VEAZIE – Like the steeples atop many small churches in Maine, the one on the Veazie Congregational Church is in desperate need of repair. The rot in the bell tower is so severe, the bell can no longer be rung. Repair costs to the steeple on the town’s only house of worship have been estimated at about $3,000 by one out-of-town firm.

That is $3,000 more than the 35 members had in their $1,800 annual budget, $1,200 of which goes to pay a monthly stipend to the part-time pastor, the Rev. Patricia Moore. The minister, her congregation and an Orono store owner have joined forces and are slowly but steadily raising the money needed to fix the steeple.

Moore and congregation members will be selling wooden replicas of the 163-year-old church along with hand-knitted items from the community booth at the Bangor Mall Friday and Saturday. So far, they’ve raised a third of the needed funds with bake sales held in the lobby of Marden’s in Brewer.

“We have major rot in the bell tower,” said Moore. “It’s so bad, that we don’t dare ring the bell any more. It’s just not safe. We have to replace it before it falls down on us. We really miss our bell.”

The bell was rung every Sunday for worship, on Christmas Eve, Easter and at other spiritual times, according to the pastor. The last time the bell was rung at the Veazie church was New Year’s Eve, almost a year ago.

“Shortly after Sept. 11, President Bush asked all churches to ring their bells for the victims of the terrorist attacks,” said Moore. “It broke our hearts not to be able to take part in that national event, but we didn’t dare ring it.”

Barbara Wilson, chairwoman of the church board of trustees, said that recently while the congregation is working to raise funds, it has been difficult to get other carpenters to assess the steeple and make specific recommendations about fixing it. She said the bell tower may have to be lowered or its shape may need to change, “but we’d definitely like to keep the bell.”

“Everybody pitches right in and does what needs to be done for the fund-raisers,” said Wilson, who has been a member of the church for eight years. “We’ve been encouraged by the amount of money they’ve brought in, but it’s been discouraging trying to find local people to assess the problem and do the work.”

Moore mentioned the church’s plight to Roberta Bradson, owner of The Store – Ampersand in downtown Orono. She suggested the congregation have Fernwood of Maine in Brewer create a wooden likeness of the Veazie church and sell the items as a fund-raiser. Bradson even offered to pay to have the pieces made and wholesale them to the church, so the congregation would not have to spend any money from its very tight budget on the venture.

“I sell Fernwoods in my shop and the ones that seem to sell the best here are the churches,” she said Saturday, explaining how she got the idea for the church fund-raiser. “So many people feel some connection to local churches, whether they attend there or not. They may have been baptized there or married there, or had a relative whose funeral was held there.”

She added that the replica of the Veazie church sells for less than $20, so it is a very affordable gift for people who may have some connection to the church and community. Bradson added that she has been impressed with Moore’s community spirit since the minister became pastor three years ago.

A Roman Catholic, Bradson attends Our Lady of Wisdom at the Newman Center in Orono. She is selling the Fernwood of the Veazie church at her Mill Street store and donating the profits to the steeple repair fund.

“This is a pretty terrific thing she is doing for us,” said Moore. “She has some very deep religious conviction, and she lives out what she believes. We never could have afforded to do this on our own.”

Moore, 55, was one of only six women when she entered Bangor Theological Seminary in 1965. She earned a degree in Christian education and began teaching in public schools in western Maine. After her fianc? was killed in an accident and the federal funds that paid her salary were cut, she returned to BTS in 1977 to study for the ministry.

During the 1980s she worked at the University of Maine and as a supply preacher, filling in for ministers “the length and breadth of Maine.” At the end of the decade, she moved to Haverhill, Mass., to care for her aging mother. They relocated to the Bangor area in the spring of 1998.

The trustees of the Veazie Congregational Church offered Moore the job three times before she agreed. The minister accepted the position to “get back to pastoral ministry in a small church setting,” she told the Bangor Daily News in a 1999 interview. “It is my calling. My love is the small church because of the intimacy.”

Between the church’s annual holiday fair, the bake sales and Thanksgiving, the congregation is nearly exhausted, said Moore. Yet, members also are determined to see that their steeple is repaired and the congregation keeps worshipping together. So, they will be at the Bangor Mall Friday and Saturday asking the community to help them repair their steeple so that once again, they and all of Veazie can be called to worship by the sound of their clanging bell.

Wooden replicas of the Veazie church are on sale to help fund steeple repairs. (Nick McClelland/The Weekly)