Westworth United Church will hold a brief special congregational meeting on Sunday, June 15, 2014, immediately after the service (which will begin at 10:30 am) to consider the new Mission Statement and Values.
The following is the draft statement and the report of the committee:
Westworth United Church Mission and Values
Our Mission:
To be the hands and feet of Christ within Westworth and beyond
Our Values
- We Celebrate Christian Faith through:
o Thoughtful and challenging worship
o Opening ourselves to spiritual growth
o Encouraging all to share their gifts
o Inspirational music
We Build Community by:
o Inviting others to journey with us
o Extending hospitality to all
o Accepting and celebrating diversity
o Respecting and supporting each other
o Embracing the contributions of all generations
- We Reach Out by:
o Actively offering our time, talents and resources
o Advocating for social justice
o Demonstrating compassion
o Living our commitment to service in all our relationships
Background Preparation
The Visioning Task Force was appointed by the Board on Nov. 26, 2013 to follow up on recommendations from the Visioning and Listening Reports. The members of the group are: Arlene Hintsa, Liz Loewen, Barb Magarrell, Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd, Norm Snyder, Shirley Watts, Barbara Wynes and Frank Wynes. We are grateful to the input of Lisa Cupples while she was still with us.
We prioritized the recommendations and decided that our first task would be the development of a more succinct and engaging mission statement. It needed to be easy to understand, easy to memorize and easy to transmit to pamphlets, social media, etc.
We engaged the Board in a values exercise and built upon Westworth’s previous purpose and value statements, including the following documents:
- 2012 JNAC Report
- Westworth Manual
- Westworth Values Statement Synopsis 2001
- Westworth Values Statement/Mission Statement
We also surveyed the mission statement, values statements and visioning reports of other churches. In addition, we were inspired by the following quote from St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582):
Christ has no body on the earth now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks at the world with compassion.
Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good.
Yours are the hands on which Christ relies to offer blessing.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes;
you are the body of Christ.
Christ no longer has any other body on this earth but yours.
At the Annual Meeting on March 2, 2014, we had a great discussion of a draft Mission Statement and Values. The Visioning Task Group recorded pages of comments and suggestions. At two subsequent meetings, it gave serious and prayerful consideration to these comments and adapted the Mission Statement and Values accordingly.
