About the Covenant Task Force

Why are we exploring a covenant?

As UUs, we belong to a religious community that is governed by its members, rather than by a hierarchy of religious or political leaders. We determine our community’s destiny.

As members and friends of First Parish, we have expectations and hopes about our community and what it stands for. We have values we share and connections that we hold dear, and we trust that we will support each other as we move along our spiritual path. Our values, connections and commitments form an unspoken covenant that we have with each other, and our trust is based on this unexpressed covenant.

First Parish is currently going through a period of growth and change, including John’s retirement as our minister at the end of this church year. Mark LaPointe, our new Director of Religious Education, started this fall, and we are also moving into multigenerational services, with children who are learning what it is to be a UU.

As we embark on the next phase of church life, now seems an appropriate time to take stock, identify and articulate what it means to be our community of First Parish Needham, in light of the values we hold dear…and, perhaps, put those words into a covenantal statement—make explicit what we know implicitly.

This is why the Parish Committee decided that the exploration of creating a covenantal statement is an important step at this time in the life of First Parish. In January, the Parish Committee created a Task Force on a First Parish Covenant and gave it a charge to that effect.

Covenant Task Force members: Scott Muldoon, Phil Murray, and Tracy Zinner; Rev. John Buehrens (ex officio). You can send an email to Scott, Phil, and Tracy at CovenantTF@uuneedham.org.  To contact them individually, please refer to the Directory for their contact info (password required).

Charge to the Task Force:

1. To explore the development of a brief covenantal statement, suitable for regular use in worship, including multigenerational worship;
2. To assist the Parish and its leadership in understanding the purpose of and issues appropriate to a covenant – as opposed to a creed, mission or vision statement, or statement of principles;
3. After investigating precedents and the experiences of other Unitarian Universalist congregations in their adoptionof a covenant for use in worship, to recommend a methodology and process for discussion of the matter within the congregation;
4. The Task Force is asked to deliver a preliminary report to the Parish at the special congregational meeting on Feb. 13, 2011; and then
5.  To recommend a more thorough process to the Parish Committee or to the Annual Meeting by May of 2011, with a view  to developing a covenant for consideration by the Parish no later than April 2012.