11 a.m. Sunday Service: Join us for a sermon by Rev. Terry Burke entitled “Amigos.”
12:30 p.m. Congregational Meeting: All are invited to attend. Church members will vote to accept or reject the recently-circulated strategic plan.
Rev. Burke writes:
This week my Wednesday Worship Class featured Ellen McGuire, our Music Director, speaking to us about hymns, music, and how music fits in the flow of our worship service. Thanks Ellen!
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11 a.m. Sunday Service: Join us for our regular Sunday service, which will include a sermon entitled “Worthship.” Please bring a candle to give away for this service, which will involve a celebration for Candlemas. Join us following the service at “Coffee Hour” for coffee and light refreshments. Children’s religious education classes will be held during the service as usual.
12:30 p.m. Congregational Meeting: Church members are asked to stay after coffee hour for a short congregational meeting, which will include updates from the Strategic Planning Committee and Stewardship Committee, a discussion of the “Garden Project” proposal for the church’s front lawn, and a report from the Finance Committee. Non-members are welcome to attend and observe.
Andrea Fleck Clardy, Chair of the Standing Committee, writes:
Early in November, about fifty people gathered to brainstorm about the future of First Church in Jamaica Plain. Hundreds of ideas and concerns, visions, and projects, dreams and doubts were mentioned and written down.
From that great abundance of enthusiasm and ideas, we developed a mission statement and a vision statement to guide us in planning the church’s future.
Mission: We are an open and caring congregation. We nurture spiritual growth through worship, education, social justice, and service to others.
Vision: Our congregation is a source of sanctuary and inspiration. We embrace creativity, inclusiveness, and spiritual exploration. We share humane values and we work together to create a better world.
The next step will be to draft a strategic plan for the coming three years and we are well underway in that process. The committee of Andrea Fleck Clardy, Sarah Martin Hawkins, Kurt Hemr, Roy Karp, Abby Krueger, Penny Wells, and Tim Williamson devoted part of its first meeting to articulating a covenant of understanding.
What emerged is our strong commitment to serve as guardians of the congregation’s enthusiasm. We expect to have a draft of the strategic plan ready to share with the congregation at the March 4 Fellowship Dinner. In the interim, we will keep you informed of our progress.
Penny Wells reports on the recent Congregational Meeting:
On Sunday, December 4, 32 members of the congregation and several other interested individuals gathered to review a proposed mission and vision statement for the church. The draft statements were an outgrowth of the work done over November 4 – 6 Searching for the Future weekend during which approximately 50 members of the church came together to discuss their hopes and dreams for the future of First Church. After reviewing the materials produced by the weekend’s four work groups, church leaders crafted Mission and Vision statements to guide the congregation as it approaches a process of church review and revitalization. The Mission and Vision statements below were presented to the congregation for an up or down vote; the congregation voted unanimously to adopt them:
MISSION: We are an open and caring congregation. We nurture spiritual growth through worship, education, social justice, and service to others.
VISION: Our congregation is a source of sanctuary and inspiration. We embrace creativity, inclusiveness, and spiritual exploration. We share humane values and we work together to create a better world.
Next steps involve creation of a strategic plan. A small group will work on this project with the goal of presenting a draft by the Fellowship Dinner in March. We hope to use this process to mobilize and steer the congregation as it tackles some important challenges over the next five years.
11:00 a.m. Church Service: Join us for our regular Sunday service.
Religious Education: Pageant rehearsal! Please have your lines memorized.
12:30 p.m. Congregational Meeting: Please join us for a short meeting to discuss the draft mission and vision statements developed based on the work that we did at our Saturday, November 5 congregational retreat. The Standing Committee has recommended that the congregation vote to ratify those statements.
A note from the Standing Committee:
Most of the space within our Church and Parish Hall feels as if it belongs to all of us. We count on each other to set up chairs and put them back, to organize what’s chaotic, clean what’s messy, and provide what’s needed. There are a few areas within the Church that are more private, such as Terry’s office, the choir loft, and Mick’s storage space. These areas are under one specific person’s supervision and we ask that you seek that person’s explicit permission before doing any cleaning or rearranging. Thank you for your cooperation.
Our Visioning conference the weekend of November 5 brought fifty of us together to imagine and plan our church’s future. In the excitement and enthusiasm of our meetings, we resolved to move ahead with the development and implementation of a strategic plan as quickly as we can.
The meetings held at the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry Church in Roxbury produced a plethora of ideas and commitments. We will be forming task forces to identify and implement specific proposals, working with existing committees and staff members in areas such as our building, social media, religious education, and outreach to new members.
[After the jump, minutes of the October 18, 2011 meeting of the Standing Committee.]