# 1. Ends

**The following subsections identify the principles and moral sources that inform and guide the work of the Board of Trustees, the Senior Minister and Staff, and the Congregation as a whole.**

# 1.1  Our Mission

*Approved by the Congregation 10-16-2016*

Foothills Unitarian Church unleashes courageous love in Northern Colorado and beyond by embracing our diversity, growing our faith, and awakening our spirits to the unfolding meaning of this life.

# 1.2 Our Guiding Values

*Approved by the Congregation 12-20-2018*

- Joyful Resilience
- Collective Courage
- Deepening Belonging
- Transcendent Wonder

# 1.3 Our Bold Vision

*Approved by the Congregation 12-20-2018*

We, the members of Foothills Unitarian Church, commit to create and sustain a healthy, vibrant religious community where:

1. Foothills is a vital part of the lives of its people, providing abundant opportunities for relationships across differences that provide joy, care, and belonging for all.
2. We are committed to a path of lifelong spiritual deepening that allows us to live lives of meaning and purpose in a world that needs our Unitarian Universalism.
3. We understand that being a part of Foothills requires us to give abundantly of our time, and this deepening involvement helps us to identify and grow our individual gifts.
4. We each engage in joyful and generous financial giving that fosters a deep ownership of the impactful work we support.
5. We are committed to recognizing and dismantling prejudice and oppression in all their forms, including within ourselves, allowing us to be more effective and trusted partners to marginalized communities in Northern Colorado and beyond.
6. Foothills is a leader in Northern Colorado in developing sustainable, innovative, intersectional approaches to caring for our earth and its people to ensure a greater flourishing of all life.
7. We do the work to make Unitarian Universalism accessible to all in Northern Colorado.

# 1.4 Our Sources of Accountability and Authority

We understand our sources of accountability and authority to include the following categories:

1. Our Congregation
2. Future congregants
3. The Unitarian Universalist faith, including other UU Congregations and the Association
4. People we serve (beyond our Congregation)
5. People we serve with (our community partners)
6. Local community
7. Planet

# 1.5 Fundamental Expression of the UU Values of Foothills Unitarian Church

On behalf of the Foothills Unitarian Church congregation, we proclaim that our principles and values unequivocally commit our faith to comprehensive ministry encompassing human dignity, liberation, and flourishing as divine mandates flowing from our core theological convictions. These practices are not separate from our faith—they ARE our faith in action.

#### Core Theological Foundation

Our religious practice flows directly from fundamental convictions established through 130 years of faithful witness:

- *Sacred Axiom:* Every person possesses inviolable worth regardless of any human-constructed category, making radical inclusion, protection of the vulnerable, and resistance to oppression religious imperatives binding on our covenantal community.
- *Religious Authority:* Our faith draws from sacred sources commanding love of stranger, celebration of diversity, and resistance to unjust authority—including Jewish/Christian teachings, humanist ethics, earth-centered traditions, and progressive revelation through lived experience.
- *Covenantal Practice:* Through democratic processes spanning decades—Welcoming Congregation (1998), Sanctuary vote (2017), Eighth Principle (2021)—this congregation has formally covenanted to an ongoing practice of our faith within and beyond our walls as a binding religious commitment.
- A more specific and detailed theological articulation of Foothills essential religious practices is found in Appendix A of this document.