Cluster Lenten Service Series

From Ash Wednesday on March 5 through a service and meal at Thornton Heights on April 2 the Casco Bay Cluster sponsored a series of Lenten meals and services at each of the churches in the cluster. This year’s theme was “Hunger for…” with a different message each week. Unfortunately the week that the gathering was scheduled for West Scarborough March 12 there was a rather unwelcome snow storm leading to the cancelation of that service. The third week Peoples was the host for the soup meal in Ellis Hall with the service held around the tables that were arranged in the shape of a cross. Pastor Tom gave the message and also had folks break from their original seats to share space with folks from the other churches. There often is a gathering of familiar faces that happens at these affairs. The practice worked and it appears that folks followed that same pattern in those gatherings that happened after this date. As is quite often the case, the largest gathering at each location was from the host church.

Because there are only five churches now in the cluster there was no Lenten service held on April 16 and no community service scheduled for either Maundy Thursday or Good Friday   as often was the case in the past. With First Methodist closing its doors this past summer the sixth week of Lent was void of a sixth church to meet at.

Attendance at these meal and service gatherings that have met the last two years at six o’clock has ranged from 30 to 40 folks.

The most significant event of the Lenten season sponsored by the Cluster was the food packing day that took place on Saturday, April 5 at Thornton Heights United Methodist Church. This event was called “Change Hunger”. Churches from the Cluster sent teams of packers to the location, some by 8:30 in the morning. After a demonstration of what the teams of 12 would be doing, five teams began to pack packets of soup ingredients. The ingredients included a container of vitamins, dried vegetables, soy, pinto beans and rice. The packets were loaded through a funnel and then passed to another member of the team who would weigh the packets. At the proper weight the packets then were passed to someone else that would seal in the ingredients. Packets were then placed two-high on a grid until there were 36 total. Another member of the team then packed that number into a carton, sealed the carton, then sent someone off with the carton to a central receiving area.

At 10:30 AM each team had packed approximately 10 cartons or cases. This was the goal for each team. At that time another 5 teams were ready to take over.  At 12:30 a third wave of workers entered the hall to pack even more packets. The goal was to raise money to purchase the ingredients for 10,000 or more meals. The local goal was reached and superseded by several thousand. Some of the money for this project was raised via the collection plate at each week’s Lenten service.

For those that participated in this project the feeling was very positive, probably the most rewarding cluster project in recent memory. The feeling was that something like this should be repeated in the future. Much of the success of this year’s project was in the absolutely outstanding organization that made the event fun, meaningful and rewarding.