Download this session in Word format.

Promises-Making our Covenant

Sunday, November 23, 2003

Sally Taylor

 

Opening Words/ Chalice Lighting:

 

     Around us is the world with its confusions and demands.  So much is asked, and our own strength fails us. We have made many promises and can’t keep them all.  So much is needed from us, and our means seem frail; so much is wrong, and our hope seems fragile. Sometimes we are perplexed by our own behavior: We have not done what we wanted to do and we find ourselves doing the very things that we promised ourselves that we would not do. Yet we belong to a community of faith. Its promise is ever waiting to sustain our lives, bolster our courage, enrich our hopes. May we use its support to find a new way to honor our covenants and bring us peace.

 

 

Check-in: Briefly tell us what you bring with you tonight to our gathering.

 

Reading

 

A covenant is a promise that we make, and strive to keep, in order that our mutual relationship, our “belonging to one another” may be strengthened, and that our lives, so strengthened, may shine with the radiance of all the good which our growing strength empowers us to do.

 

By their very nature, covenants call us to strive to be better than we are, perhaps even better than we imagine we can be. Because of this, we often fall short, and let one another down.  It is wise and well for us not only to renew our commitments to our best hopes but also to attend to those places where we are over stretched, falling short and ask one another for help, encouragement and forgiveness.  We make a difference that matters in the world by making our covenants even though we don’t always know how to live up to them.

 

adapted from Minister’s Musings by Ruth Gibson

 

 

 

 

Questions:

1.     What does making a covenant mean to you? Why do we need to make a covenant for this group?

2.     What should our covenant include?

3.     What other covenants have you made?  Why/how are they important to you?

4.     How important is it to you for others to “keep their promises to you”?

5.     How important is it to you to “keep your promises to others”?

 

 

Group Expectations

  1. attend regularly
  2. notify a member of the group if you must miss a session
  3. arrive on time, close on time
  4. be clear with each other about the quality of each member’s participation
  5. participate in group decisions concerning format, shared meal, discussion topics, service activities
  6. participate in service activities planned by the group

 

 

Rules Review

-         Respect the Talking Stick-one person speaking at a time, no interruptions, comments, questions etc. during check-in and first round of sharing on topic

-         Make I statements whenever possible

-         Use Active Listening

-         Respect confidentiality of shared information 

-         Avoid giving advice

o       May ask clarifying questions during second round

o       Speaker may ask for advice which will be shared later

-         Share time so everyone who wishes to may speak

-         Anyone may pass at any time

-         Encourage holding silences

 

 

 

 

 

Check-out:  Likes and Wishes

For about half the time we took at check-in, each of us can make a brief statement about our likes and wishes for the group.

 

 

Closing Words

 

We arrived out of the gathering darkness

Happy to be together again.

We brought food and drink,

Sharing with each other again.

We came to be heard clearly and deeply as we said our inmost thoughts

Needing to be part of each other again

We found clarity and strength in our covenant

Rejoicing in being together again.

We leave here renewed

Wanting to be together again

Soon.

 

Go in Peace.