Many Waters District Superintendent Arlene Tully held a town hall-type meeting at our church on Wednesday, April 2, attended by 20 people in person and 16 more on Zoom. The purpose of the gathering was for the Rev. Tully to introduce a proposal to our church involving the possible establishment of a cooperative parish between our church, the Thornton Heights UMC, and Peoples UMC, both in South Portland.

The proposal is to bring in one full-time minister for the three churches as a cooperative appointment and create as Rev. Tully explained, “a functional, effective parish”. She said she would work with the new ordained minister as a coach on how the three Lighthouse churches will work together.

Pastor Kathleen made it clear that this would not be a merging of the three churches, but an arrangement that would allow the three neighboring churches to work together in many ways. Each of the three churches would maintain their own identity.

The proposal came about because Pastor Kathleen will be leaving us as our half-time minister at the end of June to become the full-time minister at the Union UMC in Belgrade, Maine. Also at the end of June, Peoples full-time Ministor Tom Frey will be retiring.

The Rev. Tully explained, “Churches are getting smaller in Maine and they cannot support full-time clergy, particularly with rising health-care costs, plus the expense of housing.” She said health-care costs are approximately $23,000 a year.

“We don’t have a lot of quarter-time or half-time clergy to fill positions and it’s becoming fewer and fewer,” Rev. Tully said. “Sometimes you can find a retired minister to take a part-time position, but there aren’t enough of these clergy to go around. And newly ordained clergy are guaranteed full-time appointments. I have four churches (in the district) that need part-time ministers and at this point I don’t have any.”

Our church moved to part-time ministers in 2019 from full-time for cost-cutting necessities. At that time, Pastor Priscille Dreyman and Pastor Mary Jane O’Connor-Ropp were appointed our quarter-time ministers. Both had previously been retired.

In the coming weeks, the district superintendent will hold similar town-hall meetings at both Thornton Heights and Peoples. After those meetings, each church will hold congregational meetings for questions and concerns. Then, a Charge Conference will be held at each church to decide if the prosposal is accepted or rejected. Rev. Tully said a simple majority will determine the outcome, but she hopes a super majority (70 percent) will be the case.

Our church will hold its congregational meeting after the Palm Sunday service on April 13. Our Charge Conference will be held on Monday, April 21 at 6:30 p.m. in person and on Zoom. Charge Conferences for the other two churches have not been scheduled.

If the proposal is rejected by any of the three churches, work will begin to figure out another plan.

As for the proposal, Rev. Tully sees two of the three churches having the full-time minister each Sunday. The third church would be led by other members of the congregation with a preaching team or lay servants (Thornton Heights has several).

One of the benefits of the three-church cooperative parish would be the opportunity to share each other’s strengths. For example, members at Thornton Heights and Peoples could become involved with our church’s eco ministry and we could become involved with Peoples’ social justice ministry. There also could be shared Bible studies, Vacation Bible Schools, yard sales, church suppers, and fairs.

There also could be, but not necessarily, a combined Administrative Council and combined Staff-Parish Relations Committee.

“We will continue to work on possibilities for all three churches,” the district superintendent said.

Throughout the 90-minute meeting, Rev. Tully referred to the River Churches Cooperative Parish in Augusta, Maine. Six United Methodist Churches along the Kennebec River formed a cooperative parish 18 months ago and set a timetable of two years to see how it would work out. Rev. Tully said after the first year, the group said, “We have another year to go”. But halfway through the second year, they asked to vote to make the arrangement permenant. All six churches unanimously agreed.

Additionally, because of the combined programs and services the six Augusta churches offered their communities, nine new members have joined and more membership classes have been scheduled.

Many questions were raided by members of our church during the meeting and Rev. Tully and/or our SPRC Chair Mark Braun provided quick and insightful answers, Toward the end of the meeting, Lay Leader Steve Hill praised the gathering for showing “absolute strength” for dealing with this most challenging decision.

If you have questions or concerns, contact Mark or Steve or address them at the April 13 session after worship on Palm Sunday.