I’m still pondering a recent comment on a previous post about the degree to which we as women religious explicitly express our rootedness in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I thought I’d share with you our own Directional Statement, which we first adopted several Chapters ago, and have reaffirmed as still relevant for the way we desire to be in the world today.
As women called to a life of profound union with God and with each other, we seek to be conformed to Jesus Christ in his love for God, for all people and for all creation.
Using the discernment mode and collaborative feminist and womanist model, we recognize that violence and the abuse of power fracture relationships, diminish human dignity, and destroy our earth.
We commit ourselves to live non-violently, to work to transform structures that promote violence, to affirm the dignity of persons, to be attuned to how all of creation lives and moves and has its being in God.
I’ll take a stab at this — please don’t take offense at this. This may be from a male perspective, but I spent some time in a religious community. I think this sort of thing is a complete waste of time and energy. I know firsthand all that goes in to forming a mission statement and I’m not convinced that they are anything more than intense navel-gazing. Beyond that, I’m not sure what they are intended to accomplish. Take for example the present text: “As women called to a life of profound union with God and with each other, we seek to be conformed to Jesus Christ in his love for God, for all people and for all creation.” Well, that’s saying much less than what I’m sure is intended. We are ALL called to conform to Jesus Christ in EVERY way. Why not say instead. “We seek to be conformed to Jesus Christ” without qualification? Better yet, why not forget the whole mission statement thing and let one’s life and witness be the statement? I am certain that no one at any time or any place has been attracted to a religious community because it had a great mission statement — I am equally certain that no mission statement has ever encouraged a person in her or his commitment to a community or its mission. On the other hand, deep encounters with Jesus Christ and encounters with relgious women and men on fire for Jesus Christ have cartainly drawn and encouraged tens of thousands. So forget the mission statments — the Gospels and the Constitutions or Rule of a community suffice.
Richard,
No offense taken…welcome aboard!
While I do not agree with everything you say, you make some excellent points. For example, I would agree 100% that if a Christian religious congregation is not actively engaged in the mission of Jesus, no amount of wordsmithing on a “mission statement” is going to make it credible to those with whom the members interact. We all have to “walk the talk.”
I also agree that perhaps with some exceptions, folks are not attracted to a group because of its mission statement but because of their personal experience with the members. (One of our sisters told me today of someone who WAS attracted to our directional statement and decided to check us out based on that. It might be true that if she had not seen our directional statement somewhere, she might not have known we existed to investigate further – I don’t know all the details, so I can’t say for sure.)
Having said that, I don’t agree that mission statements are a complete waste of time and energy, unless as I said above, the statement is not congruent with the lived reality of what the group is honestly striving for. I for one DO find encouragement and challenge in the Directional Statement I posted, and I feel pretty confident in saying that quite a few other sisters in my Congregation do also. (They tend not to be so vocal on this blog, but I’m sure they’d at least tell me privately if they thought I was way off base…and I’m not too proud to issue a retraction if I find I’m mistaken…)
To end on another point of agreement, I too believe that all Christians are called to imitate Christ, and that clergy and religious have no corner on the “holiness market”. It seems to me that a primary purpose of our directional statement is to provide a touchstone to a profound experience of God’s spirit at work in our midst when we gather to pray about how the following of Jesus might look for us at a specific point in human history. As such, there’s no doubt that it means more to us than to others…kind of a “you had to be there” thing… It’s not so much the words that inspire me, but the memory of and reconnection to the powerful experience of God that is evoked by the words. And to the extent that my heart sings the song of that experience, others may hear a melody that resonates deep within them – isn’t that what preaching the Gospel is about? The Emmaus story…”Were not our hearts burning within us?” comes to mind…
Let’s keep talking…anyone else like to chime in?
Do you consider a Directional Statement to be the same as a Mission Statement? Is there a difference and if so what is the difference?
Sister, would you mind terribly re-posting this question on http://techienun.org/2007/05/02/directional-statement/?
I moved this blog a while back….it’s probably time to delete it for good….
I’ll respond there to your question…thanks!
Sandy