I was invited to offer words of encouragement and support to the trustees of the four district boards of the New England Region as they gathered in retreat this past weekend. This was my response and I thought I would share it as it offers my views on governance as leadership.
To my colleagues in the four Districts of the New England Region:
Thank you for the opportunity to participate, albeit via this document, in your retreat March 22 and 23. Let me first commend all of you for your quest to spark a “great awakening” of liberal religion in New England. I always encourage Unitarian Universalists to think big; no need for me to recommend you to think bigger than a “great awakening”. And what a great vision that is. I can imagine what such an awakening would accomplish in New England and throughout our Association.
I want to communicate my encouragement to the leadership of the four district boards in three areas: collaboration, covenant, and courage.
Your years of effective collaboration have been a model for us all. Within the New England Region, you have consolidated two districts into one (Northern New England) and have a shared staffing arrangement between the Clara Barton and Mass Bay Districts. Moreover, you have modeled your collaborative approach by scheduling this retreat for the four boards to be in relationship in order to forge a new vision. I applaud these first collaborative steps you have taken as a region of leaders.
You don’t need me to remind you of our movement’s foundation in covenant. The Cambridge Platform of 1648 established the notion of a free church in the New World and obligated congregations to “walk together in love” to support one another. It was the basis of both Unitarian and Universalist polity before we consolidated and informs the modern covenant we embrace today: “As free congregations we enter into this covenant, promising one another our mutual trust and support.” These historical and contemporary covenants distinguish us from our creedal cousins and call us be in right relations as we carry out our mission. As you gather for this retreat, I encourage you establish a covenant of the four boards of trustees to guide your work together. Such a covenant was invaluable to the four district boards of the Southern Region as we embarked on a similar task as the one you are undertaking. It resulted in the Orlando Platform.
Volunteer leadership in a democratic faith community takes courage. Thank you for your service to our faith. Remember that you were elected according to our Fifth Principle and serve your congregations and communities as well as our larger movement. It takes courage to fly in the face of conventional wisdom to consider changes that will make us a stronger, more vital, and growing movement but which may be feared and misunderstood at first.
I believe we are the religion for our time and have a healing message to take into the world for that “great awakening” you imagine. Imagine a growing, vibrant religious movement bound by common values of inherent worth and dignity of every person, freedom of conscience, and mutual interdependence. These values draw on the wisdom and experience of all souls to establish communities and systems that allow all people to flourish.
But that vision will take courage to implement. It takes courage to consider systems and structures that seem to subordinate the free and independent congregation to something larger such as a cluster, district, region, or association. I believe we can have it both ways; healthy and growing free and independent congregations in covenant with other congregations and governance structures. Indeed I believe we must have it both ways if we are to have this “great awakening” in this growing secular world.
You know that I am on record as favoring regionalization of services as well as governance structures. However, any changes in governance will have to be approved by delegates from our congregations, according to our various by-laws. The Southern and Mid-America regions are testing regionalization approaches in different ways. This is the exciting thing about our movement; our polity provides these possibilities through the application of our Fifth Principle, the “democratic process within our congregations.” The district board leadership in those regions are acting boldly and with courage to propose to their delegates a better way to govern and manage.
As the leadership of the New England Region, you have an opportunity to be bold and consider yet another approach, appropriate to your unique culture and heritage and ultimately supported by your congregations.
One of my early lessons in leadership in a democratic volunteer-led organization was this: Leaders must give up control of the outcome. This reality should empower you to be courageous and recommend bold actions to enable this “great awakening”. Seek clarity and accountability in whatever comes out of your work together. The ultimate outcome is in the hands of the delegates from your congregations.
As you work collaboratively in retreat this weekend, grounding your work in our covenantal faith that calls us to walk together in love will go far in ensuring outcomes that will lead us into that great awakening you envision. Your leadership role calls you to be courageous as you consider new ways for all of our congregations and communities to be in covenant, perhaps in new ways, to create the world we dream about.
Enjoy your weekend together, model right relations, laugh, sing, dance, … and be bold.
In faith and fellowship,
Jim Key
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