UCU's Mission

Our Mission: Rebuilding Civil Society

For almost three generations, membership in congregations, lodges, and unions has been in decline. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened, the middle class has hollowed out, and more people are doing "under the table" gig jobs for cash. Dr. King once named racism, violence and poverty as the evils that haunted the American psyche. Today, chronic social isolation joins the ranks of these social ills. The United Covenant Union believes that the best way to save democracy and rid our nation of these four evils is to organize clergy, the aging, and the precariously employed into peer groups where they can grow as prophetic civic leaders who work to build beloved community and advance economic justice, UCU is driven by the idea of "doing with, not for."

How We Do it:

Building Covenant Unions

UCU organizes clergy members into covenant unions, which do the following

Train clergy in how to build UCU chapels among the precariously employed,
Plan annual interfaith services to honor the dignity of work
Support clergy who are working in a supply or gig basis.

Building Chapels

UCU organizes chapels among fixed income seniors, and cash-based / gig workers (housekeepers, babysitters, tipped workers, day laborers, etc.). All chapels do the following:

Host weekly prayer meetings
Launch thrift stores (where cash workers can purchase affordable clothing)
Develop leaders who take action to address wage theft in the community.

Partnering with local Congregations

UCU educates congregations about the growing challenges facing cash-based and gig workers., and equips them with tools to cultivate the agency of this growing workforce.

Building a Base Community Infrastructure

While The United Covenant Union is a decidedly interfaith organization, we are heavily influenced by the early Methodist movement, which deployed "circuit riders" to build several small groups known as "Methodist societies" and travel between them (the circuit) on horseback. This cellularly model of community organization gave poor and working people social capital and the opportunity to grow as leaders. The United Covenant Union is similarly influenced by the base Christian communities in Latin America, Catholic Worker houses, and Jewish chavurahs; each of which are a network of organizations that are intentionally small and familial in nature. Since most of UCU's chapels have less than 40 members, they function as an extended chosen family network, The United Covenant Union believes building an interconnected network of smaller organizations is the way to foster social cohesion among the poor and precarious.

Crossing the Urban-Rural Divide

The United Covenant Union believes that urban and rural areas are equally affected by poverty, informal employment, and weakening social infrastructure. Therefore, UCU is focused on building bridges of solidarity across our nation's urban-rural divide. The United Covenant Union invests as much in Maryland's eastern shore as it does in Baltimore City or Washington, DC. A few times a year, UCU organizes forums where its members and rural and urban areas can come together to get to know each other, and exchange stories with each other.

Naming the epidemic of precarity

Nearly 35% of Americans are working jobs in which they are paid in cash. This means they are informal workers, because they are not technically employed by any entity. Tipped workers and gig workers may also be paid in cash, but they likely have some contract that could be enforced. Nevertheless, a growing share of workers are doing work that doesn't provide any benefits, or job security. The United Covenant Union is naming this trend by uplifting the voices of the cash, gig and tipped workers themselves.