The Portland New Church Is An Interfaith Community
The PNC is like a gathering place of many rivers.
We are fortunate to have a number of individuals and groups using the PNC building as a place of gathering. Though they are independently run and attended, the energy and love these people put into their offerings adds to making this a wonderfully diversified place of usefulness, creativity, and sacred community. Find below information on these offerings and visit our Calendar to see daily activities.
Portland New Church Services
This coming first Sunday, we have nothing scheduled due to a cancellation.
Our next first Sunday service will be on June 2nd, led by Rev Harvard MacFarlane, which will be the new time for our Spiritual Recovery series.
The Book Service, focusing on AIM-the workbook by Peter S. Rhodes, where we spend some time reading aloud, balanced by discussion and personal interpretation, will be held on the 5th Sunday in March and May, before moving to 3rd Sundays on June 16th.
On the 2nd Sunday of every month 9:30 - 10:30, our Portland New Church Service is led by Pastor Lorraine Kardash, consisting of music, prayer, reflection, and free-spirited communion.
All are welcome. Fellowship follows.
The next 3rd Sunday, April 21st, we welcome back
Rev Harvard MacFarlane
for the continuation of a new series of services geared towards recovery, which will shift over to first Sundays thereafter on June 2nd. All are welcome to attend Harvard's "Higher Power Hour"
On the 4th Sunday of the month, we have an Art oriented gathering from 9:30~11:30. All materials supplied. No art experience necessary. Currently, we're focusing on an archetype figure series. These projects help to explore our inner selves, and appreciate the creative soul.
For more information, contact Lorraine by email:
maineportlandnewchurch@gmail.com
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The Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME) is a community of compassionate learning and service.
With 20 years of experience educating and ordaining interfaith leaders in New England and beyond, ChIME is an institution dedicated to serving communities by offering a opportunities for individuals to explore what it means to live with Integrity, Spiritual Presence and Prophetic Voice.
During a 2-3 year program of study, service, and community, the Interfaith Ministry program educates and ordains Interfaith Ministers, also known as community chaplains. The Clinical Pastoral Training Program (CPTCSM) provides spiritual care providers with opportunities for further developing chaplaincy skills. In addition to these core programs, ChIME offers a variety of workshops, Open Houses, and Interfaith Gatherings to invite the public to join us in exploring and connecting with the world in a deep and meaningful way.
For more information, visit https://www.chimeofmaine.org/ or email
Namory Keita, Master Village Drummer
Drum Class / All levels
5:30-6:30 Monday evenings
Portland New Church
603 831 9609
Namory Keita, Master Drummer, is a sought after teacher and performer with a unique style and a wealth of traditional knowledge very rare to find outside the villages of Guinea. His resources include not only his wonderful ability to engage any audience but also his relationships with dancers and drummers locally and around the world.
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Visit his site:
KMC Boston – Portland, Maine Branch
The Maine branch of Kadampa Meditation Center Boston aims to make meditation classes as accessible as possible, holding weekly classes on meditation and modern Buddhism that are open to everyone regardless of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or faith. You don’t have to be a Buddhist to learn how to meditate or to benefit from it. We wish to inspire and empower people to reach their full spiritual potential, in order to be of greatest benefit to their family and friends and, by developing inner peace, be active contributors to world peace.
We hold weekly, drop-in meditation classes at Portland New Church on Wednesdays at 6:15pm with our Portland-based teacher Clare Morin, and workshops on Saturdays, often with our resident teacher from Boston, Gen Kelsang Khedrub. Everyone is welcome! More info: www.MeditationInMaine.org
Marita Kennedy-Castro - Movement & Dance
Free *Your* Movement, Private Individualized Movement Lessons with Marita Kennedy-Castro.
Guided, embodied-movement lessons assist you in accessing greater connection to your own authentic movement exploration, somatic awareness practice and freedom of physical expression.
For details & appointment contact Marita: https://embodytherhythm.com
Traditional Dance of Guinea, West Africa with Marita Kennedy-Castro.
Learn foundational movements, cultural and historical context, style and choreography of Guinean traditional dance in this upbeat dance class for Beginners, honoring the source and original teachers of this form. Fridays 9:00-10:15am
Details: https://embodytherhythm.com
Art Sharing
Saturday February 17th, 2:00-4:00
Saturday March 16 2:00-4:00
Sunday April 21, 2:00-4:00
Sunday May 19, 2:00-4:00
Sunday June 16, 2:00-4:00
Sunday July 21, 2:00-4:00
Come share something of your art with others in the spirit of enthusiastic appreciation.
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For more information contact Chris:
or Francis:
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Donations welcome to cover expenses
WholeHeart Yoga Center
Mindful and gentle yoga honoring the heart and wholeness of yoga. Our studio is mostly online now, with our Monday morning class both online and in PNC space. We also hold outdoor yoga events in spring and fall.
Find more at https://wholeheartyoga.com
Circe Moss MacDonald’s business is Ritual Lab: Ceremonies for People and Planet, offering ceremonies and rituals to support spiritual well-being in the community; all ages and backgrounds welcome. We sing, express gratitude, play, reflect, grieve, and transform together. Ritual Lab is for folks who yearn for more connection in their lives.
An Eco-Chaplain, Water Priestess, and Ceremonialist, Circe regularly conducts seasonal ceremonies at The Portland New Church, the University of Southern Maine, and around the Mid Coast region to celebrate nature and help people metabolize grief about climate change, based on teachings of the StarHouse and the work of Joanna Macy and Matthew Fox.
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Having earned two ordinations; the first as a Transdenominational Minister at The StarHouse in Boulder, Colorado in 2003; the second as an Interfaith Chaplain from The Chaplaincy Institute of Maine in 2019, Circe has been conducting wedding ceremonies, memorial services, and rites for passage for 20+ years. Contact Circe here.
Circe is also a massage therapist, offering bodywork at Arcana in downtown Portland, and a puppeteer in the Mayo Street Arts community.
Maine Sacred Harp Singing Group
The Maine Sacred Harp singing group meets at PNC on the 2nd and 4th Sunday afternoons most months, from 2-5pm. We gather to sing in 4-part harmony from traditional shape-note tunebooks. Since this is a system of music notation originally created to teach the musically illiterate to sight-read music, it is perfect for beginners as well as experienced singers, and we welcome all. It is participatory rather than performance-based, and anyone who is curious is encouraged to come, listen, and try it out. Any questions? Email us at: sksandberg@gmail.com
Rev. Todd Glacy - Sacred Sound and Living
My primary passion is the exploration of music and sound as a medium for inner and outer spiritual work, creative expression, and community building.
As a facilitator I have offered a variety of events and workshops at PNC including: Gong Journeywork, Community Kirtan, Ocean of Om, Ecstatic Dance, Community Drum Circles and Electronic Multi-Media immersions (to name but a few).
Rev.Todd Glacy
207-229-9965
Supporting LIfe's Journey
Open Studio session runs on Fridays from 1 pm - 3 pm. For those with previous experience in a medium of choice and would like the freedom of working on your own project while receiving one-on-one supportive feedback and demos as needed. Perhaps you want to fine-tune a particular aspect of a landscape painting or break new territory with an abstract composition. This class will open new doors in developing your unique creative path.
Each class will begin with a short meditation for heightening awareness while minimizing inhibitions associated with the creative process.
For further info., including all group classes in oil, watercolor, pastel, and charcoal, and inquiries about future classes at The New Church, please visit:
https://www.christopherdreed.com/group-classes
Private drawing and painting lessons are also available for the beginner, intermediate, or advanced level. For more info. to book a time at The New Church, please visit:
Gurdjieff Movements in Maine is a group of seekers who practice the Movements, a series of sacred dances, dynamic postures, gestures and other physical actions developed by George Gurdjieff, the spiritual teacher who in the early 20th century developed the Work, or Fourth Way, system of spiritual inquiry. The Work includes a broad variety of practices — meditation and contemplation exercises, reading and communal study, inner tasks and attention efforts in daily life — but the Movements are central to its understanding and transmission.
The Movements were developed out of Gurdjieff’s extensive travels in central Asia, India, Tibet and northern Africa, where for millennia a broad variety of sacred dances have enjoyed profound refinement in the Sufi, Buddhist and other traditions. These are employed as experiential engagement with universal truths as well as tools for individual development, self-observation and self-understanding.
For these sessions at the Portland New Church, we will practice several Movements, accompanied as always by live music which was composed by Gurdjieff and the Ukraine-born composer Thomas de Hartmann, his close companion. The Movements reveal infinite levels of subtlety and insight as one continues to practice them, however these sessions are designed to be accessible to all, and first-time practitioners are welcome.
The meetings will be Mondays at 11:30-1:30 from May 6th--July 8th, then shifting to Wednesdays at 6:00-8:00 PM from July 17th--August 28th
For more info contact: forbes.larry@gmail.com
April 21, 2024 4:30-6:30
Solar Playback with Erin Curren: One woman improvisation meets true stories volunteered from the audience.
Playback Theatre is a type of improvisation based off of audience members’ true stories volunteered in the moment. Playback uses deep listening and movement, voice, music, metaphor, narrative, song, and fabric to honor the storyteller’s lived experience. The aim of playback is to bring people together, to honor the universal in our shared lived experience, and to dissolve the illusion of separateness between us. Playback performances are collaborative, creative, community-building events, designed to deepen connections between individuals and groups.
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Erin Curren, PhD, ACC, is a personal and professional coach, Nia teacher, and improvisor with Solar Playback and The Teller's Garden. Learn more about her online and in person coaching, classes, and performances at https://www.erincurren.com
Suggested pricing is to bring a friend and pay "two for $25"
No one will be turned away for paying less.