And I got to spend two days studying UU polity with the Rev. John Morehouse. My short take on polity?
On one hand, what’s not to like about congregational polity? Essentially, it is a structure that empowers people to love one another in committed communities that value real democracy and believe that each of us has something to give and to receive from one another. Congregational polity gives shape and structure to the idea that empowered individuals in empowered communities can thrive and resist the corruption, apathy and cynicism that are inherent in larger, hierarchal systems. So, my overall view of congregational polity is that it is great, and I can’t imagine seriously wanting to affiliate with any other system. On the other hand, I do think that we need to be mindful of two pitfalls of congregational polity: polity as a way of maintaining dysfunction and polity as means of losing our significance in the larger culture.
Most UUs do, I believe, understand that real love for one another does not mean putting up with the tyranny of the few who will have their way only because others will not challenge them (for fear of not having every voice heard). But this danger is present in every congregation and in every meeting where democratic principles are held as dear. Also, the love of endless debate (in the service of this same democratic ideal) can also become normative within our congregations. In other words, sometimes the idea of congregational polity itself can become idolatrous and prop up an endless cycle of dysfunction.
And, in relationship to the dominant culture, those of us who are in covenantal communities can sometimes view ourselves as separate from the larger systems of injustice and oppression, without seeing the ways in which our sense of separateness serves to perpetuate these larger systems. For congregational polity to make sense in the larger world, I believe we need to remember that the covenant that calls us together is one that is larger than our congregations, larger than our faith tradition, larger than our nation.
At the same time, if our congregational polity serves as a stumbling block to reconciliation—which I see as central to any larger covenant—then if does not serve us well. As faith communities, we need to be more than microcosms of the ideal that we hold up to the rest of the world. We need to be arteries that supply the blood that nourishes the world’s muscle and the world’s heart. The extent to which congregational polity helps us become open channels for this lifeblood determines how relevant and vital we will be to the rest of the world.
