ST MARY’S VISION STATEMENT
The Background:
At the beginning of the year we asked for your help in preparing a vision statement for St Mary’s as
Robin felt it would help direct his leadership. We said at the time that the vision needed to be clear,
concise, offer clarity and focus and give us a reason for being. Once we share a vision for what we want
St Mary’s to be, or become, we can then tackle the more detailed plans of how we go about it.
Your Response:
We received a positive response from the congregation although people did struggle with the challenging
task of writing a short vision statement so we also received many thoughts and comments as well which
were equally helpful.
The key themes that can be identified from people’s comments and statements are:

People like the welcome at St Mary’s;

Have a desire to develop this welcoming community both within St Mary’s and externally in
Langley;

Balanced with a frequently suggested need to be more welcoming of families;

The importance of St Mary’s as a ‘beacon’ to, and in, Langley;

An appreciation of the diversity of people and worshipping styles in St Mary’s;

An awareness of St Mary’s as just one of the churches - and churchmanship styles - in Langley
and the uniqueness of its historic role;

The need for a flexible and encouraging approach so individuals continue to identify and develop
new areas and respond to different challenges;

A desire for more inclusivity, particularly of families and the elderly and developing the
involvement of both newcomers and established older members who feel that they cannot
contribute what they did.
There were a few comments on becoming more informal but these were outweighed by people
wanting to recognise and keep the history, talents & style of the current service formats.

The Next stage:
The DCC met in February to discuss the ideas that we had all put forward and identified some preferred
vision statements to put to the congregation for their feedback:
1. To share the good news of Jesus Christ, to give Christian hope and renewal to the people of Langley
through our example of service to the community.
2. Achieving unity and accepting diversity in a 21st century community.
3. To be a beacon for all to see that Christianity is alive and well in the community.
4. To be a beacon for all that Christian faith is alive and well in Langley; to share the good news of
Jesus Christ, bringing hope and renewal; to offer a welcome and service to all in our diverse
community
5. St Mary's - a Christian focal point for the community offering friendship, support, renewal and
reflection for people at all times of their lives.
However, the low response to these statements by the DCC members indicated some unease over
whether we were following the right path, and whether we actually needed a vision statement. The DCC
overall preferred Vision 4 but Visions 1 and 5 were also popular. People queried the usefulness of the
word ‘diverse’ and didn’t like ‘beacon’ or ‘alive and well’; they also highlighted the danger of being too
wordy and needing a more simple statement – we don’t need to mention St Mary’s or Langley and
Christianity is implicit!
Even in the small response received, and perhaps because of this small response, we can that glean that
people seem unsure about both the need for a vision statement, and the ones developed so far. There is
a difficulty in getting everyone’s key themes into 1 statement without being wordy and restrictive which
led to - Does it need to be a ‘statement’, could it be simpler than that? We have therefore suggested a
different approach, more of a symbol and show an example below and would like to put this forward to
you for your thoughts and comments:
The approach and design:
 Is based around the cross so it is an easily recognisable Christian symbol which doesn’t need
repeating in words; it is simply easy to read;
 Takes a North, South, East & West (NSEW) approach which represents the wider world and all
directions; it could of course have the ends of the cross as arrows; this North, South, East and West
approach is important for the concept of reaching out to people across the community – the
‘diversity’ that people were highlighting;
 It also represents a journey – which way shall we/should we/can we go? The words used are all
verbs indicating action and ‘doing’;
 All elements are of equal importance and related to each other;
 It is transferable to different situations and provides an easy checklist to consider
actions/developments;
 It is inclusive, i.e. applicable and understandable to all ages and abilities;
 It allows for flexibility and does not restrict initiative;
 The words used reflect some of the key points raised across the different vision statements and
comments we received:
 ‘Nurture’ can be at any stage of people’s life and hopefully links in with people’s thoughts on renewal,
hence being at ‘the head’ of the cross. It also supports the strong theme of families.
 ‘Welcome’ was a word that appeared as a constant theme in the vision statements as something we
do well but also something we must continue to do. It is doubly represented here by the
‘outstretched’ arms of the cross, like a human embrace.
 ‘Serve’/service was another key word that is represented humbly at the feet of the cross;
 ‘Engage’ - to represent our engagement within ourselves, with God, each other and the wider
community – it is both individual and shared.
 Both Engage and Welcome indicate an action, emphasised by the ‘open arms’ of the cross.
There are obviously many other words that could be used if the compass-NSEW approach was to be
used (Worship, Witness, Watching, Evangelism, Educational, Example, Everyone, Sharing, Space,
Supportive etc) but at this stage, the words used seem most apt and linked to people’s comments.
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The DCC would now like to know what you think of the above symbol. Do you like it? Does it suit St
Mary’s? Can it inform what we do and help us evaluate actions? Do you prefer a written vision
statement? If you do, do you prefer any of the ones written above (1-5). Do we need a vision
statement? Please tell us – a suggestion box is on the Kedermister steps! Thank you for your help!