New mission statement

By The Rt Rev’d Jennifer A. Reddall, sixth bishop of Arizona

It is my joy to be able to announce our new mission statement for the Diocese of Arizona: Follow Jesus. Grow in faith. Walk in love. 

The new mission statement reflects both what we are already doing and what we aspire to grow into as a diocese. 

Follow Jesus

We follow Jesus every day: through worship and prayer; through our loving relationships; through our discernment of what path Jesus would have us take. We follow Jesus in taking up various vocations in the church—evangelist, pastoral caregiver, clergy, and so many others. AND: it is always possible to follow Jesus more clearly.  

Grow in faith

We grow in faith with every Bible Study, pilgrimage, Sunday School class, and Youth Group trip.  We grow on retreat, we grow in conversation, we grow through the gradual shaping of our lives in daily prayer. AND: our lifelong journey of faith never stops; we mature but there are always ways to grow stronger in our faith, no matter our age. 

Walk in love

This is the harvest—what we do when we are both following Jesus and growing in our faith: we walk in love with God and our neighbors. We walk in love when we build loving and healthy church communities. We walk in love when we witness the love of Jesus for all the people of God—and for our very earth itself. AND: until the world sees us and responds with the song: “they will know we are Christians by our love,” there is always room to grow in how we ensure our steps are loving.   

In the coming days, you will see changes to our website and communications to reflect the new mission statement. Many thanks to the team who met to pull together our ideas and hopes into this statement:

• The Rev’d Canon Anita Braden

• The Venerable Amy Bryan

• The Rev’d Canon David Chavez

• Canon Lisa Derrick

• Serrena Fuentes

• The Rev’d Deacon Robin Hollis

• The Rev’d Canon Susana Santibanez

• Laurel Way