Introduction

As Unitarian Universalists, we welcome all to join in our beloved community. In our community we are bound together by covenants, promises we make about how we treat one another and our world. One such covenant is our Affirmation, which we recite each Sunday:

Love is the spirit of this Congregation and service is its law.
This is our great covenant: to dwell together in peace, to seek the truth
in love, and to help one another.

Our Affirmation, our Unitarian Universalist Principles, the Living Tradition and our Covenant of Right Relations all provide us with direction and support for who we are and what we do. Recognizing that conflict is normal and healthy, we embrace Right Relations not as a set of rules, but as guidance on how we intend to relate to each other when faced with situations that involve, or could involve conflict. When our affections become strained, with the Covenant as our guide, we seek to restore one another and our community to wholeness.

This Covenant affirms our values and aspirations for our relationship together. Each of us is responsible for upholding the Covenant in congregational life – in our services, in our committee meetings, in our social gatherings and in the connections we have as individuals united in this beloved community. As needed, we will ask for assistance from each other and our minister. We will lift up this Covenant in all that we do. We will affirm the Covenant on an annual basis, amending it as appropriate. It is a living document that will change and grow, even as we ourselves change and grow.

Covenant of Right Relations

In the spirit of right relations we covenant to:

• Acknowledge and celebrate our differences.
• Listen compassionately, speak respectfully, and take responsibility for our actions and feelings.
• Speak from personal experience, use “I” statements, and avoid judgment, generalizations, and offering unsolicited advice.
• Deal directly with others to resolve conflict.
• Strive to stay in relationship through conflict.
• Fulfill our commitments, complete our tasks, admit our mistakes, praise each other’s successes, and say “thank you”.
• Ask for help when needed and give help as able when asked to do so.
• Assume the good intentions of others.

This Covenant is used in substantial part by the 1st Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches with the permission of First Church Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Adopted October 2022. Posted February 5, 2024.