CAMDEN — On Saturday, March 11, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the First Congregational Church (UCC) of Camden will host Rev. Dr. William Blaine-Wallace, who will present an educational program entitled “An Arc of Hope: A morning retreat on lament and relational justice.” This event is free and open to the public; pre-registration is required.

This event offers the chance to explore our often under-articulated and under-attended grief, considering the sorrow and suffering of loss can be brought into conversations that matter, arousing passion within us for change.

Join UCC for a transformative, life-engaging journey into the deep rhythms of grief, and how these open people to discovering the bright wellsprings of hope.

Bill Blaine-Wallace trusts that the Christian story, in at least one sense, is “grief gone public,” and lament is at the heart of what it means to be a community of faith. Participants will experience the arc of lament — wailing-lament-joy-justice — through presentations and conversations during the retreat.

The retreat will be held in the Pilgrim Room of The First Congregational Church, 55 Elm Street, Camden. To register, please contact Becky Brace in the church office at 207-236-4821.

Bill Blaine-Wallace is an Episcopal priest and pastoral counselor. From 2006 to 2013 he served as multi-faith chaplain at Bates College. Since his retirement he has worked as a therapist at a counseling practice in Farmington. He is the author of Water in the Wastelands: The Sacrament of Shared Suffering and When Tears Sing: The Art of Lament in Christian Community.

Blaine-Wallace has ministered in parishes, hospices, and in mental health and educational settings. He and his spouse live on a farm in the western foothills of Maine with a gaggle of animal friends. When Blaine-Wallace retired from the Bates chaplaincy, college president Clayton Spencer said of him: “Bill has counseled and mentored us as individuals; brought us together in times of both celebration and sorrow; and encouraged our community to pursue the goal of greater social justice through religious, spiritual and cultural attentiveness.”