habitat vision and values
habitat vision
The Habitat Uniting Church seeks to grow in grace, nurture community and make a positive difference in the world.
Here, you don't have to be religious to explore your spirituality and encounter the sacred.
Our vision is to:
- grow our congregational life
- develop our spirituality centre ministry
- support community renewal and social change and
- use our resources for mission.
to grow the congregational life
Habitat congregation seeks to grow by ensuring everyone involved is nourished in their faith. We seek to grow in grace through participation in a variety of networks and gatherings that support our spiritual life through compassionate and inspiring ministry with each other. We will grow in confidence that our worship is valuable and life giving, and our community life is caring, respectful and responsive to needs. In this way the congregation will attract new people. Habitat is inclusive of all.
develop and promote the spirituality centre ministry
Habitat spirituality centre ministry will be developed to help people who have an interest in spirituality but not necessarily religion, connect with and encounter the sacred. By attending to self, culture and the sacred, Habitat will support each culture and generation to find their way and discover the myths that form our identity, values and actions.
support community renewal and social change programs and projects
We will make a difference in the world through the development and support of projects and programs providing care and support in response to specific hopes, needs and concerns.
make better use of resources to support our mission
By working with the Synod Asset Strategy Project (ASP) we will engage with other local congregations in the process of consolidating property resources to provide an ongoing income for ministry and mission. In this way we will develop the means to generate income for ministry, mission and maintenance of the property.
habitat values
The heart of everything that we do is guided by Habitat's commitment to:
our theology
We share a wide range of theological views, from traditional to progressive, yet prefer not to be labelled. We value the search for understanding, as well as the breadth of biblical and contemporary research and scholarly thought. We explore questions of faith and encourage transformative learning.
being open and inclusive
We are a community of faith that speaks to all ages, is open to all beliefs and cherishes all people. We offer welcome and hospitality, acceptance and inclusion, care and nurture, without judgement. We engage with people of other faiths and value their wisdom.
spirituality
We nurture spiritual practice, attending to the light of God in our lives.
justice
We seek to promote justice. We support those in need.
sustainability
We recognise our interdependence with creation and strive to live ecologically sustainable lives.
community
We are building a new model of church and community which values innovation, creativity and the arts. We are energised by meaningful connection with others and our partnerships with the wider community.
we believe
The Christian Church is called to embody God’s loving presence and, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to participate in the extension of Christ’s ministry and consciousness in the world. Habitat Uniting Church seeks to participate in the life of God by creating a habitat in which to share God’s hospitality.
As community in diversity, we actively seek to develop partnership relationships with multi faith groups and networks characterised by Christ-like friendship. Partnerships become a context of mutual respect, to share in God’s hospitality and work on common projects that make a difference in the world. In this way, we become a hospitable habitat, a home, in which life can be planted, nurtured grow and flourish; return to the earth to nourish the new. The Habitat Uniting Church is home to a community who invite others to share the sacred space we inhabit together.
As every gardener knows, a habitat must be fertilised and pruned, planted and built upon so that it can continue to provide a home and seedbed for life to flourish and grow. Our renewed ministry plan seeks to cultivate the foundations for our ministry vision that have been established across our three sites. We see ourselves not as a static organisation with boundaries, but as communities of people with a common sense of mission who are on the move. We are moving toward the vision of the kingdom of God’s loving economy becoming a reality.
Missional communities become spaces for learning, where we are formed in our faith, practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer and discernment, and work together to generate our shared vision. This communities engages in our current cultural context. We do not cut ourselves off from it, but inhabit it, respond to it and call it to account. We engage with our context offering critique, seeking Christ like reform.