Sunday Eucharist | 10:30 (Choral)
This spring the Vestry asked a small subset to revise our mission statement and bring it back for discussion. We felt it was important to articulate a more timely, relevant, and concise statement of who we are and who we are becoming.
Before starting, we agreed a mission should communicate the motivation and focus of our shared life together in order to help us frame community decisions, ministries, and projects. A mission statement does not say everything about us, nor does it say everything we do or practice.
When we started digging in, we noticed a few recurring words and themes threaded through the many existing texts that describe us in our current mission statement, our website, and previous Parish Profiles. Below is the new Mission Statement that synthesizes and distills those ideas.
Mission Statement
We are disciples of Jesus, seeking to practice loving, liberating, and life-giving community in relationship with God, each other, and creation.
We live this out by …
Building friendships that reflect Authentic Kindness. By learning together with Thoughtful Curiosity. By practicing Compassionate Justice. And by worshipping and gathering surrounded by Sacred Beauty.
Reflection Questions
- What excites or resonates with you in this mission statement?
- What idea, hope, or practice does this statement inspire in you?
- Is there something missing in this statement?
We invite you to spend some time reflecting on the new mission statement and the questions above. Please feel free to share your feedback with any member of the Vestry or by email to [email protected].
New Logo
Hand in hand with a new mission statement is a new website and logo to present ourselves externally to our broader community and potential newcomers and partners. Mother Maria enlisted the talents of John Kelley to design this logo for Christ Church. After many, many, iterations we are excited to reveal the final product.
The logo was initially inspired by a piece of stained glass created by Ron Fields that lives in the office and reflects an earlier logo of Christ Church. It represents the unique architecture of our sanctuary building, both the towering cross and the soaring roofline. But of course our church is not the building. It’s our people, of all sorts, bringing many identities and gifts to our community. These are the shapes in the foreground, representing the people sheltered by the building, rooted in the church, and extending out into surrounding creation. The shapes also call to mind the traditional stained glass of many Episcopal churches, as well as the flora of our setting here in the lush and verdant Pacific Northwest. The colors represent our commitment to creation, surrounded as we are by green trees and blue waters, and the purple of our Episcopal tradition.