Your Chalice Board of Trustees will be working with you to complete important projects this year. In the spirit of transparency, I’ll be using this column to provide more information about our final goal, the creation of a new vision statement. See past letters for information about the Ministerial evaluation and 5-year-plan.

You’ll recall that the congregation approved the following new mission statement. I’ll repeat it here, even though I know you have it memorized!

With love at the center, the mission of this church is to…

INSPIRE individual and communal spiritual growth

CONNECT through worship, music, learning, and caring ministries

ACT in the service of promoting UU principles in ourselves and the wider world

As the current Board is working on a plan for what Chalice will do in the next 5 years, it’s a great time to change our vision statement to what we imagine Chalice will look like in the future.

When I quiet the near-constant activity in my brain, and listen to the deep, residing stillness of my heart, I see Chalice as a place that provides belonging and meaning. This is one of our core needs as people, and something that a lot of us struggle to achieve in a world that equates clicks with our self worth. As UUs, we share the same values, although we may disagree specifically about how to go about providing belonging and meaning to each other. But I believe that the community of communities model is the way forward, and it is ok to provide different ways of belonging to different people. I am excited to think of how our congregation can engage together in various different ways – whether or not they actually come to “campus” or even attend Sunday services. I love calling Chalice my “campus”, acknowledging its role to me as a place I will go to forever learn.

What does Chalice mean to you? When you stop to listen to the deep residing stillness within, what comes to your heart?

We look forward to hearing from you. Many thanks to Marianna Bacilla, Amber Vlasnik, Tom Carlstrom, Carol Simpson, Sarah Shepard, and Dennis Brown for all their hard work.

In love and service,

Kate

PS Loving the new gorgeous parking lot flag!