Living With Each Other in Right Relation

The mandate of the Shared Ministry Team is to strengthen the quality of congregation’s ministry. Two components of the mandate relate directly to living in right relation with each other: facilitating the development, implementation and review of the congregation’s Covenant of Right Relations, and helping manage conflicts in the congregation that affect the quality of shared ministry.

The Shared Ministry Team has now written a draft of a Covenant of Right Relations for our congregation. We looked for common threads in the ideas recorded at the workshop in November and for words that capture the essence of these threads. From that analysis, we developed a first draft and made a few revisions to it at our meeting in December. The draft covenant is brief (just 166 words!) and simple, written in language we think all ages can understand. It describes what it looks when we interact with each other as our best selves.

The Team is preparing to present the draft covenant to the congregation during a service in the spring. After the draft is presented, the congregation will “live with” the draft covenant for a year. During that time, there will be opportunities to provide feedback to the Shared Ministry Team. After revisions based on that feedback, the Covenant of Right Relations will be presented to the congregation for adoption at a congregational meeting in the spring of 2013.

The Shared Ministry Team Principles and Guidelines describe the values and strategies the Team uses in helping manage conflicts in the congregation. The Team commits to handling concerns with confidentiality, timeliness, and consistency, and to placing the ministry of the congregation above all other agendas. The Team recognizes that responsibility for resolving the conflict belongs to those involve in the conflict. The Team has no authority to act on its own, and is not responsible for actually resolving conflict.

The following guidelines summarize the Team’s key strategies:

• The SMT does not discuss issues with people other than those directly involved.
• The SMT only responds to issues, complaints, concerns and suggestions brought forward by a person or persons who identify themselves by name with the issue.
• The SMT asks that all issues, complaints, concerns and suggestions be stated in a manner that has the potential for positive resolution.
• The SMT asks the person bringing the issue to approach the person or group who is the source of concern.
• If requested, a member of the SMT attends this meeting with, but does not speak for, the person bringing the issue.
• The SMT explores other options if the person bringing the issue is unwilling to meet with the person or group who is the source of concern.
• If no other option is found, the SMT asks the person bringing the issue to cease pursuing it.
• If the person bringing the issue is willing to meet with the person or group who is the source of concern, but that party is unwilling to engage in seeking reconciliation, the STM determines what steps are needed to protect the ministry of the congregation and recommends such steps to the board.
• The SMT consults with the CUC with regard to conflict resolution resources available to congregations.
• If the issue is not resolved within the limits of the SMT responsibilities, the SMT refers the issue to the Board, and ultimately to the congregation as a whole.

These strategies allow the Team to work toward resolution of conflict in a spirit of reconciliation.

If you have questions or concerns about the work the Shared Ministry Team or the congregation’s ministry, please approach a member of the Team: Barbara Fuller, Pat Lane and Jon Cowtan.