Offering Maine Episcopal congregations practical assistance and spiritual encouragement is a collective mission of the diocesan staff, and we continually look for ways to better serve our churches. So, in December 2025 we decided to plan visits to congregations for worship and fellowship, starting with a small trial group of parishes in the first and second quarter of 2026.
Our goals are simple:
- To get to know parishioners
- To find out what they need
- To listen to their stories
- To share information about the types of help we can offer
- To share hope
- To offer support
- To build relationships
- To remind people that we are here for them
- To put faces to names
For the first group, we randomly paired staff members (usually two) with each church to join congregations for worship and coffee hour—an unstructured visit rather than a planned presentation or facilitated conversation. At the end of the trial period, we will evaluate this plan to determine if it would be better to build our visits around programming coordinated with the liturgical or program year.
If you have questions or comments about this new initiative, please reach out to Canon to the Ordinary Teresa Pinney.