BAR HARBOR, ME — Recently, Mission Island Health Services Director Douglas Cornman announced his planned schedule for hosting Sunday services for Maine islands where Covid-19 is keeping churches closed. Douglas’s services will be available to those island residents through Zoom.
This video is a recording of the first virtual Sunday Service, June 7, 2020.
For more information email Douglas Cornman.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME — Maine Seacoast Mission Sunday Morning Church Services begin June 7th at 9:00 am. The link for Zoom will be posted on island Facebook pages each Saturday afternoon, for the following Sunday. Weekly services will take place through June, July, and August.
Douglas Cornman, Sunbeam’s Outreach Director and Chaplain will lead the service. Katherine Rhoda from Monhegan will provide music. Beginning June 14th, guest summer ministers who are no longer able to visit in-person will join to offer the homily and lead us in prayer. The link will be sent to the Cranberries, Frenchboro, Isle au Haut, Matinicus, and Monhegan. Islanders are welcome to share the link with others. This is not intended to be a closed or private service. The link supports up to 100 individual devices.
If you are a mainlander interested in joining one of these services, please email Douglas for details.
BAR HARBOR, ME — It’s Thank you Thursday and today’s shout out of Mission Love goes to the editorial team of The Island Reader. The Island Reader is a multi-arts anthology that showcases Maine’s unbridged island writers and artists. It’s published annually by the Mission through the Sunbeam V’s Island Outreach program. The editorial team is comprised of a dedicated group of island volunteers who work diligently each year to solicit and review submissions and then lovingly craft them into a beautiful anthology that reflects island life and culture.
This year’s editorial team consists of Gary Rainford (editor-in-chief) from Swan’s Island, Douglas Cornman from Mount Desert Island (also the Sunbeam’s Island Outreach Director & Chaplain), Kendra Chubback from Isle au Haut, Ingrid Gaither from Great Cranberry Island, Toby Martin from Islesboro, Kim Peabody from Matinicus, and Sally Rowan from Islesford.
This is The Island Reader’s fourteenth edition. The theme for this year is “Whatever Floats Your Boat.” The editorial team encouraged islanders to capture the wit and whimsy that is so important to embrace when facing the harsh realities of living on one of Maine’s outer islands.
The brainstorm of Reverend Rob Benson, former Pastor to the Outer Islands, The Island Reader has been lovingly guided by many previous editors; most of whom continue to submit their creative writing and artwork for publication. The Mission would also like to give a shout out to them because The Island Reader would not be what it is today, without their creative talent and guidance.
So, thanks to… Anne Bardaglio, Matinicus
Kate Chaplin, Islesford
Donna Cundy, Monhegan
Kaitlyn Duggan, Islesford
Alex Harris, Isle au Haut
Livka Farrell, Monhegan
Kathie Fiveash, Isle au Haut
Rebecca Lenfestey, Frenchboro
Ana Marie Maguire, Swans Island
Erica Millette, Monhegan
Eva Murray, Matinicus
Susanna Roe, Swans Island
Scott Sell, Frenchboro
Kate Shaffer, Isle au Haut
Molly Siegel, Isle au Haut
Skip Stevens, Islesford
The 2020 Whatever Floats Your Boat edition of The Island Reader is available now through Maine Seacoast Mission. Click here.
Island Outreach Director/Chaplain Douglas Cornman
Happy Easter! I hope that you are healthy, safe, and managing as best as you possibly can this Easter. It is a strange and unsettling time. I thought that I would share the reflection that I am offering this morning to the residents of the Cranberry Isles, Isle au Haut, Frenchboro, Matinicus and Monhegan. I serve as chaplain to these islands and we’ll be meeting together this morning via Zoom to celebrate Easter.
My reflection is taken from the Gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 1-18.
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my God.
Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb. Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him, “teacher.”
As I have sat with and opened my heart, mind, and spirit to this passage of scripture, this is the piece of the story that has most resonated with me this Easter. Mary Magdalene and the moment she realizes that she is talking to Jesus.
Prior to COVID-19, I thought my Easter message would focus on the resurrection and what it might mean to live as Christians adhering to the hope that we are resurrection people. Over the past few weeks, as I have experienced the impact of COVID-19 and the fear, anxiety, and uncertainty surrounding it, my attention has been pulled from the concept of resurrection to this moment in the story, when Mary realizes that she’s not talking to a gardener, but to Jesus – the very person for whom she is mourning. The person she thought was taken from her.
As ironic as it may sound at Easter, I am finding the thought of resurrection to be too big – too conceptual. In this moment in time, during this pandemic, I am looking for signs of hope that are more tangible. Signs that I can hold in my hands or into which I can sink my metaphoric teeth. It’s this desire for tangible hope that drew my attention to Mary.
It seems to me that Mary could be any of us. Mary’s world was irrevocably changed with Christ’s crucifixion. I imagine that every aspect of her existence was touched by his death, the events that led to it, and the way it happened. I have no point of reference for a tragedy that is the magnitude of a crucifixion. But I have a gut feeling that parallels can be drawn between Mary’s experience and our experience with this pandemic. Like Mary, every aspect of our existence has been touched by this virus. We are frightened, confused, and weeping. We’ve experienced tremendous loss. We cannot envision a way forward and we have no assurance that our future will resemble our familiar past. We are weeping outside of the tomb; not quite knowing what to do.
Despite how it may feel, my intention for Easter Sunday is not to plummet you into the depths of despair. Instead, it’s to remind you that hope is present if we remain present and open ourselves to its possibility. Mary remained present. Unlike Simon Peter and the other disciple, Mary didn’t leave the tomb when she found it empty. She stayed and she was present. She was also present with her feelings – she wept. She didn’t push her emotions away or act as if she wasn’t sad. She didn’t put on a brave face. She wept. She was present.
I would like to imagine that she took a couple of deep cleansing breaths while she was standing there. However, that little insertion is most definitely me projecting my love of breathing into the story.
My point is, she stayed. Hope presented itself and Mary was available to see it. Hope wasn’t completely clear to her at first. The depth of her emotions caused her to mistake Jesus for a gardener, but clarity came because she remained present.
My Easter message to you is quite simple – be like Mary. In the midst of this horrific, frightening, anxiety producing, and uncertain pandemic, find the strength within to be present. You may experience a sense of presence through meditation, prayer, exercise, or art. You may experience it in the shower or when you take a long hot bath. Regardless of the method you choose, I promise you, if you pause and breathe, you can experience presence. And once there, your breathing will slow, your heart rate will decrease, clarity will emerge, and you may realize that hope is standing, right there, beside you.
Remember, especially today – Easter Sunday – that hope is omnipresent. It has been, it is, and it will be with us, always. Sometimes, we’re just too human to see it.
Amen.
Peace. Happy Easter!!
Douglas Cornman
Director of Island Outreach and Chaplain, Sunbeam V
A message from Douglas Cornman
Director of Island Outreach and Chaplain
MV Sunbeam V
Greetings, my friends. I pray that my letter finds you well.
These are indeed uncertain and frightening times, aren’t they? How we live and relate to one another is changing at an extraordinary pace, as is the information that we need to process and try to understand. Our communities have changed overnight, and we are frantically trying to adjust to a new normal. Given all that is happening to and around us, it is easy to succumb to our fears and anxieties. We find ourselves thinking and behaving in ways that are also new, unfamiliar, and, at times, quite surprising to us.
As we scramble to find balance in chaos, I offer that we make every effort to choose our path forward in love, instead of fear. Try not to give into feelings of anxiety and doubt. Instead, rely on your capacity to find the strength necessary to love in ways you never thought imaginable. Now is the time to choose love, not fear.
Trust me. I recognize how easy it is to offer words like these, especially in a time like this. However, I would not offer them, if I thought the suggestion impossible. To aid you in choosing a way forward in love, I offer this…now is also the time to pause and breathe. Breathe. Breathe.
Breathe with me, my friends. Stop reading for just a moment and breathe.
I am constantly astonished by how the world and my thoughts and feelings seem to take a step back each time I take a breath. The world and my fears no longer wrap so closely around me. Instead, my breath creates a space – a moment in time, if you will – where peace resides, and love is mine to choose.
For me, it is a divine space. A place where the world seems a little less muddled and my fears a little less frightening. A place where I am not alone, but connected to my family, friends, and neighbors in a spirit of mutual support and communal love.
So, I conclude my message with this recommendation and prayer – breathe and choose love.
You are not alone. Borrowing words from Kerry Maloney, Chaplain of Harvard Divinity School, “our collective isolation [provides] an opportunity for communal solitude.” Rest assured, we will discover our new normal and we will do it together, as we move forward in love.
Peace, health, and love,
Douglas
Director of Island Outreach and Chaplain
MV Sunbeam V