A Covenantal Faith Rev. Jane Thickstun Oct. 4, 2015 First Unitarian Society of Ithaca

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1 A Covenantal Faith Rev. Jane Thickstun Oct. 4, 2015 First Unitarian Society of Ithaca As Unitarian Universalists, we are the heirs of the Pilgrims and the Puritans, those hard-headed idealists who came to the New World, came to Massachusetts, to set up a new church, a new way of doing church that would be free. Actually, it was a vision of a church that was based in the original Christian churches, before hierarchies, before bishops, before episcopals, before presbyteries, and other forms of church authority that had been developed since. Our religious forebears had a vision of a free church, where all those who belong are there by free association, where all who belong are there because they choose to commit to something greater than themselves that claims their allegiance. A church where there was no hierarchy; no greater authority than the congregation, where congregations themselves related to each other by free association. We have inherited that tradition, and that is what we mean when we talk about congregational polity. Our organization, just as much as our devotion to freedom of belief, is what defines us as the free church. Both are necessary because of our first principle the inherent worth and dignity of every person which is a first principle for us in many ways, and which affirms the authority of the individual conscience. The concept of the free church is broader than Unitarian Universalism, but it certainly includes our 1000-plus congregations in the U.S. and Canada. When there is no external authority defining our existence as a faith community, when there is no creed to claim our allegiance, we must create our own bond. This has traditionally been done by means of a congregational covenant. As UU historian Conrad Wright says, There must be some organizational basis, or form, so that individual believers may be orderly knit together. This form is the visible covenant, or agreement, commonly called the church covenant. From the church as a community, one is entitled to expect care and concern for one s own well-being, but one is equally obligated to express care and concern for others. Therefore, an element of commitment exists in the act of joining a church, which the covenant expresses. (Conrad Wright: Herz, p ) Covenant is a word that has roots in our Judaeo-Christian heritage. It is more than a promise, it is a sacred promise. The Hebrew bible, also known as the Old Testament contains the story of an anthropomorphic God s covenant with the people of Israel. The New Testament is the Christian story of a new covenant of love supplanting the law of the Old Testament. Testament actually means covenant. For those who don t like those associations with our Christian past, the word need not carry those associations. Rebecca Parker, Unitarian Universalist scholar and until recently, president of our seminary in California, says, Covenant, most simply, means to come together.. more specifically, [it] means to come together by making a promise, as when two people promise to love and care for one another. (Rebecca Parker: Herz, p. 83)

2 Anyone who has gotten married has made a covenant. Wedding vows are a good example of a covenant. It is a promise of fidelity, a commitment to the relationship for the mutual benefit of each and of the wider world they inhabit. It is no different when joining a Unitarian Universalist congregation. It is a free choice to join, and when we do, we are committing ourselves to it, we are pledging our fidelity, promising to care for others and to relate to them with honesty and integrity, for our own benefit and that of the congregation and of the wider world we inhabit. In essence, and at a minimum, a covenant calls us to treat others in the congregation with respect. When we welcome new members into our congregations, we make a covenant with them. There is a formal ceremony in the service, in which we make promises to the new members and they make promises to the community, and they thus become a part of the covenanted community. And my second Sunday here, you and I made a covenant with each other. We promised to use our hands and hearts, our vision and voice to help this beloved community thrive through this time of transition. We promised to share our truth and to listen deeply with each other. We are bonded in the service of something greater than our individual needs. We Unitarian Universalists covenant in many ways within the context of our congregational life as well. Many UU kids create a covenant in their first class of the church year. They decide together how they will relate to each other, and come up with things like, Let everyone have a turn to speak or No kicking! I have seen many such a covenant written on flip chart paper hanging on the wall of classrooms. The term Covenant has become more widespread through the growth of Covenant groups in our congregations. These groups are in fact defined by a covenant the members make, an agreement about how they will relate to each other. Being in a Covenant group involves a commitment; it is a sacred pledge that the members make to each other, and it is not to be broken lightly. But the covenant, and the level of commitment it entails, are in fact what make the groups so successful. The staff and the board are each creating a covenant to help them be intentional about their relationships and reponsibilities to each other and to the congregation. They reflect commitments to work as a team or speak with one voice, they define a goal of healthy relationships, and make clear their roles in relation to the congregation. Being in community is not easy, just as being in a marriage is not easy. Conflicts are inevitable. What is important is how we deal with conflict. The commitment of a covenant helps us hang in there when the going gets tough, and the promise to deal with each other with respect and kindness helps us to rise to our better selves, even when fear and pain are telling us to lash out. Just as in marriage, that extra level of commitment raises the sense of belonging. Though often difficult, the rewards of being committed to a covenantal community make it well worth it. Alice Blair Wesley, who gave a well-known series of Lectures on the topic of congregational polity and covenant, says, The center of the free church, the heart of the whole thing, is a promise of fidelity, a covenant, which each member freely makes upon joining. (Herz, p. 3)

3 Often this covenant is not explicit, at least in many congregations, including this one. It is implicit, and we can certainly make it more explicit if we wish to. I would be happy to accompany you in the process of creating a congregational covenant. Many UU congregations say the covenant we read earlier every week in their service. It is known as the Blake covenant, because it was written by a man with that name, and it is from the Unitarian side of our family. There is another one, even more popular, that comes from the Universalist tradition, and is called the Williams covenant. It s number 471 in your hymnal, and it s a bit more theistic. The early covenants that were written in the 1620's and 1630's were simple statements of agreement to walk together. For instance, First Parish of Cambridge, Massachusetts covenant of 1636 reads: We covenant with the Lord and one with another; and do bind ourselves in the presence of God to walk together in all his ways. (Herz, p. 76) Later covenants contained a creedal content, and then the whole concept of covenant fell out of fashion. Wright tells us that substitutes began to appear, such as bond of union, or bond of fellowship. These, he says are covenants in all but the name. He says, A bond of union, a bond of fellowship, a covenant, or even a statement of purpose as a preamble to a set of bylaws may be functionally the same thing. But there is something to be said for the word covenant, quite apart from the fact of its long currency. It emphasizes that the church is a community of mutual obligation, which involves a sense of commitment. Even the freest of free churches needs that much discipline if it is to last long enough to accomplish anything of value in this world. (Conrad Wright: Herz, p. 41) In addition to congregational covenants that define the relation of members to each other and to the greater good, covenants also exist that define the relation of congregations to each other and to the greater good. Just as churches are covenantal communities of individuals, the Unitarian Universalist Association is a covenantal community of congregations. The UUA isn t some pope-equivalent over in Boston handing down edicts that we must obey. It is an association of congregations it is the congregations themselves that are the governing body. We ve just hired some folks to do some of the work, just as our congregations employ staff to do some of the work. There are plenty of volunteer positions as well, on the UUA board or various committees, just as there are plenty of volunteer positions in our congregations. And big decisions are made by delegates from the congregations who meet once a year in June at the General Assembly. (this year in Columbus, Ohio!) But it s important to stress the nature of the UUA as a covenantal community. The Rev. Earl Holt tells us that congregational polity is not about the independence of individual churches but about the right relationship of independent churches. Or as Conrad Wright, the most important scholar in the field, has put it many times, congregational polity means not the autonomy of the local church, but the community of autonomous churches. As we understand each of our congregations as a body of individuals united in a covenantal community, so we should explicitly understand our association as a covenantal community of congregations. (Herz, p. 30) And where is the covenant of the community of congregations known as the Unitarian Universalist Association?

4 Take out the hymn book and open it to the very first hymn. Now turn back a page. I hope many of you are familiar with our UU statement of principles and purpose. This is the covenant that we came up with as an association in the 1980's. Though we usually just call it the Principles and Purposes, the whole thing is a covenant. It begins: We, the member congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association, covenant to affirm and promote... and it lists the seven principles. Then it names the sources we draw from, and the final paragraph says: Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. As free congregations, we enter into this covenant, promising to one another our mutual trust and support. We promise to each other our mutual trust and support. This congregation, the First Unitarian Society of Ithaca, promises that to the other congregations in our association. As a congregation, we also promise to affirm and promote those seven principles. This statement of Principles and Purposes is the latest version of a covenant uniting congregations of the free church founded by our religious ancestors. There have been many through the years. The founding document of our faith is called the Cambridge Platform, and it was drafted in 1648 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Cambridge Platform spells out the governance, theology, and covenanting of churches of the Standing Order in New England.... it included understandings of common theological conviction, the duties and responsibilities of laity and clergy, the covenants that bound believers to each other, the faith of the congregation, and the duties and responsibilities of congregations to each other and the faith. (Herz, p. xiii) We are the free church. But as Rev. Kim Beach reminds us, Freedom is not free for the taking. We have it on exacting conditions: that we remember our finitude, our frailty, our fallibility and therefore our interdependence. That we remember that we have personhood only in community... and community only with commitment. (Herz, p. 102) In the free church tradition, our covenants with each other are really about love. Alice Blair Wesley says, for instance, The root idea of our entire tradition is the covenant. A covenanted free church is a body of individuals who have freely made a profoundly simple promise, a covenant: We pledge faithfully to walk together in the spirit of mutual love. The spirit of love is alone worthy of our religious loyalty, our ultimate loyalty. So, we will meet often to take counsel concerning the ways of love, and we shall yield religious authority solely to our own understanding of what these ways are, as best we can figure them out or learn or remember them, together. (Lecture 5) We gather as a community to learn from each other how to love: how to love the best that is in us, and in others; how to love the earth and to care for it and for each other. We commit ourselves to engaging with each other in this community because we know that it is through our commitments that we find and express our freedom. Only a free human being can truly love, and only in loving can we be truly free. James Luther Adams, the prominent UU theologian of the 20 th century, addresses this: We freely commit ourselves to high and holy aims, aims that transcend us, aims of the Spirit. Not in freedom from obligations to others, but in freedom to enter into common endeavors for the common good. Not in freedom from the nourishing

5 roots of our faith in ancient ages, but in freedom to give fresh interpretation to ancient symbols and stories. Not in freedom from being called to aims that surpass us, but in the freedom that springs from knowing that we ve caught a moving train and, together, we re on our way. (Herz, p. 105) Because our church is a free church, it is our covenants that bind us together. Because we have no doctrine, no creed, and because we have no ecclesiastical hierarchy, we need to be explicit ourselves about why we gather, what we expect to do together. Liberal religion is not defined by belief; it is a spirit and a process, a way of being. Because of this our faith communities exist only by our free choice by our promises to walk together, our sacred covenant to commit to each other and to the faith that affirms our freedom. Let us, as a community, as a congregation in the free church tradition, as the inheritors of the Pilgrim s vision let us pledge to walk together in the spirit of mutual love. Let us live out this covenant in relationship to each other, to our larger community and to the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

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