UNPACKING OUR COVENANT
Here are some ideas for you to reflect on and use locally in your own context to unpack the Covenant (FR: Alliance, IT: Patto, or DE: Bund) and bring it to life.
Ask yourself: how can we use the Covenant to help us tell the truth, proclaim the dream, repair the breach, practice the way, and build Beloved Community? How does this ministry affect how we listen, pray, worship, interact, engage, communicate, care for each other and support the fulfillment of God’s mission in Europe?
1. Small Group Discussions
Gather in small groups, perhaps 5 or 6 people, and pray through the Covenant introduction using the Kaleidoscope Bible Sharing (KBS) methodology, similar to what may be known as African Bible Study method or Lectio Divina.
· Share and confirm respectful communication guidelines
· Agree on the use of a mutual invitation
· First reading: participants capture a word, phrase or image that comes to mind when the introduction is read
o A participant is invited to read the text
o Short time of silence for reflection
o Using mutual invitation, share briefly the words, phrases or images
· Second reading: invite participants to consider the following question as they listen to the text again: “What does the text tell you about beloved community?”
o A participant is invited to read the text
o Restate the question before a short time of silence for reflection
o Using mutual invitation, share reflections
· Third reading: invite participants to consider the following question as they listen to the text again: “What does God invite you to do, be or change through this text?”
o A participant is invited to read the text
o Restate the question before a short time of silence for reflection
o Using mutual invitation, share reflections
· Circle prayer and reflection: invite participants to form a circle and hold hands
o Invite participants to reflect and complete the following sentences internally:
§ I thank God today …
§ I ask God today …
o The facilitator starts the circle by sharing their prayer/reflection and invites the next person by squeezing the hand of the person to their right
o When the circle has been completed, the facilitator may close with one of the Covenant prayers, the Lord’s prayer, a common hymn or song of praise, or a combination of these – something enabling everyone to join in
Use the KBS approach to listen to God through sharing what the scripture at the end of the Covenant means in the context of dismantling racism, advancing racial justice and building beloved community in Europe. The second question should be: “What does this text teach you about tackling racism?”
Listen to a recording of ‘Strange Fruit’ sung by Billie Holiday.
After a period of silence share in the recitation out loud of the lamentation section of the Covenant.
After a period of silence, meditate on one of the Covenant commitments – use it as a mantra, with each person saying it 3 times.
After a period of silence, using mutual invitation, share what you have learned and what you feel called to do.
2. Workshops
View the Convocation recording of the Covenant.
After a period of silence take the Convocation cycle of prayer and pray for 3 entities (selected in whatever way you wish). Pray for their well-being, their faithfulness, their strength and their witness, and pray specifically that they might be moved intentionally to take at least one extra step towards dismantling racism, advancing racial justice and building beloved community in Europe in the next month. After a period of silence call on the Holy Spirit to surround and uplift the 3 entities and offer praise to God, in word or song. Afterwards, send a note or card of love and gratitude individually to the 3 entities, letting them know that they have been uplifted in prayer as part of our focus on racial justice and beloved community.
3. Prayer during Worship
Interweave 3 lamentations and 3 covenant commitments into the Prayers of the People on a regular basis.
4. Open Forum Discussions
Hold an open forum panel discussion on the Covenant. Questions that can be used to stimulate discussion:
§ What does covenant really mean?
§ What similarities and differences are there to the baptismal covenant?
§ Which particular aspects of the Covenant strike you as coming from Jesus?
o Explain this
§ How can a Convocation Covenant be relevant locally?
§ How would you adapt the Covenant, and why?
§ What needs to be done and who needs to do it to dismantle racism?
§ How can we advance racial justice?
§ What does the model of beloved community look like and where can we see it?
Provide feedback on key observations, questions or critical points to the Task Force:
5. Youth Sessions
Invite children and youth, after showing them the Covenant video, to make their own short video after having discussed what they notice, what surprises them and what challenges them about the Covenant. This should be shared with the congregation and later discussed at an appropriate forum.
Invite youth to review the history of the country in which they live in relation to racism. Explore how much they discover is covered in their existing curriculum. Encourage them to consider the Covenant in the light of what they discover and support them in making a presentation, possibly by video, to share with the congregation and in their school or college.
Having discussed the Covenant, possibly by viewing the Convocation recording, stimulate youth to write their own covenant related to racial justice and building a better community.
6. Sharing
Provide a copy of the covenant to your host church or your neighboring church and invite them to a discussion about dismantling racism, advancing racial justice and building beloved community in Europe considering the local and national contexts.
Conduct research to find out which organizations locally are active in anti-racism work and use the Covenant as a basis for forming partnerships with local entities striving for racial justice.
Use the Covenant as an entry point to open up a safe space inviting people to share their personal stories. Care is needed. Given the painful experiences people have had and are still having and the fear associated with exposure (need for anonymity), special arrangements will need to be made and pastoral support should be available. Sharing sacred stories within the framework of respectful communication guidelines can provide a spiritual release for the individual, helping to support healing and wellness, and can be pivotal in bringing home the reality and urgency of individual and community responsibility and action. Where possible, sacred stories should be recorded so that they can be revisited or shared wider.
Questions or points that can be used to stimulate a conversation include:
§ What was your reaction to hearing or reading the Covenant?
§ What touched you personally?
§ What in the Covenant triggers the most pain and why?
§ From your experience, what is missing from the Covenant?
§ With the Covenant as a backdrop but without making direct reference to it, share your own story so that we can learn something of what you have experienced and feel.
§ In what way has the church been part of your life experiences?
§ Given what you have shared, what would you emphasize to the young people of the community?
§ How can I (we) help?
§ As you look forward, what do you see?
If you have a book club or book group, as something out of the ordinary, take the Covenant as your next 'book' and explore and discuss it in the way you would for anything else. Write a short ‘book review’ afterwards and share it.
Establish a group to seek out other covenants, declarations or bold statements about dismantling racism, advancing racial justice and building beloved community. Identify the key similarities and major differences. What does this tell you? Share what you have found.