A Sermon by the Reverend Ellen Rowse Spero
First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church,
Chelmsford, Massachusetts
December 4, 2005
Reading: from "The Theology and Anthropology of Our Liberal Covenant" by Alice Blair Wesley
Copyright 2005, Ellen Rowse Spero. All rights reserved.
Looking back on the 350 years of our history last month, we see that the one constant that ties us back to the Puritans who founded this congregation is our covenantal congregational polity. Our polity is one of the things that attracts people to Unitarian Universalism, this idea that the ultimate authority for the governing and running of the church lies in the congregation, not in presbyteries, bishops, or popes. We write our covenants and our by-laws, we choose our lay and ordained leaders, we make the decisions about what matters most, who we are and how we want to be together in religious community. There are many differences between the founders of this church and us in terms of beliefs, values, and theology. But our commitment to congregational polity has remained intact. That said, those who practiced congregational polity 350 years ago did so under very different circumstances than we who are trying to practice it today. The folks who founded this church had as their focus of their lives being together in religious community. This is what brought them here. This was the central binding reason they had left England to risk a new life in the wilderness. They wanted the freedom to create a community grounded in their religious practices and beliefs. Everything about their lives, from the rule of law in the town to economic regulations to social mores had its roots in their religion and their church. Their lives revolved totally around their religion. The church was the most important community and where they spent the most time and energy.
This is not true anymore. I am not casting aspersions. Times have changed. The networks of meaning have changed. Our society is more complex and diverse. There are many other institutions and communities in our lives that demand our attention, our energy, our resources: jobs with their long hours and commutes or school with its accompanying work. Or trying to get everyone in our families where they need to go, and to still have time together. As the minister, I find it hard to ask even more volunteer time from parishioners when I know you are already so stretched.
Our Puritan ancestors came for the freedom to establish their strict religious community. UUs now gather in the name of freedom of belief within community. Yet we still use congregational polity as the source for our patterns or rules for being in religious community together. We do not have creeds and doctrines nor bishops and councils to do this for us. Thus, for our congregation to function, we need individuals in the community to participate. Serving the leadership positions of the church, especially the elected ones, is time consuming. It requires energy and commitment. This is also true for serving or chairing a committee, volunteering to teach in the RE program, organizing a major fundraising event like the Holiday Fair, the auction or the breakfasts or a special event, like the 350th, or doing social outreach ministries that discern our faith and express our values.
You are not told what you have to believe about God, sin, salvation, or politics. The right of individual conscience, freedom of belief, bringing reason and our own experiences to bear upon our spiritual beliefs, these are the freedoms exist because of our congregational polity. They are very, very precious and should be cherished. But they come with responsibility. As Wesley said, we have a lawful freedom. There are no absolute doctrines or hierarchy, but nor is it a free for all. If we are to live and worship and work together as a free religious and spiritual community, we need to have shared processes and agreements in place for how we will be in community together around those freedoms. We are not just individuals here. We are individuals who have committed to being a community of faith. Balancing individuality and community, freedom and responsibility, that is the heart of congregational polity. And it requires intentionality from all for it to truly work. It involves risk, effort, patience, listening, trust, and presence. It means being here and participating in the life of the community as best you can. By best, I don’t mean the most or all the time. I mean bringing your gifts, your needs, your hopes, your doubts, your fears, your compassion, your longings, your experiences, your energy, your yearning for justice, your presence to this covenanted community. Show up where you are, and let us walk together in the presence of a Larger Purpose, a Larger Spirit of Love, with the Whole of Being.
Rev. Helen Cohen, who was the senior minister at First Parish Lexington when I served there, told me that ministry is about holding: holding people accountable and holding people safe. I am learning that this holding is one and the same. To hold one another safe, we must create a community that is accountable. To hold one another accountable, we must create a community that is safe. This is not easy work. We have to wade through differing views and opinions to reach decisions. We have disagreements and we make mistakes. We have to have difficult conversations from time to time. But if we are aware and clear about our underlying purpose of being in community together, our covenant of right relationship or beloved community, then we have a place to begin again, something that holds our freedoms accountable and safe.
So, I am not asking everyone to make the church the center of your lives, until you are strung out and tired of the place. We cannot function the same way we did 350 years ago. I would just be left with a bunch of angry, frustrated and exhausted parishioners, and that really doesn’t work. But what we do need to do is spend the time we do have together well, using care and attention, talking and listening to one another. Periodically and consistently, we also need to spend time in intentional conversation about our vision, our covenant, ensuring that we have a shared understanding of what matters, what gives us life and meaning together. Why are we here? How do we want to be in relationship to one another? To our larger world? To what we name as divine, sacred, holy, of ultimate concern, the whole of being?
I spent the first three years of my ministry here getting to know you, getting to know the congregation, listening and learning. Now I am asking this year that we take the time to talk with and listen to one another intentionally about the issues of participation and leadership, vision and covenant that are essential to the continued good health and life of our church. What is congregational polity and how do we make it work, given the demands inside and outside of this institution we call our church? How do we make leadership not just tolerable but a source of spiritual growth? How do we support and sustain the lines of communication, accountability, and decision-making so we can be creatively free? What is our purpose in being here? What is our shared vision? Our covenant? How do we as individuals wish to be in this religious, spiritual, faith community? How can we embody what matters to us in the larger spirit of love?
When I look at this congregation that I love and serve now, it is a wonderful thing to behold. We are growing and flourishing. We have almost as many children as we do adults, an amazing thing, a sign that we are healthy and alive. We have energy. Financially, we are doing well. We are not running a deficit. We have the resources of the cell tower money to use for long range planning and special projects for our building, our ministries, and our programs without scraping out of our operating budget. There is a spirit of generosity and joy that is very wonderful to be part of. We have so many things to be thankful for here.
Because we are growing and healthy, because we are not in crisis or major transition, this is a good time to have these conversations. And this is why I and the Standing Committee have asked Rev. Larry Peers come this year and lead the congregation through two conversations. The first is on the more practical issues surrounding leadership and leadership development. That conversation or conference will take place on Friday evening January 6 and Saturday, Jan.. 7th. It is open to everyone who is in a leadership position: serving on a committee, teaching in RE, participating in a major fundraiser, or social outreach ministry. It is open to anyone who has served in leadership positions in the past and has wisdom to share. It is open to those who are newer and want to become more involved. In other words, come. The second conversation will be an all church conference, held Friday evening March 31 and Saturday April 1st. This will be about discerning and articulating our shared vision and covenant. What matters to us as a community of faith and how do we want to live that out together? I am asking all of you to be there.
I am here as your minister. You called me to serve in that role. But my own broader call to ministry preceded my coming here. It will go with me when I leave here, in the far distant future. Ultimately, I serve that broader call and the source who called me, which I name and experience as God. Ministry is not just what I do. It is a significant part of who I am. Ministry does involve me in administration, counseling, teaching, public speaking, building relationships and community, speaking out for justice and speaking truth to power, and all that. That said, I am not the director of a non-profit or a social justice agency. I am not a motivational speaker, social activist or self-help guru. I am not the leader of a social club or a gathering of friends or a political organization. As a minister, I am called to love and serve God, or the Larger Spirit of Love, the Whole of Being, by loving and serving others, specifically in the context of a community. Not just any community but a community rooted in and in conversation with the values, traditions, practices, and covenant of Unitarian Universalism. Most of all, I am called to serve a community that strives to embody and serve something that matters deeply and meaningfully. That matters deeply and meaningfully to the people who come through our doors, searching for a home, a place to be cared for and to care for. And that matters deeply and meaningfully in the hope for and healing of our larger world. That is why I am here. To walk with you. To push, to pull, to lead, to follow, to listen, to speak out, to wade through the waters, or to trouble them: whatever it takes to see us together embody a community that matters. That is the call of our congregational polity. That is the call of our covenantal tradition. That is the call of our free faith.