Pilgrim House
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Covenant Groups
Covenant groups are groups of 6-8 people who commit to meeting on a regular basis for reflection and sharing.
Each covenant group meeting has a facilitator and the content for each meeting is based on a theme such as gratitude, forgiveness, friendship or loss just to name a few. Members of the group make a commitment to share deeply, build connections, practice deliberate listening and to respect each other’s sharing and thoughts. The group is not meant to be a support group focused on a particular issue but we find the group is supportive of each other in the process of sharing our thoughts on these larger themes.
As a starting point we have been using a book entitled: Heart to Heart: Fourteen Gatherings for Reflection and Sharing, by Christine Robinson and Alicia Hawkins, both of whom have been involved with the Unitarian church in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There is a covenant or ground rules that we all agree to and each meeting follows a preset format. Our meetings have been lasting about 1.5 hours. Members are expected to commit to coming to the meetings, doing the assigned reading in the book (short chapters) ahead of time, and to be respectful of the format and each other’s thoughts. Groups may decide to use other books or readings as they wish.