UUA Resources and Definitions

UUA on creating a covenant:

The Unitarian Universalist Association says the following about creating a covenantal statement.

It is a process that helps form and maintain the internal identity of a congregation.  The promises and commitments we make to one another in the context of our religious community help us understand what our tradition calls us to be.  The covenant grows from an affirmation of shared needs, values, purpose, and principles.  It is rooted in the past and reflects the promises that people make into the future.

The UUA has also created a guidebook on how congregations can create viable vision, mission and covenants — Vision, Mission, and Covenant: Creating a Future Together (2005). The Task Force has been consulting this guidebook as we move ahead.

Definitions (See also Ed Lane’s The Difference Between Covenant and Creed)

Mission, Vision and Covenant are similar-sounding, and they relate to each other. But they are different. Here are the definitions from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA):

Vision – The Dream. It is picture of where the congregation wants to be in five or more years—what we can become.

Mission – a concise statement of Who we are and why we exist. It says what the congregation wants to be known for, or known as, within the wider world; what the congregation wants to mean to the community.

Covenant – Covenants describe the way people interact with one another.  They incorporate the values, prized beliefs, and behaviors that are held dear, and they set out an image of how members will be with, and will behave toward one another, as well as what is promised or vowed to one another and to the congregation as a whole.