Mission & Governance - The North Parish Church of North Andover

At North Parish we believe in making room in our lives for practicing pluralism, democracy and deep listening

Our Mission

Our mission statement expresses who we hope to be. It guides choices in our programs, our activities, and the way we interact with each other and the world around us. Our current mission statement, developed through a series of conversations with leadership and members in 2014, states:

Empowered by love, we are an inclusive, free-thinking faith community that awakens curiosity, nourishes the spirit, encourages growth, and inspires compassionate action.

Our Covenant

At North Parish we have a covenant of right relations that expresses our collective values in an inclusive, free-thinking faith community.

It is a statement of promises to one another about how we want to be in community together. Building community is an ongoing spiritual practice. Inviting the spirit of love and gratitude into our interactions, we each work to develop skills and promote practices that strengthen the bonds of relationship. We aspire to co-create a spiritual community of people with open hearts and open minds.

When practicing right relations, people may disagree vigorously but still treat each other respectfully, stay connected, and learn together. Through these actions, we build trust and create an inclusive, free-thinking faith community.

Here is a link to the complete text of this statement.

Our Governance Process

All Unitarian Universalist congregations are independent and self-governing. North Parish leadership includes paid staff, elected Board of Trustees and Officers, and many teams and committees who raise their voice to say, “I can help with that.”

Our elected Board of Trustees and our Minister share responsibility for developing general policies and procedures. Our staff, along with volunteer committees and teams, create and operate the day-to-day programs and activities. Our Congregation’s Role in Church Governance (shown below and available as a text document) provides a visual overview of the different pieces of our governance structure.

Elected leaders – Board of Trustees and Officers are nominated in early spring by our Nominating Committee. Open positions are advertised in our eNews. Candidates are generally individuals who have indicated an interest, have skills for a particular elected position, and represent the diversity of our membership. At our Annual Meeting in May, the congregation then votes on approval of the candidates.
Team and committee leaders frequently emerge and are selected from within the committee or area of activity. Our staff, Board members, and Council strive to recognize potential new leaders and provide mentorship and encouragement to develop skills and contribute to our community.

Here is a description of each of the volunteer leadership roles and the different teams and committees.

For more information

The most current revision of our Board of Trustee’s Covenant, Goals, and Values
Our congregation’s connection to the UUA (Unitarian Universalist association), see The Role of the UUA
Our budget process, read about how we fund our staff and operations
Background on recent actions, see Governance Initiatives
The rules of our governance, read the North Parish Bylaws