Cottage. Those who were less firm would ride in horse drawn carriages to the same location. Late in the afternoon all would head back to the Northbound and retrace the rail they had been on that morning.

Those were happy days for the Pine Point cottage and its relationship to the church, however, once the property was inherited and the trustees thought to use it as rental property they found some of the same issues that they encountered with the house in the village. They found that the property at Pine Point needed to be refurbushed and due to the distance it was easier for them to hire someone from the area to do the work even though by this time cars and trucks were available for transport. A second issue that they contended with was payment from the renters some of whom were slow in making full payment, which was not always asked for up front. A third issue was contending with the way some renters used the property and finally the fourth issue was finding people who could afford to rent the property during this time of economic calamity anyway. A fifth issue that arose was in paying the taxes on that property to the town of Old Orchard or Scarborough. Finally in 1937 there was an attempt to sell the cottage to a George Jackson who also had some difficulties making payments to take over the mortgage. The last payment of $53.38 was made in the form of a check. David Hoyt then instructed the official board that it was the desire of the trustees to pay off the remainder of the loan to the South Portland Building and Loan Association finally ridding the church of this property.

To afford the upkeep and reconditioning of both properties the trustees gave themselves permission to borrow what was needed. It appears that the Boltonhouse Estate also came with tax liens against both properties. Here again this placed the church into something of a dilemma that they did not wish to have. Turmoil in the banking world caused a number of pains to be faced by the church relative to the above loans and regular operating expenses. The loans above were first accepted with the Fidelity Trust in 1931, one of the largest banks in Maine. Financial turmoil led the trustees and the treasurer of the church, Mr. Oscar Emerson, to shift all financial responsibilities and obligations to the South Portland Loan and Building Association in a timely fashion as the Fidelity Trust went out of business in the following year. Again funds and loan obligations were shifted to Casco Bank and Trust Company. As you can see banking was extremely volatile during this period of time.

At about the same time Mrs. Edith B. Brett willed the “Brett Property” on Jefferson Street, to the church. Rather than getting involved with the complications of ownership experienced above, the trustees chose to sell the property and apply the proceeds to the sagging budget. The property was sold for a net of $1202.96.

To conclude the saga of property ownership with properties willed to the church, both Boltonhouse properties were eventually sold, not to anyone connected with the church. The church netted around $8000.00 for both properties. One would think that would conclude this church’s forays into the rental business, however, there is still one episode in Peoples as a rental institution.

When Charles O. Perry became the pastor he and his family began their stay by living in the parsonage at 94 Broadway. Within a year after his appointment he had the opportunity to live rent-free in a home at Cushing’s Point owned by Mr. Guy A. Braun.
The trustees and the rest of the church membership agreed with and praised his opportunity, to live in such an ideally located home, but what to do with the parsonage. Pastor Perry serving Peoples from 1930-1938 lived in this home for most of that time. The trustees even though they had had some difficulties with rental properties decided they would see if someone would be interested in renting the parsonage. The parsonage was rented under strict guidelines based on lessons already learned and with the stipulation that the parsonage might be available when another pastor were appointed to the parish. In the meantime, the trustees discovered updates of equipment especially in the kitchen and bathroom needed to be afforded and taxes now that it was rental property needed to be paid.

Interestingly the management of property had become so great and so much of it had fallen on the shoulders of Oscar Emerson that he asked to be relieved of his duties at money management. This was granted and eventually the trustees and the church as stated above sold those properties that had caused many financial headaches. In 1938, when Reverend Perry left, to serve the Methodist churches in Old Orchard and Saco before retirement from the ministry. The parsonage was returned to become a pastor’s refuge when it became the home of Reverend Walter H. Cass in 1938.

2005-06-02T18:00:00.001-07:00

Part 23 Long-term Ministerial Concerns/ 75th Anniversary of the Church

According to the written records very little had been provided for pastors who actually reached retirement age before the late 1920’s. Certainly that was also the case for people who worked in the business and service world as well. No Social Security existed before 1935 and very few companies had provided any savings opportunity for their employees before this time. The only companies that seemed to do relatively well in that category were the railroads since some railroads had experienced some rather violent strikes that led to significant railroad management/labor negotiations earlier in the century.

It was not uncommon for ministers to not even think of retirement since they expected to preach until the Lord called them home. Life expectancy for all was much shorter than it is today, but it is known that there were some pastors that seemed to defy age and continue in their role of shepherd of their flocks until well into their 70’s and sometimes beyond.

The concern of extended age led the Maine Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to place more emphasis on the aging issue and the need to provide Ministerial Support on a more formal basis than had been the case. It was not exactly easy on a salary of $2000 and an additional sum of money of $200 for housing expense for a pastor to save for a future retirement. The above figures were approved at a meeting of the Official Board in June 1927. At a Special Meeting called by the board on September 12, 1927. District Superintendent A. E. Goddard addressed members of the congregation in attendance about the need to support the Ministerial Retirement Fund of the Maine Conference. Peoples Church was commended by DS Goddard when Mr. John Woodbury said that this church was already building a fund that would help to pay our portion of that fund. Our portion over a six-year period would be $2000.00, which as might be noted was equal to the present salary of the minister. Later it would be necessary to extend the payments over a longer period of time it seems due to the effects of the Great Depression that hit locally in the early 1930’s.

Before the Depression hit as a result of national and international economic chaos beginning in 1929, again it was time for the people of Peoples to celebrate. 1928 was to be celebrated as the 75th anniversary of the church. October was chosen as the month for the actual celebration. Repairs to the auditorium including a new floor, a new lighting system and general redecorating were completed by that time. A banquet, pageant and public speakers would be a part of the celebration. President Marsh of Boston University was the primary speaker at this major fete. Etta Robinson was in charge of preparing the meal and the room. The floor of the auditorium was covered with “Brown Jasper” battleship grade linoleum. This was laid at a cost of .$25 a square foot. The total cost of redecorating the auditorium authorized was not to exceed $1000. Lighting added
an additional $150. Alterations were also to made at the back of the auditorium to accommodate three additional classrooms. Mr. Tenny had been placed in charge of coordinating the event of the celebration and passed on the message to Mrs. Robinson that good judgement be used in selecting the food for the event, as if Mrs. Robinson would use anything but “good judgement”!

The celebration, which began in October of 1928, was used as a launching pad for an Evangelistic Crusade, which would follow over the next several weeks. Dr. Frederick Winslow Adams and Rev. Lewis Smith were the two Methodist Evangelists that made themselves known to the community during this period of time. To pay for the expenses of the Crusade a silver collection became a part of each service that was held. The church committee also sold 75th Anniversary calendars to help defray the costs incurred during the Crusade. Eventually in 1929, the pastor did publish an anniversary booklet including the names of parishioners, significant events in the history of the church among other memorabilia.

Pastor Brooks perhaps was the first pastor who had an automobile. In 1929 the trustees voted to purchase or build a garage. Since barn or stable was not used in the description of this item we can assume an auto was what needed to be housed. The house behind the parsonage on Grand Street had a wooden garage that they were willing to sell for $75. The trustees voted to buy the garage and pay a professional to move it on to the parsonage property. The records indicate that the total cost of buying and moving the garage was $325. The trustees voted to pay $5 a month to the mover until it was paid for.

A practice established either by Pastor Brooks or the Maine Conference was that the Pastor would head the Official Board. John Woodbury who had been the elected President or Chair of the Board became Vice Chairman. Many of the meetings continued, however, to be lead by Mr. Woodbury. This practice continued when Pastor Brooks left and he was succeeded by Reverend Leonard March.

One of the innovations in soliciting funds that was proposed by Pastor March in February 1930 was the introduction of an Every Member Canvas. This was approved by the Official Board with the intent that “when the weather improved” that teams of parishioners would go to each of the homes of members talking about the church and its needs and then asking for an annual pledge of money from each. The feeling was that with pledges church officers would have a more accurate method of determining what the possibilities were for meeting an annual budget.

Shockingly, Pastor March resigned abruptly before October of 1930 and left the parish. For several weeks supply pastors served the church. That stretched the supply account to the limits.

In November it was noted at an Official Board meeting that it was presided over by Pastor Charles O. Perry. Whether he came as an interim or not Pastor Perry would serve Peoples until 1938. This was the most tumultuous period in American History regarding financial disaster and impending war elsewhere in the world. A degree of that chaos could be felt among the members of Peoples as well. This time called for a strong, loving, caring and understanding pastor. It appeared that Pastor Perry fulfilled those needs at Peoples at this time. Pledgers had failed to meet their financial responsibility. Extra letters were sent out requesting payment. The amount of indebtedness had risen to over $5000. Those who were faithful givers were asked to give more. For a few years before the onset of war there just wasn’t anything to give in some people’s pockets. Those that still were living financially comfortable lives gave more and Peoples continued to serve its members without looking down on those who just couldn’t make the financial obligations they had pledged.

Tough times often lead to people more willing to ask for the Lord’s help for themselves and for others. The Lord often provides in rather interesting ways. A prayer/praise service was started on Sunday evenings and was well attended. Since a silver collection was always taken, additional monies for church operation were found. While money isn’t all-important having it certainly allows for more activities to continue. A long-standing member, L.C. Martin, died leaving a gift of $2000 to the church. Another piece of property was deeded to the church by the Brett family and two properties, one at 55 High Street and another at Pine Point in Scarborough also became the property of the church.

Some might think that these monies and property values were an answer to the prayers and praise that had been started in 1931 but we will tell you more about the complications that come from these types of inheritance in the next edition of Roots.

2005-06-02T18:00:00.000-07:00