Do you know what our mission statement is here at Chalice?

Let me see if I can tell you without looking it up. Open doors, open hearts, open minds,…and then something about seeking justice to the wider world.

I remember when we, as a congregation, created it. I remember really enjoying the process.  Except the long discussion about the colon vs semicolon. Which now I can’t place anyway. But, I do remember liking the meetings where we talked about what Chalice means and what we want our mission statement to reflect.

So here it is in its entirety.

Open hearts, open minds, open doors, nurturing spirits, seeking justice in the wider world.

On the website there is no colon, nor semicolon. I’m not sure what happened there. Anyway, a lot of times it is the process that matters more than the actual result. It’s the journey, not the destination as they say. Although, here maybe both matter.

I think our mission statement can give us direction and guidance and be especially important when we feel we may be off track. Are we personally and communally living up to our mission statement?

Our mission statement can provide outside spiritual seekers a nugget of knowledge of who we are at Chalice.

It can be a way for each committee and group to have a focus on what the overall tenor of their work should be.

Does our current mission statement do this?  Yes? No? Maybe?

It has been over 10 years since we created our mission statement.  Is it time to look at it again as a whole congregation?  Perhaps not to change it, but maybe to just go through the journey of thinking why we have it and what it means to us.

 

With love,,

Anne

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end”

Ursula K. Le Guin