Category: Congregational Identity
Vancouver Unitarians’ Identity: Walking the Talk – Shared Values in Action
A strong majority of Vancouver Unitarians reported that the most important and meaningful aspects or our engagement with each other and the world are social actions by individuals and groups; how we walk the talk. The personal and spiritual growth that contributes to our lives is closely bound up with the activities we choose to engage in. Many noted that social activism is the most important life-giving characteristic of our community, and it grows out of our willingness, openness, and commitment to our principles and shared values. This engagement and activism take a myriad of forms within our congregation and in the wider community and world.
More than 130 congregants answered eight Thought-Provoking Questions about their experiences in the UCV congregation. The Congregational Identity Team (CIT – Rob Dainow, Leslie Hill, Marg Fletcher, Naomi Taylor, John Boyle) analyzed these responses into the six major, interdependent themes shown in the figure. WALKING THE TALK is one of them.
The full CIT report is available online here. You can read more about how the CIT collected and analyzed the 130 responses on page 3, and about how WALKING THE TALK is so important to our congregational identity on page 18.
Explore the history of the Congregational Identity Team and its work here: ucv.im/cit.
Vancouver Unitarians’ Identity: Services and Ceremonies
How do we see ourselves as we transition to our next settled minister?
UCV’s services and ceremonies – rituals, homilies, and music in the sanctuary – bring people into UCV and help sustain them here as they deepen their connections to all aspects of UCV life.
The Candlelight service, weddings and memorials, meeting our ancestors, pageants, the water, fire and flower communions – almost one-third of the congregants who responded to the CIT identity questions felt most engaged by the special services. They also cited ritual elements of the weekly services, the music, candle-lighting, meditation, and singing ‘Carry the Flame’, as ways of grounding them in our Unitarian community.
Over 130 congregants answered eight thought-provoking questions about their experiences in the UCV congregation, and identified Services and Ceremonies as one of six important interdependent themes.
The full CIT report is available online here. Services and Ceremonies and its importance to our congregational identity appears on page13.
Explore the Congregational Identity Team and its work at: ucv.im/cit
UCV: A Place Where We Can Open Our Minds and Our Hearts
We deeply appreciate the personal and spiritual growth we experience at UCV
- We find new ways of thinking.
- We move away from judgement to acceptance of different points of view.
- We can discover a new personal identity – one member found love!
Our personal and spiritual growth is integral to the interdependent web of the Vancouver Unitarians – guided by our principles and shared values, it grows from participation in our community, our services and our ceremonies, and we show it by walking the talk – all inspired and guided by our minister.
Vancouver Unitarians are grateful for opportunities for lifelong learning in both formal programs and in a wide range of other activities and experiences. We can stretch and expand our skills and find paths to think out our lives.
Over 130 congregants answered 8 Thought-Provoking Questions about their experiences in the UCV congregation. The Congregational Identity Team (CIT – Rob Dainow, Leslie Hill, Marg Fletcher, Naomi Taylor, John Boyle) analyzed these responses into the six major, interdependent themes shown in the figure. PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH is one important theme.
The full CIT report is available online here. You can read more about how the CIT collected and analyzed the 130 responses on page 3, or about how PERSONAL AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH is so important to our congregational identity on page 15.
Explore the Congregational Identity Team and its work at: ucv.im/cit
Vancouver Unitarians’ Identity: Principles and Shared Values – Our Bedrock
Our principles and shared values are the bedrock of our congregation, inspiring and informing our personal and spiritual growth, and leading us to engage positively with each other and with the broader community in outreach and activism. They are what drew many of us to Unitarianism and UCV and have inspired some of our most engaged moments. These range from listening to our minister, participating in our services and ceremonies, contributing to study and discussion groups, and taking action with groups such as the Environment, Social Justice and Refugee Teams.
More than 130 congregants answered eight Thought-Provoking Questions about their experiences in the UCV congregation. The Congregational Identity Team (CIT – Rob Dainow, Leslie Hill, Marg Fletcher, Naomi Taylor, John Boyle) analyzed these responses into the six major, interdependent themes shown in the figure. Principles and Shared Values are one of them.
The full CIT report is available online here. You can read more about how the CIT collected and analyzed the 130 responses on page 3, or about how PRINCIPLES AND SHARED VALUES are so important to our congregational identity on page 9.
Explore the history of the Congregational Identity Team and its work here: ucv.im/cit.
Vancouver Unitarians Cherish Our Ministers
How do we see ourselves as we transition to our next settled minister?
Our minister is of central importance to all dimensions of UCV life. They are the source of the most engaged, alive and motivated times in many members’ lives, and are often directly responsible for people choosing to join and participate in our community. Their stimulating and thought-provoking homilies strongly shape the faith and worship experiences that support personal and spiritual growth, as do the varied services and ceremonies they create. Members deeply value a minister who leads, challenges, and inspires with compassion, who helps us integrate our principles and shared values into our everyday lives, and who walks the talk with us.
Over 130 congregants answered 8 Thought-Provoking Questions about their experiences in the UCV congregation. The Congregational Identity Team (CIT – Rob Dainow, Leslie Hill, Marg Fletcher, Naomi Taylor, John Boyle) analyzed these responses into the six major, interdependent themes shown in the figure. MINISTRY is one important theme.
The full CIT report is available online here. You can read more about how the CIT collected and analyzed the 130 responses on page 3, or about how MINISTRY is so important to our congregational identity on page 11.
Explore the history of the Congregational Identity Team and its work here: ucv.im/cit.
Vancouver Unitarians Cherish Our Community
How do we see ourselves as we transition to our next settled minister?
We cherish our community – our people, the quality of our relationships, the respectful way we interact with each other, and how we strengthen our connections through activities both within and beyond our congregation.
Over 130 congregants answered 8 Thought-Provoking Questions about their experiences in the UCV congregation. The Congregational Identity Team (CIT – Rob Dainow, Leslie Hill, Marg Fletcher, Naomi Taylor, John Boyle) analyzed these responses into the six major, interdependent themes shown in the figure. COMMUNITY is one important theme.
Many people spoke of “finding a home” at UCV, of our openness to all new members, and a desire to increase the ethnic and economic diversity of our congregation and the number of younger persons and family members, and our general openness to all new members.
“We create this congregation together: it is not given from above.”
The full CIT report is available online here. You can read more about how the CIT collected and analyzed the 130 responses on page 3, or about how COMMUNITY is so important to our congregational identity on page 6.
June Update from the Ministerial Transition Team
The Ministerial Transition Team wishes everyone in our congregation a blissful summer! There’ll be plenty going on around UCV, from kids’ Magic Camp to the IPA movie night coming up. As per usual, most of the congregation’s governance and business-y work will pause for July and August, including the MTT. We’re coming to the break on a high, with the Decision Making Task Force and the Congregational Identity Team both issuing their reports – see more on those below.
A small programming note: in April I reached out to see if anyone was chomping at the bit to facilitate some visioning circles. These visioning circles have been put on hold for now, as they’re not the most pressing need at this stage. Perhaps the next minister will want to engage in something along those lines, but for now our CIT report shows them a clear and fascinating picture of what’s important at UCV.
The CIT report is the result of well over a year’s hard work. Most members will remember that last year many of us took part in Congregational Identity workshops, where we interviewed each other and dived deep into what this place means to us. The notes from those workshops are the basis for a report that explores who and why we are as a congregation. It will be a wonderful document to reflect on, for our incoming minister and for us.
The DMTF report is also now available. The DMTF formed in light of the disagreements over the most recent redevelopment project. Their goal was to understand how we currently make big decisions, and how we could do that better. Both these reports should be available online or in print soon, and will definitely have a spot on the EGM agenda, so watch out for them.
To refresh our memories, here’s the five main tasks of a congregation during a ministerial transition.
- Claiming and honoring its past and healing its griefs and conflicts.
- Illuminating the congregation’s unique identity, its strengths, its needs, and its challenges.
- Clarifying the multiple dimensions of leadership, both ordained and lay, and navigating the shifts in leadership that accompany times of transition.
- Renewing connections with available resources within and beyond the UUA (and CUC for us).
- Enabling the congregation to renew its vision, strengthen its stewardship, prepare for new professional leadership, and engage its future with anticipation and zest.
From the Janus Workbook.
Having worked at this for two years, we’ve engaged with each of these tasks. In September, we’re refocusing on two that hold significance for UCV, tasks three and five. Clarifying our new organizational model, our leadership structures and potential will be a priority. We want all UCV members to feel comfortable with how we can work together as a congregation, and with where their favourite part of UCV fits into the whole. And as for griefs and conflicts, well, like any century old organization, we don’t not have any of that floating around – as history and as present. Turning our eyes on them again, we can learn and grow together.
It’ll be a great year, but before it comes, it’ll be a great summer! Do you have any questions? Comments? Enthusiasms? Let me know! Email oliviahmargaret@gmail.com with your thoughts.
Read the new report from our Congregational Identity Team
This photo was taken on Sunday, May 22, of the ‘crew’ working on stuffing jelly beans into cones, that was made with the page of the summary of the newly released report by UCV’s Congregational Identity Team.
This was Olivia’s fun idea, and Leslie put this crew together of Naomi, Marg, Rob, John, and Cynthia.
We then distributed the cones while congregants were exiting the Sanctuary after the Sunday Service! The purpose of this was to help promote engagement of the congregation members, by keeping abreast of the research/ information relating to UCV, so that we can be more actively participating in the various projects moving forward. You can read the full report here and the appendices here.
Transition?! Updates on Behalf of the MTT
The Ministerial Transition Team wants to make sure the whole congregation is on the same page with the vital, confusing, and joyful work of our ministerial transition at UCV. We’re in the home stretch! Our last big project is to ask “What’s Next?” To do that, we’re looking for congregants who can facilitate Visioning Circles! These circles will be a time to reflect, share, and let loose all our biggest ideas about what a future at UCV can look like. We want to take all those visions and distill them down to the essentials of what our Search Committee and new minister need to know. Exciting times! Are you interested? Email me below if you are.
Read on to find out what we’ve been up to lately. And to refresh our memories, here’s the five main tasks of a congregation during a ministerial transition.
- Claiming and honoring its past and healing its griefs and conflicts.
- Illuminating the congregation’s unique identity, its strengths, its needs, and its challenges.
- Clarifying the multiple dimensions of leadership, both ordained and lay, and navigating the shifts in leadership that accompany times of transition.
- Renewing connections with available resources within and beyond the UUA (and CUC for us).
- Enabling the congregation to renew its vision, strengthen its stewardship, prepare for new professional leadership, and engage its future with anticipation and zest.
From the Janus Workbook.
Right now, the MTT is focussed on making sure UCV’s new organizational design is sustainably implemented. A large part of this undertaking is going over the Terms of Reference for each active committee and team. That may sound like the most boring part of task 3, but it’s actually a wonderful time to reflect on the diversity of passions and projects we have here.
And remember those Rethinking Our Identity workshops from last summer? The information collected is being sifted through by a dedicated team to find the patterns of what’s special about UCV. Are you interested in helping to comb through our members’ stories and memories and find gems? New sets of eyes are always appreciated. Reach out to identityproject@vancouverunitarians.ca if you can help in this work.
Another continuing project is the History Wall. Now on display in its full glory both online at ucv.im/ucvstories and in the Hewett Hall alcove, the wall showcases UCV’s path from 1909 to today. And there’s still a space for your new memories to be added if you have them.
Last but not least, the Decision Making Task Force shared a Preliminary Recommendations report with the MTT and the board in January and is working diligently to complete their full report, which we will share with the whole congregation.
Do you have any questions? Comments? Enthusiasms? Let me know! Email oliviahmargaret@gmail.com with your thoughts.