Welcome to UUism! (Covenant)

Our faith isn’t like many others, and I’m sure it can be confusing. I’m hoping that by writing about some aspect of our faith each month, y’all can get to know us better.

This month: Covenant!

We are a covenantal faith. We tend to favor “deeds not creeds,” and being in relationship and traveling on our spiritual journeys together over right or specific beliefs. This is because while once upon a time we were Christian denominations (Unitarian and Universalist), we are now a pluralistic faith — meaning that we are made up of people who come from and may still identify with other religions as part of their spiritual paths. UUs often have what I refer to as “hyphenated identities” — Christian UUs, Jewish UUs, Pagan UUs, and so on, although it is also perfectly wonderful to identify “just” as Unitarian Universalist.

This means that our services and practices don’t follow any one particular tradition’s holy book, leader, teachings, or anything else. We draw from many sources of wisdom, including our own pews with our own members. We deeply value personal experiences as a source of spirituality in our living tradition.

So given all of that, what keeps us together? Covenant. Covenant is the cornerstone of our faith and is what binds us as a people of faith together. Covenants remind us that we are all equal and that we need each other. They are also a way for us to practice creating the beloved community.

A covenant is an agreement, a commitment, and an aspiration to be together. To journey together as we explore our spiritualities. To support, celebrate, and challenge one another as we go, but ultimately committing to that being in relationship. We know we’re going to mess up — that is what it is to be human — but unlike a contract, a covenant asks us to find a way back to each other, to restore right relationship between us, and to begin anew.

One of the covenants that gets used a lot is the Blake covenant, written by James Vila Blake and published in 1894 (reading #473 in the hymnal): “Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law. This is our great covenant: to dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another.” I’ve been reciting this covenant for 19 years, as it was used regularly in my home congregation.

TriUU has a behavioral covenant — an agreement about how we will be together, including our speech and actions (the “Covenant of Right Relations,” for those who have attended the Nu to UU) — but no general covenant at this time.

More info from the UUA can be found here: https://www.uua.org/leaderlab/congregational-covenants among other sources.