'Covenant' Tagged Posts

Covenants in my life and UUCSS

Our ministry theme for this month of September is Covenant.  Covenant used to be a loaded word at Silver Spring.  When I first arrived no one was willing to use it.  While most UU churches call their small group ministry ‘Covenant Groups’ we called ours Inreach Groups for that reason.  One of the early steps recommended was to make a covenant of understanding between the church and myself, but the leadership at UUCSS decided it wasn’t a good idea to do that soon, and so we postponed it for a few years and finally did one jointly between myself and the church and then-DRE Mandy Keithan and the church.

Turning towards covenant in a difficult time

Our monthly ministry theme for the month of September is covenant, and that theme is particularly poignant for me during this time. Many of us, myself included, are grieving over the resignation of associate minister Rev. Dr. Leon Dunkley, and as we come to terms with this transition I see some people turning to our congregational covenant. But what does it mean to covenant with one another, particularly in times when we may be feeling broken?  Are our covenants uplifting us or are they silencing honest expression of pain?