Ministry

(one side of the room reads to the other side)

# 563     “A Person Will Worship Something”  by Ralph Waldo Emerson

A person will worship something-have no doubt about that.

We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts- 

but it will out.

That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and character.

Therefore, it behoves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.

# 665     “Transcendental Etude”   by Adrienne Rich

No one ever told us we had to study our lives,

That we should begin with the simple exercises 

first and slowly go on trying the hard ones,

And in fact we can’t live like that:

We take on everything at once before we’ve even 

begun to read or mark time, we’re forced to begin

in the midst of the hardest movement,

 I continue my sermon series called “Transforming Tolerance” this morning with a look at two concepts that need to matter a  lot to us here at First Unitarian: those concepts are Covenant and Democracy.   

First of all, look with me at our ‘Covenant: of Good Relations.’

To begin,  most of you here know that we are a non-creedal religion.  That means  we gather together, not because we all agree on which worldview is the one (the only one) that correctly explains how the universe works, but because we  make a covenant together as a community as to how we will be together on our religious journey. That is, we promise, we agree, how we will act towards each other individually and also within the sub groups of which we may be a part.  

 

This covenant was put together and approved by this congregation in September of 1997 (10 yrs. ago). It was created because there was a deeply felt need. The church had just gone through an agonizing time, a time that saw lines being drawn in the sand over a particular issue that came up; accusations were made, reputations were impugned. When the worst of it was over,  the members and friends at First Unitarian wanted to make sure this would not happen again; that there would be a clear  understanding regarding the moral and ethical behaviour expected and accepted within this religious community. 

This Covenant is highly thought of in the larger Unitarian Universalist world, and other congregations have used it as the basis for their covenants.

There are many sub-groups that make up First Unitarian. And a covenant is a part of their group  Let’s look briefly at one we have right in front of us: the choir! (Nice looking group of people, don’t you agree?!)

Those of you who are in the choir (or may be thinking of joining it) know/need to know, that at the beginning of every choir practice there is a welcoming song, everyone stands in a circle and (only if you choose) shares whatever he/she needs to share   before the actual practice begins. This allows choir members to get to know  a bit about each other, as well as how their voices sound!  To me this is very much covenantal behaviour. That is, there has been an implicit agreement that people are there to be part of a musical community, they are not just disparate individuals who come only to sing and never to interact.

And when I came here as your minister in 2002,  within three months a  Service of Installation was enacted. The words that introduced that service were these:  “The act of installation symbolises a covenant between the people of the congregation and the minister. The relationship established is based on mutual confidence and respect, and is undertaken by mutual consent.”

In that Installation Service  I said in part:

“I pledge to speak the truth, as I  understand it, freely and caringly, and try to live so as to embody a sense of integrity, good humour, the sacredness in everyday life and loving kindness.”

And as  you said in part: “We...pledge to work in partnership with you as we develop ourselves and our community in ways that are just, loving, challenging and inspiring to others...”

And  now, at the beginning of our sixth year of partnership I believe we are still trying our best. I know from my side of the equation that I have worked hard at our partnership but even so, I have made errors of judgment and occasionally even,  said words that have been less than kind (speaking what I understood to be the truth but with little regard to the impact it might have..or that I might be speaking only partial truth..)....but I have always tried to rebuild what I have unintentionally or carelessly fractured. I am sure others of you here have done likewise when events may have propelled you into doing or saying something that was ill-considered or even downright unkind.

I particularly like the way one of my colleagues describes covenant. He says: “A covenant is a set of enduring but ... deeply held promises made between people. And while the covenant is taken seriously, the promises are often so intense that it is impossible to always live up to them. We will never exactly live up to the covenants into which we enter. So, we will always admit a falling short – and respond by re-covenanting, recommitting to those promises....” (Rev. Thom Belote, Overland Park, Kansas from a July/07 sermon) 

So covenants can be both scary and boring. On the surface that may seem like a   contradictory, or oxymoronish statement - but just think about it. A covenant is something that is the ideal -- what is put into a covenantal statement is the best guess at the best way those within a group want to act towards each other. One of those ‘motherhood and apple pie’ sorts of things.... It is so ordinary, or, rather, it is the way things are supposed to be, it is the way you and I are expected to act all the time...and that is both scary and boring. It is something that is impossible to follow all the time, so we are forced to realise we are less than perfect.

I’ve taken a lot of words to convey that this covenant is very important  to us - it is the invisible glue that holds us together.  And after ten years it needs to be re-examined.

It has been included in your Order of Service this morning.  Let us take a moment to look at it. and read the beginning statement. 

“We the members of the First Unitarian Church of Victoria agree to treat ourselves and each other fairly and respectfully. We are committed to improving the quality of our lives by supporting one another’s self development, spiritual growth and the use of our skills and talents in fulfilling and responsible ways”

 

As you can see it has a beginning statement and then it becomes very specific; dealing with one’s self, how a member promises to relate to the minister, staff, Board members, other members and to the community at  large. 

I think there may be some missing elements: it is assumed that how the staff will relate to the members is taken care of some other way; and likewise assumes that Board members will respect their interactions with other members...although it doesn’t clearly say so. And the Conflict Management  Committee is not really a committee but several people who are willing to be supportive listeners or mediators in situations where an impasse has been temporarily reached between individuals or groups.

 

Probably the covenant needs to be tweaked a bit  - but its intentions will remain constant - that it is the heartfelt and mind-focussed desire that all those who wish to take their religious and spiritual journeys at First Unitarian will do so in the clear understanding that to the best of our abilities, our covenant, our promises,  will be honoured.

Let me move on to democracy now - as it is used here at First Unitarian.

When I think of words connected with democracy, these are the words that come to mind: transparency, accountability in governance, decision-making, mutual understanding, participatory democracy, representative democracy, access to administrative procedures, opportunity to realize his/her full potential, partnership, communication.

We Unitarians and Universalists pride ourselves on having a democratic style of governance, on conducting our meetings democratically, of behaving respectfully to each other as equals. Most of the time we do this successfully. But we could still use a little help.

 

There is a marvelous article by Patricia A. Wilson(Professor of Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas)  entitled, “Deep Democracy: The Inner Practice of Civic Engagement.” She comments,”For the individual, deep democracy is the enfranchisement of self at the level of mind, heart, and spirit: the realization that “I count.” 

It is the exercise of one’s membership in a larger whole, the acceptance of one’s responsibility for that whole, and the desire to act for the good of the whole: the realization that “I care.” Surely that is part of what we are aiming for.  Professor Wilson continues: ”Aware of the collective importance of each of our own small efforts to create new habits, we can also observe our own practice of engaged citizenship. Let us begin by cultivating just one habit of deep democracy. I propose this one: to smile and listen to understand the “other” before advocating a position. That alone may be the flap of the butterfly wing that creates the sea-change to deep democracy.”

It would be good to help to create sea-change, smiling isn’t that hard...and listening to understand the other can produce amazing discernment for yourself. Although it can be quite difficult to listen to another person’s concerns and not be formulating an answer at the same time...

Just why do I  think we need to talk about democracy right now? It is partly because we are at what is called an “awkward” size of church. We are too big to be able to practice complete participatory democracy  -   where everyone is involved in every decision that is made.

 

When I first started as a minister I served much smaller churches and it was very common for  a person to come up to me and say: “Oh, you can’t have that meeting, or that workshop next Thursday - I won’t be able to come then.”  In smaller congregations, everyone expects to be invited and available to come to everything.

One of the experts in this field (Lyle Schaller) says that at our size we need to have representative democracy. That’s where “the congregation chooses a small number of members to represent the interest of the whole at the decision-making table.”  And this means we need to have a high level of trust in those among us who take on the responsibility for leadership. I don’t think it’s that we don’t have trust....but that a lot of times we feel we want to be involved...even though we couldn’t have come on Thursday...

And then there are other times when those making the decisions temporarily forget to keep in touch with the larger body and misunderstandings can arise. The truth is that using any kind of democracy takes a lot of time, cooperation and compromise. and then sometimes the decisions that are reached seem to be ones that ought to have been decided by the larger body in the first place.

It is really hard to keep track of it all....and to satisfy anybody at all! When do we ever  find the opportunity or the time to learn how to govern ourselves responsibly? It reminds me of the reading by Adrienne Rich that ended:

We take on everything at once before we’ve even 

begun to read or mark time, we’re forced to begin

in the midst of the hardest movement,

And yet, is there any other alternative that we would accept? Are we interested in having  a hierarchical system or an anarchistic one?

   

   

“that which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and character.” Ralph Waldo Emerson  May our lives and our character be determined by deep thoughts and an imagination that always brings light to dark places.