Tapestry of Faith: Faith Like a River: A Program on Unitarian Universalist History for Adults

Taking It Home: We're All Swimming in the Stream Together: Covenant

For I say—whether you ever heard, directly, of this little event in Dedham or not—to understand in any depth our liberal free church tradition, or to make much sense of deeply rooted everyday realities of Unitarian Universalist churches now, today, you must understand in your bones the historical importance of the spirit of love manifest in the doctrine of covenantal organization, as this little group of people in Dedham understood it in New England in 1637. — Alice Blair Wesley

Covenants have a historical role at the core of our Unitarian Universalist tradition, but agreements of relationship and behavior, based on shared values, are used in many aspects of life. Besides your faith community, where else in your life do covenants exist? Are the covenants implicit or explicit? Are there areas of your life where no covenant exists now, but where you might adopt one?

Consider your family life. What shared values do you celebrate? What are the shared expectations of behavior and relationship? How do you come back into right relationship when there is a misunderstanding or breach? Consider writing a family covenant. What would it include?