Installation of Reverend Darcey Laine
February 18, 2001
Palo Alto, CA

Covenant for Sharing Ministry

Louise Hornor (President, UUCPA):

In our Unitarian Universalist tradition, the Act of Installation is a symbol of the covenant between the congregation and our chosen minister. Few rights are more precious to a free church than the right of choosing its own minister.

We enter this covenant with a full sense of trust and confidence. The spirit and practice of this covenant is one of shared ministry. It is an act of joy, but it also an act of mutual responsibility and commitment to the highest purposes of this religious community.

Members:
We, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, do hereby install you, Darcey Laine, to serve as our Minister of Religious Education. Speak the truth as you see it. Preach from your heart, for our pulpit is a free pulpit. Listen to us, as we shall try to listen to you. Nurture the spiritual and ethical development of our community. Be with us all – children, youth, and adults – in our times of grief and confusion, in our times of joy and celebration.

Rev. Darcey Laine:
With a deep sense of joy and gratitude, I accept the ministry to which you have called me. Trusting in the Spirit which dwells among us, I shall strive to be true to the principles of our faith. I pledge to serve you to the best of my ability, to nurture joy and beauty wherever they may be found, and working with you to build a community where compassion is learned and lived.

Members:
We pledge to remember that the work of this congregation belongs to us all. We recognize that we bear a responsibility for the welfare of this congregation and for our own spiritual development. We recognize that we bear a responsibility in your material welfare and spiritual development. We recognize that in each of our lives we have a ministry to fulfill. We strive to manifest our highest ideals, but promise to embrace our humanness. By these we words we joyfully and formally welcome you among us.

UUCPA ministers:
Remembering that we as ordained ministers are here to serve the human spirit, we strive to bring people of every age closer to the holy integrity within themselves and to the love which is present in all things. We work for the constant conversion of our own hearts to compassion and justice.

Recognizing an equality among individual gifts of the spirit, we covenant to model shared ministry within the congregation. We will work collegially to witness beauty and weakness in tradition, so that it may become transformational. We covenant to courageously speak the truth to one another and to listen when truth is spoken to us. We trust that we each hear and follow faithfully our own calling within this ministry. We support one another as we support the aspirations of our community.

All Gathered:
We join with you to celebrate the past, present and future of this congregation and its ministry. May we all take strength from our communion with one another. May our arms widen in compassion. May we speak the truth in love. May the work of our lives bring generosity and justice to the world.