I know that you scour the Temple Sinai website looking for
new content to devour each day, so it will come as no surprise to you that: we
have new Mission and Vision statements! (No, really, please keep reading, I
promise this blog posting will pick up . . . )
You might be thinking: “I did not even know we HAD Mission
or Vision Statements, let alone new ones!”
Well, we did – and we do. You may have noticed them in the
Board ad in the Jubilee Commemorative Booklet.
“Ok, but, just what are Mission and Vision Statements
anyway?”
Our Mission Statement explains who we are, while our Vision
Statement serves as a guide to where we would like to be in the future. Take a
look:
Temple Sinai’s Mission: We are a diverse, egalitarian,
and inclusive community of Jews and interfaith families. We joyfully
embrace Judaism as a way of life through prayer, music, social action,
celebrating Jewish holidays, lifelong learning, and life cycle events. Through
these activities we seek to promote spiritual growth, moral values, and the
social welfare of our community.
Temple Sinai’s Vision: Temple Sinai strives to be a joyful,
energetic, accepting, innovative, caring, and accessible faith community. We
choose to practice and teach Jewish traditions in our community, so that Jews
and Judaism will continue to flourish both in Vermont and in an ever-changing
world. We believe that support for a safe and prosperous State of Israel is an
important part of our Jewish identity.
And for future reference, you can always find them online,
here:
Why are these important or relevant to us, you might ask?
Truth be told, these look fairly pedestrian, with aspirations and affirmations
that seem to fit well with what we expect from Temple Sinai. Who could argue
with being “joyful” or “accepting” and “inclusive”?
The Temple Sinai Board, that’s who!
What seems to be so obvious (now) engaged the Board in some
fascinating discussions about who we are (Mission), what we aspire to (Vision),
as well as who we are not and what we could not agree upon. From initial drafts
crafted by Ginny Greenblott and Jan Orlansky, we debated, argued (ok, we talked
loudly), nibbled and chopped, rearranged and rewrote sentences and finally
voted on our final preferences to get these two statements.
Why is this important? The Board acts to serve the
Congregation – if we are not clear as to who we are (Mission) and what our
values are, then how are we able to ensure that what we do at Temple Sinai
focuses on what is most important? We must know what we aspire to be (Vision) if
we are to ever be able to stretch and possibly reach as high as we wish. We
must know who we are (Mission) and why we exist if we are to be able to act to
build and sustain a cohesive community.
Ok, so now what? These are not the Ten Commandments and we
are not going to “inscribe them on the doorposts of our houses and upon our
gates”, but we do need to be mindful of them when we are thinking about how to
develop meaningful programming, how to resolve conflicting needs in the
Congregation or, more generally, how we can embody the ideas and values
represented in these statements in the things that we do (and in the way that
we do them) at Temple Sinai.
If we use these statements as guides to our actions, we will
not need to emblazon them everywhere we look at Temple Sinai as we will see
them embedded and reflected in our programming, and in how we interact with
fellow Congregants and the broader community (but you will find them posted at
various times and locations so we can be mindful of them). They should be a
reminder of who and what we are and aspire to rather than directives at odds
with our values. And these statements are dynamic and will change as we change,
molded by our process of measuring our actions against the standards set in
these two statements.
What do you think of our new Vision and Mission statements?
Please let me know! I look forward to hearing what we got right and suggestions
for how we can do better.
Shalom,
Joel (president@templesinaivt.org)
