We Covenant to Affirm and Promote

September 22, 2002

The Rev. Gretchen Woods

READING

From the Introduction of Interdependence: Renewing Congregational Polity, written by the Commission on Appraisal of the UUA, 1997.

One of the deepest convictions that unites us as Unitarian Universalists is a belief in the possibility of a beloved community among people, whether members of a family or the most diverse representative of humanity. We affirm that such communities are in part a natural outgrowth of human life, but that they must also be deliberately formed and reformed, nurtured and renewed.

This is a spiritual vision that eludes precise definition. It is no wonder, then, that we speak of this vision in differing accents. We speak of unity in diversity, of the community of love and justice, of the kingdom (realm) of God. Our UUA Principles speak of the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part. James Luther Adams spoke of a covenant of being. These terms express a vision of the individual person and the community of persons in harmony with each other, the world around us, and the spirit of life itself.

Unitarian Universalism seeks to embody this spiritual vision and to advance its fuller realization. We seek a way of being in the present that leads toward the future. A primary way that we try to embody our spiritual vision is through the congregation, the face-to-face community of people who seek to walk together faithfully, courageously, and joyfully. We want our religious community and the network of relationships that extends beyond itself to be a living model for the good of human relationships throughout life.

SERMON: We Covenant to Affirm and Promote

On December 23, 1991, at the University Unitarian Church in Seattle Washington, Judy Finholm and I proclaimed our formal public covenant of primary relationship through our Service of Union. Before 220+ family, friends, members of the Seattle Women’s Ensemble, and interested Unitarian Universalists, we affirmed our union, stating the expectations we asked of and wished to receive from one another. Four ministers officiated at the service. During the service, we asked those present to covenant with us to support and uphold our union through the years to come. This past December, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of that covenant. I am happy to say it feels as strong and healthy as ever, and I want to invite each of you to Judy’s 60^th Birthday Party here on Saturday, October 5, at 7:30PM.

In addition to my covenant with Judy, I do my best to keep my covenant with my children and her children that we will be present to and supportive of one another as needed. And I certainly work hard to keep my covenant with you as the congregation with whom I have agreed to serve as we share the religious search for truth and meaning. Perhaps you did not think of the Installation Service as publicly establishing a covenant, but that is exactly what it did. These covenants guide my life. I value them highly. They are among the prime answers to the religious questions, “What is important?” and “How then shall I live?” What are your prime covenants?

This Fall, our Religious Education for children focuses upon our Unitarian Universalist history and heritage and the covenants that underpin them. We adults need to understand this as well, for if we do not know and value the covenantal foundation of our faith, we live in a sort of religious limbo that cannot hold in times of crisis. Clearly we are headed for times of crisis in our country if we end up at war without allies. So let us define covenant, look at it historically, and consider our future under covenant. This prepares us to examine the covenantal center of our movement and how we may make it meaningful in our lives.

What is a covenant? Probably the best know covenant in Jewish mythology is symbolized by the rainbow. After the great flood when God destroyed all the people in the world, except for Noah and his family, he placed a rainbow in the sky as a promise to Noah and the Jews that he would never again destroy the people of the earth. This promise included the proviso that the Jews would live in right relationship with God. It was a reciprocal agreement.

In 2001, the Commission on Appraisal of the Unitarian Universalist Association defined covenant this way: “A covenant of a community is a set of mutual commitments, promises, or agreements that form the bond of a community, its center.” (Belonging: The Meaning of Membership. The Commission on Appraisal of the Unitarian Universalist Association. 2001. P. 29.) They continue, “We often say that our congregations are covenantal communities.” (Ibid.) This carries the understanding that we are not founded on creeds to which one must assent, but on covenants in which one enters freely. The Commission notes:

One point in declaring that our congregations are covenantal communities is to emphasize that they are not creedal communities. We are united not by common beliefs but by common purposes and intentions. The essential difference is between the words “we believe” (a creed, a statement of common belief) and “we unite” (a covenant, a statement of common commitment). (Belonging, p.30)

As James Luther Adams insists, we are a “freely called association.”

The Commission on Appraisal’s report in 1997, Interdependence: Renewing Congregational Polity, made a clear distinction between religious and secular covenants:

Religious as distinct from secular covenants are grounded in spiritual realities that were understood traditionally as divine gifts: for these gifts the people entering the covenant acknowledged gratitude. James Luther Adams has emphasized that an authentic covenant is rooted in love, not law. (Interdependence, p. 43.)

For this reason, I believe marriages are religious covenants, rather than legal contracts. And when a marriage fails, it is usually because the parties involved have lost track of the gratitude for what they are together and that their relationship is rooted in love.

Historically, it has always been under the rubric of covenant that our congregations have gathered. The history of Unitarianism on this continent shows us that this was important long ago:

American Unitarianism came out of the congregational churches established in Massachusetts, which organized themselves around the principles articulated in the Cambridge Platform of 1648. This document was created to settle differences between local congregations on matters of church discipline and to explain themselves to the church of England, to which they all professed to belong. Doctrinally consistent with the Reformation Christianity of the day, the platform sought to prove that Congregationalism was the best and most biblically accurate form of church governance.

The Cambridge Platform holds that “there is no greater Church than a congregation,” which consists of visible saints in voluntary agreement and covenant with each other to “worship, edify, and have fellowship.” Each church is autonomous, because there is no higher authority than the congregation. . .

American Unitarianism emerged out of the culture that the Cambridge Platform described. Unitarian congregations elected their own leaders, determined their own membership (which was often how a congregation could be know as Unitarian), selected their own clergy, and paid their own way. The American Unitarian Association (organized in 1825 and succeeded by the Unitarian Universalist Association in 1961) mimicked the practice of synods and councils through its May meetings and fall meetings. The former were business meetings of the Association, which was not (until much after 1825) composed of congregations. The latter were the occasions of debate on issues and matters of faith, suitable subjects for a true synod, but not binding.(Interdependence; pp. 17-19)

In like manner, the Universalists have a long-standing history of covenant:

In 1790, seventeen Universalists representing eight societies, convened in Philadelphia, where they drew up articles of faith and an organizational plan. The plan of church government adopted by the delegates was described as “nearly that of the Congregational Church,” and a church was defined as consisting “of a number of believers, united by covenant, for the purpose of maintaining the public worship of God, the preaching of the gospel, ordaining officers, preserving order and peace among its members, and relieving the poor.” Each church was empowered to decide on the “call, qualifications, and gifts, of those who wish to devote themselves to God and the ministry,” and to “solemnly set apart and ordain such persons.” (Ibid. p. 21.)

Our great Unitarian church historian, Conrad Wright, reminds us that we have two major issues with covenants: language and taking the convenant seriously. The language problem echoes the charge that Unitarian Universalists do not sing hymns well because we are always reading ahead to see if we agree with the words. With covenants, it is important to pay attention to words, but we can avoid action as we quibble over words, rather than doing something meaningful together.

With regard to the latter issues, Wright writes:

The other problem with our covenants is that we do not take them seriously enough. . . We need to pay more attention to what the commitments are that are undertaken in a covenantal relationship and how they may be terminated, Joining a church should not be quite the same thing as joining the National Geographic Association [sic]. (Ibid. p.30.)

It is different here at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis. We invite our potential members to take membership seriously, including attending an orientation to Unitarian Universalistm (which takes place on Wednesday, October 16, after a Newcomer Dinner), signing our own covenant, and making a pledge of money or time to the ongoing health of the congregation. We ask this, not only because we have to pay dues to the Unitarian Universalist Association and the Pacific Northwest District. Rather, we ask it because this congregation has covenanted together that membership means committed give and take among the members. People who don’t join are never excluded from the life of the congregation, but we are asked to make the commitment of joining in order to vote and to serve on the Board.

So what is the covenant that Unitarian Universalism offers? the Purposes and Principles of the Association provide the what of UU covenant, the values that hold us together. There are always those who disagree with one or another of the values, but since they were reworked from 1981-1985, the congregations who remain in membership agree that these are the foundation or center from which radiates our movement.

We base our understanding of religion, not on institutions or creeds, but on values. I often suggest that different religions emphasize different religious questions. Those key questions are : “Who am I?” “Why am I here?” “What is important?” And, “How then shall I live?” The question: “Who am I?” clearly is of primary concern for our Jewish friends and neighbors, as the answer, “We are the chosen people of God” underpins their faith. The question “Why am I here?” seems to be a focus of Protestant religion, as the answer “To give glory to Jesus and God” rings from them. Buddhists have spent time on “How then shall I live?” as their spiritual practices offer grounding for life’s process.

Unitarian Universalists seem especially focussed on the question, “What is important?” When the American Unitarian Association merged with the Universalist Church of America in 1961, the foundation for that merger lay in a statement of Principles. In the weeks ahead we shall deal with each principle separately, so I shan’t belabor them now. If they are new to you, read them in the front of our hymnbook, Singing the Living Tradition or pick up a copy in the foyer.

One of the things that excites me most about our Purposes and Principles is that they are positive. Rather than stating what we don’t believe, which we tended to do since the end of World War I and the rise of nihilism, existentialism, and humanism, the current Principles assert concrete values around which we gather and from which direct our lives: respect for the individual, justice, equity, compassion, spiritual growth, the democratic process, world community, and interdependence. I find a real center in these values, one from which I can make ethical decisions and around which we can co-create effective community.

One of the most important pieces of our UU perspective is the emphasis upon what unites us, rather than on what divides us. Inclusion means we do not exclude people because of race, color, class, sexual predisposition, or cultural difference. We are grateful to be together with our differences enriching the whole. And, as I noted last week, we can set up healthy boundaries around those who do not seem to be able to work toward the health of the community and may actually be dangerous to it.

I look forward to exploring each of the affirmations that form our Unitarian Universalists Principles over the next two months. In the process, we may deepen our sense of connection to this wonderful religious community and enhance one another’s religious search.

I close with a prayer from my colleague, the Rev. Frederick E. Gillis:

Spirit of Community, in which we share and find strength and common purpose, we turn our minds and hearts toward one another seeking to bring into our circle of concern all who need our love and support: those who are ill, those who are in pain, either in body or in spirit, those who are lovely, those who have been wronged.

We are part of a web of life that makes us one with all humanity, one with all the universe.

We are grateful for the miracle of consciousness that we share, the consciousness that gives us the power to remember, to love, to care.

So Be It! Blessed Be!

Gretchen Woods