Why did we do the Why?
from Seth Barnes
Hopefully you’ve started to notice our new WHY statement in St. Cross publications and Rev. Rachel’s public remarks: To be a community who serves others as a sign of God’s love. A WHY statement is a single sentence that encapsulates the underlying, animating force that drives an organization. So your next question might be….why are we doing this? Or… why did we do the WHY??
Looking back to before COVID (we know, it’s hard!) the Vestry and congregation had initiated a “dreaming” process to discern how St. Cross was being called into the future. On the heels of a successful capital campaign, we wanted to take stock of our resources, vision, and place in God’s community. But as they say “people plan, God laughs” and instead we’ve spent this last year-and-a-half navigating a global pandemic. As we transition out of this, one of the silver linings in what has undoubtedly been challenging and tragic, is reflecting on how our extraordinary community carried each other during this time. Phone trees. Figuring out virtual and parking lot worship. Compline on Facebook. Incredible generosity of time, money, and spirit. None of which we could have dreamed of prior.
So orienting ourselves around a WHY statement, and making sure that all our contemplation, prayers, service, and action are anchored to our underlying raison d’être is a logical next step as St. Cross grows into the future. We hope you agree!