On Sunday, October 21, the congregation unanimously approved a new mission statement.
The draft of our new mission statement was presented to the congregation at the Sunday service on May 20, including James’ sermon One in Mission. This represents the culmination of many months of work by the Mission Commission, the ad hoc team that was assembled to tackle the rewriting of our church’s mission statement.
The team started by researching what makes a good mission statement. We looked at the mission statements of other organizations, not-for-profits, and UU churches. A plan was developed to get input from the congregation. We hosted a “Coffee, Conversation and More,” offered an online survey, and included a discussion of the church’s mission in two of the winter potlucks. The congregation was asked in various ways what words best describe our church community. The results of the surveys were displayed visually as word clouds.
When the Reverend Christine Robinson was here in February, she conducted a well-attended evening workshop that helped us focus on what is truly important about the UU Church in Canton, New York.
Following the advice of the Rev. Robinson, the Commission took a preliminary statement and supporting information to a poet in our congregation, Albert Glover. A skillful wordsmith, Albert created a succinct, lyrical statement that conveys our core values. Additionally, we crafted bullet points to elaborate on the mission statement. After a few edits from the Commission and Church Council we now have a new draft mission statement as follows.
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN CANTON, NEW YORK
Creating a welcoming, compassionate faith community, committed to social justice and open to wonder
Together we strive to:
Foster a spirit of inclusion and connection
Encourage exploration of truth and meaning
Nurture respect for all life and the environment
Live our values in the North Country and in the wider world
We “lived” with the statement for the next few months, leaving open the possibility of a revision or two, and the congregation voted unanimously to adopt the mission statement at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, October 21.
Mission Commission: Kathy Wyckoff, chair; Todd Moe, Danny Thomas, Judi Cohen, Cliff Westerling, Carol Pynchon