Unitarian Universalist Church West

“A people of vision” are those who are far-seeing, those who have a sense of the possible and who work toward their vision of a better world.  Visionaries are necessarily a bit idealistic -- and that certainly describes Unitarian Universalism!  Many of us have individual, personal visions, of course -- visions of success for ourselves or our children, visions of peace in our families or in the world, visions of things we hope to do or places we’d like to see. 

Blind musician and superstar Stevie Wonder describes well part of vision’s shadow side.  He says, “Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision.”  Visionaries can be so charmed by their own ideals, they forget the real world and other people. 

UUCW’s Vision
In 2011, our Board of Trustees created a new statement of “Global Ends” for UUCW; “ends” being the vision toward which we strive. 

Here’s the Global Ends summary statement:  Come as you are – leave inspired!  At UUCW we welcome you into a caring spiritual community where you are free to seek your own truth.  Together we grow through uplifting worship, learn from many kinds of wisdom, and work to build a better world.  Join us!

This statement describes how UUCW is now -- and also, via the more detailed “ends statements” that follow -- it describes what we are becoming.  The ends statements are in these areas:  caring community, uplifting worship, building a better world, growing spiritually from many kinds of wisdom, sharing ministry and embracing responsible stewardship, and the full Global Ends Statement can be found at the very bottom of this page.

Some Wise Words on Vision
Hellen Keller once wrote:  “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.”

“Vision,” according to English writer Jonathan Swift, “is the art of seeing things invisible.” 

George Bernard Shaw proclaims:  You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?"

Rabbi Stephen Wise explains, “Vision looks inward and becomes duty.  Vision looks outward and becomes aspiration.  Vision looks upward and becomes faith.”. . . .

American poet and activist Audre Lorde says:  “When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

According to meditation teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn:  “Our vision has to do with our values, and with our personal blueprint for what is most important in life.”

Creating a Personal Vision Statement
Human Resources expert Susan M. Heathfield at http://humanresources.about.com/od/success/a/personal_vision.htm  recommends that we use the following questions to develop a personal vision statement to guide our lives:

1.  What are the ten things you most enjoy doing? Be honest. These are the ten things without which your weeks, months, and years would feel incomplete.
2.  What three things must you do every single day to feel fulfilled?
3.  What are your five most important values?
4.  If you never had to work another day in your life, how would you spend your time instead of working?
5.  When your life is ending, what will you regret not having done, seen, or achieved?
6. What strengths have other people commented on about you and your accomplishments? What strengths do you see in yourself?
7. What weaknesses have other people commented on about you and what do you believe are your weaknesses?

When you have your thoughtful answers to these questions in hand, Ms. Heathfield suggests that you write clear, declarative statements about yourself and your life -- as if what you are stating is already happening. 

She also suggests that we write down one goal for each of the following aspects of life:  physical, spiritual, work or career, family, social relationships, financial security, mental improvement and attention, and fun.

Quotations on Vision
We offer these thoughts for your personal reflection….

When there is genuine vision (as opposed to the all-too-familiar "vision statement"), people excel, and learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to.  ~ Peter Senge

Children are remarkable for their intelligence and ardor, for their curiosity, their intolerance of shams, the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.  ~ Aldous Huxley

A vision is not just a picture of what could be; it is an appeal to our better selves, a call to become something more.  ~ Rosabeth Moss Kanter

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.  ~ Martha Graham

The best vision is insight.  ~ Malcolm Forbes

The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.  ~ George Eliot

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.  ~ Jack Welch

America would be a better place if leaders would do more long-term thinking.  ~ Wilma Mankiller

Surrealism is destructive, but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.  ~ Salvador Dali

One of the most powerful, and deeply spiritual, ways to work for social change is for us to take action in the present that embodies -- right now! -- the future vision that we seek.  ~ Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.  ~ Melody Beattie

Keep your feet on the ground and your thoughts at lofty heights.  ~ Peace Pilgrim

Where there is no vision, there is no hope.  ~ George Washington Carver

Knowledge is love and light and vision.  ~ Helen Keller

Dream always of a peaceful, warless, disarmed world.  ~ Robert Muller

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn't mean he lacks vision.  ~ Stevie Wonder

Strategic planning is worthless -- unless there is first a strategic vision. ~ John Naisbitt

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.  ~ Woodrow Wilson

The mere possession of a vision is not the same as living it, nor can we encourage others with it if we do not, ourselves, understand and follow its truths. The pattern of the Great Spirit is over us all, but if we follow our own spirits from within, our pattern becomes clearer. For centuries, others have sought their visions. They prepare themselves, so that if the Creator desires them to know their life's purpose, then a vision would be revealed. To be blessed with visions is not enough...we must live them!  ~ High Eagle

The ideals which have lighted me on my way and time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . . The ordinary objects of human endeavour -- property, outward success, luxury -- have always seemed to me contemptible.  ~ Albert Einstein

Anyone who limits her vision to memories of yesterday is already dead.  ~ Lillie Langtry

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.  ~ Peter F. Drucker

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.  ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us.  ~ Donald Williams

When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid. ~ Audre Lorde

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.  ~ Jonathan Swift

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.  ~ Helen Keller

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision.  ~ Theodore Hesburgh

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.  ~ Carl Jung

UUCW GLOBAL ENDS POLICY  (Finalized 3/24/11 by the UUCW Board of Trustees)

What Are Ends Policies?
Under policy-based governance, “Ends” policies are essentially the Board’s statement of our church's mission.  The fundamental purpose of ends policies are to provide direction for setting goals -- they are a statement of the kind of church we aspire to be; of what we are in the process of becoming as a church.

An ends policy sets our mission in a larger context.  It describes broad goals or visions, rather than detailed operational objectives (those are the way we reach the ends).  Ends policies are informed by our collective vision for the future.

Global Ends for an Inspiring Church -- UU Church West
Come as you are – leave inspired!

At UUCW we welcome you into a caring spiritual community where you are free to seek your own truth.  Together we grow through uplifting worship, learn from many kinds of wisdom, and work to build a better world.  Join us!

Caring Community

We experience warmth, hospitality, welcome and support.  Our religious community fosters meaningful and respectful relationships among people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds. Our welcome reaches beyond the congregation to include people from all walks of life.

Uplifting Worship
We connect with a larger meaning and purpose in our worship services.  Our worship life is diverse, joyful, multigenerational, and personal; it involves our hearts, minds, spirits and bodies, and inspires us to reach for our best selves.

Building a Better World
We work actively to eliminate oppression and create a sustainable, just, peaceful and compassionate world in partnership with other organizations and congregations, as well as among ourselves.  Our worship, spiritual life and caring community encourage and equip us to do this work.  We share the good news of our faith and promote Unitarian Universalism in our wider community.

Growing Spiritually From Many Kinds of Wisdom
We are encouraged to seek our own spiritual truths.  Our lives are enriched by learning our Unitarian Universalist faith and practices.  We grow by sharing ideas from wisdom both sacred and secular.

Sharing Ministry
We embrace an ethic of service through our shared ministry.  We joyfully answer the call to minister to one another and to the world, and we engage in shared leadership of our congregation.

Embracing Responsible Stewardship
We share our time, talents and money generously to care for our church and its staff and facilities and for causes beyond our congregation that help us live our values.

UUCW Library Resources

These are a few of the resources available in the UUCW Alice Holz Memorial Library for those interested in learning more about “Vision” in all its different aspects.  Many are about people of vision.

Children’s Books
Goble, Paul.  Beyond the Ridge, 1989.  Call No. J Fic Gob.  Native American visions of life and death.

Kudlinski, Kathleen.  Harriet Tubman: Freedom’s Trailblazer, 2002.  Call No. JB Tub.  One of a series of books for young people about famous Americans of vision who fought for freedom. 

Kudlinski, Kathleen.  Rosa Parks: Young Rebel, 2001.  Call No. JBIO Par.  One of a series of books for young people about famous Americans of vision who fought for freedom.

Millender, Dharathula.  Martin Luther King Jr.: Young Man with a Dream, 1969.  Call No. JBio Kin.  One of a series of books for young people about famous Americans of vision who fought for freedom.
 

Adult Books
Alinsky, Saul D.  Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals, 1989.  Call No. 303.48 Ali.  Saul Alinsky’s vision for effecting constructive social change.

Benyus, Janine M.  Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, 1997.  Call No. 600 Ben.  Marveling at the vision of technological innovation.

Blanchard, Paula.  Margaret Fuller: From Transcendentalism to Revolution, 1987.  Call No. B Ful.  A biography of Margaret Fuller, a distinguished Unitarian who was a friend and colleague of Emerson, Thoreau, and Horace Greeley.  She was “America’s first true feminist.”

Buehrens, John A.  Universalists and Unitarians in America: A People’s History, 2011.  Call No. 289.1 Bue.  A history of Unitarian Universalism in America that focuses on everyday people with vision, not just famous theologians.  Includes Clara Barton and many others.

Buehrens, John A. and Parker, Rebecca Ann.  A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-First Century, 2010.  Call No. 305.69 Bue.  A vision of progressive religion and hope for the future.

Cote, Charlotte.  Olympia Brown: The Battle for Equality, 1988.  Call No. B Bro.  A biography of Universalist Olympia Brown, the first woman minister ordained by a recognized denomination in America and a noted feminist.

King, Martin Luther.  Strength to Love, C 1963, reprinted 1981.  Call No. 252.06 Kin.  Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermons on love and the philosophy of nonviolence in his visionary quest to eliminate social evil.

Marcus, Eric.  Making Gay History: The Half Century Fight for Lesbian and Gay Equal Rights, 2002.  Call No. 305.9 Mar.  The stories of more than sixty people who had the vision to fight for gay and lesbian rights.

Morrison-Reed, Mark D, ed.  Darkening the Doorways: Black Trailblazers and Missed Opportunities in Unitarian Universalism, 2011.  Call No. 289.1 Mor.  Discusses the vision and failure of vision in the relationships between African American trailblazers and Unitarian Universalism

Nhat Hanh, Thich.  For a Future to be Possible: Commentaries on the Five Wonderful Precepts, 1993.  Call No. 294.34 Nha.  Thich Nhat Hanh and fourteen prominent co-authors discuss their vision for the future using the “Five Precepts” of Buddhism as the basis for a discussion, transcending sectarian boundaries, on how we can agree on and practice moral guidelines that will allow us to sustain a compassionate and sane life together.

Palmer, Parker J.  A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life, 2004.  Call No. 248.4 Pal.  A vision of how to live lives that are congruent with our inner truth in a world filled with the forces of fragmentation.

Paulson, Steve.  Atoms and Eden: Conversations on Religion & Science, 2010.  Call No. 202.4 Pau.  Paulson’s conversations with leading scientists on how they envision the relationship between science and religion.
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