How Does My Church Get A Partner?
Becoming an International Partner Church is an intentional process. Here is a set of files in PDF format that will guide your church through the steps to becoming an International Partner Church.
Start-up Steps to Partnership
Once you decide to become a partner church, there is a straightforward process for embarking on the program. You can read about the steps here, or download the information here.
1. Create a small group within your church to explore the idea of Partnership.
You will want to create a Partner Church Committee or Task Force to shepherd your church through the decision-making process. Initially this group will help educate your congregation about partnership. Later it probably will evolve into the group that supports relationship building communication and planning with your partner. This is also a good time to contact the UUPCC New Partner Outreach Coordinator, Lee Boeke Burke, at outreach@uupcc.org, and she will help you get started.
Ministerial involvement is critical to the involvement of the congregation in partnership. Your minister need not be the one who leads the partnership, but he or she clearly needs to be supportive and enthusiastic about it. There is a special bond that often happens between the ministers of the partnership and this can add depth, especially regarding conversations about theology. The minister and lay leadership can help build partnership into the core values and life of the congregation.
2. Fill out and submit to UUPCC the Application for Partnership and Institutional Membership form.
The UUPCC provides support services at all stages of partnership and depends on church institutional memberships to support the organization. Fill out and submit both the membership form, and the partnership application. Let us know if you are interested in a particular country or if you have already had contact with a community with which you want to partner. We will help you understand and explore the options available to you.
You can support the information included in the application with recent newsletters and other documents that capture the character and spirit of your church. You may also wish to include information about the web site of your congregation. You should keep in mind that this application will be shared with your potential partner; English is sometimes a barrier, so you will probably want to keep the text simple so that your materials can be easily translated if necessary.
Once the UUPCC Matching Committee receives your application, it will select a potential partner(s) for you (if there is not already one selected) and send introductory information about that or those church community(s).
3. Educate your congregation about partnership.
Here are some specific suggestions from the congregation in Franklin, MA about how they prepared for a vote on international partnership.
Our group first gathered information from as many sources we could find about the country and the Unitarians there. We polled the congregation to see if there were members who had ties with the country in one way or another. We contacted another church in our district that is already partnered and borrowed photos and materials from them as well as from our District Networker. We set up an information table for several weeks after church and created a bulletin board with the information and photos. We had a guest speaker from another church do a presentation one evening. She had a video of a trip their choir had taken and a photo album with pictures of a visit from their partner church minister. We also arranged for a guest in our pulpit one Sunday who gave a sermon on the value of international partnership the week before our congregational voted on partnership.
The committee in Fairfax, VA conducted similar activities when they contemplated a second partnership with a Unitarian congregation in the Khasi Hills, India.
Some of the things that we did at Fairfax to prepare the congregation for a vote on a new partner were:
- Trips by several church members to Khasi Hills;
- Speeches and sharing at PCC meetings; newsletter articles;
- Addition of Khasi news and photos to the UUCF web site;
- PCC information table set up several times this Fall with photo display from Khasi Hills, large map of India (with Meghalaya highlighted),
- Information packets of all churches seeking partners, photo CD's with sound and photo book "Meghalaya Revisited" by John Hewedine (British photographer);
- PCC Sunday service with speech about Khasi Hills and special collection for KH schools; PCC Gala with another speech about Khasi Hills and DVD of photos (4 minutes) projected on the church ceiling!
- Informal speeches and video showing to various committees;
- Forum for questions before Congregational Vote;
- Q&A about a new partner church posted on web site
- Lots of conversations with anyone who would listen!
4. Ask the congregation to accept a partner!
Once your congregation has had time to thoroughly explore the idea of Partnership, then it is time to ask them if they are ready to commit to a congregational Partnership.
This can take various forms but does need to be deliberate so that the partnership is imbedded into congregational life and values. A congregational vote is one way to demonstrate commitment on the part of the congregation. If your church does not have a process for congregational voting, then the Board of Trustees or governing committee should vote. Congregations might want to incorporate international involvement in their vision/mission statement and in the goals of the church. International partnership provides a wonderful way for congregations to “live” their values as Unitarian Universalists. Once you have voted you should notify the UUPCC office by phoning or by writing to office@uupcc.org. Notification should also be sent to Pat Rodgers at pat.rodgers@sbcglobal.net .
5. Celebrate your new partner church!
The match is official. You’ll receive a letter of partnership from the UUPCC and contact information for your new partner. You will also be paired with a UUPCC Networker who will help you develop your new partnership and will be there to answer your questions.
Now is the time to reach out and initiate the relationship with a letter or a phone call. Perhaps you’ll want to send someone there to visit or bring someone from there to visit your church. UUPCC can help make arrangements.
Read sermons about partnership and our partners around the world.
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Last Update: November 4, 2007
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