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Elm
Street Congregational Church Newsletter
A Letter from Pastor Linda
June 2010
Dear Friends,
On June 19 Dick and I will be leaving for the first month of my sabbatical leave. As many of you know
I have decided, upon discussion with our trustee board, to take a month off for each of the next three years
in addition to my regular four weeks of vacation. Usually a sabbatical leave is granted to a seated pastor
after five years of serving a congregation so I am a year overdue. Normally a sabbatical is for three months,
but that would mean that we would have to hire an interim pastor to cover for me. This would be a more
costly venture and since we are in the midst of our capital improvement campaign I decided to come up with
an alternate plan which would work well and save the church money. If Dick and I are only gone a month at
a time, then my absence can be covered in the following way: 1. Two of our members (Cathy Hamburger and
Ben Blodget) will take turns leading worship on June 13, 20, 27 and July 11. 2. Since July 4 is a communion
Sunday, Rev. Gerry Gregerson, an ordained United Church of Christ pastor will lead worship. Gerry lives on
Mount Desert Island and is the Director of Programming for Hospice of Hancock County. 3. Pastor Peter
Remick has agreed to cover any emergencies while I am away. Since all of you know Pete I feel I am leaving
the congregation in caring, compassionate and very capable hands. If there is an emergency while I am out
of town, please call Vickie Adams, Administrative Assistant and she will get in touch with Pete.
Though I will miss all of you I also know that it is time for me to take some time for some serious rest
and renewal. Life here at Elm Street is always busy and it seems as if I am in high gear all the time. I am
looking forward to spending some quality time with my husband, since we are in Bucksport there are many
days that we feel like we are two ships that pass in the night. It will be nice to just sit by the lake, read,
knit, go out for a boat ride, and do some one day trips. We are planning a trip to Moosehead Lake to visit
Bonnie Lipton and her partner Joyce. Bonnie and Joyce have a camp on Moosehead and they will be there
while we are on sabbatical so again, it is a great time to catch up with old friends. Many of you might
remember that Bonnie lead a program on mission for our congregation while she was still a student at
Bangor Theological Seminary. Now she is an interim pastor serving a congregation in Florida, so we don’t
get to visit very often.
One of my goals while away is to do some thinking and praying about our future as this church. I
believe that we are truly ready to begin forming our vision, not Linda’s vision for where we want our
church and its place in this community to go in the next five years. We have been in ministry now for six
years and I have offered a number of ways for us to move our church forward. Our church is healthy and
we have done and continue to do good ministry. But I believe we also need a new direction in which to head. Keeping the status quo won’t help us grow in spirit or in numbers. So now it is your turn to let me know where you want to see the church head as we face our future. My goal is to come home with a plan to present to our council on how we can begin a visioning process of which I will be a part. I firmly believe that I should not be the facilitator for this process, but rather I need to be part of the congregation and I have a pastor in mind who I think would do an excellent job of leading us through a visioning process, but I need to spend time while away formulating a plan. So stay tuned, there will be more to come.
While I am away from Bucksport please know that I will hold all of you in my heart and in my prayers. You are my family and I will miss each and every one of you and I will look forward to coming back refreshed and ready to “Rock and Roll.”
Blessings and Peace,
Rev. Linda A. Smith, Minister
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