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A CALL TO A COMMUNITY COVENANT
As a community we face issues and problems that affect all of us. Our families need to be strengthened. Our children need to be surrounded by a strong ethical and social fabric that will protect them and give them the best possible opportunity to build healthy lives and relationships.
For this reason all in our community and surrounding area are encouraged to unite together to affirm the core values and assets embodied in the accompanying Community Covenant. All can adopt this Covenant, including:
Families and individuals
Churches and religious organizations
Schools (school boards, faculties and staffs, student organizations, parent-teacher organizations)
Health care institutions
Businesses, industries, and professions (management and staff, commercial organizations, unions)
Governments (city and county governments and departments; state, federal, and inter-governmental agencies)
Clubs, lodges, and service organizations
Human service organizations and agencies
The Community Covenant forms a standard that all can affirm, regardless of one’s past experiences. It is an opportunity for healthy personal refection and evaluation, leading us to a shared commitment to higher ideals and goals so we can build a better future for ourselves and our children.
Although some might not agree with every point of the Covenant, we all can support it as a whole, while identifying individually with specific features.
Every structured relationship is an opportunity to adopt the The Dalles Community Covenant and thereby to commit ourselves to one another to live by its principles.
The basic social unit is the family. Parents are encouraged to set a time to bring their children together for the reading of the Covenant. After the Covenant is read aloud, it is suggested that the family join together in an act of solidarity, such as: joining hands in a circle; a prayer or poem; a song; an embrace.
Other groups are encouraged to adopt a procedure suited to their own situation. Congregations will find it appropriate to read the Covenant aloud in a Sunday/Sabbath morning worship service, followed by a prayer of commitment. Other groups may wish to adopt the Covenant by formal motion or resolution. Others will do so by an expression of consensus.
If an individual has no family or other formal ties, he or she can also participate merely by making the Covenant a matter of personal commitment.
After the Covenant is adopted, a copy should be displayed in a prominent place as a continuing reminder of our common commitment to the principles that guide our community and that make it a unified support system for our children and for all of us.
Life In Christ Center, 3095 Cherry Heights Road, The Dalles, Oregon 97058
(541) 296-1136