News and Updates:

Interfaith Prayer Service for Haiti:

Maine Council of Churches joined with other leaders from Maine's Jewish, Christian, and Muslim communties at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland on January 24 to offer prayers for the people of Haiti. To find out how churches are assisting the relief and recovery effors in Haiti and how you can help, visit http://www.ncccusa.org/news/100122haitiefforts.html

In Mixed Company: Executive Director Rev. Jill Job Saxby preached at Bangor Theological Seminary's Convocation on Jan. 25.
"Ecumenism is a way of being the church that is, in these days in America, profoundly counter-cultural. Ecumenism resists the very idea of sorting ourselves into mutually exclusive enclaves.  It is, in a sense, a protest against political and cultural segregation, niche-marketing, and living in our self-referential worlds, listening only to our personal play lists." Read full sermon here.

Maine Can Do Better: MCC supports a balanced approach to balancing the state budget, looking at broad-based revenue sources to protect vital services to Maine's most vulnerable citizens.
Read remarks by Associate Director Eric C. Smith at a January 12 rally at the State House.

Fishes and Loaves:
A study of the covenant between sea and land
MCC is working with churches and communities along the Maine coast to study the changing realities of life in and on the water for fish and fishing families.

This Lenten study program will look at our sacred relationship with sea, how the fish are affected by climate change and ocean acidification, and what local communities can do to support fisheries that are environmentally and economically sustainable.

For more information on this project, contact Andy Burt or Eric C. Smith at the MCC office.