Does an agreement constitute rules?

[jbarr76]

A covenant of right relations has been proposed in my church. It's been toss around for a while now in the back ground and now it's coming forward. One of the senior members of the church commented that setting up something like this was an invitation for an abuse of this as 'rules' (quotes mine). I agree with this comment on many levels, the

Comments

[susangc7]

Is there a reason that this covenant is becoming necessary?

If there's no fire, just blowing the fire extinguisher around makes things more toxic...

[coffeebeast]

I like the first section. The "attitudes and actions" section would make me very uncomfortable. It does read like a set of rules to me and are guarateed to be taken too far by someone. I'd feel better if they were rewritten into a paragraph of examples, maybe, and not included in a covenant. Even though the current members may understand the need, anyone new may look at this with a raised eyebrow.

[jbarr76]

No fire yet. The UUA is encouraging congregations to do this sort of thing.

We already convenant to the first bit (the seven principles), it's the next bits that are making people twitchy...

It was suggested that the church 'leadership' might convanent to this sort of thing, but I am uncomfortable suggestion any division between the 'leadership' and the 'membership'; barriers to fluidity and flexibility are not what we're looking for...

[cyano]

Agreed. I was a little weirded out when the first set came out years and years ago, but ultimately they are pretty positive and not very didactic.

The new ones.... don't really sound very realistic with regards to human behavior. Sorta Neo-Puritanism in alot of ways.

Not sure how this is really any different than The Golden Rule either.

Twitchy items

[dlatimer]

> To attempt to resolve disagreements rather than leaving.

Umm...

> To openly express opinions, but to abide by congregational decisions arrived at through the democratic process.

What are these decisions? Do they extend to controlling behavior outside the congregation site?

> To respect, support, and appreciate our staff, elected leaders, and volunteers.

This one looks odd to me, but I don't know why.

> To recognize staff and volunteer work schedules and commitments and refrain from unreasonable requests.

OTOH, this one appears fine.

The rest appear to be 'reasonable person principle'-derived, Golden Rule, natural outcroppings of the 7 principals, and related to the mission of UUA.