Fair & Just Culture
My Dear UMC Family and Friends,
United Methodist Communities strives to be a place where all people can work, live and find fulfillment. Our board, residents and associates engage together to enhance and shape this culture.
Recent events about race in our country call for us to recommit to this culture and deepen our understanding through conversation and action. UM Communities is embarking on a process to enhance and evolve a fair and just culture for all, which values learning, respect and open discussion. Facilitated through our mission teams, this multi-year process will begin with active participation and discourse with associates and residents around what we share in common and our differences.
This will be an intentional and deliberate process with the goal to insure that UMC diminishes stereotypes and values all individuals for who they are and what they bring to the UMC family. We will work together recognizing the gift of the ethnic, race, cultural and thought diversity among us. We welcome openness and encourage all of us to listen and speak honestly and respectfully. The leadership of UMC takes responsibility for creating a safe space as the first step in creating a fair and just culture and the leadership invites everyone to also join with us in creating this space.
In the gospel of John, we read the following:
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so must you love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.   (John 13:34-35)
This was a new commandment never before heard in the world. The intention of our Lord saying these words to his disciples was that they, from that moment on, would model themselves after his love. And also, that they would, every day and in every encounter with another, love others as they knew HE did. This new commandment is ours today as well. Our new initiative in the United Methodist Communities described above is the natural outgrowth of this commandment.
We are living in a unique season of life and transition and we have the opportunity to set an example of intention in creating a fair and just culture. This is our vision for all of us.
Sincerely,
Lawrence D. Carlson
President & CEO
