Massachusetts Conference Edition
Return
to main page
Read
National Edition
Read the UC News Spotlight E-Newsletter
Return
to main page
Read
National Edition
Read the UC News Spotlight E-Newsletter
 |
| Enjoy the sound of marsh birds at Minnie’s Seaside Rest in Craigville. The directors of the UCC national Wider Church Ministries voted unanimously to transfer the building to the Massachusetts Conference in November. “Minnie’s Seaside Rest...is vital to the success of the Craigville Conference Center. Without it, Craigville would probably not be able to continue to function as a joint ministry of the Mass. Conference and the Christian Camp Meeting Association,” said Minister and President Nancy Taylor. Calling Craigville an important visual symbol of our UCC presence in Massachusetts, she praised the efforts of legal counsel Dick Osterberg in securing the property. |
January/February, 2004
In 1904 Aminta E. Green deeded her house in Ocean Park, Maine, overlooking the rocky seashore, for the enjoyment of retired or active, on-leave missionaries. It was a memorial to her daughter, Minnie, whom she had dedicated from birth to work in the mission field – but the dream was shattered when the girl died at the age of seven from influenza.
Eventually the American Board for Foreign Missions (later called United Church Board for World Ministries; now called Wider Church Ministries) sold the Maine property. They purchased a site closer to the missionary hub of New York City at Craigville on Cape Cod in 1964. They filled the house, which has a seaside view of Nantucket Sound, with furnishings from the original property in Maine. Management of the building was turned over to the Massachusetts Conference, and it became part of the Craigville Conference Center.
Minnie’s Seaside Rest, as it continues to be called, serves as a “memorial to Minnie Green to perpetuate Protestant Evangelical mission work” through Craigville’s ministry of hospitality to local churches. It is located at 19 Vine Avenue and 21 Ocean Avenue in the town of Craigville and sleeps 30.
This transfer of Seaside was made possible by Global Ministries, a part of Wider Church Ministries, and its covenant with the MACUCC. The Conference made a persuasive request, showing the importance of the property to carry out the mission of the Craigville Conference Center and the uses for which the property was acquired. Other buildings at the Craigville Conference Center are owned by the Christian Camp Meeting Association and leased by the Massachusetts Conference.