Peninsula Pride
Since 2017, the Congregational Church has hosted a Pride Celebration during the month of June, with festivities featuring free food, live music with dancing, and a rainbow of activities for kids and teens! We celebrate the LGBTQ+ community with this all-ages event including crafts, educational booths sponsored by groups such as OUT Maine, opportunities for advocacy, and support from local businesses who provide some of our food and materials. Play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk, make your own rainbow wands and decorate a pair of glasses, write a postcard to your legislators, or just enjoy some free hot dogs or pulled pork from the grill and the sweet sounds of local musical groups for an overall fun atmosphere often ending with a contra dance.
Coordinating with other sponsors in the area, in 2025 we are moving toward a month-long celebration to include a dance sponsored by the YMCA, book studies, and a return to a parade down Tenney Hill and Main Street. In all, we hope to be a visible and joyful ally for LGBTQ+ persons as we honor God in every person in our Open and Affirming church! For more information and event details, check out Peninsula Pride.
Music Programming
Dolly’s Coffeehouse
At 7:00 on the first Saturday of each month, Fellowship Hall is decorated to create a warm, welcoming venue for artistic sharing of many kinds. The first hour is open mic, where anyone is welcome to perform: music, mime, poetry, dance, etc. Performers are asked to arrive a few minutes early to sign up. There will be a brief intermission with refreshments, followed by a featured performer, which has included solo acts as well as musical groups of up to six players.
The Dolly Fisher Emergency Fund, named after Blue Hill’s first settled pastor’s wife, provides emergency fuel, food, and utility help for households on the Blue Hill Peninsula. This fun evening is for all ages and will be held downstairs in Fellowship Hall. Admission is by free will offering.
Vanderkay Concert Series
Thanks to a generous donation made by longtime members of the church, the Vanderkay family, a variety of performances are presented during the year. These concerts bring musicians who are among the most well regarded in their genres, which range from Baroque ensembles to Appalachian folk, contemporary R&B and Jazz to World Music including Afro-Pop and Irish. Keep an eye on the Events Calendar to know what is coming soon!
Benefit Concerts to Support Social Justice Issues and Local Musicians
In response to events in our community and beyond, local musicians often pool their talent to raise money to alleviate suffering of different kinds. Events in the past have included raising money for World Central Kitchen in the wake of the war in Ukraine, to support artists and musicians in Asheville, N.C. who lost equipment and instruments following the flooding there, and to support of the work of Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project here in Maine, following new federal orders regarding deportation.
Fiber Arts Installation
In 2023, Reach Projects selected our church for internationally acclaimed Amanda Browder’s fiber arts project. The church voted and happily accepted. For three weeks, over 50 volunteers of all ages sewed together pieces of donated fabric at various locations on the peninsula. The “In Times We Gather, fiber arts installation adorned the church for two full weeks. It was a heartfelt community event, which temporarily altered a building that the community has seen over and over again throughout the years, thereby adding new perspective and appreciation for the structure.
Blue Hill History Hunt
In celebration of our church’s 250th anniversary in 2022, and in collaboration with the Jonathan Fisher House, we held the first Blue Hill History Hunt. Children, and adults alike, were given six Blue Hill landmarks to visit and learn. Our church is not only an anchor in the historic district it’s also a beacon in the center of Blue Hill’s village.
