Vision Statement
adopted April 2020

A vibrant, inclusive congregation, UUFM is widely known as a safe haven and a force for social justice.

Mission Statement
adopted October 2020

A diverse, evolving spiritual community acting for a better world.

Covenant between Congregation and Minister 
from our May 2024 Act of Installation

Congregation:
With pride, resolve, gratitude, hope and love, we hereby affirm and embrace the covenantal relationship now blossoming between the people of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Manhattan and the Reverend Dr. Isabel Call.

Minister:
We have freely chosen each other as partners in dance, to lead and follow by turns, and this service symbolizes our mutual commitment and dedication to that abiding bond.

Congregation:
Pastor Isa, we offer you a free pulpit, our steadfast hearts, the bounty of our minds and the work of our hands. We acknowledge that our first duty to you is to be present, whether at Fellowship services, or in service of Fellowship aspirations. As you take up the banner of leadership, we pledge to journey with you along the path of truth, service, justice and spiritual enlightenment, to be open, honest and forthright in conversation, and with appreciation and generosity to contribute our time, energy and resources to aid you in guiding us toward our shared vision.

Minister:
I meet your trust in me with dedication and accountability to our shared faith. I vow to listen to you — opening my heart to your truth and your questions. I promise to support your growth. I will help you to be accountable to your mission, to expand it when we grow, and to celebrate. I will also be with you when things are hard, holding sorrow and respecting the complexity of human and community life. I will seek accountability for my own ministry, receiving the wisdom, experience, strength, and hope from others and sharing mine in service of the collective good. Together, let us listen to the community beyond these walls and the voices of our ancestors and join in the healing of our larger culture. I bring to you my personal commitment to antiracism and decolonization and to making amends and reparations for harm.

Congregation:
We vow to unite with you in sowing the seeds of expanding community, with faith in the synergy of our partnership, energized by a mindset of possibility and a spirit of exploration, with fervent openness to change, tempered by a deep regard for the wisdom of our predecessors, bolstered by a zest for adventure and a taste for joy, and with confidence that you and we together can harmonize our voices as we call to all to confront the persistent legacies of past wrongs and to pay our debts to those unfairly burdened. With humility and reverence, let us unite in nurturing a world that can continue to flourish. We receive your ministry here and meet it with our own.

UUFM Covenant of Right Relations  – adopted by the Board December 2009

• We value each person’s worth and welcome people of all ages to participate in Fellowship life.
• We gather to support each other in our personal and community growth.
• Our congregational life provides opportunities to practice working together cooperatively and in friendship, keeping the greater good of the whole at heart. We approach each other with good will, allowing for mistakes and with an expectation that we will forgive each other.
• Recognizing that our different experiences and paths may lead to disagreement, we intend to practice respectful acceptance. Since we need to work together, we will patiently negotiate to reconcile conflicts and choose friendship over irreconcilable differences.
• Practicing right relations in our Fellowship encourages character growth and naturally extends caring qualities into other relationships.

UUFM Conflict Resolution Process 

• We encourage patient self-reflection in times of conflict for personal growth. Members are invited to apply reflection questions [on the next page]. Individuals may choose to seek counseling from the minister.
• Members or groups in conflict are invited to first attempt to respectfully resolve issues with the original people or Committee [or Team] involved.
• If it is not possible to respectfully solve the conflict among the original people/groups, they are encouraged to involve a mediator. Those involved could agree on and choose the minister, another member of the fellowship, the Conflict Resolution Promoter or Team, a consultant from UUA, or a community mediator.
• The UUFM Board will be the final decision-maker for conflicts unresolved by mediation or where mediation is not useful. If the Board is involved, any leader may contact [UUA Mid-America Regional Staff] for assistance.
• This process will supplement rather than displace other congregational decision-making processes and structures.

Reflection Questions for Those in Conflict

When conflict arises, each person is encouraged to consider the following before meeting with the person with whom they are in conflict:

1. What do I want my relationship with the Person to be like?
2. What attitudes and values do I want to honor when I’m with the Person? 
3. What must I let go of to turn toward the Person?
4. What is the goodness in the Person that I will see and trust?
5. How will I show/tell the Person about the inherent goodness I see in him/her?
6. What will I dare to ask of the Person?

– from Practicing Right Relationship, by Sellon and Smith

+ How willing am I to resolve this conflict?

+ Do I want this to work for both of us or only for myself?

+ What is the key issue or problem in this conflict?

+ What do I want to change — and how do I say so without blame or attack? 

+ How well am I seeing the whole picture?

+ Am I using power inappropriately? Is the other person?

+ Am I judging the other person without hearing him or her?

+ What are my feelings? Am I blaming him or her for my feelings?

+ Have I told him or her how I feel?

+ What would it be like to take the other person’s position — to walk in their shoes?

+ What do I wish to accomplish specifically?

+ What can I give?

+ What points would I need to have covered if we made an agreement?

+ How can we all save face?

+ Can we manage this ourselves or do we need outside help?

+ What opportunities are present for our congregation in this conflict?

+ How will we acknowledge and celebrate our solution?

– from UUA Vision, Mission, and Covenant Workshop Resources

The covenant and conflict resolution process were developed through a series of open congregational meetings and approved by the UUFM Executive Board at the December 2009 meeting. Clarifying updates in brackets were added by Pastor Isabel Call in October 2023.

The right relations resources are also available here.

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