Our very own Gaines Steer recently organized an interview with a reporter from The Daily Tar Heel, an independent student newspaper of UNC, to write an article about our Outdoor Sacred Spaces. A spirited UNC student journalist named Ella interviewed Gaines Steer, Mark Smith, Katja Sage and Rev. Victoria a couple of weeks ago to get an indepth story about the Medicine Wheel, Labyrinth and Serenity Trail with a sprinkling of details about Unity Center of Peace as a spiritual community. We are thrilled to present the the final piece that is published on their website.
This blog is the text of talk from Sunday August 25th that was unfortunately not recorded. We focused on the 5th Unity Principle.
Let’s first do a brief review of where we have been these last four weeks.
We’ve been studying The 5 Principles book by Ellen Debenport, with bookstudy groups to enhance our understanding of these universal principles. In addition, the Midweek Meditations have been designed to help you embody principles.
CLICK HERE to access those meditations.
Principle 1: God is absolute good, everywhere present. That first week we took a deep dive into the Olympic pool, exploring the nature of God from a New Thought perspective - shifting our thinking from "being" as an entity to "being" as the ground of being, the intelligent essence behind and within everything. We then explored the qualities of this Universal One: Love, Abundance, Peace, Intelligence and Creativity, Beauty, Joy, Fulfilment, and Perfect Order.
Our souls need education
Just to find out who we are.
Our Lights must be uncovered
to see clearly where we are.
Our journey without distance
from head to heart and back
reveals a Wealth within us
With no limit and no lack.
A Fullness without measure
Overflows with Love and cheer,
Can we celebrate our Center history by acknowledging our sometimes awkward survival story and at the same time bear witness to our magnificent growth and achievements? The answer
How could a fragmented band of “religious outcasts,” some 40 years ago, help create the transformation (or reformation) that is our current spiritual creation ? Good question…. Creating spiritual community from scratch is no mean feat. If we had a “soul witness” to a 40-year saga of creating the manifested spiritual community, it would record both highs and lows, punctuated by struggles and degrees of pain as well as undeniable spiritual achievement.
Some history reads like fiction; this is one of them. If truth-be-told (and please let’s do so), the 40 year history of the Unity Center of Peace is a tru-story that bears a legacy to many versions of participant memory. It’s not a seamless account of manifest destiny revealed by a band of God’s “favored people.” The UCP story contains angst and pain and a few wounds to account-for, amid deserved gratitude for numerous forebearers whose tenacity enabled spiritual flowers to bloom.
This is a pre and post regale of a spiritual community’s emergence. Legions of pilgrims have sung, danced and prayed under this banner, each bringing themselves to the table for a spell, short or long. “We are one” we chanted before closing with the refrain: “and so it is !” What is the glue that binds this saga of a book about inner peace, service and gratitude? How does a fledging group of souls join together to create community when their common thread is one of disparity and religious confusion ?
As any human bean who can read-or-write knows only too well, our electronic world does not need more information. “Inundation” is not strong-enough a descriptor…. !
So what, pray tell (*), is the rationale for a Unity Center of Peace =Blog ? In Gaino’s not-so-humble opinion, this here is a time and place to kinda go-deeper and listen to some subconscious material that our wonderous Sunday talks & music invigorate. Y’all know full-well what is meant….
At the risk of making a mild generalization, it’s safe to claim that most of us unity-pickers have done battle with organized religion and lost. The stories seem to re-appear without end and often carry an edge of anger or latent frustration. If one were to begin an open-ended question: “How did you come to Unity ?, the responses would, no doubt, support this generalization. We have some religious history in-common, it seems…. We have landed in a warm embrace of open spirituality.
During the past two years, while attending the “down the hall in the Chapel” Deeper Dive, this scribe has noted something-of-interest to the “right brain.” (Wanta guess ?). Every single one of us New Thought types (even Ault) have a deep-seated need and desire to tell our back-story. The truth.
Without as much as a whispered inquiry, many UCP members love to share their story regarding how, when and where they “got here…”. A decent psychologist, or shrink, would immediately identify this phenomenon as “latent spiritual identification arising from over-stimulation of the subliminal heart chakra.” Please continue…..
Our Midweek, Midday Meditation series has become so popular, we've decided to continue the series into the New Year. Stay committed to your goal for 2024 of remaining centered in Spirit regardless of the circumstances. Coupled with your participation in the Sunday service, this midweek spiritual boost can help you remain at a higher vibration throughout the week so you can radiate more love, peace and joy into your life and into the world.
Listen on the GO!
Click the middle play button to listen to Rev. Victoria's latest meditation or click the menu button on the top right side of the video to go the meditation playlist
Rev. Victoria’s recent message on “Transcendent Love” is very significant and important in strengthening and advancing so powerfully and clearly the relation and relatedness of co-evolving science and spirituality.
What I See…
Thriving, striving, new souls arriving….fearlessly embracing spiritual deep diving…
Giving, living, especially forgiving…not just on the days we celebrate Thanksgiving…
Singing, ringing, clearing, brimming…joyfully bringing forth a brand-new beginning…
Circulating, percolating, committing and shifting…earthing and birthing a new consciousness uplifting
Seeing and being, bending and transcending….living with the certainty that we are never-ending…
Uniting and lighting the world at our door…teaching and reaching…leaching goodness from each pore…
Growing, knowing and sowing friendship like seeds…flowering in a peace that never recedes…
Healing and feeling and revealing what is true…peeling away the cloak of fear whose time is well through…
Facing, embracing, revering the present moment so generous…shedding any doubt that can make life feel tenuous…
Shaking, awaking our spirits within…shining and brining in the seasoning-of-this-life we share in…
Serving, conserving, swerving from negativity…ideating, co-creating, uplifting our community…
Glowing and flowing in the radiance of UCP…so it can be...everything we imagine…it will be!
By Brad Goodwin 11/2023
Have you been enjoying our November Mid-Week Meditations: Abundant Blessings? If so, we've got good news: we are continuing our meditations throughout December! And December's theme will be Inner Peace. December is often a busy month and the winter holidays can bring up a number of conflicting feelings. Combine that with the chaos that is happening around the world right now, and it can throw anyone off their center.
That's why you'll want to tune into the mid-week meditations to help reconnect you with inner peace. Think of it as an "inner oasis of calm", or a "mini-spa retreat for your soul".
Available each Wednesday at noon. In case you missed it, you can click right here right now!
Plan to join us Wednesday at noon as we livestream the next meditation: Awakening to the Light!
We've launched our new Mid-Week Abundant Blessings Meditation Series! If you missed it, you can go right here now and enjoy a relaxing, rejuvenating and empowering guided meditation, led by Rev. Victoria. The meditation focus this week is: The Expansive Power of Gratitude!
Is your heart hurting as a result of the violent conflict in the Middle East? I know mine is. First, I understand Hamas to be a terrorist organization, which carried out a brutal terrorist attack on hundreds of innocent people. They do not represent mainstream Palestinians. And of course, there is history there. The response from Israel comes from the old consciousness of "an eye for an eye." This is the consciousness of the whole region, and the conflict won't change until consciousness changes. And our hearts go out to all the people caught up in this - many of whom, on both sides, want peace desperately.
Some are wondering if the affirmation we say together at the beginning of our service is still appropriate. The affirmation is: There is only one Presence and one Power active in the universe and in my life, God the good omnipotence. It might be hard to see God's omnipresent good at work in this situation, if not impossible. And on the human level it isn't true. But are we just human beings? No! We, in spiritual community, know we are Divine beings having a human experience, right? Unfortunately, too few others know this to be true.
Humanity, historically asleep to the truth of their being – and that of others – “create their own evils”, as Emerson would say. Most people live in fear of the "other" and judge others, judge other religions as wrong, other ways of living is wrong. From a human-only consciousness of separation, humanity can do some pretty horrible things, and has for eons. And that won't change until we realize who we really are. We are all emanations of the One Divine Light...every single one of us.
So, the affirmation...like all spiritual affirmations...is affirming the Spiritual Truth. Would we want to affirm the human truth? No, there's enough of that. We are affirming the Truth that God is all, we are that One expressing, and so is everyone else. There is omnipresent good, if we would but see it, and call it forth. And it is our work to do this! We don’t want to succumb to the collective consciousness of separation. We must align ourselves with Divine Light, and seek to live from a place of love...to share that with others. Let us together pray that energy of love is being felt by those we are praying for - people caught up in the conflict, and for political leaders. We pray hearts open, consciousness is evolving, and the Divine presence is allowed to manifest in all of us. We pray from a place of peace, for peaceful hearts, and peaceful actions.
I hope you will join Rev. Ana Quintana for her workshop Peace is a Daily Practice, this Sunday at 1:00 in the Sanctuary, to learn how to stay centered in the energy of love and peace.
Starting Sunday, August 6 th we will be exploring a new way of thinking about, and experiencing
abundance in all areas: Health, Love, Wealth and Happiness. This series is inspired by Derek
Rydall’s book The Abundance Project. Each Sunday we’ll explore a new chapter where we’ll
discover spiritual principles guaranteed to transform our understanding of prosperity. In
addition to the Sunday series, we will be hosting a book study to dive more deeply into these
principles…and there are two ways to join: In person Sunday after the service with Marea
Kavanagh facilitating, and via Zoom on Monday evening with Rev. Victoria.
Here are Marea’s personal thoughts on the material:
“As I have started reading The Abundance Project in advance of our upcoming book study, it
has become abundantly clear (pun intended) that I am thirsting for these insights. Again and
again, I find myself reading and re-reading a paragraph that speaks to me…making notes…and
contemplating how these Spiritual Truths apply to aspects of my life where I’m currently
struggling. I’ve had more than a few ‘aha’ moments and I’m only on the second chapter. And
in a world that feels increasingly out of control and full of struggle, I’m also considering how
these Principles apply to the ‘big picture’, and what is ours to do? I’d love to have a
conversation about this.
I’m excited at the thought of a group of us in the Sanctuary on Sunday afternoons, or on Zoom
on Monday evenings, sharing of ourselves, supporting each other, and coming together in
Oneness as we integrate the Abundance Principles into our lives. If you are new to this
community, what a perfect way to grasp the spiritual Principles while making new friends. If
you are concerned that you may not have time to stay caught up with the reading every week,
please do not worry! We are using this book as a guide to a much bigger conversation that I’m
sure you will enjoy participating in. And if you know you won’t be able to attend every week,
join us anyway. We all have busy lives and your presence some of the time is much better than
none of the time. I have a very deep sense that this is going to be a special 6 weeks.”
As an exciting bonus the book’s author (and personal life coach to many celebrities) Derek
Rydall, will be joining us live, via Zoom, for a free coaching call!! But you need to register for the
book study to get the Zoom link. Click here to register now - https://unitychapelhill.org/spiritual-support/upcoming-book-studies/
And to access the weekly book study guides, click here - https://mailchi.mp/6990242016e4/theabundanceprojectstudyguide
At the end of every year, Unity Center of Peace hosts a burning bowl ceremony. It’s a time to reflect on our life and to see what thoughts and beliefs are getting in the way of living a life of our choosing. For me, it’s usually some limiting belief I have about myself that I want to release. This past year as Rev. Victoria was guiding us through a meditation, I realized how I was seeing myself as this small self, lacking the ability to live and contribute in ways so important and meaningful to me. What? Me, small? I knew self-doubt could wash over me, but I never thought of myself as small. And yet, this is what was revealed through deeper reflection. I also realized in these moments that this view of myself was robbing me of the joy and freedom that I so desperately wanted as guideposts for my life.
As an active member of Unity Center of Peace and a person who’s been spiritually curious for years, I’m used to paying attention to my emotions. I’ve learned to see them as signals of something going on within me that needs understanding and compassion.
Lately, however, I’ve been experiencing harsh emotions that have surprised me. Like when a neighbor walking their dog turns around when they see me and my AmStaff (aka pit bull) pup approaching, I get angry. A whole narrative forms in my mind about their assumptions and judgment. And when I feel like my opinion isn’t getting the attention it deserves, I feel slighted and my tone can get aggressive.
On the journey to deepen our relationship with God, one of the most powerful ways for us to commune with Spirit is through a disciplined spiritual practice. These practices are many and can vary from the simple (but powerful) gift of gratitude to affirmations, deep meditation, contemplation and many more. In any pursuit, a spiritual practice reveals the key that unlocks the gates of heaven and allows us the opportunity to recognize God’s innate qualities on Earth. When we consistently engage in our practice, we demonstrate a deep commitment to our spiritual growth. Commitment to spiritual growth is not an easy path, and it takes more than irregular practice or a Sunday service to see lasting and impactful vibrational changes. Spirit is a way of life; and a powerful way to live that is filled with self-love, self-respect and constant surrender that results in personal freedom and liberation. Disciplined practice allows us to be available to Spirit and supports our alignment with the divine flow of the Universe.
While twentysome people gathered via Zoom and physically with proper distancing, little did we know that we would unearth gems while holding the U.S. election process in affirmative prayer. Many shared powerful intentions and prayers of respect, equality, civility and more while collectively generating the energy to sustain these. One that stood out and set the tone is Katja Sage's invocation to start this event. Such is its poignancy and clarity that we just had to share it with you. It is worth reading Ode to Lady Liberty multiple times. It starts with quoting the The New Colussus by Emma Lazarus which is inscribed at Lady Liberty's feet in New York Harbor.
Shortly after we played the Lullaby by Billy Joel music video, Facebook knocked many of you off the livestream. They eventually took the feed down. We are so sorry about that. Lesson learned for us. Because my talk was a two-parter, I wanted to post the talk here so you don’t miss anything.
On June 20-21 we had a unique combination of significant celestial events including the Summer Solstice, a solar eclipse and a new moon, among other things. So, it was a very auspicious day to have offered our first Sacred Gathering service outdoors. And a very energetically powerful place to offer it – our Spiral Labyrinth.
Metamorphosis is a sacred moment! It describes the incomprehensible transformation between a precursor life form and its successor. When a caterpillar is prompted to attach itself to a limb and start spinning its chrysalis, it doesn’t know that it will literally dissolve physically and then somehow the molecules in the resulting goo will reshape it into a gorgeous winged being that will touch deeply the hearts of humans whom it will later encounter.
As beings who have staked most of our learning and experiencing in the physical dimension over however many years we’ve been embodied in this incarnation, we identify all too readily with what we see when we look into the mirror and think back to what we remember from childhood or judge the hidden messages In what we think others are saying and doing when we’re around.
This morning, I found a meditation written and posted by Buddhist teacher Pema Chodron called, "Staying in the Middle." She wrote,
“Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know what’s happening, we begin to access our inner strength.”
A few days ago, our best friend got news that her thirty something son who lives with his wife and kids in another country dropped dead. What!!?? Shocking!!!
This guy was incredibly fit, always taking marathon hikes and bike rides! He died on a long bike ride. He’s too young for something like that to happen. Isn’t he?? I’m in a state of shock, just trying to process that news. I can’t imagine what our friend must be going through!
We can choose to view this time as a "sacred time-out" -- an opportunity to re-evaluate our usual way of being and perhaps evolve to our next level of expression. And if we want to be ready to emerge from this pandemic as our best “Butterfly Self” we want to prepare now. We must use this "cocooning time" to invest in personal and spiritual growth. Here is your guide for doing that:
One of the primary shifts of awareness that accompanies spiritual growth in Unity is learning where power lies in Truth. We learn, for example, to trust our ideas and words to create physical manifestation—not what most of us grew up learning, but absolute Truth nevertheless.
Well-known 20th century Unity teacher Mary Kupferle wrote about "Minute Prayers". She was teaching us the consistent power of a minute of thought directed to the same idea repeatedly.
This is the First time in history that all of humanity is fighting a war from the same side, all of us friends sharing a common enemy.
That’s an amazing fact!
For the first time ever, we can experience what is really possible when all humans, everywhere, join together as one mind in creating a new reality—the first time we can talk to each other world wide, and know what everyone is doing.
A crisis gives us the opportunity to know ourselves better. Every time we expérience a crisis, of course, we have changed since the last crisis in our life — so we are getting to know a new self.
As COVID 19 goes on and on, what are you observing about yourself that you weren’t previously aware of?
It was beautiful this morning
Waking up by brilliant morning light
Amie, our dog , bowing, barking bouncing—
Announcing that it’s time to play— this new day’s so exciting.
Birds all over chirping in their choir
Saying “Hurry! Seize this glorious day!
I Awake, jump out of bed,
Eager— Meeting Friends from Paris To discuss, on Zoom,
Here are some beautiful assertions to say, reflect on, and wear this weekend and going forward.
As I read these statements, I’m wearing a top that I haven’t worn in a long time—a lighter weight piece of clothing, flowery and flowing.
Since I put this top on this morning, I’ve been trying to figure out whether I like the feeling of wearing it. It’s comfortable enough—but do I like the me that I feel like with it on?
During these special weeks of "lockdown," I’ve heard some new expressions from people of how they’re feeling—expressions of extreme well-being that used to be very unusual.
What gives people that feeling of gleeful amazement?
It comes up in instances where someone has followed inner guidance and acted with complete release about being of service to others.
I know my thoughts and words create my experiences. They have incredible power. The more trusting and loving my thoughts are, the higher my frequency of vibration and the more joyful experience I attract from one minute to the next.
I actually set up a spiritual channel—like opening a path through the waves ahead—that i can enjoy habitually, as long as I am willing to focus my attention consistently on what i know is true in higher reality.
I look within. They’ve grown!
They’re blue!
Mom and Pop are busy every minute, and
They’re asleep in bliss.
They’re alive.
We share that,
Baby birds and I,
Shaping energy right now,
Not knowing what comes next—
Content to be.
I don’t think I’ve needed to learn so much so fast for decades—probably since I was a toddler learning to propel myself forward on two feet! It is said that learning is one of our soul’s main reason for coming to earth. I probably haven’t felt so vibrantly alive since infancy.
This afternoon, one of our spiritual groups in Paris met on Zoom. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn what is going on half way across the world, as we are beginning to learn how our awareness is changing over this time.
I found it beautiful and surprising that with each of us in our own space, with individual hearts and minds,some very similar thoughts are coming to all of us, of whatever age or nationality.
One wonderful trend I became aware of over Easter Weekend is how humans everywhere, brilliantly inspired, are taking advantage of the unusual restrictions that prevail right now to invent new ways to have fun together, even when they can’t travel, perhaps as they regularly do—certainly as they might want to do.
As we start looking forward, after Easter, to being able to think about after the pandemic lockdown, I’ve heard people talk longingly about "getting back to normal."
Upon hearing this, I’ve wondered "Really??!!"
Perhaps you, like me, have seen a movie or three about the story of Jesus of Nazareth—or perhaps attended a Christian “Stations of the Cross “ service. Both are ways to focus our minds and hearts in the cosmic emptiness that lies in the middle between the spiritual mileposts of degeneration and regeneration—the process of evolving from one dimension to the next.
Reflect for a moment on how life was before you started to self-isolate at home (the last 2-6 weeks for most people)? Compare what you expected and thought back then with your expectations now. Can you even remember? To be serious, take the time to list 4-5 expectations that have vanished for you.
How have you changed ? How has the world around you changed? Would you have believed such change was possible instantaneously?
Most humans are reacting most of the time. If we reflect on this process, it becomes clear that energetically, when we react to something, we hold its energy and vibration in our consciousness. We know from the power of ideas and words, that the thoughts and feeling we welcome into our consciousness keep the same energy reproducing in our experience. When we are reacting anxiously to a threat, we are inviting more of that threat to persist in our lives. This vibration and attracting then perpetuates itself in our life.
“I am a Miracle of Life. I am a Living expression of divine strength and wholeness! “
This affirmation card fell off my desk yesterday, face up. As I looked at it and resonated with it, I began to realize it’s an important awareness for this point in our retreat from viral risks. The affirmation itself is straight out of the writings of the Fillmores on the subject of health and wholeness — expressing a powerful way to keep expressing ourselves as the creators of Universal life experience.
So, how happy are you managing to be in the midst of Covid 19?
“HAPPY???!! “ You may ask. “What does that have to do with anything? “.
Well , yes, deep, steady joy is always what our life is about. It’s our essential nature. It’s the consistent message of mystics and sages. Mystic Meister Eckhart, for instance, taught. “God expects but one thing of you , and that is that you come out of yourself and let God be God in you. “
This morning early, there he was again—
The bluebird sitting at the tiny hole
That serves as entry to their nesting box,
Feeding his mate as she waits and waits—
Isolating from the world to incubate new life.
A couple of days ago, a friend sent the beautiful message below to a classmate whose mother had just left the earthly plane.
"There is No Death
I am standing on the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length she is a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
Today, I want to put on my hat as a classical homeopathic practitioner.
Amma Resonance Healing Foundation (ARHF), a non-profit organization based in The Netherlands, has shared with the homeopathic community a free preventive and treatment for the Covid 19 illness, which they developed and are distributing free of charge as a global public service – feel free to forward this to those you care about and suggest that they do the same.
Joy, laughter, and music are among the the most amazing gifts of being physically alive! If you’re reading this, you ARE physically alive at this very moment. Some of the most delightful moments of shared consciousness that I’ve ever experienced have taken place with human babies under one year old – real babies, not yet able to use language. In these experiences, despite our lack of shared words, the baby and I have nevertheless shared our awareness and found the sharing delightful.
Over this weekend, I invite you to join with me in envisioning and enjoying in our imaginations the image of ourselves, of all those we love, and a huge throng of others as well fully accepting their power to live whole, healthy and free. We are all one, and we express that divine oneness with the name God gave to Moses from the Burning Bush in the book of Exodus: “I Am”.
On Sunday, March 20, in my talk, I promised that I would publish this meditation affirming our spiritual powers of Faith, Power, Strength, and Will, all of which we can use to strengthen us in body, mind, and spirit during the present pandemic. We can be safe by using common sense in our actions and also holding in our minds images of strength and power. I invite you to join me every day in saying and thinking the meditation reprinted here:
By experiencing this time of uncertainty we learn about Oneness. A large part of our human genome consists of genes for various micro -organisms – bacteria, viruses, fungi, and many other life forms that are PART OF OUR OWN HUMAN GENES. This oneness with other beings protects us from most potential damage from infection. What an elegant concept! Divine Order!
Today, I would like to share with you, the prayer of Mooji, a widely known teacher of Advita Vedanta, who grew up in Jamaica and whose present ashram is in Portugal. He is teaching that the current pandemic, though it seems fearsome, is actually the loving gift of the Universe to strengthen humanity and to give us the opportunity to rethink how we are living, so we discover how we are poisoning not only the world around us but also our own lives with our obsession over material success and personal power.