Revitalizing Our Mission – by Lena Sloboda

Posted by admin in Uncategorized on 01 24th, 2008 | no responses


The theme for the UCWLC 31st Edmonton Eparchial Convention is “Revitalizing Our Mission.”

It is with pride that today we look back to 1944, the beginnings of our organization: the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada. Today we are on the threshold of celebrating its 60th Anniversary (1944-2004). Today, all UCWLC members can take pride in the rich and illustrious history of the League. Our 60-year history is full of valuable contributions made by our pioneer Branches who helped forge the development of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the Ukrainian Canadian community in Canada.

With such a strong, celebrated, and lively history, we may wonder, then, why is it that today we are talking about revitalizing our Mission.

The Past

Our organization, in its early years, was vibrant. The League had a growing membership. There was energy and excitement within the Branches. The League was fulfilling a meaningful constructive role; the members were helping to build churches to enrich their own spiritual lives.

The Present Situation

Today our organization is not flourishing. In fact, in the last decade, there has been a rapid decline in our membership. We no longer even qualify as a 6,000-membership organization. The League is reaching a point where, very soon, it is going to face a very serious crisis.

Our failure to respond to the present situation of diminishing Branch membership is already having severe repercussions for the entire organization. For example, our Edmonton Eparchy could not take its turn in electing the National Executive and, therefore, our Eparchy could not hold the seat of the official headquarters of the National UCWLC. We had done so four times in the past as recently as 1955 but unfortunately we cannot do it now. This is a very troubling sign.

How did we succeed in the past?

In the early years of our organization, our Branches flourished because they had a mission. A mission that matched the needs of the day and the concerns of the time.  We had a meaningful goal: Helping to build churches to provide a place of worship. Today, that particular mission of building churches is not as urgent. The needs of our present age are different than those of the past. Time changes everything. Our societal framework has changed. Our life is shaped by different elements than those of the past. We are living in the rapidly changing world with new situations arising in the Church and in society. We are all affected, in different ways, by these New World trends.

The Future

The Church, and Church-related organizations like the UCWLC, if they want to survive, have to respond to, and participate in, these many profound and rapid changes that have affected society as a whole.

Today the Church and its Organizations are searching for solutions. Empirical research has been done on the trends in Church attendance in Canada. In 1999, Dr. Reginald Bibby (a well known Professor of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge) studied trends in church attendance over the last two decades. In his research, Dr. Bibby stated that although regular participation in organized worship is lower, there is a receptivity for spiritual and personal relationship and indeed a hunger for meaning in life, rites of passage relating primarily to birth, marriage and death, and other spiritual elements. Interestingly, the research revealed that more women than men participate in church attendance, and this attendance is mainly by older women.

The Eparchial Executive has done several surveys to determine the challenges of the UCWLC today. The response was clear. What the members most wanted from the League membership was the following: (i) to strengthen, (ii) to enhance, and (iii) to commit themselves to a better understanding of our Catholic faith, and of our Ukrainian cultural heritage, and to devote more time to the task of strengthening of the family.

Now, isn’t that an interesting response? Our members themselves are aware of what should be the League’s priorities, and what is most important in today’s fast changing world.

Dr. Bibby’s research and the League’s surveys both come to the same conclusion: today, people are searching for meaning in life through rites and traditions, and other spiritual elements.

How Can We Begin a Process of Revitalization?

Revitalization will begin when we make organizational changes. We need to get on track. The challenge is to revitalize, the role of the Church in our everyday lives, but to do so in a manner that does not repeat the same activities of old, out of habit and routine. Programs that may have been valuable in the past are not necessarily valuable today. To create the organization of the future, we need to create new programs and new initiatives.

To begin the process of revitalization, I offer four critical elements that demand our constant focus and attention in the process of revitalizing our mission:

1.VISION
2. GOALS
3. METHOD (Planning)
4. ATTITUDE
(1) VISION (2) Goals (3) Method (4) Attitude

VISION: – The Power of Vision
Every organization has many choices to make for deciding which way to go. Forces in the outside world pull the organization in different directions, each offering its own attractions, its own possible merits. Yet, no organization can be all things to all people. Let’s look at successful companies like the General Motors. They produce cars, but they do not also bake cakes or sew dresses, they stick to making cars.

Similarly let’s look at our organization, the UCWLC. Our Branches are pulled in many directions. There are so many, diverse wonderful activities and we are so involved, so busy, so very busy doing so many different worthwhile things. However, if somebody would ask us what does the League do? Or what is the mission of UCWLC? What would we say? Our minds would race over the many things we do. Out of all our activities we might have to struggle to choose something unique, something particular to our individuality as members of UCWLC. So, amidst all the bustle and conflicting pressure, the League needs a vision to focus on what’s really important and where it intends to go.

WHAT TYPE OF VISION DO WE NEED?

The UCWLC has enduring aims and objectives on which our organization is founded. However, to continue as a viable organization we need to refocus our mission to adjust to changing realities and respond to a different set of needs, to a different kind of world. In order to begin a process of revitalization, we need a clear vision of what we, as members of UCWLC wish to achieve and how we are going to do it. The UCWLC Mission Statement provides us with that vision.

Our Mission Statement is constructed from an understanding of the purpose and heritage of our organization. It provides us with an over-all direction on how to achieve our purpose.

The UCWLC Mission Statement is as follows:

The Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada in its ongoing commitment to the mission of the Church, and to the nurturing of our cultural heritage, is dedicated to providing resources that help its members to realize their own true vocation
and live an authentic Christian life as contributing members to the Church and society.

A Mission Statement is not something that, once it has been written, is filed into the archives. Instead, it is an active resource meant to be used. Accordingly, the first and most important goal of each member must be to clearly understand the purpose of the organization. The UCWLC Mission Statement should be a beacon that guides our League activities.

Our Mission Statement begins with the words,”The Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada.”These words express our specific identity:

  • they tell us that this is a women’s lay organization on a national level

  • they tell us that the faith of the members is Ukrainian Catholic
    These few words tell us our organization’s mission is considerably different from that of secular organizations. Our faith is the basis of League activities.

    Our Mission Statement stands on four pillars, which are the core aims and objectives of UCWLC. The four pillars are:

    I.    Catholic Faith III.   Social Development
    II.  Ukrainian Culture IV.   Charitable Activities

    Let us now explore our Mission Statement in conjunction with the League’s core aims and objectives

    The Mission Statement begins by identifying the League’s commitment to the mission of the Church. A question we may want to ask. What is the Mission of the Church?

    Simply stated: Over two thousand years ago Jesus Christ taught here on earth. Now the Church continues to do His work. The mission of the Church is to spread the message of Christ.

    For further clarification of our call to the mission of the church, we could refer to Pope John Paul II’s papal document Christifideles Laici (The Lay Members of Christian Faithful).   Published following the 1987 world Synod of Bishops who met to discuss “The Vocation and Mission of the Laity in the Church and in the World.”  The document clearly explains the teachings of the Church regarding the vocation, and mission of the laity. Vatican II points to the following three main focuses of the mission of the Church and the co-responsibility of the lay faithful:

    1. To spread the message of Christ: the work of evangelization and sanctification
    2. The work of renewal of society and culture
    3. The work of charity or mercy
    Our Mission Statement begins with a statement that “we are committed to the mission of the Church.”


    This statement draws our attention to the 1st UCWLC core objective, namely the

    Catholic Faith

    This means that our lives, our activities are to be guided by the Catholic faith.

    We are committed to the mission of the Church because we are members of Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada, which is church-based, church-centered and church approved. The League’s objectives are, therefore, based on Catholic faith in Jesus Christ and the mission of His Church.

    Our responsibility to the mission of the Church:
    1. Our primary responsibility to the mission of the Church is to develop a deep understanding of our faith, and to truly understand what it means to be a Catholic Christian.
    2. As a Catholic Christian we need to practice and promote the moral and social teachings of the Church by upholding Christian values in whatever we do in our daily lives: not only in isolation of our ordinary daily activities, but also in our families, at work, at our organization and our occupation and in our professional lives.
    3. It is also our responsibility to deepen our sense of civic responsibility. Social justice and works of mercy are essential to the mission of the church.

    Our Mission Statement states that we are “to nurture our cultural heritage.”   This statement draws our attention to the 2nd UCWLC core objective, namely the

    Ukrainian Culture

    It is important for us to be aware that we are rooted in history and culture. The official introduction of Christianity in Ukraine by Prince Volodymyr the Great in 988 was one of the most important and glorious events in the history of Ukrainian people. For over a 1,000 years we have remained an integral, but unique part of God’s People with our specific history, rite, liturgy, music, ritual, and our own religious tradition. We need to know the beauty of our traditions, the significance of our worship and the history of our people but also to make a concerted effort to ensure that the beauty and significance of our heritage and inheritance are maintained and passed on for generations to come.

    The Mission Statement states   we are “to live a true Christian life as contributing members to the Church and society ” This statement draws our attention to the 3rd UCWLC core objectives, namely

    Social Development

    As members of UCWLC, we possess a unique identity in that we are both members of the Church and members of society. We are to participate in the mission activities of our parish, and also in the Church’s mission of service to the individual and society. Our mission of service to the individual and society consists of initiating and aiding programs of social justice which exemplify Christian ideals of justice and love, particularly those related to inviolability of human life, the dignity of the human being and the sacredness of the family.

    Our personal responsibility to society: promoting the well being of marriage and family.
    Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II in his apostolic exhortation on the laity, “Christifideles Laici” reminds us that the lay faithful’s duty to society primarily begins in marriage and in the family; the family in God’s plan is the basic cell of society. It is the foundation and nourishment of society.

    Our responsibility to society as an organization:
    To fulfill our Christian vocation in the world, with the promotion of justice and with the spirit of service as a Catholic organization, there is a need to extend our participation, in the community, and, in different sectors of public life, particularly the political life.

    The importance of our involvement in the political life, is interpreted in the late Archbishop Maxim Hermaniuk’s address on laity at the World Bishop’s Synod in Rome in 1987. He urged action by the laity everywhere to influence the value systems of their countries by an active participation in political, social, economic, cultural and artistic life. He stated that the mandate of the laity “to bring Christ to every day life comes from Christ himself. ”  However, he stated that the most important item among these different sectors of public life today is the political sector. The interpretation and implementation of the laws concerning marriage, family life, education, economy, labor and social life is practically forcing in some way all members of the community to follow the way of life proposed and directed by the government.

    However, to be engaged in political and social activities, we need to be strong Christians, well instructed and firm in our faith. We also need to have a good understanding of the Church’s social teaching, and an understanding of our civic responsibility to social justice programs.

    Charitable Activities

    Charity is a distinctive dimension of the mission of the Church. lt is also the 4th UCWLC core objective. The League’s mission to charity or mercy is a service to persons and society: in works of mercy for the poor and the sick, in works of charity and mutual aid intended to relieve human needs of every kind, as well as in assistance to groups and communities. This type of ministry reaffirms Jesus¡¦ ministry to serve others.

    The final pronouncement of the Mission Statement is that, “we are to provide resources to help our members to live a true Christian life.”

    The basic objective of the Mission Statement of the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League of Canada involves developing and instituting programs oriented towards fostering and facilitating a heightening of the spiritual and cultural consciousness of its members and their role as lay members of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

    The UCWLC programs are to advance an awareness of both, the doctrines of our faith, including an increased understanding of our Eastern Christian Heritage, namely our Ukrainian Byzantine rite, and, at the same time, to increase our understanding of the dynamic history of Ukrainian culture. This knowledge will provide the key structural elements for building a meaningful Christian life not only for the individual member, but also for her family, and the community as a whole.

    Our Mission Statement provided us with a clear vision of what our mission is about. We now need to consider decisive and well defined goals to carry out our vision.

    (1) Vision (2) GOALS (3) Method (4) Attitude

    GOALS:
    Careful planning and setting of goals for the year should be a routine policy of the Branch. Priority planning is necessary to achieve our goal. All programs and activities must be able to clearly answer,”how does this relate to our Mission?” It is important to set goals and objectives for a given frame time. Once goals are established, they need to be promoted and followed.  This planning and setting of goals prevents a  Branch from drifting away from its mission.

    Finding a Balance

    Today, as in the pioneer era, many Branches still prioritize fund raising. Indeed the League is a church-based, organization and should not neglect to do its share in material support of the parish. However, this is only one criterion by which we should judge our work as a UCWLC organization.  One of the most important questions we should be asking ourselves as a group is “How have we as an organization helped the personal spiritual development of our members?” This is a basic question. If we, as a UCWLC organization, are not profoundly concerned with spirituality, then we are not fulfilling the aims of the League. To justify our existence as a UCWLC organization, we must have the added all–important dimension of programs which are mission-related with emphasis on spirituality. We need to find a balance. To maintain a balance, we must have priorities clearly laid out.  Accordingly, we may discover that, at times, we may not need to continue to serve old, existing programs simply out of habit and routine. There will always be some concern over what we need to hold onto and what we need to change.

    (1) Vision (2) Goals (3) METHOD (4) Attitude

    METHOD:  (Planning): the 3rd critical element for the process of revitalization.
    (a) Branch Standing Committees
    The structure of UCWLC is to operate on a system of Standing Committees at all levels, working as a large national organization, but also as one unit. To assure conformity to common goals, as well as to provide direction, and support, the same basic Standing Committees are found in all levels of the organization: the National, the Eparchial Executives and the Branches. The role of the Branch Standing Committees is extremely important. They are the mechanism for implementing the Aims and Objectives of the League. The UCWLC will have difficulty to achieve its goals, its mission without strong Branches and their Standing Committees.

    Team work between Eparchial and Branch Standing Committees:
    Success in the process of revitalization requires a strong team work between the Eparchial and Branch Standing Committees. It is, therefore, crucial to have a unified approach of both levels. It is especially important to remove any barriers between Eparchial Committees and the Branches. The Branches and the Eparchy cannot be seen as working in isolation of each other, with Branches seeing the Eparchial Executive as “them” and themselves, (the Branches) as “us.” There is no “them.” We are all “us.”  United we can make a difference. We need a well-orchestrated cooperation between these two levels based on open dialogue and mutual respect.

    (b) Communication
    To create a common vision of our League’s over-all mission in our large organization, it is essential that proper channels of communication be established and maintained between all levels of our organization. It is vital that information and materials are passed from one level to another. We need to ensure that everyone is informed and that all share the same vision of what the League is about. Good communication will bring about the realization that we are truly working as one organization. The Eparchial Regional Conferences is an important extension of communication between the Eparchial Executive and the Branches.

    (c) League Image
    It is important for each Branch to develop a good strong UCWLC image in each parish and in the community. The UCWLC Mission Statement is our identity.  It describes Who We Are and Our Purpose. It needs to become familiar not only to the members, but also to the community. We face strong competition from other organizations. We need to inform others that Spiritual Development is the very heart of our organization and the essence of our existence. This dimension sets us apart from all other women’s organization. We need to affirm that our strength derives from our common bond of  faith.

    (d) Membership – Diversity in Our Membership
    Today, many Branches identify aging membership as the greatest challenge to the League. Perhaps we could turn this around and make it our greatest strength fusing the wisdom and experience of the elders with energy and aspiration of the young. We need to retain the present membership and continue to recruit members of diverse age and focus.  However, being an active UCWLC member may not be a viable option for many young mothers who tend to be preoccupied with children, school and building a career. We should not overlook the semi- retired women whose children are grown up. They can still be extremely effective members and have more time to devote for their own spiritual and personal enrichment and fulfillment of a desire to contribute to the church and community.

    (1) Vision (2) Method (3) Goals (4) ATTITUDE

    We will now conclude with the 4th  critical element needed to begin the process of revitalization.

    ATTITUDE:
    When we are talking about revitalization, we are talking about renewal. We are talking about not only changing concepts of our aims and goals, but also of renewing attitudes. Attitude is a word that can either make or break an organization.
    Attitude can have meaning on two levels:

  • a passive attitude of indifference

  • an active attitude of participation and vitality.
    For example, my attitude to Tim Horton’s donuts is one of indifference. I feel I can make better donuts than Tim Horton’s.  However, my attitude about the League must never be one of indifference. Our attitude about the League is vital. Our attitude about the League sends a message to others.

    Finally, then, let us engage in the following actions:
    1 . Treat everybody with respect. Let us build UCWLC Branches that    celebrate the uniqueness of every member by caring.
    2. Continually give recognition and praise when deserved. Power of praise and appreciation is the best marketing plan. Everyone wants to be appreciated.
    3. Recruit members, however, also strive to retain members. Members are like consumers – they both have options.  What customers care about is how they are treated. Statistics tell us that 65% of the reason they stop using the product or service is Not because they Don’t like the product or service, but because they Didn’t like the way they were treated.
    4. Ensure that only positive attitudes are promoted among our Branches as only positive attitudes will bring about unity, peace, and harmony in our Branches and parishes.
    5. Maintain a sense of humour – laughter and joy helps members to relax and be themselves.  It is an invaluable ingredient in the overall perspective.
    6. Create a family-like atmosphere in our Branches: warmness that permeates our Branches.
    7. Develop a sense of pride in belonging to a national organization and support all levels of the League. Manifest this pride with enthusiasm at all times when speaking about the League.

    The U WLC Mission Statement addresses the organization’ s four core aims and objectives and provides us with a process of revitalizing our mission to create the organization of the future. The Mission Statement provides us with our life-long task of understanding of ¡¥ Who We Are and What Is Our Purpose¡¦.  This is, I believe a ‘charter’ for the next 60 years. It is a firm base in the task of developing among our members their own true vocation to live an authentic Christian life as contributing members to the Church and society.

    Let’s respect the PA ST, but Respond to the PRESENT Crisis with an Eye towards the FUTURE.

    *This is the text (with a few extensions) of “Revitalizing Our Mission” which I presented at the
    31st Edmonton Eparchial Convention on November 1st ,  2003.

    Lena Sloboda, UCWLC National Executive Past President.

    Notes:
    UCWLC Constitution and Bylaws
    Post Synodol Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici of His Holiness John Paul II
    Documentation by Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops – Synod of Bishops, Rome 1987

    Archbishop Hermaniuk, and Elements For a Theology of the Laity, “‘The Laity Today” a Bulletin of the Pontifical Council For the Laity, Vatican City, 1979.
    

    Leave a Reply