Summer Assignment 2023

Create a covenant with a person or group you are in relationship with, or revisit one that is in place already.

Context

Every Summer, the community of First Unitarian is invited to undertake a “Summer Assignment,” a small but powerful activity to do sometime between July and August, to help us deepen the regular practices of Unitarian Universalism, in family settings, at church, and in other community spaces we may be a part of. This year’s assignment focuses on Covenanting!

In Unitarian Universalism, we are held together in community not by a creed (a shared statement of beliefs), but by a covenant (a shared commitment to live out our deepest values). And “covenant” isn’t just a noun, but it’s also a verb – “to covenant” with someone is to make promises about how you will be in relationship with each other, how you want to treat and be treated, in alignment with the values you both share. It’s also about how you navigate and stay in relationship even when those promises might be broken, or otherwise not fully lived into.

Covenants take many different forms – Sometimes they’re made between just two people, sometimes by whole communities of hundreds or thousands. Sometimes they’re explicit and written out, sometimes they’re more informal understandings between parties. Covenants often involve values held so deeply that they go beyond the simple words used in a particular written document.Covenants are about the quality of relationship and community, not the following out of contractual obligations. They should be living documents, continually revisited and navigated as people, contexts, relationships, and understandings of our deepest values grow and change.

Because Unitarian Universalism is a non-creedal tradition, covenant is a very important part of our theology and part of our practice. And, covenanting is a tool that can help with all sorts of relationships and contexts, not just religious or Unitarian Universalist ones! Our hope is that this Summer Assignment will help all of us build those covenanting muscles, so we can live out our values in all our relationships and communities generally, and also specifically as we prepare for another year of church together!

Connect in Small Groups

We’ll be offering opportunities to share and reflect on your convention – whether you’ve begun, finished, or are somewhere in the middle – throughout the summer.

Join us after worship on: 

  • July 16th
  • July 30th
  • August 20th 

Homecoming with Artistic Expressions

You’re also invited to create a representation or expression of your covenant to bring on Sunday, September 10th, for our Homecoming. This might be as simple as a written record of some of the promises of the covenant, or as complicated as a three-dimensional artistic representation of the relationships and values of your covenant, or even a video. Don’t limit your creativity! All the diversity of covenant expressions will be displayed together in the church, and everyone will be invited to explore and reflect on all the assembled covenants, and begin to think about our shared covenant as a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Frequently Asked Questions:

  • What is a Covenant?

In simplest terms, a covenant is an agreement between two or more people about how they will be in relationship with each other, and how they will navigate times when those agreements aren’t upheld. For more history and theology behind why Unitarian Universalism emphasizes Covenant, and how Unitarian Universalists think about Covenant today, watch this youtube video from the UUA called: What Do We Promise One Another?

  • Who has Covenants?

Most Unitarian Universalist churches articulate a covenant of right relationship, though sometimes the explicit documents are left unattended as the culture of the congregation shifts over time. We can also understand our church’s mission, values, and ends statements as a Covenant, pointing to why we gather as a religious community and how we want to be in the world.

Small groups that meet at First Unitarian for spiritual deepening, like Soul Matters and Wellspring groups, each take time to articulate their own covenants. Even groups like the Board of Trustees, and the staff, have covenants to ground their relationships and work together.

Even if you haven’t recognized it as one, you are probably already part of at least one covenant. If you’ve ever had an agreement with roommates or coworkers, or exchanged wedding vows, you were explicitly creating a covenant for those relationships. If you’ve ever said “in this family, we don’t behave like X” you might have been articulating part of an otherwise implicit family covenant.

  • How do people create a covenant together?

This UUA blog post about Embodying Beloved Community and Covenantal Relationship outlines a step by step process to create a covenant that could be used in any community or relationship. For families, check out this blog post called Creating Family Covenants from a UU Minister who, during the early stages of the pandemic, found it helpful for their family to do a covenanting process together. Rev. AJ also put together this One-page Guide to Covenanting designed for Small Group Facilitators at First Unitarian

  • What if something is missing from an explicit covenant?

This UUA blog post talks about how The Map and the Terrain of Covenant aren’t the same thing – the ideal and perfect covenant is never what we’re able to achieve when we try to get explicit and write or speak out a covenant together. And, even if a map is only the sketch of a terrain, it’s still much easier to get lost without one! Artistic Expression Idea: If your covenant were a map instead of a written document, what would it look like?

  • What do we do when the promises are broken?

Sometimes, people talk about “breaking covenant” or “falling out of covenant.” But covenants aren’t contracts or machines, they don’t “stop working” even if they’re maybe “broken.” Read this UUA blog post Covenant and Conflict… At the same time? For more about how we are still held by covenant even as conflicts arise.

  • Help! I have more questions not answered here!

Fear not! This page will continue to be updated with helpful resources. If you have a question about the assignment, or a helpful resource not listed here, email Rev. AJ at [email protected]

LINKS & RESOURCES: