Covenant Letter to Choir

Dear Choir,

Thank you for allowing us (the Pastoral Care Team) into your choir practice to help BRUU in beginning this work on a Covenant of Loving Relationship.   Offering your wisdom and care and sensitivity to this task was incredibly significant.  What you were able to do in only three short 15 minute segments was nothing short of remarkable.  Some, understandably, expressed frustration about missing rehearsal time which is extremely rewarding and precious to their lives.   Those on the Pastoral Care team who’ve been in the choir understand just how special that time is.

What you’ve done has breathed initial life into this covenant document.  Your thoughts and ideas reflect much of what we know to be special about this community, and will provide a great starting place for the rest of the congregation to build on.  If a covenant names the best within each of us and calls us into more appreciative, accepting and respectful relationship, the congregation could not have been given a better example.

We came to you because you have an incredible history and commitment to relationship.  Your work together on music exemplifies discipline, cooperation, sensitivity and the product is beauty.  We were hoping you could channel some of that into a covenant that could help others and you did that with your usual grace.

But, it’s important to say that even as you have offered your contribution to the covenant, bearing your gifts; there are other groups in the church who have gifts to contribute.  Religious Education has a unique perspective from which they see the church.  As does Social Justice.  And Worship.  And Membership.  Even Building groups, Finance groups, and policy groups like the Board rely on relationship and have insight, wisdom and understanding to contribute. 

We are asking these groups to use what you have created as a starting place to offer their gifts to this process.  We’re going to take a few months to ask them to consider the covenant.  We are sending out a simple 15-20 minute process which committee leaders can use to solicit feedback from their groups – like we did with you.  Hopefully, they will use this process at their monthly meetings and send in their feedback.  The Pastoral Care Team will do its best to integrate their insight and ideas.  By May, we hope that everyone will have had an opportunity to contribute and there will be a couple weeks for anyone to make comments or suggestions.  In June we hope – as a whole community – to vote on whether to  adopt the final version of this evolutionary process as our community covenant. 

But for now, dear choir, we thank you for getting us started.  We appreciate your time, energy, patience and love.

Karen Fitzgerald, Cathy Ring, Joanne Tyrell, Martin Crim and Rev. Greg

Your Pastoral Care Team.