FARMINGTON — Phyllis Blackstone will present Heart and Soul, a special storytelling service, at 10 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 30, at Fairbanks Union Church.

Blackstone retired in December 2013 from the University of Maine at Farmington after 43 years in education. She said storytelling is a preferred learning tool and she presents programs for all ages.

Sunday’s presentation is faith-based, with interludes of music and time for personal meditation.

Blackstone, an organist who has played for Fairbanks Union and Shorey Chapel in Industry, will promote comfort, compassion and ultimately concern for others and what people can do to comfort them through her stories and music.

“We all need a little comfort these days,” she said.

When Blackstone came to Farmington in 2008, she found no outlet for storytellers to practice their art. After being asked to teach a storytelling class for the senior college, Goldleaf, she started the Western Maine Storytellers Guild. It’s now WOODS, which stands for Western Order of Dedicated Storytellers.

The group meets the third Thursday of each month from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Starting in January, meetings take place at the Farmington Public Library.  All are welcome to attend. Some come just to listen and don’t tell stories, she said.

Storytelling is a face-to-face activity. It’s not a performance and it’s not like reading a book where an obstacle is between the reader and listener, she said. Telling a story takes two people, she said. It is about relationship between the two.

“I do it because we respond to stories,” she said. “We live by stories.”

In her 43 years of education, she’s seen the response, the relationship created between teacher and students, whether they are first-graders or graduate students, she said. 

From her work in Christian education, Blackstone said Jesus only gave two sermons in the Bible but he told a lot of stories.

Four storytellers from the guild will tell stories at Robin’s Flower Pot on the Webster Road in Farmington during its open house from 6 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29.

In June, the guild will bring storytellers here for its annual storytelling weekend, she said.

All are welcome to attend the service Sunday at Fairbanks Union, she said.

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