News & Events
News & Special Events at Union Church
We hold many events during the year that offer opportunities to gather, share a meal, enjoy a special holiday, and we always welcome those in the wider community to join us.
Upcoming Events
The Skit – High Hopes
On August 26th Nancy Bancroft presided at our Sunday worship using the theme of hope. Members of the congregation helped with the ministry to children
Summer 2020 Speaker Series
Our 20th Annual Summer Speaker Series 2021, Rekindling Our Love for This Living Earth, will take place again this summer as we welcome great thinkers, writers, and activists to participate in our 20th Anniversary celebration of earth. As with every series, 100% of proceeds go directly to charitable partners . . .
Blessing of the Animals 2019
The Annual Animal Blessing occurred August 21, 2019. About a dozen dogs received a blessing from Pastor Paula and some gifts for each were given.
Summer Events 2025
Union Church in Biddeford Pool presents its 24th Annual Summer Speaker Series, featuring four special guests:
July 10: LIBBY BUCK, Novelist
July 24: JENNIFER COMEAU, Author, Singer-Songwriter, Forest Therapy Guide
August 7: TESS GERRITSEN, Novelist, Filmmaker
August 21: ALEXANDRA de STEIGUER, Winter Keeper, Isles of Shoals; Author, Photographer, Songwriter
We invite you to join us for four lively evenings that are sure to delight the entire family!
- Events will be in-person at Union Church, 3 Stonecliff Rd, Biddeford Pool.
- The events will start at 7:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM.
- Tickets for the series (all four events) are $65; individual event tickets are $20 each. Series tickets go on sale on May 1; individual event tickets will go on sale June 1.
- All guests must register in advance.
- As always, 100% of the proceeds benefit Union Church’s outreach projects.
- Donations in support of our nonprofit partners are gratefully accepted.
Thank you for your support. We hope to see you this summer!
Thursday, July 10: Libby Buck
Libby Buck’s debut novel, Port Anna, is praised as an “enchanting novel … exploring second chances in a charming port town in Maine.” It tells the story of Gwen Gilmore, who finds herself ”adrift and out of options” and makes the “lonely drive north, to the only place she can think of going: her family’s cottage on the Maine coast.” One reviewer called it a “carefully-wrought portrait of a house, an intense year in a life, and of a small but complicated community that, somehow, for all its layers and conflicts, comes with … magical warmth.” (Author Beth Gutcheon) Simon & Schuster will release the novel July 1. Libby Buck earned a PhD in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She and her husband share three daughters, an English cocker spaniel, and an abiding love for the great state of Maine.
For More Info: Libby Buck
Photo by Gunther Campine
Thursday, July 24: Jennifer Comeau
Jennifer Comeau is a creative force who seeks to inspire people to live in service to a more beautiful world. Her debut historical novel with original songs (2025), A Moon in All Things, has been called “atmospheric and beguiling” by Kirkus Reviews. This coming-of-age tale is filled with Celtic mysticism yet grounded in the everyday lives of an 1820s fishing village in Ireland. Her 5 star-awarded children’s book, The Inside of ME (2024), is a profound reminder of the magic that happens on the inside when we go outside.
Her poems and essays are published in four anthologies, including A Dangerous New World: Maine Voices on the Climate Crisis (2019), and No Ordinary Words: The Real Life Wisdom of Women (2022). With two albums of original music, Jen carries a song in her heart for the natural world. She partners with OzGREEN to facilitate the award-winning YOUth LEADing The World
For More Info: Jennifer Comeau
Thursday, Aug. 7: Tess Gerritson
Trained as a medical doctor, Tess Gerritsen built a second career as an internationally bestselling novelist. The latest of her 32 novels is The Summer Guests (2025), the second in her new Martini Club Series, which was launched in 2023 by The Spy Coast. The novels feature retired CIA operative Maggie Bird, who bands together with other former agents in small-town Maine to uncover who is threatening her quiet life. Tess Gerritsen has won both the Nero Wolfe Award (for Vanish, 2005) and the Rita Award (for The Surgeon, 2001). Time Magazine named The Surgeon one of the best mystery/thrillers ever written. Her series of novels featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TNT television series “Rizzoli & Isles.” Her novels are translated into 40 languages and more than 40 million copies have been sold around the world. She lives in Maine.
For More Info: Tess Gerritsen
Thursday, Aug. 21: Alexandra de Steiguer
Alexandra de Steiguer is the sole resident caretaker on the Isles of Shoals during the five deserted months of winter, and this year marked her twenty-eighth season offshore. Also a photographer, Alex creates her images using medium-format film and personally prints each one in her traditional darkroom. Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout New England and is in the permanent collections of the deCordova Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Ogunquit Museum of American Art. Her insightful musings on solitude, connection and the creative process are published in her book Small Island, Big Picture (2013) and in original music composed and arranged on the Isles of Shoals. Alexandra’s story has been the subject of two internationally distributed short-form documentary films. She is a two-time artist fellow of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.
With a multi-media presentation, she will share her reflections on finding “community” on the Isles of Shoals.
For More Info: Alexandra de Steiguer
Blessing of the Animals
Each year in the late summer, early fall, we hold a Blessing of the Animals at our church. We welcome all in the community to join us and bring their animal companions for a blessing. We collect donations to benefit the local Animal Welfare Society and other groups who care for animals.
Holiday Gatherings
We hold wonderful and fun suppers and parties to celebrate time together, including Mardi Gras, Cinco de Mayo, Easter Breakfast, and our Advent Fireside Chats. Friends from the wider community are always welcomed at these events.
Retreats
We have hosted retreats for Advent and Lent, a Women’s Spirituality Retreat and A Spirituality for the Second Half of Life
Mental Health Support Group and Wellness Group
We have offered opportunities for ongoing support and conversation around topics of wellness, living with or loving someone who is dealing with mental health concerns, and other gatherings to support one another in mind, body and spirit.
Previous Events at Union Church
Union Church has observed some important moments in recent years, including the Memorials of beloved members of our church community as well as the retirement of the long-serving Pastor Jan Hryniewicz.
BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS
The Annual Animal Blessing occurred August 21, 2019. About a dozen dogs received a blessing from Pastor Paula and some gifts for each were given. . . .
The Skit - High Hopes
On August 26th Nancy Bancroft presided at our Sunday worship using the theme of hope. Members of the congregation helped with the ministry to children in a skit–High Hopes.
PASTOR JAN – 15 YEARS OF FRIENDS AND MEMORIES
On Sunday, January 17, 2015 Pastor Jan led her last Worship Service as Pastor of Union Church. Watch this memory-filled video in celebration of her years at Union Church
Marjorie Jamback
June 7, 1933 – December 4, 2019
On December 4th a dear friend of Union Church, Marjorie Jamback, died suddenly at the age of 86. Four years ago she gave this sermon in church.
Tom Bancroft
Union Church and the Bancroft family celebrated the life of Thomas R. Bancroft, who died in February 2020, with an outdoor Memorial Service on a beautiful summer day. Later in the day on that August 26, 2020 a Zoom Memorial Reception occurred so that nearly 90 friends from near and far could come together to celebrate his life and our collective memories of Tom.
Tom Bancroft gave a very personal sermon to us about his life journey exactly two years before we celebrated his life in the Remembrance Garden at Union Church where his ashes are now interned.