Thanks to all members of the congregation who took the time to vote in our ranked-choice selection of a new form of “Faith Covenant” for FCB. We have a winner! The “Needham Covenant,” which was recited at our October service, reads as follows:
We gather as a loving community,
To encourage and comfort one another.
We gather as a diverse community,
To support each other in our search for spiritual truth.
We gather as a service community,
To live our beliefs through action and care for our world.
A total of 107 parishioners took part in the vote, choosing among a selection of five covenant statements put forward on the ballot by the Covenant Task Force (CTF). The sources of these covenant statements were as follows: (#1) First Parish in Needham, MA; (#2 and #3) two compositions original to FCB; (#4) the UU Society of Amherst, MA; and (#5) the Blake Covenant from our hymnal (#473).
In accordance with the practice of ranked-choice voting, all members, friends and youth were invited to select up to three forms in rank order of preference. Ballots cast for the covenant form receiving the fewest first-choice votes were redistributed based on second or third choice selections until one choice received a majority of votes cast (at least 54 of 107 ballots). Results were as follows:
Voting Round 1 2 3 4
Option 1 (“Needham Covenant”) 37 38 42 55
Option 2 (Original to FCB) 8
Option 3 (Original to FCB) 30 35 42 52
Option 4 (“Amherst Covenant”) 15 16
Option 5 (“Blake Covenant”) 17 18 23
Special thanks to Lauraine Dalton, John Eggert and Pam Eggert for assisting in the tally of votes. The full form of covenant, comprising the “Faith Covenant” and 2011 FCB “Behavioral Covenant,” will be put forward for ratification by the voting FCB membership at our June 2 Annual Meeting.
John Howe, CTF Chairman