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Shaping Our Future
May 2010
Final Report
The
final report of the Shaping Our Future team is now available to download
here.
April 2010
The Process
Moves toward Proposals for Action
Approaching the
final stage of a year-long process, the Shaping Our Future team is now
assembling a series of richly creative suggestions for productively focusing
congregational energy and attention over the next few years. The suggestions are
many, are closely responsive to our particular needs and desires, and often seem
to be natural developments of practices already in place. They are expressed in
language that we will recognize because it comes directly from our broad
participation in the conversation circle discussions of last fall as well as the
popular and more broadly attended neighborhood gatherings in February.
The process was
straightforward. Seven themes identified in an earlier series of cottage meeting
discussions were used to guide future-oriented discussions of the individual
conversation circles. An interim report presented to the congregation in January
identified almost 50 statements of aspiration summarizing conversation circle
content, and those statements were subsequently used to guide a round of
well-attended neighborhood sessions. These sessions were carefully organized to
encourage very active participation in the brainstorming and proposing of
strategies, programs, and activities that might begin to implement or satisfy
the aspirations. A succinct and planning-oriented set of 28 significantly valued
aspirations was also defined by the selective discussion and prioritization of
the neighborhood sessions, and this set has become the organizing basis for our
team’s further activity.
Our draft of a
planning report intended to update a portion of Cedars’ 2005-2010 Comprehensive
Plan presents our collected material as a series of aspiration statements that
are typically accompanied by several implementation strategies and a set of
action plan possibilities. We are currently working directly with tentative
committee or similar entity “agents” that we have identified for each suggested
action in order to refine the content. Our next step will be to share all of
this with the rest of you. We plan to do that in various ways, including direct
emailing, website posting, and Webster hall displays.
Stay tuned. We
have a rich and rewarding future awaiting!
The “Shaping
Our Future” team: Angie Hoffpauir, Becki Maxwell, Betty Petras, Bill Scarvie,
Frank Petrie, Karolynn Flynn, Richard Wilson, and Rev. Jaco ten Hove
January 2010
Conversation Circles Initial Phase Report
Process
During the past few months, as part of Cedars’ 50th anniversary activity, the
Shaping Our Future team has organized a series of conversation circles exploring
themes derived from future-oriented cottage meeting discussions earlier in the
year. The circles were offered during the coffee hour following each Sunday
service over a 15 week period, with seven discussion themes each scheduled to
occur twice. It has been a very productive endeavor, achieving broad
congregational participation with 69 individuals filling 160 seats in 25
conversation circle sessions that typically engaged 6 people for 20 minutes.
Each week’s theme reflected an aspect of Cedars’ past, present, and probable
future: Community, Growth, Youth & RE, Our Home, Public Presence, Worship
Issues, and Program Possibilities. Each circle’s discussion focused on one theme
with a question or two that generally asked what was especially appreciated
about that particular aspect of Cedars, and more significantly, what might be
done to enhance, improve, or achieve more of that in the future.
Product
Discussions in the conversation circles were often frank, lively, and creative.
Everyone was encouraged to talk, and everyone was encouraged to listen. Much was
shared, and responses to the questions as well as further thoughts and comments
have been carefully recorded, with a full set now filling the east wall of
Webster Hall as well as a special blog on the Cedars website. The display is
impressive; it is also expressive. It speaks of who and what we are as Cedars,
and how we wish to shape our future.
This wall of content has been sorted into similar response or comment clusters,
and the further study and processing of this report summarizes past and present
perspectives on each theme and proposes almost 50 statements of aspiration that
rephrase and represent the essential content of the forward-looking clusters.
Findings
It is clear that there is much about Cedars that we have come to feel is
significant and integral to our lives. We come together every week because we
desire more of what we find here. As a community, we are more than we are as
individuals. As a spiritual community, we are becoming more than we were. And as
we look toward our immediate future, we are now giving expression to our dreams
and desires. Within those statements of aspiration lie broadly shared
sentiments: we wish to deepen, enliven, and expand what we already have.
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The Shaping Our Future team: Angie Hoffpauir, Becki Maxwell, Betty Petras,
Bill Scarvie, Frank Petrie, Karolynn Flynn, Richard Wilson, and Rev. Jaco ten
Hove
Conversation Circle Topics
Community |
Growth |
Youth & RE | Our Home |
Public Presence |
Worship Issues | Program Possibilities |
Community
We, at Cedars, share values, ideas, and spirituality as a community of friends
who respect and enjoy one another. We are like a larger multi-generational
family outside or beyond our own immediate families, accepting our differences
while supporting and learning from each other. We appreciate the many ways in
which we are able to form deeper relationships with each other -- in small group
gatherings and study activities, in our public expressions of joys and sorrows,
in our caring for each other, and in our service to Cedars and to the
communities in which we live. As we look into our past, we appreciate the rich
experiences we have shared as we have become the community that we are.
As we look forward, we aspire to a future in which:
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We are open and welcoming to those who visit or wish to join with us, helping
to connect them with others while mindfully gentle with invitations into
deeper participation and responsibility. |
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We continually seek to create additional opportunities for building and
deepening relationships with one another. |
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We seek diversity within our community in order to expand the range of our
relationships with each other. |
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We seek to strengthen our community, care for each other, and look beyond
personal needs in all that we do. |
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We strengthen our neighborhood teams, reinforcing neighborhood identity and
neighbor-to-neighbor relationships by increasing social activities while
seeking to ease organizational responsibilities. |
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We remind each other, in all of our gatherings, that we are the Cedars
community, and that we are doing important work together. |
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Growth
We have experienced many changes in our time together at Cedars, including
significant growth in our membership, in our spiritual practices, and in our
organizational maturity. We have developed as a spiritual community and as
individuals within that community, and we are both appreciative and proud of the
congregation we have become. We are aware that our collective journey continues,
and that further change will almost certainly accompany us as we move forward.
We also know that the vitality we seek in our lives, the richness we seek in our
relationships, the quality we seek in our programs, and the values we seek to
share in our local communities will attract others who wish to join us.
As we look forward, we aspire to a future in which:
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We actively and individually express our UU values and participate in
activities raising public awareness of Cedars’ presence in our local
communities. |
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We regularly and intentionally create new opportunities for spiritual growth
and rich relationships with others. |
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We sponsor programs and activities that appeal to a diversity of age groups so
that our congregation will continue to be relevant throughout the lives of our
members, including children and young families as well as adults of all ages. |
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We have an active music and arts program that develops our talents and
enriches our experiences together. |
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We reach out enthusiastically to those who wish to join us and welcome them
warmly into our community. |
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We have grown to enjoy a Cedars membership of sufficient size and generosity
to ensure the level of financial and personal support needed for basic
operational needs on an ongoing basis and to allow the ability to direct
additional giving toward meaningful expressions of our congregational values. |
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We enjoy the enrichment of our spiritual journeys provided by joint activities
with other congregations and faith communities. |
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Youth & RE
Religious Education and Youth programs at Cedars UU church are dynamic and
inviting. We welcome all families, and our programs are growing. We have a DRE
who is nurturing our program and leading the congregation in our success.
Children bring their friends and drag their families to church on Sunday
mornings because they are excited to discover and learn. We are raising
life-long UUs. We are reaching out and sharing wonderful programs (such as OWL)
with congregations and parents outside our UU community.
As we look forward, we aspire to a future in which:
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We have teachers and assistants in all our classrooms and the youth group has
consistent direction from dedicated leaders each Sunday.
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The youth and young adults have a visible presence on Sunday mornings and are
active with both the RE programs and the Adult programs.
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Our paid RE and youth staff hours are growing, developing and supporting new and
innovative programs.
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We know and adore each child because there have been many intergenerational
activities. We have creative multi-generational gatherings, retreats, and
weekend events.
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We are reaching out and collaborating beyond our UU community, inviting all to
participate.
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“The story is shared that this is a place where children learn values of
honesty, diversity, compassion, spirituality, and equality in a tradition of
openness rather than dogma.”
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When Religious Education programs and ministries at Cedars Unitarian
Universalist Church are at their best we have harmony.
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Our Home
Over the many years of our history, as we have grown larger
and our facility needs have become more complex, we have used many facilities
and learned to temporarily transform and enjoy the physical environments they
have offered us. We have also begun to recognize the ongoing durability and
strength of our Cedars identity, and to appreciate the green dimension of our
nomadic existence. The Island School facilities are comfortably expressive of
our most cherished ideals and our new office facilities provide much better
staff accommodation along with good meeting space, so that Cedars UU Church is
now grounded in physical accommodations that are attractive, well-located,
appropriately supportive, and in active use most of the time.
As we look forward, we aspire to a future in which:
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Our presence as a vibrant, meaningful, and welcoming community
remains more apparent and significant than our presence as expressed in a
physical facility. |
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We continue to refine our skills and resourcefulness in facility
adaption to better serve our needs, particularly with regard to aesthetics,
acoustics, and to minimizing the setup effort. |
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We reach toward a level of institutional vitality and program
activity that suggests a facility home of our own allowing further program
enrichment, collaboration with others, and announcing our physical presence in
the wider community. |
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Our facility home is in use throughout the week, providing ample,
welcoming, comfortable, and intimate space for our children, youth, and
adults, as well as others from the wider community with whom we find synergies
on many levels. |
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By its location within easy reach of Bainbridge Island and North
Kitsap our facility home welcomes all seekers of a liberal religious
alternative. |
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By its appearance, construction, and relationship to the physical
surroundings, as well as the green and sustainable practices we use within it,
our facility home communicates our respect and care for the environment and
the web of life. |
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Our facility home invites us to enter a deeper relationship with
each other and with the wider community in the context of our shared UU
principles. |
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Public Presence
Cedars’ public presence serves as the voice of the seven core principles of
Unitarian Universalism, the foundation of our faith and this community. These
principles provide a dynamic framework for intellectual, social, and spiritual
inquiry and exploration. We expand and increase their impact each time we create
effective events and programs that explore issues related to these principles
with our neighbors. The stronger our voice is heard, the stronger the impact of
these principles is felt. The stronger their impact is felt in our wider
community, the more Cedar grows both from within and from without.
As we look forward, we aspire to a future in which:
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We make Cedars’ presence visible through PR material that effectively promotes
our civic and spiritual activities: Cedars’ banner, well-crafted informational
materials. |
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We commit to create public events that support each of our seven core
principles, e.g., a forum on gender issues, a lecture series on family issues,
or a film series like our environmental film series. |
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We actively seek ways to coordinate our efforts with other faith communities. |
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We seek ways to increase our presence through newspaper articles, ministers’
articles in newspapers, and by advertising our Sunday service and RE program. |
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We recognize that there is cost in time and money to our public presence
efforts and we embrace these as an active extension of Cedars’ mission.
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Worship Issues
Weekly worship nourishes and replenishes the spirit. Professional ministers and
worship associates collaborate to design services in which all liturgical
elements work together to provoke introspection, inspiration, appreciation, and
a connection to the divine mystery. Our sanctuary is a sacred space that fully
engages the senses, evoking an atmosphere of reverence that remains unbroken
throughout the service. Thoughtfully selected and competently performed music
supports both the worship theme and a reverent atmosphere. Professional ministry
enhances the worship experience, exhibiting both theological depth and a breadth
of subject matter and presentation formats. Lay leaders demonstrate the
spiritual breadth of the congregation and inspire others to give voice to their
own journeys. Expression of joys and sorrows strengthens the relationships of
community. Children, youth, adults, and elders find ample opportunity to
participate in, and contribute to, the worship life of the congregation.
Worshippers leave feeling inspired and connected.
As we look forward, we aspire to a future in which:
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The worship experience continues to nourish a feeling of belonging and a sense
of community. |
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The worship experience continues to provide spiritual replenishment and
centering. |
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The worship experience as a whole continues to be rich, cohesive, and
inspirational. |
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The worship experience continues to include the meaningful participation by
worship associates as a collaborative demonstration of the breadth and depth
of our community. |
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The worship experience continues to include music and singing of the lyrical
messages as integral aspects of the whole, with special music and the
featuring of talented people in the congregation included often.
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The worship experience continues to include the expression of joys and sorrows
and meditation/reflection time. |
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The worship experience continues to include thoughtful, inspirational, and
stimulating sermons, and perhaps a post-service discussion opportunity. |
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The worship experience continues to evolve, taking the overall structure,
major elements, and diversity of content to new levels of refinement.
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The worship experience is improved with better acoustics and sound system
performance. |
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The worship space fully realizes our desire for engagement of all the senses. |
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Program Possibilities
Cedars is a community of individuals with a strong desire to connect with
like-minded people through a variety of small and large group experiences. We
have organized programs that have focused on our values of personal and
spiritual growth, caring for ourselves and others in times of special need,
inclusive spirituality, and public forum programs on significant social and
environmental justice issues. We have also organized community service events as
a popular activity.
As we look forward, we aspire to a future in which:
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We have an active small group ministry that focuses on personal issues of the
heart and spirit. Special focus groups are formed as needed, such as Grief
Circles, Transitions programs, and the Women’s Spirituality retreat. |
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We have vibrant spirituality and support groups, with discussion groups on the
themes and content of Sunday services, spiritual book groups, groups sharing
personal journeys and experiences, as well as men’s, women’s, and parenting
groups. |
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We continue to organize and promote small groups that are intellectually or
experientially focused on deepening our understanding of self and world. |
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We have a large group ministry that is manifested in our public forums for the
wider community, particularly in the areas of social and environmental
justice. |
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We continue to collaborate with other religious organizations, such as Eagle
Harbor Church, and community organizations such as Sustainable Bainbridge.
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We continue to serve the wider community through a variety of service
mechanisms, such as community service days, Crop Walk, and Super Suppers.
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We organize programs that link our Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap
communities more closely together as well as programs that appeal more
specifically to North Kitsap audiences that may not be aware of our presence.
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