This is What our Friends and Members Said About Us

Our sincere thanks to the 27 individuals who participated in our survey.
Here is what we learned about ourselves...

Who We Are

One remarkable finding was how survey respondents self-identify. More than half of the respondents describe themselves as friends and among those identifying as members, a significant number attest to having multiple church memberships.



We attribute this response to the "open" ethos of Cork Unitarian Church and the outward facing nature of our ministries. It also speaks to the fact that much of the relevance of our church lies in the way we, both individually and collectively, relate to the larger community through it.

We asked the members to share the importance of spirituality in their lives.



They also shared the importance of Cork Unitarian Church in their lives. 



Our respondents tend to have a high affinity toward their own spirituality.  We also saw that the church plays an important role for them in addressing that spirituality.  We did have some non-member friends answer this as an optional question. As we might expect, for them the church was not as important a place to meet spiritual needs as it is with self-identifying members.

We then asked the members about their style of participation.



The survey respondents show an affinity to our traditional in-person events. This was expected as it reflects the church's traditional approach to community.  Perhaps more surprising was the low response on financial support (37.5) and volunteering (25%).  We might have assumed that these would be perceives as universal characteristics of "membership", but perhaps they are not seen that way. This is certainly an area for further investigation and understanding.


Vision - Our Aspirations

There was great agreement on the vision. Interestingly enough, this was the one item where our friends were slightly (about 20%) more positive than our members. Also note that the respondents are not quite as positive about others' perceptions of the vision as they are with their own personal identification with the vision.



 

Mission - Operationalising Our Vision

There was great agreement on the mission statement. There was no significant difference in perceptions between our friends and our members. Again, the respondents are not quite as positive about others' perceptions of the mission as they are with their own personal identification with the mission.

Values - What We Hold In Common

There was great agreement on the values statements. There was no significant difference in perceptions between our friends and our members. Again, the respondents are not quite as positive about others' perceptions of the values as they are with their own personal identification with the values.



Comments

There were a number of comments and they fell into three general categories:
 

• Clarification around "progressive Christianity"
• Clarification around "worlds great religions"

2) Conceptual Agreement - a greater number of comments were simply articulations of the scores that responders made in the survey. Examples included:

• I endorse it.
• Very much agree with it.
• It’s perfect and inclusive and welcoming!
• It is an honest mission statement.
• The Mission Statement encompasses what I think the Unitarian Church stands for.

3) General Comments - these were reflections of responders interactions with the church. Examples included:

• We're ALL people - the reason I chose this  church is because it encourages inclusiveness without exception. That to me is an important part distinction 
• Our Minister; Michael is the key part of the Church-it would not be the same without him.
• I believe the Cork Unitarian Church is a loving and caring Church to all who wish to attend.

Our Takeaways

We think that the survey results are telling us that:

• Cork Unitarian Church is generally on the right track in terms of its orientation
• We can now use the vision/mission/values statements to refine our messaging, particularly on social media (including some of the input from the survey)
• We can now use the vision/mission/values statements as quality checks for the design of new ministries and in the church's ongoing operational management decisions
• Our church community is larger than our official definition of "membership"
• We need to keep listening and asking - and include our friends as well as our members in the conversation

Peace and blessings
Neal Dunnigan, Editor

One item in our survey which attracted a few comments is how we identify as church. What makes Cork Unitarian a church rather than a mosque, temple, or synagog? Are we just a different Christian faith tradition? Can the distinction of our Christian roots be associated with a descriptive word? What word would that be - progressive?, liberal?, open?

However there is no central authority on religious terminology. Descriptive words have a way of being interpretive and contextual.

This dilemma was amusingly featured by the Anglican deacon Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better know as Lewis Carroll, in the book, Through the Looking-Glass:
 

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." 
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." 
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

For those interested in more background on people’s use of descriptive terms about church, here is an interesting article in the Patheos web site by Baptist theologian and blogger Roger E.Olsen.

The article title is: Who is A “Progressive Christian” and how is that different from “Liberal Christian?”

We did not have reprint rights, but you can read the article directly at the Patheos web site on Olsen’s blog. Here is the link:

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2021/04/who-is-a-progressive-christian-and-how-is-that-different-from-liberal-christian/

Peace and blessings 
Neal Dunnigan, Editor

Our first Unitarian reflection series:

Some participant comments:

• Being able to be honest with like minded people and hearing other peoples views.
• Hearing  to other people's thoughts ideas and beliefs and experience.I am actually a better listener than i am a talker
• Listening to other peoples thoughts and reflections. We all participated and no one was rushed when reflecting thoughts and feelings. 
• The openness of the participants and organisers
• The opportunity to be honest about my own fluid experience and being able to listen to others that may hold different conclusions but respectfully listen and share.  I found it a place I could learn and even began to feel I was getting to know people I have never met face to face with.
• It gave me a broader understanding of how others and myself view him.
• Wonderful to hear all sides of the one story so to speak .Gave me food for thought!
• I felt able to explore my thoughts and feelings. For me I was able to put words and therefore gain some understanding of my faith. In the future, I would like to think I could be a bit braver and more vulnerable when speaking with others about my beliefs.
• Confirmed or reinforced my growing appreciation as a real person and pointer to the divine.
• I wondered would it feel community like and if I would fit in.  I was surprised at how connected I felt.  I am very aware of my own need for spiritual community and that is yet to be worked out.  The effect it had on me was one of connection. 

How would you send a prayer request to the Prayer Circle?

• Anyone wanting to ask for a prayer can send an E-Mail to: Prayer.UnitarianCork@Gmail.com (this information is also on our church web site and Facebook page).
• The request will be distributed once to the entire Circle at the next Prayer Circle mailout opportunity.
• Please repeat your request as necessary and please send news of answered prayer.
• There is no need to go into detail or name full names - remember, the email will go out far and wide. Please be wise in protecting your own and others' anonymity. 
• If you have a need that is so personal you wish not to give any detail at all, that's fine. Just write that you request prayer for a special intention. Remember, God knows the details.

Would you like to join the Prayer Circle and pray for others?

• Simply register as a Prayer Circle member by clicking here: http://eepurl.com/hoQGPT
• After you have joined, you will be on a mailing list and receive regular posts with prayer requests.
• It will be your responsibility to keep private anything you learn from a prayer request out of respect.  Do not redistribute or forward the list.

Amen

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