Rev. Vicky's Message April 28, 2023

As we’ve been announcing over the past few weeks, COPA’s 20th Anniversary Convention is fast approaching. In preparation, our COPA teams have been reading various articles and having many discussions about the meaning and importance of “Covenants”.

According to the Carnegie Council, "Forged from negotiations between different groups (and thus more akin to a society-society compact than a state-society compact), social covenants build common identity, common values, and a common sense of purpose for the state. They define justice and natural rights in defining the origins and makeup of political society. In essence, they are about society building, fashioned with the understanding that a cohesive society is a prerequisite to a successful state." In short, social covenants bind societies together, allowing them to cooperate to build a better government and country that effectively promotes the common good.

The American Declaration of Independence proclaims: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. – That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men.”

The preamble to the Constitution enumerates the basic functions of government, beginning with: “to establish Justice” and ending with, “to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.”

And, the Pledge of Allegiance, first drafted during the Civil War, is a declaration of loyalty not only to the flag but also to “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

All of these are part of the evolving American Covenant – which was modeled after the covenants that form the framework of our Judeo-Christian roots.

Unity of Monterey Bay is a covenantal institution, forged out of our common commitment to being "an accepting, inclusive, loving, vibrant and prosperous spiritual community – co-creating an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just, and compassionate human presence on this planet." Likewise, the member institutions of COPA are also joined together in a covenantal relationship, bound together through our shared commitment to be engaged members of our American society which involves purposefully working together “to establish Justice” and “secure the Blessings of Liberty for all, and our Posterity.”

Such work, I believe, is not only essential to the repair and sustainability of our American social covenant…but is also foundational to our spiritual belief in and commitment to claiming and realizing our Oneness.

I hope you join us this Sunday – and for the COPA Convention where we will be putting our faith into action.

“So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith without works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” James 2.17-18

Namasté…Rev. Vicky

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