June 9, 2011
Living Our Affirmation and Benediction Strategic Plan 2012-2017
The Universalist Church
Love is the spirit of this church, and service its law.
This is our great covenant;
To dwell together in peace,
To seek the truth in love, and to help one another.
Go out into the world in peace,
Have courage,
Hold on to what is good.
Return to no person evil for evil.
Strengthen the fainthearted,
Support the weak,
Help the suffering,
Honor all beings.
Overview
In the coming years, we will strive to live our affirmation and benediction. Individually and collectively, we shall
- Grow and deepen spiritually, seeking the truth in love;
- Lead more meaningful and purposeful lives, living our free faith through service to one another and the greater community;
- Build connections with each other through vibrant activities and effective leadership that guide us toward living together in peace and by helping each other.
Our Vision for the Church in 2017
Faith Development: Seeking the truth in love
- Classes, discussion groups, lectures, and presentations are available throughout the year. There is something of interest for all ages, including programs on spiritual exploration, religion, life-cycle counseling, personal development, and social and policy issues.
- Adult education programs are publicized outside the church and draw attendees from other UU congregations and the regional community.
- Our Speakers Forum is a high visibility annual event, attracting a wide community audience.
- Our religious education program addresses the spiritual, personal, and social needs of our children and youth.
Social Justice and Outreach: Service its law
- We have created a congregational identity that incorporates and emboldens our commitment to:
- hands-on service (expanding our food ministries, establishing a center for at-risk LGBT youth, strengthening our mission trips),
- fundraising,
- education and witnessing (our adult programming and networking with other faith organiza-tions and non-profits),
- advocacy
- We apply a multicultural lens to all aspects of congregational life, including; hospitality, worship, religious education, celebrations and events, programs and outreach.
- Our activities are intergenerational.
Membership: Dwelling together in peace
- We are welcoming to all visitors and new members.
- Every member welcomes newcomers by being friendly and warm,
- We have formal and informal ways to be open to new people
- We are well-connected.
- Members connect to the church and members in multiple ways.
- We’re diverse by race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and age
- We are both one big church community and many small communities within the church.
Membership: Helping one another
- Every church member will understand that (a) they will be cared for and (b) they will be called to care for others.
- The church will develop lay pastoral ministers with strong listening skills and a pastoral presence, who can make a long term commitment, exercise good leadership skills, and be available to work with teams of parish care providers.
Communication and Technology: Building connections
- We can communicate our message about who we are and what we are about.
- We can communicate accurate, current information to both members and outsiders, and people can readily access that information when they need it.
- We have multiple effective ways to communicate.
Leadership Development
- Volunteering is easy and well-coordinated
- Lay leaders receive training and guidance on effectively forming and leading groups and on the dynamics of church life.
- Lay leaders, the ministers, and paid staff network to support each other.
Physical Plant
- Planning for physical plant is based on the needs of our ministry and the initiatives in this Plan.
- We have successfully completed the UUA’s Green Sanctuary program; our building is energy efficient;
Questions about This Vision as Starting Points for Congregational Discussion
- Do you agree with this vision for our church?
- What would you add to the vision?
- What would you change in this vision?
- What parts of the vision should not be lost?
A Selection of Initiatives to Reach Our Vision
There are many possible roads to our vision for living more fully our affirmation and benediction. Here is a sampling of the major initiatives identified by the strategic planning groups, some of which were also included in the statement of vision for 2017.
Grow and Deepen Spiritually
1. Broaden our adult education program to provide to our members and the wider community spiritual renewal through opportunities organized around four pillars.
- Growing our Spirits: Spiritual Practice and Transformation. Examples: Buddhist Wellsprings, yoga, Listening for God, short story discussions, book groups, bible study for Unitarian Universalists), creativity as a spiritual path (writing, painting).
- Deepening Our Understanding: Learning About Our Own Faiths and Those of Our Neighbors. Examples: New UU Classes, UU history, Building Your Own Theology, world religions.
- Supporting Our Journeys: Living Our Values Throughout Our Lives. Examples: grief and loss, divorce support, aging, parenting, eldercare, transgender support, ethics in the workplace, listening skills, Women’s and Men’s Groups, small group ministry.
- Serving One Another and Our World: Prophetic Action and Witness Examples: courses about social action and public policy issues, opportunties for theological and spiritual reflection before and after social action activities.
2. Introduce a Speakers Forum as a major church event addressing a religious or spiritual topic of wide-spread public interest, appealing to a multicultural audience. Net income from admission can help fund additional staff support for adult education.
Give Service; Honor All Beings
3. Expand our food ministry, coordinating with other organizations.
4. Establish a center for at-risk LGBT youth
5. Take a stand on selected issues studied and approved by the congregation with the church’s diversity in mind.
6. Meet the goals of the UUA’s Green Sanctuary Program and helping the environment by becoming more energy efficient.
Build Connections; Help Each Other
7. Target specific initiatives to bring new people to the church; keeping diversity in mind, e.g.
- “Bring a Friend” Sundays or other events
- Guest speakers on topics of interest, including the Speakers Forum
- Food: e.g. a Hispanic culture night
- Have a booth at Celebrate West Hartford
- Publicity in West Hartford newspaper and/or Hartford Courant
8. Develop Standards of Excellence for Groups and Activities to guide groups on ways to make their group more accessible and recruit new people.
9. Recruit and train lay pastoral ministers.
10. Improve the website and adopt other web-based technologies for communicating with members and the broader public.
11. Identify and train leaders for committees, task forces, etc. and develop a support network for leaders to help one another.