Limiting vs. Liberating Covenants
by the New England Region Program Team
We understand covenants as being an attempt to make promises together that are grounded in a shared understanding of something unenforceable but to which we want, collectively, to be faithful or obedient. Ideally, in the context of congregational covenants, the “something” we practice collective commitment to includes our shared values and mission, and we often include these in our understanding of behavioral covenants. However, lots of other stuff can tend to creep into our covenants, too, things more grounded in a particular dominant culture than in our values.
In their book Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun describe elements of white supremacy culture, and we’ve relied on their descriptions in our thinking about this. In this paper, we focus particularly on those elements of white supremacy culture that resonate with our experience of the dominant culture in Unitarian Universalism.
...A liberating view of covenant knows that we are both keeping and breaking promises at the same time quite often. We keep our covenants to the best of our ability but we also break them despite our best efforts, and we are also always learning to do better. Liberating covenantal practice accepts the reality of human imperfection, of our flawed nature and brokenness, the inevitability of falling short and failure. It is inherently forgiving and when violated seeks restoration and renewal. UU minister Victoria Safford says of covenant that “It may be reinforced by forgiveness and grace, when we stumble, forget, mess up.” So, when there is a breach of covenant, that does not mean we are completely out of covenant. Rather the covenant holds us as we find our way back to right relationship through reconciliation. Read more...
