Faith In Action: Begin or Deepen a Church Partnership
Part of What We Choose
Materials for Activity
- Newsprint, markers, and tape
- Information about your partner church (if your congregation has a partner) or about the Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council (UUPCC). The About Partnerships tab on the UUPCC website is a good place to begin
Preparation for Activity
- Print resources from the UUPCC website to share with participants, and/or send participants the UUPCC link in advance of this workshop.
- Ask your minister or congregational lay leaders if you have a partner church or had one in the past.
- Optional: Invite someone from your congregation knowledgeable about your partner church to share with the group. Ask them to prepare stories that have to do with financial assistance to the partner church, including what was learned from both positive and not-so-positive experiences. Provide the guest with the bulleted questions below, in advance.
Description of Activity
Share resources from the UUPCC website and explore them together. If you do not already have a partner church, consider what steps your congregation would take to become involved in the program. Ask: "How might relational ethics guide the establishment of such a partnership?"
If you have invited a guest who is knowledgeable about your relationship with your partner church, invite them to share their experiences. Here are some questions to get started:
- Where is our partner church located? What is that congregation's story-who are its members? What are the congregation's gifts? What are their needs?
- How do the two congregations express their relationship? Have people from your congregation ever visited them, or have people from the partner church visited your congregation? Have there been other kinds of exchanges (letter, email, etc.)?
- What kinds of support/help has your congregation offered and provided? What are success stories? How has your congregation decided what support or help to give? Are there stories of help that was not as helpful as it might have been?