From Hart to Hearts
A Message from Rev Linda Hart for the month of January 2009
Several years ago, while doing some personal reflection upon my work, I came up with a mission statement. This is it:
My mission is to participate in creating and sustaining a community that is centered on ultimate values, that offers nourishment to its members to live in the world, that encourages its members to live with integrity and vision, that provides the space and time in which community and intimacy can grow with a diverse group of people, and that has an impact on the world.
This is the vision that guides my ministry here. When I left my outreach work at the Night Ministry in Chicago, it was clear to me that one of the best ways to heal the world was to work at a basic level: to be part in creating strong networks of communities that could uphold families and individuals.
This vision – community that is grounded in love, justice, truth, touching lives and changing the world – is at the heart of my work with this congregation. None of this is work that we can do alone, it’s all work that requires companions, fellow workers, and friends who share the vision. My hope has always been that we can join together in what is required to create and sustain this sort of community, nurturing one another, sharing the heartbreaks of life and the delights, challenging each other to contribute to the world, supporting integrity, learning to live with and celebrate the diversity of the world.
This vision – community that facilitates intimacy among diverse people – keeps me going. It gets lost, as do all missions sometimes, in the ongoing work of maintaining a building and church organisation, getting the newsletter done, even sometimes in the press of Sunday worship. But it is always there in the background, urging me on.
What is your mission? What is our mission as a congregation? How do we carry out what we hope to do and be in the world? I ask because I want to know your answers. Write them down and send them to me. Come to Coffee with the Minister and tell me. Set up another time to talk and tell me then. Ask me to visit.
Ultimately, what we are about as a church is transforming people who are then able to transform the world. How are we doing at that?
Looking forward to your answers!
Linda
Iris update: The flower that was budding in my front garden is still hanging on. It is a plain old garden variety purple iris, the sort that should bloom in late spring. There is a hint of purple flower peeking out of the top of it now, and if we get some unseasonably warm weather, it’s likely to bloom. The hope continues! Pictures next month!