In 2012 our Board of Trustees and brand new minister initiated a visioning process to craft a new mission and vision statement for UUCC. After months of one-on-one listening sessions with as many UU Churchers as possible, we adopted our current mission and vision statement in May of 2013.

More than a decade later, a lot has happened in our congregation and in the world. Our congregation has grown by about 20% and seen the usual cycles of folks arriving and departing. We have seen generational shift and staff turnover, political upheaval all around us, opportunities for community engagement and activism, a successful capital campaign and accessibility renovation, and a consistent commitment to nurturing courageous love in our lives. Perhaps most profoundly, we learned new ways of doing and being church during the Covid-19 Pandemic that are continuing to affect our congregational life even now.

Who are we now? What is our work? What are our dreams for our community? In many ways, we feel at the edge of a new era of congregational life. In this spirit, your Board of Trustees wishes to explore these questions together with the entire congregation in the coming 18 months, as we launch a new visioning process to revisit our Mission and Vision Statements for potential updates, edits, or overhaul.

We are working this winter to form and charge a Mission and Vision Task Force. The Task Force will plan a process to gather your input and ideas about our mission and vision in conversations that we expect will happen throughout the summer and fall of 2024. Next winter will be devoted to reviewing their findings, editing or drafting statements, and gathering further feedback. The whole process will culminate in a congregational vote on an updated Mission and Vision at our annual meeting in May of 2025.

We are excited about the clarity we hope this process will bring to our congregational life in a changed world. When our 75th Anniversary comes in January of 2026, we will begin a new era of Unitarian Universalism in Mid-Missouri full of purpose and hope.

If you are interested in being a part of leading this project, please email me, and please keep an eye out for regular updates from the board on the Mission/Vision process.

In Love and Fellowship,
Iyesatu Kamara-Bush
2023-24 President