News

The Antietam-Conococheague Watershed Alliance (ACWA) is seeking houses of worship and faith-based organizations (or any organizations!) willing to participate in a free tree planting project to “green” their grounds and promote environmental stewardship.  The trees will be planted & maintained by contractors and/or volunteers between 2022-2025. Outreach materials on the benefit and care of trees will be provided by ACWA. For more details visit ACWA’s website. If your organization is interested or would like more information, please contact info@acwamaryland.org as soon as possible to determine eligibility. Letters of support for the grant request are due 2/26/22.

Want to learn more about the Micah’s Backpack program in Washington County?  Watch this four-minute VIDEO.  In it, Micah’s Backpack Steering Team members and Bester Elementary Title I School Liaison BJ Lushbaugh share about this important program, which ensures children are fed over the weekends in Washington County, Maryland.

From November 28 through December 19, 2021, area congregations participated in a regional effort to collect winter clothing for Afghan refugees. Here’s what we collected:

1,383 coats
736 hats
596 gloves
444 scarves
1,585 socks
Other items also collected: blankets, sleepers, robes, snowsuits, vests and shoes. All items together totaled over 4,850!

This effort was a partnership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, HARC and Catholic Charities of Harrisburg, PA. The collection was a HUGE success with an outpouring of support from the community! Thanks to all who participated in this effort, including:

The Churches of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Hagerstown, Cumberland, and Hancock, MD, as well as in Chambersburg and McConnellsburg, PA; and in Berkley Springs and Keyser, WV.
Covenant Life Church
Covenant Presbyterian Church
Girl Scout Troop 15081
Haven Lutheran Church
Hebron Mennonite Church
Otterbein United Methodist Church
Rehoboth United Methodist Church
Salvation Army
St. John’s Episcopal Church
Trinity Reformed UCC of Boonsboro
Unitarian Universalist Church of Hagerstown

HARC is pleased to welcome David Brechbiel as our new News Flash Editor!

David Brechbiel, a Greencastle native, has worked in the typesetting and printing industry for 26 years, 16 years as a cake and cookie decorator, and 11 years as the office administration clerk at New Light Metropolitan Community Church, and 12 years as Billing Manager for CB Studios. He has a certificate in office procedures from Hagerstown Junior College. He is retired from the work force and now likes to share his experiences with several causes. He focuses his personal ministry on making holiday goody bags for homebound patients of Keystone Health in Chambersburg, PA and is on the Keystone Health Executive Advisory Committee. He enjoys using his talents by informing people of events and causes. He maintains several Facebook and Websites, including New Light MCC, Sanders’ Cookie Jar Bakery, CB Studios, and some of his own including Washington County Fundraisers and Franklin County Fundraisers.

We are grateful to have David’s skills and commitment to compile the HARC News Flash each week!

January 11, 2022 Edward Poling

I appreciate the opportunity to share my recollections of the Washington County Council of Churches. I came to Hagerstown in January 2001 as the new pastor of the Hagerstown Church of the Brethren. Most of my memories are of the last 21 years. But I do have a childhood memory to start. I’m not quite a Washington County native. My parents brought me here when I was just a little over a year old. My dad became the pastor of the Brownsville Church of the Brethren in 1948. Brownsville is just about 20 miles south of Hagerstown, almost in the next state. My childhood memory is of hearing him lead vesper services at the Bandshell in the Hagerstown City Park. In the 1950’s at least, the Council of Churches offered services every Sunday evening in the summer, an hour before the Hagerstown Band would present their concert. This was one of the ministries offered back in the early days of the Council.

On coming to Hagerstown, and beginning my ministry, I remember being visited by Bob Hyssong one Sunday morning. He was the Executive Director at the time. After the service he introduced himself and invited me to come to the monthly council meeting.

There was no hesitation in accepting his offer. I have always been interested in meeting clergy in the community where I served. And this was no exception. The fellowship was warm, and I got to know many of the pastors in Hagerstown. The monthly meetings were helpful in learning about the community and its challenges. There were clergy and lay representatives from the various churches as well as folks from the non-profits and governmental organizations. I learned about Habitat for Humanity, REACH, the Washington County Social Services, and others who were reaching out to the community.

One particular person was Betty Willson. She worked as a volunteer for the Council’s Social Help Services, that had its center at Trinity Lutheran Church. This ministry offered physical assistance to neighbors in need. As a downtown pastor, I understood the great need of folks who were living on the edge. And I appreciated the good work that Betty and her volunteers did. This was real ministry.
I was impressed with the Council of Churches, especially its leaders. I want to recall their names, over these last 21 years and the houses of worship they served.

Rev. Don Stevenson – Christ’s Reformed Church
Rev. Ed Heim – St. John’s Lutheran Church
Rev. Jan Dorsey – Hagerstown Church of the Brethren
Rev. Steve Robison – Otterbein United Methodist Church
Rev. Tim Leighton – Church of the Holy Trinity
Rev. Gregg Meserole – Christ’s Reformed Church
Rabbi Ari Plost – Congregation B’nai Abraham
Rev. Elizabeth Jackson – Otterbein United Methodist Church

It wasn’t long until I was involved in the Council of Churches in more than monthly meetings. It was Don Stevenson who challenged the Council to become more than an ecumenical organization. Even before the tragedy of September 11, Don was encouraging the Council to have conversations about the growing interfaith challenge. And that next winter and spring, he started the Interfaith Coalition, calling together clergy and lay people to begin this work. I attended an early meeting and became part of the coalition. We met regularly and planned events that brought a diversity of folks together to find common ground. And over the last twenty years, this group has advocated for tolerance, respect, and appreciation for the many religious and spiritual traditions in our county. I’ve gotten to know and work with folks from the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Bahai traditions as well as non-theists. Hopefully, this advocacy has helped make our community more respectful of people from many faiths and cultures.

Significant for HARC has been a Statement of Peace that was developed to speak to the divisiveness in 2016. Signed by over 400 people in our community, it called for our religious community “to refrain from language that degrades or demonizes another religion, and halt all religious rhetoric that attacks another’s beliefs and practices…” A sign of our growing unity was two public meetings – one at the Islamic Society of Western Maryland after a tragic shooting in a mosque in New Zealand; and the other at Congregation B’nai Abraham after a similar tragedy in a synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was a time to support our faith partners in the midst of fear and uncertainty.

Two other significant ministries of HARC for me are the Good Friday Cross Walk, and the annual HARC Hike.
In 2007 the idea came to hold a Good Friday observance out-of-doors. We took to the streets, inviting folks to join us in a walk through downtown Hagerstown on Good Friday. We stopped at various social service ministries and significant public places to relate our faith to the social justice issues of our day. This became an annual event and continued downtown for the next four years. Then we moved to the Hagerstown City Park and have continued there over the years. During the last two years it has become a virtual event because of COVID. I am especially indebted to Angie Scheerer for writing the liturgy for these services. (We are needing volunteers to organize that effort again this year.)

The Annual HARC Hike started in 2013 when Kathy Powderly became our Executive Director. We wondered how we might provide the funding for this new and exciting venture. That first year, a group of supporters hiked the length of the Catoctin Trail, in Frederick County, some 28 miles, getting financial sponsors. This has continued as a significant fundraising event each year. More recently our group of nearly 100 participants meets at Shepherd’s Springs Outdoor Ministries Center with hikes of various length on the C & O Canal. This past year, we raised a record $24,000. This coming June will be our tenth year.  (Kathy notes that The HARC Hike was actually born in 2012 when Ed Poling hiked the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in Maryland – 41 miles – in one day to raise funds for HARC.)

For me, all these experiences with what we now call the Hagerstown Area Religious Council have been rich and rewarding. Not only did it extend through my tenure as one of the local pastors, but also into my retirement. I have been richly blessed. And I believe that the work and ministry of HARC has had a significant positive impact on our community. I regret there are many other programs and offerings now provided by HARC I have not touched on. But, in closing, as Rev. Gregg Meserole used to remind us, “let us continue to engage our faith communities in doing more together than we can alone.”

Download a PDF of this refection here