The Cambridge Platform 1648 Unitarian Universalist congregational covenant and polity

Rev. Alice Blair Wesley Welcome to the world! For is this not part of what it means to be human? We are always born in the middle of stories. The dramas - of our families, our economy, our schools, our government - of our churches - began a long time ago Minns Lectures #5 of 6

Rev. Alice Blair Wesley The patterns of people, ideas and assumptions, especially about authority and division of labor, and the plot line, the direction in which things are moving, or not going anywhere -- All these patterns were set long before we even start to understand what is going on Minns Lectures #5 of 6

Cambridge Platform 1648 The Cambridge Platform of 1648, the foundational document of the New England system of congregational polity, includes six major means by which congregations participate in the Communion of independent churches.

Cambridge Platform 1648 I. mutual care: considering One another’s welfare II. consultation: when a church has Occasion to require the judgment and counsel of other churches III. admonition: when any public offense be found in a church, which they do not discern or are slow in removing or healing

Cambridge Platform 1648 IV. participation: members of one church visiting another are admitted and ministerial services are loaned by one church to another to take the place of an absent or sick minister

Cambridge Platform 1648 V. recommendation: when a member of one church moves to the region of another church she/he is committed to the fellowship of their covenant VI. relief and succor: support for the necessities of poorer churches

Cambridge Platform 1648 You’re not the boss of me –No higher authority than the individual –No higher authority than the individual congregation –The free church

Cambridge Platform 1648 Scrupulous congregationalism, a pattern in which all religious authority is located in each single, distinct congregation. Rev. Alice Blair Wesley

Cambridge Platform 1648 Covenant A covenanted free church is a body of individuals who have freely made a profoundly simple promise, a covenant: Alice Blair Wesley Minns Lectures #5

Cambridge Platform 1648 Covenant We pledge to walk together in the spirit of mutual love. The spirit of love is alone worthy of our ultimate, our religious loyalty. So, we shall meet often to take counsel concerning the ways of love, and we will yield religious authority solely to our own understanding of what these ways are, as best we can figure them out or learn or remember them, together. Alice Blair Wesley Minns Lectures #5

Cambridge Platform 1648 Covenant Our church ancestors understood the Bible to be mainly about - the free and covenanted, social practice of love. Alice Blair Wesley Minns Lectures #5

Unitarian Universalism Standing on the side of love!

Cambridge Platform 1648 Leaders: Deacons - The leaders who keep and prepare the table, stewards of the resources, caretakers - tangible Elders - The leaders who understand and uphold the deepest meaning of the faith - out of which Teaching and Preaching elders emerge - intangible