I just received this message on Uni News (which anyone can subscribe to, by the way) with a very strong message from the national Executive Committee of the Unitarian General Assembly:
The Executive Committee, having considered the responses of the “Difficult Choices” consultation with the wider Unitarian Movement, agreed the following strategic priorities for the work of the General Assembly. These strategic priorities set the framework for a range of innovative activities to be implemented over the next three years which will require change in many areas of our work as we focus on what makes a difference at congregational level. These are currently in development and further information will be circulated when the plans are finalised.
General Assembly Strategic Priorities
Our Goal: Sustainable and thriving Unitarian and Free Christian communities.
Our Aims: To benefit our communities by:
• encouraging and supporting leadership at local level
• developing Ministry within the denomination
• raising the visibility of the Unitarian movement
• improving the services to the movement provided by staff and volunteers
Our Objective: over the next five years is to become a thriving and increasingly visible liberal religious community throughout Great Britain.
• We will increase our membership by 20%
• We will increase the number of qualified and active Ministers to at least fifty
• We will ensure that all Unitarian congregations can have access to professional Ministerial or recognised lay leadership and support
• We will ensure that all volunteers have access to training and support
This is the most ambitious thing the Executive Committee has ever come out with. It's really good to set actual testable goals, and I've been asking them to do this for a while. The next question of course is how do you actually get 50 active ministers and 20% growth? What are the actions that try to achieve these objectives? These are good questions to ask.
The Executive Committee, having considered the responses of the “Difficult Choices” consultation with the wider Unitarian Movement, agreed the following strategic priorities for the work of the General Assembly. These strategic priorities set the framework for a range of innovative activities to be implemented over the next three years which will require change in many areas of our work as we focus on what makes a difference at congregational level. These are currently in development and further information will be circulated when the plans are finalised.
General Assembly Strategic Priorities
Our Goal: Sustainable and thriving Unitarian and Free Christian communities.
Our Aims: To benefit our communities by:
• encouraging and supporting leadership at local level
• developing Ministry within the denomination
• raising the visibility of the Unitarian movement
• improving the services to the movement provided by staff and volunteers
Our Objective: over the next five years is to become a thriving and increasingly visible liberal religious community throughout Great Britain.
• We will increase our membership by 20%
• We will increase the number of qualified and active Ministers to at least fifty
• We will ensure that all Unitarian congregations can have access to professional Ministerial or recognised lay leadership and support
• We will ensure that all volunteers have access to training and support
This is the most ambitious thing the Executive Committee has ever come out with. It's really good to set actual testable goals, and I've been asking them to do this for a while. The next question of course is how do you actually get 50 active ministers and 20% growth? What are the actions that try to achieve these objectives? These are good questions to ask.
Comments
You are right Stephen that there are further questions to be answered. The roadmap to 2015 will be challenging and frustrating, and there will be too many who claim 'we've tried before and it didn't work'. I suspect there are a number of paths we can and should follow - one size will not fit all. But for the sake of our present and future communities, we should pull together to help the movement meet these aims.
I'm not sure how committed we really are to growth outside congregations that are already growing. Perhaps I'm just tired already.
But to average 20% over all congregations, including dozens of congregations with less than 20 members and no money, and no leadership. That is pretty difficult.
Leadership doesn't have to mean ministers. I hope that 'developing ministry' means enabling the 'ordinary' members to participate in ministry. Sometimes I think that ministers have de-skilled their congregations.
In my view, one way to achieve growth is by every Unitarian explaining Unitarianism to all their friends (and on the internet if able to do so) in the hope that one of them might be interested in joining.
But the churches that the new people turn up to must be spiritual, connected, vibrant, and serving people's needs. (NB I am not talking about consumer spirituality.)
One word.