Our Behavorial Covenant
Christ Church…worshipping and serving Christ in the Episcopal tradition
As a member of Christ Church and the Body of Christ, with God’s help, I promise to:
- Keep myself informed about and participate in the life of the parish
- Listen in order to understand one another, and to respect each others views
- Express myself honestly and respectfully, focusing on issues, not personalities
- Support parish decisions reached by the appropriate process
- Remain mindful of our continual need for God’s grace and especially, of the need we all have for forgiveness
Background: During the initial stages of the Revision Task Force process in 2006, the Vestry sponsored a workshop facilitated by Suzanne Foucault to develop a parish-wide Behavioral Covenant. The purpose of the covenant was to guide the ways that all members of Christ Church would conduct ourselves as we work together to execute the many facets of sharing Christ’s light among ourselves and our community. The October 14, 2006 workshop was attended by about 33 participants, including Vestry members, ReVision Task Force committee members, and interested parishioners. Much progress was made in gaining an understanding of the concept of publishing a list of “Holy Manners” to improve our interrelationships while discussing parish matters, and priority lists were generated that reflected the participants’ priorities for elements that would be included in a covenant . The Vestry held a follow-on workshop with Suzanne on October 20, 2007 to finalize the covenant, based on the outputs from the parish-wide workshop.
Results : The Vestry unanimously adopted the Behavioral Covenant at the November 2007 Vestry meeting, and commenced using the covenant to open the December 16, 2007 Vestry meeting. It is the Vestry’s hope that all Christ Church organizations and groups will adopt the use of the covenant by citing it or reading it aloud at the beginning of all meetings. This will help us all to remember our need to remain God-centered and respectful of one another as we take up the challenges of spreading Christ’ message of love through our church activities.