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 2026
Union Church in Biddeford Pool celebrates the 25th anniversary Summer Speaker Series, featuring four special guests:
July 9: LILY KING, Novelist, Short Story Writer
July 23: KENT NERBURN, Author, Artist
August 6: JULIETTE FAY, Novelist
August 20: BECK DOREY-STEIN, Novelist, Memoirist
We invite you to join us for four lively evenings that are sure to entertain, inspire, and explore new worlds.
- 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 $75; individual event tickets are $25 each. Series tickets are on sale now; 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. To commemorate our 25th anniversary and in light of the increased need for the services provided by community non-profits, we invite you to consider a special donation this year: $25 for the 25th!
Thank you for your support. We hope to see you this summer!
7pm Thursday, July 9: Lily King
Lily King’s latest novel, Heart the Lover, was published in September 2025 to international acclaim. One reviewer pronounced it “one of the most emotionally devastating and soulfully wise novels I have ever read … literary without pretension, emotional without maudlin sentimentality … heartrending … rigorously clear-sighted.” (Priscilla Gilmore, Boston Globe) The novel explores the life-long impact of the complicated relationship that develops among three college friends.
The novel was a New York Times instant bestseller. It was named a finalist for the 2026 PEN/Faulkner Award, shortlisted for the 2026 ABA Indies Choice Book Awards and British Book Awards 2026 Book of the Year, and longlisted for the 2026 Women’s Prize for Fiction, 2026 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award: Fiction. Heart the Lover was named one of 2025’s best books by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine (ranked #1 Best Book of the Year), NPR, others.
Lily King’s other works include the novels Writers & Lovers (2020), Euphoria (2014), Father of the Rain (2010), The English Teacher (2005), and The Pleasing Hour (1999) —as well as the short story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter (2021). Her past work has also won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award, the Maine Literary Award – Fiction, and a Whiting Award. Her books have been translated into thirty-two languages. She lives in Portland, Maine.
For More Info: Lily King
7pm Thursday, July 23: Kent Nerburn
Kent Nerburn is an award-winning author whose 16 works explore spirituality and Native culture. He has been called “one of the few writers who can respectfully bridge the gap between Native and non-Native cultures.” His work has been praised by Native writers ranging from Louise Erdrich to Leonard Peltier, Winona LaDuke, and Joseph Marshall, and by non-Native writers from Robert Bly and Margaret Atwood to historians Howard Zinn and Robert Utley.
Nerburn’s most recent work, the novel Lone Dog Road, has been characterized as “[s]prawling, complex, and intimate … destined to take its place in the grand tradition of great American road novels.” It has been praised as a story of compassion and redemption told through the eyes of two young Lakota boys who are fleeing a government agent sent to take them to an Indian boarding school.
Among his other works is the acclaimed trilogy – Neither Wolf nor Dog (1995), The Wolf at Twilight (2010) and The Girl Who Sang to the Buffalo (2013).
Kent Nerburn is a two-time winner of the Minnesota Book Award and holds a Ph.D. with distinction from Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley. He initially worked as a sculptor, focusing on oversized works carved from single tree trunks to preserve the spirit of the trees. From 1988 – 1990, Nerburn founded and directed “Project Preserve,” an oral history project on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation in northern Minnesota, which redirected his artistic focus to writing. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
For More Info: Kent Nerburn
7pm Thursday, Aug. 6: Juliette Fay
One reviewer has called Juliette Fay’s latest novel, The Harvey Girls (2025), “a fascinating slice of little-known 1920s history and a tribute to staunch female friendship.” Author Christina Baker Kline described it as “historical fiction at its most transportive – grounded, vivid, and unexpectedly moving.”
Other recent novels include The Half of It (2023), Catch Us When We Fall (2021), City of Flickering Light (2019) and The Tumbling Turner Sisters (2017), a USA Today bestseller and Costco Pennie’s Book Club Pick. Previous novels include The Shortest Way Home (2012), one of Library Journal’s Top 5 Best Books of 2012: Women’s Fiction; Deep Down True (2011), short-listed for the 2011 Women’s Fiction award by the American Library Association; and Shelter Me (2008), a 2009 Massachusetts Book Award “Must-Read Book” and an Indie Next pick.
Juliette Fay is a graduate of Boston College and Harvard University, and lives in Massachusetts.
For More Info: Juliette Fay
7pm Thursday, Aug. 20: Beck Dorey-Stein
Beck Dorey-Stein’s latest novel, Spectacular Things (2025), has been praised as a “sharply observed and tender portrait of sisters, love, and ambition … a sweeping story about the impossible choices we’re forced to make in pursuit of our dreams.” Her first book, From the Corner of the Oval: A Memoir (2019), was a New York Times bestseller and details the five years she spent as President Obama’s stenographer — a job she obtained through Craigslist. Her debut novel, Rock the Boat (2021), was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection.
She grew up outside of Philadelphia and majored in English Literature at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. In her 20s, she taught high school English in New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Seoul, South Korea. She lives in South Portland, Maine.
For More Info: Beck Dorey-Stein / Instagram
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.