Mission statement

This comes from the Congregational Handbook on UUA website.

Who are we, as individual Unitarian Universalist congregations? Who are you, within your own community when you gather on Sunday morning or Saturday afternoon, or Wednesday night, or any of the other times that you gather? Who are you, as a religious community?

These are the questions that a vision, mission, and covenant process will help you ask, answer, and articulate in a positive way. As the biblical prophet said it, “Without a vision, then the people will perish”. It is also true that if you don’t know where you’re going, then any road will take you there. Without knowing why we bother to gather, to meet, and to be a community, Unitarian Universalist congregations are in danger of ceasing to exist, or of merely replicating the local university’s continuing education program, or the local debating society, or the local country club. If we don’t know who we are as individual Unitarian Universalist congregations, then what is there to differentiate us, one from the other and from all the myriad choices that people have in deciding how to spend their time, their energy, and their money? In communities that have multiple Unitarian Universalist congregations, what distinguishes one from another? Without vision, we stand in danger of withering on the vine. Countless people within our regions stand to lose valuable and viable religious communities that can sustain them in times of trouble and concern.

This document on vision, mission, and covenant assumes that not only are Unitarian Universalist congregations worth strengthening but also that the message of our religious movement is important to the world around us. We provide a saving message that people need and want to hear—one of equality of all people, of the need to strive for social justice, of the glory that there is nothing that we need to do to be deemed worthy. In fact, if we didn’t believe in the importance and possibility of this message for the world around our congregations, then there would be no need for mission, vision, and covenant statements. Rather, we could just continue to exist without paying attention to the deepest questions of why we gather and why we continue to be.

We also assume that every congregation can be strengthened or rejuvenated. This idea comes from the realization that although most of the congregations we participate in were originally called into being many years ago, the gathered and worshipping community is actually called into being every time two or more gather in its name. Each person who enters a religious community is not only touched by it; each individual also touches and transforms the congregation. It is true that we are more than just the people who gather, but it is also true that the people who do gather give each congregation its particular flavor, personality, and reason for being.

It is the purpose of a vision, mission, and covenant process to help congregations (and the people in them) understand more deeply the reasons they gather, the reasons they exist in the world, and what they want to do in the world.

Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together 5 Concise Definitions It is always helpful to understand how language is used in a particular context. There are many competing definitions of the words vision, mission, and covenant. In this document, the terms mean the following:

• Vision: A carefully defined picture of where the congregation wants to be in five or more years.  It is the dream of what the congregation can become.
• Mission: A concise statement of what the congregation wants to be known for, or known as, within the wider world; what the congregation wants to mean to the community.
• Covenant: A statement of how members of the congregation will be with, and will behave toward, one another, as well as what is promised or vowed to one another and to the congregation as a whole.

Fuller definitions of these terms, along with provocative questions, can be found later in this document. More at www.uua.org/documents/congservices/visionmissioncovenant.pdf

~Nancy Montrone           

The Unitarian Universalist Association

We, the member congregations of the UUA covenant to affirm and promote...

• The Inherent worth and dignity of every person.
• Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning:
• The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
• The goal of world community of peace, liberty, and justice for all;
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

The Living Tradition we share draws from many sources...

• Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness of the forces that create and uphold life.
• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion and the transforming power of love.
• Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit;
• Spiritual teachings of Earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacredness of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.