Lent: a season for compass adjustment

I wonder: without checking your smartphone, can you point toward the north right now?  I’ll confess, I couldn’t do it without using my phone or the compass built into my car.

SOMETIMES JUST A MINUTE LIKE THIS

WILL REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Third Week of Lent 2024

BURYING ALLELUIA

A Lenten Spiritual Practice
We get a lot of other things about Lent from the church of the Middle Ages, too. One of the more interesting traditions is the “depositio” of alleluias, the discontinuing or refraining from use of the word “Alleluia” in worship and song during the 40 days of Lent. You’ve heard of “giving up something for Lent.” Well, the church gives up its Alleluias for Lent.
Read more about this special ritual…

GOD IS THE BIGGER ELVIS

2nd Week of Lent 2024

This Hollywood star kissed Elvis Presley before becoming…a Benedictine nun!

continue reading…

A VALENTINE AMONG THE ASHES

This year, Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine’s Day, one of only three times this century it lands on February 14: 2018, 2024, and 2029.  A quick Google search reveals that this poses a serious dilemma for Roman Catholics—what to do when February 14 is both a feast day and a day of holy obligation when one is supposed to fast? Answer:

Advent 3

O Holy Night

And so, the story of “O Holy Night” is a story of outsiders, outcasts, misfits and broken people: a disabled socialist poet, a bankrupt Jewish vaudevillian, an agoraphobic abolitionist, and a ridiculed crackpot inventor playing his violin into a microphone that might—or might not—be transmitting his song to anyone. 

Advent 2

Silent Night

The story is a familiar one. “Silent Night” was sung (in German, Stille Nacht, heilige nacht) for the very first time on Christmas Eve, 200 years ago, in a tiny Alpine village church in Austria, accompanied only by the priest’s guitar.  That story is true, though legends that have grown up

Advent 1

O Come, O come, Emmanuel

For five weeks every year, songs about the incarnation of Christ can be heard playing everywhere—on your radio and TV, at the car wash, in the grocery store.  And just about everybody knows the words.  They might not be able to tell you what the first book of the New Testament is (just for the record, it’s Matthew), but they can tell you that all is calm, all is bright on a silent, holy night in the little town of Bethlehem where away in

MCC’s Fall 2023 Newsletter

MCC’s Fall 2023 Newsletter

Whether you read the print edition that arrives in your mailbox, or the digital version available through the link, you’ll see that we let our work speak for itself through our newsletter.  The articles tell the story better than any fundraising appeal ever could: the Maine Council of Churches makes a difference—in the life of our congregations, in the lives of people of faith and good will, and in the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors who need trusted allies and advocates to stand with them for justice, compassion and peace.

New Mission, Vision, Values and Strategy statements

MCC’s Board of Directors adopted new mission, vision, values and strategy statements on June 22, 2023, enthusiastically committing to moving boldly forward into the organization’s future while treasuring its 85-year history of faithful ecumenical witness and work in… Read More