Our Updated Mission Statement
Dear Columbans,
St. Columba's is a church on a mission to Live God's Love. We are excited to share this updated vision and plan that will guide our common life and ministry together. The plan for 2023-2026 will take us across the threshold of our 150th Anniversary, when we wil celebrate our past and present with gratitude and prepare for the future with hope.
The vision to Live God's Love was first articulated in the 2019 Strategic Plan. That plan, developed through lots of prayer, listening, and distilling of hopes and dreams, has served us well. It guided decisions over the ensuing three years that strengthened and nourished our community and our values.
With clarity on our shared values and priorities, we were able to pivot and adapt through the unfamiliar territory of the Covid pandemic. While St. Columba's has never aspired to "doing it the way we've always done it", we took adaptability and experimentation to new heights.
Valuing nimbleness and responsiveness, we found new ways to connect and maintain relationships with one another, especially with those who are older or who live alone. We created Daily Bread, gathered for House Church and Courtyard Worship, and created new forms of online worship.
Reeling from the persistence of racism, we committed to becoming anti-racist.
The long-overdue nave repairs proclaimed that, "amidst all the changes of this life, St. Columba's is here to stay!"
Redesigning the entryway (narthex) with glass doors, mosaic, and baptismal font, and constructing the labyrinth on the front lawn serve to bring the church outside the walls and welcome the neighborhood to join us within.
Wednesday Night Suppers regularly brought together over 100 people from our community and the wider neighborhood for food and fellowship.
Wee Worship is bursting with families new and familiar. Youth are increasingly inviting friends to join us for fellowship and fun.
Our thriving choirs, prayer and bible groups, and lively worship nurture and inspire.
The 2019 Strategic Plan continues to inspire. For this reason, the Vestry decided to build on and update the document. The new Living God's Love 2023-2026 is the result of much prayer and conversation with clergy, staff, and parish leaders. The new document, like the old one, sets forth our purpose, values, and priorities- not a list of action steps. It is intended to inspire and tap into our collective capacity to discern and respond to the movement of the Holy Spirit in our midst.
Highlights include:
- Center our commitment to become anti-racist as one of our five priorities, and we name reparations as one possible course of action.
- Renew our commitment to address family homelessness and the need for affordable housing in Ward 3.
- Shift the language from "outreach" to building relationships and partnerships with allies.
- Rejoice that St. Columba's Nursery School's updated vision and plan, articulated elsewhere, complements the Church's; and affirm that the church and school function for mutual vitality.
- Deepen our commitment to technology and online engagement
- Commit to secure resources and update our property for ministry in the future.
Even as we look forward, we are poised to celebrate St. Columba's 150 years. This is a reminder that, as the Book of Deuteronomy states, "we drink from wells we did not dig." Grateful for the faithfulness of those who came before us, we now dig wells from which future generations will drink.
We cannot know what lies ahead. We do know and believe that the way of discipleship is the way of love - God's love for us and for all that God has made, and our love of God and one another. "I am the way, the truth, and the life," Jesus reassured his disci- ples. Our future is with Christ. Come, let us follow.
Peace!
Ledlie Laughlin & Sara Glenn Rector & Senior Warden
