2007 LETTER OF AGREEMENT


The Emmanuel Emmaus Board met Friday night Feb. 23, 2007 at Camp Valley Haven for a sleep over to see how the camp might lend itself to our needs. We then met on Saturday and had the Consecration Service for the Spring Walks there. We would appreciate input from the Community as to your ideas concerning a possible move from Camp Loy White to Camp Valley Haven. So please let any of the board members know your ideas.

The letter of agreement between The Upper Room International Emmaus Office and our Emmanuel Emmaus Community was signed at the last board meeting. The board members are representatives of the total community, so this letter binds the total community.

What have we agreed to? We are agreeing to conduct the Emmaus program in a manner that is faithful to 15 specific points that say we will follow the Emmaus Guidelines. If anyone wishes to see the 15 points, I will be glad to send you a copy.

I would like to offer some thoughts on keeping faith with the model as given in The Upper Room Handbook on Emmaus:
1. The model provides quality assurance that the leadership will conduct the Emmaus three days with excellence. Presenting that which it is designed to present and representing the commonly held essentials of Christianity as set forth in the Emmaus Walk.
2. The model prevents Emmaus from being remade after the likeness of the various leaders.
3. The model assures everyone that Emmaus, no matter where it is conducted, will be a common and trustworthy experience.
4. The manuals set forth a model of theological congruence. The Emmaus Walk is a tightly woven event. As we say to the pilgrims on the first night, every part has a purpose.
5. The manuals serve as a check on our human inclination to innovate. Most additions and changes in the model accommodate the team members, not the pilgrims. The Walk to Emmaus already includes more than anyone can absorb in three days and enough to chew on for a lifetime
6. The manuals encourage the leadership to focus its creativity on the given tasks within the Emmaus model. Emmaus’s structure does not crowd out the Holy Spirit; rather it creates trustworthy space for the Holy Spirit to work in the midst of the participants, who need not be anxious about the three-day design. Changes become tradition overnight because new pilgrims believe their experience represent the way Emmaus should be. Traditions build upon traditions. The manuals serve as the plumb line that prevents traditions from developing and keeps each Walk centered on the prescribed program.
7. The manuals free the total Community to focus their energies in the proper direction: on preparation for Walks and on Fourth-Day challenges, rather than on the design of the three days.
8. The manuals warrant adherence simply because our Emmaus community operates in covenant with The Upper Room. As a condition of that covenant, our community has agreed to follow the manuals.

As I mentioned at our Consecration Service on Saturday, Feb. 24th, I hope we, as the Emmanuel Emmaus Community will honor our covenant with The Upper Room in the same way God honors his covenant with us.

De Colores
Dyrl Greene
Community Lay Director


E.E. Home Page