Happy Valentine's Day, Sinners

Nearly three years ago, occasional guest poster Monica Jacobson-Tennessen reminded me of those Puritan Valentine’s Day cards that went a bit viral in 2013. Created by the good folks at College Humor (now Dropout), they poke fun at the strident and stringent (and probably stereotypical) beliefs of the English separatists who thought the Church of England wasn’t strict enough and sought the kind of religious freedom that doesn’t actually want freedom for anyone else. (Gee, why does that sound familiar…)

While Monica and I were laughing about these cards - which admonish dancing, and graven images, and expressions of embodied emotion - we started talking about The Cambridge Platform, which a number of denominations count as foundational to their polity. This core document about covenant and relationship was written in 1648 by these same uptight Separatists that embraced a strict version of Calvinist doctrine.

The Cambridge Platform, for those who don’t know, lays out an understanding of governance within and among congregations; in some places, it’s too strict for us (there’s a whole thing about who can be in covenant with the churches, and something called a ‘halfway covenant’ for those converting, and yes a whole excommunication chapter), but it establishes the idea that congregations run themselves - of the members, by the members, for the members. But perhaps the most interesting part - at least for me, as someone who regularly writes about Congregational Shenanigans™ - is that congregations are (a) called to be in covenantal relationship with each other and (b) required to admonish congregations that have fallen short, and help them make it right.

We are to love each other, and trust each other, and be strong enough in our covenantal relationship to name when things go wrong and help them make it right.

Y’all. What happens in other congregations matters to us too.

What does it take for us to trust each other enough to call each other back into covenant?

What does it take for congregations to join forces to get healthier together?

What does it take for us to love each other truly as we love ourselves, and let go of shame, and let go of the need to be perfect lest some imagined punishment befalls us?

The Puritan Valentine’s Day cards for sure highlight the shame and punishment - and nobody has time for that. But the actual Separatists, in an effort to build relationships and help others, wrote a document that helps model how we should be loving one another: supporting each other, helping each other, trusting each other, and yes, occasionally admonishing each other so that new healing and a stronger covenant can begin. And as a result, we build stronger social change ecosystems to do the collaborative work of justice.

There’s so much to do. We need everyone to be healthier. Trusting each other - individually, as a congregation, as a larger system of congregations and communities - is the only way we’re gonna get it done.

With love,
Kimberley