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Covenant Resolutions

Before reading any resolutions make sure to read the Introduction to Covenant Resolutions below written by the Christian Action Commission.

The resolutions to the left have been brought to the Annual Meeting by the Christian Action Commission.

An introduction to how resolutions work in the Covenant

For our Christian faith to be vibrant, it has to speak to our culture. That's true even—or especially—on complex and difficult issues of contemporary life: abortion, war, assisted suicide, sexuality, poverty, and religious persecution, to name a few.

The Evangelical Covenant Church seeks to encourage that kind of vibrant faith in many ways. One such way is through the work of the Covenant Commission on Christian Action. The Christian Action Commission (CAC) prepares resolutions on ethical and political issues and recommends particular actions informed by biblical perspective. These proposed resolutions are then reviewed by the denomination's Executive Board for recommendation to the Covenant Annual Meeting and a vote by delegates.

In the tradition of the Covenant, these resolutions are not binding. With the Covenant's long-standing emphasis on freedom in Christ as one of our core affirmations, individual churches and church members are free not to abide by resolutions. But they still carry significant weight. For one, if adopted by delegates they represent the majority opinion of the Annual Meeting, the highest decision-making body in our denomination. Resolutions, as a former CAC leader explains, are also significant for these additional reasons:

- They offer a summary and crystallization of biblical and theological thought about a particular issue or concern. Covenant people don't have to start from scratch when thinking about these matters.
- They offer guidance to any Covenanter willing to consider them. They have, in fact, often guided policy both for the Covenant as a whole and for local churches.
- These resolutions are meant to be wake-up calls. They should touch our consciences and spur us to further action.

This website includes a selection of several resolutions approved by the Covenant Annual Meeting in recent years. We offer them to you as resources in your own walk with Christ. We encourage you to use them:

- In your own personal reflection on contemporary issues
- In your small-group Bible study
- In your youth group
- In your church-newcomers and church-membership classes
- In your congregation's formation of policy statements
- In your church's outreach and various community-service ministries
- In your conference's policy statements and affiliations with other denominations or agencies

This site is currently under development with more resolutions being added over time. For more information about resolutions, you can order the brochure “The Commission on Christian Action: Resources for Social Responsibility (Occasional Paper #4)” as well as the Covenant Resolutions print version.   You can now access the pdf version of the 10-week curriculum Faith in Action: Reflections on Covenant Resolutions. You may also order the print version of the Faith in Action Curriculum online through the Covenant Bookstore.