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UUPCC International Partnership Handbook Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page i UUPCC International Partnership Handbook Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council June 2006 Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page ii Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council P.O. Box 88 Bedford, MA 01730-0088 USA Phone: 781-275-1710 Email: [email protected] www.uupcc.org First Printing: June 2006 Printed in the U.S.A. ii Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page iii Dedication The effectiveness of this movement is due to the thousands of Unitarian Universalists in the United States and Canada and their partners around the world who together have created the bonds of friendship that form new global communities. This book is dedicated to each and every one of you who share the joy of international relationships. iii Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page iv iv Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page v Table of Contents Foreward . .vii Theological Foundations of Partnership . .ix Act of Religious Tolerance and Freedom . .ix The Value of Travel . .x About the UUPCC . .xi SECTION ONE Guidelines for Church Partnerships . .1 UUPCC Guidelines for Church Partnerships . .2 Building the Foundation of Partnership . .4 Creating a Sustainable Partnership . .6 Maintaining a Healthy Partnership . .10 SECTION TWO Becoming a Partner Church Building the Foundation . .13 Start-up Steps to Partnership . .14 SECTION THREE Creating A Sustainable Partnership . .19 Designing a Communications Strategy to Maintain the Connection . .21 Creating a Presence in Your Church . .28 v Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page vi Covenants—Making Promises to Each Other . .30 Sample Covenants . .32 Co-Creating a Sustainable Partnership . .34 Travel . .38 Keeping the Partnership Alive in Your Church . .40 SECTION FOUR Creating World Community . .43 Community Capacity Building—Empowering Communities for Action . .44 Other Stories About Partnerships . .46 Denver—Kövend . .47 Honolulu—Caiman . .49 Chicago—Kénos . .51 Toronto—Budapest . .53 Fairfax—Puriang . .54 East Shore—Torockószentgyörgy . .62 Fairfax—Szentgerice . .73 Bedford—Abásfalva . .86 A Brief History of the Partner Church Council . .102 vi Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page vii Forward he partner church movement has touched the lives of thousands of peo- Tple and has joined communities together in a first step to building a world community. The Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council now works with over 180 churches partnered in six countries. Institutions, individual/ family members and the Unitarian Universalist Association provide the finan- cial support for UUPCC. In 2002, then UUPCC President David Keyes formed a task force. Their charge was to review where we had been in partnership development and to make recommendations about partnering in right relationship. This book is the outcome of that effort. Much of the information here is based on years of partnerships in Transylvania, but the focus is on providing advice for the North American partner independent of the geographic location of your partner. One result of this study has been to seek practical, effective ways for part- ners to be in right relationship and support for each other. Pilot studies in 2005 and 2006 in the process of community capacity building have been quite suc- cessful in identifying a way for the North American partner to be supportive and not create dependencies. This handbook presents those lessons learned in order to help all congre- gations strengthen ties to their international partner. These partnerships pro- vide us all with the means to take positive action and grow relationships that can build a better world-one partnership at a time. Included within are case histories of churches in long-term sustained partnerships, the components of healthy partnerships, and the Guidelines for Church Partnerships developed through a three-year research project. The Partner Church Web site (www.uupcc.org) is also an invaluable resource for up- to-the minute information and guidance. This project and this resulting handbook were made possible by the generous support of the Fund for Social Responsibility of the Unitarian Universalist Funding Program. vii Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page viii This handbook has been the work of many, many people since its incep- tion. First and foremost, the Fairness and Awareness Task Force is responsible for a major portion of the book. While the entire committee wrote and com- mented on the text of the report, Tom Fox and Barbara Weber took the notes and gave it order and substance. Charleen Belsom Zelmer compiled hundreds of pages of old documents and indexed them so that we could find the pieces that would be helpful. Lisa Gillespie put it on the web so that we could work with it in our various locations. Dot Bergin, Pat Rodgers and Eileen Higgins read, edited, rewrote and commented to help it make more sense. Contributing writers include Cathy Cordes, Leon Hopper, Elizabeth deMille Barnett, Amanda McGregor, and Laura Nagel. Elizabeth Hacala selected the photos and created the collages that added faces to this book. Finally, Nancy Daugherty took our words and pictures and turned it into a book with her design and layout. This truly was a community project and The UU Partner Church Council is grateful to all those who worked to produce this handbook. We are most grateful to the Fund for Unitarian Universalism and the UU Funding Program for the grant that made the work of the task force and this book possible. We hope that you find it useful in guiding your partnership. viii Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page ix Theological Foundations of Partnership ery early in our history as a separate religious body we insisted that “Vcreedal statements are not the proper basis for religious fellowship; more than that, that theological diversity is not only to be tolerated, but to be embraced as a good thing. This attitude, deeply rooted in our past, is part of our definition of what we stand for and hence who we are. We assert the right and duty of each one of us to adhere to his or her understanding of religious truth, and we accept the obligation to respect one another, even if we do not always agree. Some of us may be theists, some humanists; some may cherish Christian symbols and definitions of the human condition, others may find that the Christian tradition no longer speaks to them. We believe deeply in the capacity of men and women of good will to walk together in religious fellow- ship, despite doctrinal differences. It is a deeply held conviction that it is possible to respect and even love our companions despite theological disagree- ments. Is this not what the statement of Principles and Purposes, approved in 1985 by the General Assembly, was trying to say in these words: ‘We covenant to affirm and promote … acceptance of one another.’ In short, to Amos’s question: Can two walk together except they be agreed? Liberals reply: Yes, they can walk together despite the disagreement. And liberals often go a step further, to say that diversity of opinion is a good thing, which can be a source of creativity, even of life itself.” “So the principle of the toleration of diversity has become axiomatic with us. But principle and practice are two different things. It is hard to live up to high principles without ever faltering; and we must admit that some of the most dramatic moments in our history have occurred when our tolerance of diversity wore very thin, and we were challenged to live up to the principles we proclaimed.” —Conrad Wright from Walking Together ix Handbook4.qxp 6/18/2006 9:49 AM Page x Act of Religious Tolerance and Freedom From the Diet at Torda, 1568 Convened by King John Sigismond of Transylvania “His majesty, our Lord, in what manner he—together with his realm— legislated in the matter of religion at the previous Diets, in the same matter now, in this Diet, reaffirms that in every place the preachers shall preach and explain the Gospel each according to his understanding of it, and if the con- gregation like it, well. If not, no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied, but they shall be permitted to keep a preacher whose teaching they approve. Therefore none of the superintendents or others shall abuse the preachers, no one shall be reviled for his religion by anyone, according to the previous statutes, and it is not permitted that anyone should threaten anyone else by imprisonment or by removal from his post for his teaching. For faith is the gift of God and this comes from hearing, which hearings are by the word of God.” The Value of Travel Excerpt from Why We Travel: A Love Affair with the World, by Pico Iyer “We travel, initially to lose ourselves, and we travel, next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and our knowledge, to those parts of the globe whose riches are dif- ferently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again— to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more. “For if every true love affair can feel like a journey to a foreign country, where you can’t quite speak the language, and you don’t know where you are going, and you’re pulled ever deeper into an inviting darkness, every trip to a foreign country can be a love affair, where you’re left puzzling over who you are and whom you’ve fallen in love with.
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