Every year, near the day with the longest night and the least sunlight, communities across the country acknowledge the problem of homelessness with memorial services for homeless people in each locality that have died the previous year.

In 2016, this service in the Twin Villages will be on Sunday, Dec. 18. That afternoon there will be an ecumenical Memorial Service in Newcastle Square next to the Second Congregational Church, beginning at 3 p.m. The public is invited to this brief service.

Clergy and parishioners from six local churches are participating and invite the public to join them. The service will include prayers, the reading of names of Mainers from Lincoln County that died homeless or in shelters last year and the lighting of candles in their memory. The service will close with singing together “Silent Night.”

The participating churches include Water of Life-Lutheran, St. Patrick’s-Catholic, St. Andrew’s-Episcopal, Second Congregational Newcastle and the Damariscotta Baptist Church.

The Chair of the Ecumenical Council for Homeless Prevention, Steve Ward, said, “Maine is a tough place to be homeless in, particularly in rural areas like Lincoln County where affordable housing is limited, privacy is a big concern and power outages are frequent.” Last year six homeless men and women from Midcoast Maine that died the previous year were remembered in the 2015 memorial service.