In June 2016 the membership of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte adopted the following 25-year Vision Statement:
WE ARE A LOVING, LIBERATING RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY
INSPIRING SPIRITUAL, SOCIETAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION
IN THE LARGER COMMUNITY, IN OUR CONGREGATION,
AND IN THE PERSONAL LIVES OF CHILDREN, YOUTH, AND ADULTS.
Now members are asking, “What next, after the adoption of the new Vision?” Your Board is charting our path forward in several ways. What follows below is a carefully considered “Call to Action,” intended to provide broad direction to both the UUCC staff and the congregation. Please give it a close reading, as it is a deliberately-worded, intentional document.
In the weeks and months that follow, UUCC staff will put into place programming that responds to the Board’s “call.” The Board will also publish their suggestions for things members can “do” to embrace the Vision. Much of our work, especially in the early stages, will be preparatory and reflective, but we will also learn by doing. Please look for additional guidance both from your Board and from your professional staff on how we can be true to our new Vision.
Living Our Vision
Adopted by the Board of Trustees, February 21, 2017
In June 2016 the membership of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Charlotte adopted a 25-year Vision Statement and accompanying Framework.
To progress toward the realization of this Vision, the Board has defined a series of initial commitments with the goal of achieving measurable progress by June 2018. The Board finds that other priorities described in the Vision Framework are best addressed after these initial steps are complete.
In general, these steps will enable us to become a more outwardly directed faith community working with others who share a vision of a more just and equitable society. We believe that this commitment requires that we seek out opportunities to listen to people and ideas that may challenge long-held assumptions, ways of understanding, commitments and practices and may expand the comfort zones that surround even our worthiest habits and traditions.
Specifically, we commit to:
Engagement in Spiritual Transformation by
- Exploring our personal and collective spirituality as a basis for societal and environmental transformation
- Partnering with and following other faith communities and people of compassion and good will from whom we can learn
Engagement in Societal Transformation by
- Creating a wide variety of opportunities to listen to and learn from those who are marginalized by injustice, inequity and discrimination as a means of deepening our understanding of systemic injustice and inequity
- Responding to calls for collective action on urgent moral issues by adding our presence and our voices
- Advocating for efforts that disclose and work to dismantle systemic injustice and inequity
Engagement in Environmental transformation by
- Engaging with our community to educate ourselves on issues of environmental injustice
- Promoting environmental justice and sustainable practices and policies
Overall, this commitment to transformation will enable us to:
- Integrate spiritual, societal and environmental awareness, practices and experiences
- Communicate our work as described above to the congregation and to the community at large
- Celebrate our new awareness, knowledge, and community connections acquired and made in the interest of the common good
These initial steps toward our Vision call us to:
- Listen with humility and respect as we learn to become more powerful agents for transformative change in ourselves and in our world
- Step up courageously to live out the principles of our faith
- Show up to defend our ideals when our presence can make a difference
- Speak up for justice and equity in our society
By challenging each other to embrace the work of realizing our Vision, we will transform our loving liberating religious community and help to create the just society we envision for ourselves and for future generations.