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Keeping covenant to start New Year right Amy Forbus, Dec 29, 2009
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WATER’S EDGE
Members of The Water’s Edge, a ministry of the United Methodist Church in Ringgold, Ga., participate in a Wesley Covenant Prayer service.
By Amy Forbus Staff Writer
As a new year begins, people often resolve to make personal improvements or give up a bad habit. But how many relate such resolutions to their faith?
One way for United Methodists to do just that: Rely on “A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition.”
Though the prayer has value year-round, its common use at New Year’s Eve watch night services and on Baptism of the Lord Sunday in January links it to the start of a new year.
In John Wesley’s day, the term “watch night” referred to any vigil or all-night prayer service, not just New Year’s Eve, according to the Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards, director of worship resources for the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship (GBOD).
“This was an occasion for people who wanted to try to live the Christian life better—which really meant to actually live out the vows of the baptismal covenant—to get together, have an evening of intensive searching of the scriptures and prayer, culminating in a ritual of commitment,” said Mr. Burton-Edwards.
The Covenant Prayer was not original to John Wesley. He gave credit to Richard Alleine, a Puritan whose 17th-century writings included an order of worship for renewing one’s commitment to God.
Wesley noted several times in his journal the impact of such services, which he led when he visited Methodist Society meetings. The Covenant Renewal Service in The United Methodist Book of Worship is one of many variations available.
British Methodist emphasis
Congregations in the British Methodist Church often have an entire service devoted to the covenant commitment, usually on New Year’s Day or the first Sunday of the year.
“People take it very seriously, and woe betide the minister who leaves it out,” said the Rev. Graham Cutler, pastor of Hillside Methodist Church, Chorley, Lancashire, in an e-mail interview.
Efforts at holding members accountable to the covenant throughout the year still happen, said Mr. Cutler, though small-group leaders no longer ask each participant the traditional Wesleyan question, “How is it with your soul?”
“We do run Bible study and fellowship groups, with varying degrees of success, more for Christian nurture and discipleship than for accountability,” he said, noting that the absence of the pointed question does sadden some members.
United Methodists in the U.S. typically encounter the Covenant Prayer as part of worship once a year or so, not in a setting with covenant renewal as the focus of the entire service.
“I’d very much like to see United Methodist congregations join our British Methodist sisters and brothers in the powerful practice of annual Covenant Renewal Services,” says the Rev. Steven Manskar, director of Wesleyan Leadership at GBOD.
According to Dr. Manskar, the Covenant Renewal Service is less popular in the U.S. because Wesley left it out of the prayer book he sent to the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1784.
“I’ve been in several Methodist churches in England,” Dr. Manskar said. “All of them have the Covenant Prayer prominently displayed somewhere in the building, usually near or in the sanctuary.” More opportunities
Some Annual Conference meetings in the U.S. incorporate the Covenant Prayer. In recent years, for instance, it has become a regular part of the Tennessee Conference annual gathering.
“After the appointments are read and set by the bishop, the entire conference repeats the prayer together,” said the Rev. Jay Voorhees of Antioch UMC in Nashville, Tenn.
Anyone who has completed Disciple I Bible Study has participated in a Covenant Renewal Service, which is part of the study’s conclusion. “[A Disciple class is] a group that has lived out a covenant together, a covenant of study and support and prayer,” said Mr. Burton-Edwards. “It makes some sense there.”
Mr. Burton-Edwards wants to see widespread use of Wesleyan class meetings, such as Walk to Emmaus reunion groups and Covenant Discipleship groups, to help people keep the covenant.
“Right now [the Covenant Prayer] is about as effective as a one-time revival meeting or a New Year’s resolution with nobody holding you accountable,” he said.
The Rev. Ashlee Alley, director of campus ministry at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan., first encountered the Covenant Prayer without realizing it. Just before she began seminary, a family friend invited her to a Bible study that was not connected to the UMC. She attended and received a copy of the prayer, with no attribution to any author.
“I kept it, because I just thought it was such a compelling prayer,” she said. “Having felt a call to ministry and planning to pursue that, I wanted to hang onto it. Then two years later, when we did the Wesley Covenant service [in seminary], I thought, ‘Hey, wait a minute—I know this!’”
Now Ms. Alley requires student leaders in the discipleship program at Southwestern to take Disciple I, so they all participate in a Covenant Renewal Service.
Campbell UMC in Springfield, Mo., prays the Covenant Prayer more than once a year. “We use the prayer in our services when we renew our financial discipleship promises every four months,” said the Rev. Andy Bryan, Campbell’s pastor. The idea for more frequent use came from Cycles of Discipleship (Discipleship Resources, 2007), a stewardship plan that encourages year-round attention to giving and spiritual growth.
But a three times a year isn’t enough for Mr. Bryan. He has included it as a spiritual discipline in his own life.
“Personally, I carry it in my wallet and pray it every single day.”
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.
—as used in the Book of Offices of the British Methodist Church, 1936.
What United Methodists need to know about the prayer
* Congregations using an older edition of The United Methodist Hymnal need to know there is a typo in the fifth line of “A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition” (No. 607). The line should read, “exalted for thee or brought low for thee.” This mistake was corrected in later editions.
* Help leaders and members become equipped to live the Covenant Prayer. Print the prayer on a laminated card to carry in a pocket or wallet or to put on a refrigerator door or on a mirror. Encourage members to pray it daily.
* The Covenant Prayer assumes the congregation provides the means for its professing members to live the baptismal covenant. This includes developing and supporting small groups that work to form each member into a faithful and mature disciple of Jesus Christ.
--The Rev. Steven Manskar, director of Wesleyan Leadership, GBOD
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WATER’S EDGE
British Methodist emphasis 
