Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2017-07-07 12:25 pm
edenfalling) wrote2017-07-07 12:25 pm
on covenants
For my own reference, I want to make an electronic copy of the covenant my congregation voted to adopt at our annual meeting last month. I am dissatisfied with it in numerous ways, but it is a living document so I hope at least some of those can be changed.
(I also wish I had been able to attend some of the previous discussion meetings about the covenant, but alas, work and other things got in the way.)
Also, yes, the preamble/explanation of what a covenant even IS is part of the document. That is probably the part that annoys me the most. Dictionaries exist! And sacred promises should sound like sacred promises, not like assembly minutes. :(
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A Covenant is a set of sacred promises that Unitarian Universalists make with each other to guide and support their communities.
First Unitarian Society of Ithaca adopts this covenant to sustain our commitment to each other, affirm our connections when we struggle, and form the foundation of our respectful relationships with each other and the world.
We covenant to:
Be together in community, guided by love and respect.
Be open, friendly, and welcoming to all.
Be engaged in congregational life.
Communicate compassionately, directly, and honestly.
Listen deeply and kindly to each other.
Believe in others' best intentions.
Support and inspire each other's quest for truth and meaning
Acknowledge, respect, and value our differences.
Work to serve our community's shared goals.
-----
(The missing period in the final trio is copied faithfully from the original document.)
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The covenant I grew up with (and adored) is a variation of a common UU covenant, which my childhood minister introduced for communal recitation early in each service as follows:
"Knowing that neither this nor any other form of words will ever be used as a creedal test, I invite you to join me in the covenant:
"Love is the doctrine of this church,
The quest for truth is its sacrament,
And service is its prayer.
To dwell together in peace,
To seek knowledge in freedom,
To serve life in fellowship
To the end that all souls shall grow in harmony,
Thus do we covenant with each and with all."
...
I think you can see why I am dissatisfied with my own church's new covenant? It does not fill the same emotional/ritual slot AT ALL. And if you're not going to fill that slot, why call your thing a covenant? You could just as easily call it a preamble to the bylaws and put it there, where its dryness would be a much better tonal fit.
*grumps ineffectively at the universe*
(I also wish I had been able to attend some of the previous discussion meetings about the covenant, but alas, work and other things got in the way.)
Also, yes, the preamble/explanation of what a covenant even IS is part of the document. That is probably the part that annoys me the most. Dictionaries exist! And sacred promises should sound like sacred promises, not like assembly minutes. :(
-----
A Covenant is a set of sacred promises that Unitarian Universalists make with each other to guide and support their communities.
First Unitarian Society of Ithaca adopts this covenant to sustain our commitment to each other, affirm our connections when we struggle, and form the foundation of our respectful relationships with each other and the world.
We covenant to:
Be together in community, guided by love and respect.
Be open, friendly, and welcoming to all.
Be engaged in congregational life.
Communicate compassionately, directly, and honestly.
Listen deeply and kindly to each other.
Believe in others' best intentions.
Support and inspire each other's quest for truth and meaning
Acknowledge, respect, and value our differences.
Work to serve our community's shared goals.
-----
(The missing period in the final trio is copied faithfully from the original document.)
-----
The covenant I grew up with (and adored) is a variation of a common UU covenant, which my childhood minister introduced for communal recitation early in each service as follows:
"Knowing that neither this nor any other form of words will ever be used as a creedal test, I invite you to join me in the covenant:
"Love is the doctrine of this church,
The quest for truth is its sacrament,
And service is its prayer.
To dwell together in peace,
To seek knowledge in freedom,
To serve life in fellowship
To the end that all souls shall grow in harmony,
Thus do we covenant with each and with all."
...
I think you can see why I am dissatisfied with my own church's new covenant? It does not fill the same emotional/ritual slot AT ALL. And if you're not going to fill that slot, why call your thing a covenant? You could just as easily call it a preamble to the bylaws and put it there, where its dryness would be a much better tonal fit.
*grumps ineffectively at the universe*
no subject
I can beat the language of your old sacrament in my mind.
LOVE is the DOCtrine of THIS CHURCH
The QUEST for TRUTH is its SACrament
Lots of anapests and iambs; satisfying to the mind's ear. Short. You can read more into it than is there on the page. You can remember it, because it's a chant.
The new one? In trying to be precise, it is mushy. There's nothing more there than meets the eye, because it's not using the words that strike to the heart; it's using the words of self-help books.
I may be unreasonably cross about this.
no subject
I don't think it was meant for congregational recitation. In all honesty, I don't know WHAT its intended purpose was, other than to say "We have a covenant."
Mrgh.
I want to rewrite it, take the basic concepts and make them sound better.
Maybe something like... hmm...
Everyone has a voice, their own window on the truth. We will hear them.
Everyone has a path they are walking toward the truth. We walk with them.
Everyone has worth, something something something. We will love them/we respect them.
Everyone makes mistakes and falls from their best selves. We will raise them.
Everyone has pain, or is in need, or... I don't know, something something. We will aid them/serve them.
Everyone is alone, hands outstretched into the darkness. We will hold them.
The world is a call to serve. We will answer.
And there should probably be something about being stronger together than separately, but I can't think where to put it offhand.
(This is horribly sketchy, but I thought of it in the shower and elaborated slightly while brushing my teeth, so it's not as if I've had much time to refine it. I still think it's better than the one my congregation adopted... though of course I would say that, as the writer. *wry*)