Five Core Values
Core Values help us to know who we are, and to communicate who we are to those who do not yet know about us and the Episcopal way of being Christian. In that sense, they are both descriptive and aspirational – like the Christian
life itself.
Our five Diocesan Core Values are:
Welcome | Courage | Justice | Joy | Love
In all of our listening work, there was surprising consistency around these five words, which resonate with many of us as what we need to be about as Jesus’ disciples in this moment. Whatever we do, wherever we go, these are the values that we seek to center. Some of these values, such as welcome and justice, have been words we’ve named for decades as a Diocese; others, like courage and joy, are newer and respond to the yearnings we are hearing in this present moment of our church and our world. And, of course, love is perhaps the first and oldest Christian value that gives meaning and shape to the other four.
Renewed Mission Statement
Our Mission Statement helps us understand what we do as a Diocesan community and why we do it. Our refreshed mission statement is:
Trusting in the Holy Spirit, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
Provides generous and abundant welcome to life in Christ,
Forms creative disciples for missional lives,
Fosters inclusive, diverse, and sustainable worshipping communities, and
Proclaims the justice of God to a broken and hurting world
As we become the church of the future together.
Strategic Priorities
Through our visioning work, we have identified four key strategic priorities to guide us in the coming years.
Strengthening Worshipping Communities
For too many of our worshipping communities there is too much leadership energy being spent on administrative and infrastructure tasks, which leads to clergy burnout and lay leader frustration. While the challenge is easy to identify, solutions have been elusive. In the coming three to five years, we will strengthen worshipping communities by increasing the amount of Diocesan-provided infrastructure support available to congregations in areas like communications, payroll, property support, and the clergy transition process. We will build our capacity as Diocese to discern and support ministry clusters, shared clergy calls, and (where there is willingness) potential mergers. And we will offer more structured approaches to congregational development, so congregations have access to tools alongside resources.
Reframing Communication, Evangelism, and Prophetic Witness
To flourish as Jesus’ followers, our faith must be visible and in relationship with those around us. Too often we hide our light under the bushel basket – which isn’t meeting the moment in a way responsive to God’s call on us. We will re-introduce our way of being Christian to the communities of Eastern Massachusetts. We will work together to encourage public Gospel witness that does what Jesus tells us to do: stand with the vulnerable and suffering, partner across difference, and dismantle systems of oppression in our own hearts and in our public square. And we will strengthen our internal communications as a Diocese for more clarity about what is going on and how you can get involved.
Advancing Formation, Discipleship, and Leadership Development
At a recent Diocesan Council meeting, one of our working groups made the point that evangelism begins with formation and discipleship. Our worshipping communities need more support in becoming places of local formation for children, youth, young adults, and older adults. In the coming years, our Diocese will provide more of this support to congregations and, where appropriate, will offer diocesan-level programming in these areas. Alongside this renewed attention to core Christian formation, we will provide more structured leadership development opportunities both for lay leaders who are asking to be better supported in their leadership vocations within their congregations, and to clergy who are asking for more targeted mentoring, wellness, and formational support.
Improving Diocesan Stewardship and Asset Management
When we talk about assets we are talking of course about money. But we are also talking about the time of our faithful volunteers and staff, about data we can use more intentionally, and we’re talking about our physical property as congregations and as a Diocese. In the coming years, we will build our capacity as Diocese and as congregations to better understand and utilize our real estate assets to serve our mission/ministry. We will also improve our systems to both collect, analyze and utilize data to help inform our discernments and measure impacts. And we will look for ways to better align both the size/shape of our volunteer committees & boards, and our staff roles and processes, to be faithful stewards both of our shared mission and our people’s gifts.