Trouble flagged and forgiven

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter on behalf of the Second Congregational Church, UCC in Norway. We are the church that sits on the corner of Main Street and Paris Street, up the street from the hospital and across from the Rowe School. In June we were excited to be able to open our sanctuary for worship after being closed for 14 months.

We made the decision to announce this opening by purchasing some flags welcoming our members and community back to in-person worship. This fall we have had the flag that sits in front of the church, along the side of the church driveway between the church and the parsonage, stolen from our property. This was disappointing!

We were fortunate that our neighbor across the street found the poles – but no flags – out behind their property. So on Wednesday, October 20 at 12:30 p.m., we were able to reinstall the poles and replace the flag, once again welcoming people to our church. How sad, that by Thursday morning, October 21, once again the flag and poles were stolen from our property.

This incident alone does not sound like much, but there have been a few other incidents of vandalism over the last couple of years. Our garden around our sign has been run through by a car, our lights stolen from that garden, windows in our ramp doors shot out by a BB gun, and items we have left out for free from our yard sales, run over by bikes or a car.

We have quietly cleaned up the mess that is left behind and repaired or replaced what needs to be fixed or replaced. Sadly, we now feel that we need to get the police involved and are notifying them when these incidents occur. We wish that it was a step that we didn’t need to take. If you find our flag or poles, we would love to have them back.

We love our Oxford Hills Community and appreciate all the support our community provides, from yard sale donations, support of our Free Supper, mittens and hats, and food for our Thanksgiving baskets. All are welcome in our church and will find a welcoming and loving congregation waiting to greet you with a smile. For those who are participating in these acts of vandalism or stealing of our flags – you are forgiven! We just ask that you please stop! Come and visit and join our church family instead.

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