The pastor and leadership of First Congregational Church of Camden has written a letter to the community announcing facility closing and event cancellations.

We are here to care for each other and to extend love, compassion and generosity toward our community and wider world during this pandemic. The Coronavirus outbreak has shown us how much we are interconnected and need to work together to stem the spread of this highly contagious virus.

Highlights

All worship services and Lenten events cancelled Soup Lunch cancelled Those who rent space here for meals, meetings, rehearsals have been notified. Worship, Sunday School and meetings will be shifting to online communication. The office will remain open Mon-Fri. For more information call 236-4821.

Your pastor and elected church leaders believe that we need to set a proactive example in doing all we can to help “flatten the curve” of the spread now. This will help contain the outbreak and assure that our medical system can fully tend to those most at risk. This is one way in which we show our love and support for each other.

After much prayer and a careful consideration of scientific data, church and governmental advisory sources, including our Maine UCC Conference, we have decided to suspend all public worship services in our building for at least the month of March. We are working on providing worship experiences on-line, including for this coming Sunday. We will also develop additional on-line possibilities for fellowship, learning and discussion. We will equip all committees with on-line conferencing options so that the work of the church can continue.

We will essentially be shutting the church building down for public use for the rest of March. We are in the process of contacting the various groups that use our space. Please note that, as much as we regret it, soup lunch has been cancelled for the rest of the soup lunch season. The Lenten Series on climate change is suspended. We will find new dates in the future to explore the remaining themes. The “Touch the Earth” retreat scheduled for March 14th has been postponed with a new date to be determined.

While the church is effectively closed, staff will continue to work and you will continue to meet a human being at the end of the phone line during normal office hours. Please also check our website and the weekly electronic newsletters for up-dates and listings of interactive opportunities.

Please do call us if you are not feeling well or know of a member or friend who is ill. We are in touch with Town Hall and the Camden and Rockport Police Departments as well. We are challenged and invited to come together as a community.

“And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” May God’s love strengthen and embolden us to rise to this challenge!

Yours in faith, hope and love,

Your Pastor and members of the Cabinet