This vote followed a two year process of study, discussion, prayer, and action.
The covenant reads:
Faith United Church of Christ Economic Justice CovenantAdopted June 1, 2014Jesus proclaimed his ministry in the temple by reading from Isaiah: “The Spirit of God is upon me, because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of God’s favor.” Luke 4: 18-19. The 2009 United Church of Christ Economic Justice Covenant reminds us that “The Holy Scriptures, from the Pentateuch through the Prophets, and from Jesus to St. Paul impress upon the people of God’s Covenant that they are responsible to God for the well being of the last and the least in the human community.”Christians are called to do. To be a Christian is to be a part of creation that necessitates the extension of God's embrace. Embracing is doing: it is the acceptance of and the extension of the ongoing resurrection; it is the acceptance of the ongoing crucifixion. In enacting an Economic Justice Covenant, we are following Faith United Church of Christ’s Statement of Purpose by acknowledging “God’s presence in the human affairs of today, as God has been involved throughout history...We, as Christians, accept this calling to carry out the vision of Jesus Christ for our age.”Although God has provided the world with abundance, poverty and want persist. In the past, Faith United Church of Christ has striven to build a more inclusive world in its Open and Affirming Covenant, and has addressed economic inequality in its work toward equitable consumption practices and in the many acts of mercy it pursues. Therefore, in keeping with Jesus’ proclamation of his ministry, the constant summoning of the scriptures and Faith United Church of Christ’s own history, we, the congregation of Faith United Church of Christ of Iowa City do hereby enter into covenant with each other and with the world at large, to strive toward a more equitable distribution of God’s abundance in the world.
Therefore, be it resolved by the congregation of Faith United Church of Christ that we will:1. Create an ongoing program to discern the means of redressing the inequitable distribution of God’s abundance in our congregation, our community, our nation, and our world.2. Act upon the revelations found in that discernment on a personal, congregational, local, national and global scale.3. Pledge to continue our current acts of mercy, regularly evaluating their role in altering the current distribution of abundance and altering our actions to fit the altering needs.4. Maintain this covenant as a living document by attaching an ongoing list of our evolving acts of mercy accompanied by an explanation of the needs that make those acts of mercy necessary so that all may share in God’s abundance. Further, we the congregation charge the Council of Faith United Church of Christ to regularly update this list, or to empower a designated body of its choosing to do so, in a manner it deems appropriate, making those changes known to the congregation in a timely and well- documented fashion.