New time for SAMA Thanksgiving Service

Planning for the annual Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at St. Mary's Church are Southern Aroostook Ministerial Association members, front row from left, Envoy Frank Nataluk, Pastor Arnet Mathers, and Rev. Ginny Urbanek; and back, Rev. Randall Burns, Lt. Adrian Aponte, Gloria Powers, Pastor Judy Mathers, Jeffrey (Fen) Carmichael, Rev. Victor Han and Rev. David Hutchinson. Not pictured are Deacon Al Burleigh, Rev. Dale Holden and Marilyn Roper. (Courtesy of Marilyn Roper

HOULTON, Maine — The Ecumenical Community Thanksgiving Service will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at noon at St. Mary’s Church followed by a simple meal.

The service, coordinated by the Southern Aroostook Ministerial Association (SAMA), has been held for many years at 7 p.m. on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. However, with aging congregations and the hope that many younger people will be able to attend over their lunch hour, the time was changed this year, according to Marilyn Roper.

The shortened service in the St. Mary’s sanctuary will be followed immediately by a simple meal downstairs.

Participants are asked to bring canned goods to help stock the local food pantry. The offering will go to the Salvation Army Utility Fund and the SAMA Emergency Fund to help our neighbors in need in the community.

Members churches of SAMA are: First Baptist, First Congregational- UCC, Good Shepherd Episcopal, Church on the Hill / Military Street Baptist, Houlton-Woodstock Quaker Worship Group, St. Mary’s Catholic, Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventist, United Methodist of Houlton and Hodgdon, and Unitarian Universalist.