Coming to a church near you: The Installation Service for Emerson UU Church and Reverend Ed Proulx. On November 2, we will formally join our future with Rev. Ed’s through a time-honored Unitarian Universalist rite called Installation. Installation is like a marriage between a congregation and its minister. It usually occurs – as ours will – about a year after a minister is called to serve a congregation. If that year is an engagement, the installation service is the wedding ceremony.

Like all weddings, there will be pomp and circumstance. I’ll share more about that in future posts. But before we get to the ceremonial details, let’s consider what the installation is all about. UU ministers serve congregations, not the denomination. That’s why we select and call our own ministers through an extended ministerial search process instead of having them assigned to us by the UUA. We call this congregational polity and it is an important cornerstone of our faith.

Our congregational polity is founded on covenants, that is, the promises we make to ourselves, to each other, and to something beyond ourselves. Right now there are several covenant groups within Emerson where individuals gather around shared interests. As Rev. Sue Phillips puts it, covenant thrives “at the intersection of individual, community, and the Sacred.” The service of installation is the strongest covenant a congregation and its minister can make with each other.

You are all invited to join in this special convenanting with Rev. Ed at the Installation Service on Saturday, November 2 at 3:00 o’clock in the sanctuary at Emerson UU Church. After the service, we will throw a party and we hope you will be there with us, too.

Lane Devereux

Installation Chair