Unity Community

From Understanding to Will

From Malayna Dawn, Unity Community Church's webmaster and member-at-large.

We’re spending a month at a time on Unity’s 12 Powers. Last month was Understanding and this month builds upon it with Will.  The affirmation is:

“I choose my good based on spiritual understanding.”

In our Unity Community discussions on Understanding, we came up with a lot of good reminders. Here are just a few:

• “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle” – a quote attributed to many people

• Be in the world, but not of it – meaning that spiritual understanding helps us to not attach ourselves to material objects and notions of status, but to people and relationships, personal growth and spiritual ideals.

• Attachment to ideals and goals can give us the passion to pursue them…

• …but we don’t want to get too attached to the outcome. For we understand that it is the journey, not the destination, that makes up the moments of our life experience.

• You may be the only Bible someone ever reads – if we live from our spiritual understanding, we can share it with others and help them find their way too.

This month, we build on our spiritual understanding by using it to direct our Will. 

Will is a funny word, because our use of it in everyday language is different from it’s deeper meaning.  Unity says it’s the ability to choose, decide, command, lead, and determine. It should be used as the opposite of “want” – another word that is used differently than its meaning in daily language.

Want has a deeper meaning that can be understood by the biblical phrase in the 23rd Psalm “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…” which means we won’t be left wanting, or lacking, anything.

Will implies choice and action toward creation. And being WILLING is not only being open to possibilities, but in a state of readiness to create. 

Maria Nemeth in Mastering Life’s Energies says:

“I am willing” is the most potent statement you can ever make. It signifies that right here and right now you are ready to go ahead with your life without being forced. You are voluntarily participating, no longer being dragged onto your life’s path leaving heel marks in the dirt.

By simply being willing, you automatically energize yourself to take action. This is true no matter how long you’ve put that action on hold. You get in touch with the power that resides in your hero’s heart.

Join us at Unity Community Church in Reseda, California as we discuss how we use the Power of Will in our lives!

Written by Malayna Dawn, Unity Community's webmaster and member-at-large. Entertain the possibilities and make life an enjoyable adventure by reading her blog, Symbolic Themes  or her novel, Echoes Across Time! 
 

Image above modified from original by Jody Levy. See all the beautiful magnets she has available at http://picasaweb.google.com/soulatplay/MagnetsByJodyLevyCopyright2009AllRightsReserved#

Unity’s World Day of Prayer

September is a big month for those of us at Unity Community Church.  For one thing, September 11th is our anniversary—this year is our 4th!  We feel good that we get to celebrate and affirm UNITY on a day that also commemorates the sadness of lives, families and peace torn apart.  

Another reason we feel good about September is that it is the month when Unity’s annual World Day of Prayer occurs. This year, it happens on September 10th, and this year’s theme, “Reach In, Reach Out, We Can Change the World”, reflects the importance of going within for guidance and then reaching out to help others. Together we can create heaven on earth.

Unity World Day of Prayer is an annual celebration to affirm peace, abundance and love on an individual and global level. There are many ways you can be involved, either by connecting via the website, or by saying a prayer on your own. In any case, your prayers join those all around the world, creating a critical mass of positive energy that truly has the power to change the world.

Visit www.worlddayofprayer.org and feel free to join us at Unity Community Church in the San Fernando Valley to help us celebrate our fourth year of living our vision of being a loving and welcoming center that is an inspiring spiritual magnet for all to experience oneness with God.

~by Malayna Dawn

Old Article About UCC Mostly Holds True

Recently it came up among our Unity Community Church members that when you Google “Unity Churches in the San Fernando Valley” an article comes up about UCC from 2005. 

The only problem with that is that it has some old information in it--like our location and our interim minister at the time--and it doesn’t include the fabulous photo, which can be seen by clicking here, along with the full article as it appeared in the paper. But most of it holds true.  Such as this part:

Steve Keener had given up hope of finding a church like Unity where there is an absence of dogma and religious buzz words.

"I like the inclusiveness of it,'' said Keener. "It was a big relief to be able to continue to study the Bhagavada Gita, for example, and yet it was familiar because it is Christianity-based. There are a lot of practical applications in Unity. It doesn't do me any good to have a Sunday message unless I can apply it during the week.''

Interestingly enough, the latest issue of Newsweek’s International Edition has an article entitled "We Are All Hindus Now".  I can’t post it here, since the issue is still on the newsstands, but About.com’s Hinduism blog has the gist of it. 

According to recent poll data, Americans are conceptually "slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, our selves, each other, and eternity," says Miller.

The article also quotes the Rig Veda, the ancient Hindu scripture, which says: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names," a doctrine that many Americans have started to believe in the ways they think about religion and spirituality. It points out that 30 percent of Americans call themselves "spiritual, not religious," according to a 2009 Newsweek Poll.

Newsweek then cites Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion at Boston University "who has long framed the American propensity for "the divine-deli-cafeteria religion" as "very much in the spirit of Hinduism...""

Miller further states: "So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. So agnostic are we about the ultimate fates of our bodies that we're burning them—like Hindus—after death. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America. "

But Hindus aren’t the only ones who may find themselves feeling at home at Unity Community Church. The Daily News article also says:

Malayna Weeratunga, whose father was a Muslim from Sri Lanka, grew up attending West Valley Unity Church. She said she is excited to be a part of the new, diverse group looking to tune into spiritual truths.

"Being a part of Unity to me is, 'OK, I am one with everybody.' Unity - the name says it all - we're all one,'' said Weeratunga. "Unity is open- minded. It accepts all faiths and religions. People don't have to give up their religion. They can add Unity to their life.''

But, as it also says in that Daily News article, we are still based in Christianity:

A typical service at Unity Community Church includes a meditation prayer, singing, the message and contemporary music presented by Jackie Riggs, Keener's wife.

"The positive outlook on life is what I like about Unity,'' said Stacy Macris, who has been a Unity church member all her life. "Unity is a Christian-based religion, but it looks at how we're all connected and how to find the good in others.

"It's about taking responsibility as a human being. You're in charge of your life, and it can be a good life.''

The Unity movement was originally founded as a prayer ministry by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, in 1889 in Kansas City, MO. Unity is also well-known for its monthly publication of inspirational messages, "The Daily Word.''

So now that you're up to date, come and check us out at our new location – at 6901 Canby Avenue, Suite 107 in Reseda, California – still in the West San Fernando Valley.  Click here for a map and directions, and our contact information, or just go to www.unity-community.org.

World Prayers for Peace & Unity

Unity Community Church began on September 11, 2005, four years after the date was made significant by the attacks on American centers of power. 

Among the many transformative lessons we can take with us from that date are the need to WORLD PEACE a priority.  So this year, on UCC's 3rd anniversary, the service consisted of prayers for peace from other cultures and belief systems. (See all below or click the category to the right.)

This energy was bolstered by Unity's World Day of Prayer on September 11, 2008 with the theme of Celebrating Oneness, Healing the World.  Their affirmation for all to support was:

Rejoicing in our oneness with God and one another, we celebrate healing in every aspect of our lives and in the world.

This was the beginning of 11 Days of Global Unity: A Season of Interfaith Celebration, which stretches from the World Day of Prayer on Sept 11 through September 21, which is the United Nations International Day of Peace. This is the pledge that you can sign by going to We the World.org:

We, the people of planet Earth, in recognition of the interconnectedness of all life and the importance of the balance of nature,

Hereby acknowledge our interdependence and affirm our dedication to

~Life-serving environmental stewardship,

~The fulfillment of universal human needs worldwide,

~Economic and social well-being,

~And a culture of peace and nonviolence,

To insure a sustainable and harmonious world for present and future generations.

Join Nobel Peace Laureate Archibishop Desmond Tutu and Dr. Jane Goodall, and all of us at Unity Community Church in praying for and affirming WORLD PEACE!

From Malayna, UCC's Webmaster www.malaynadawn.com

There is only one presence and one power, in the universe and in my life: God

The phrase you see above is our statement of faith--just one of the affirmations we say weekly at Unity Community Church.