August 25, 2017 – Family Movie Night
The UBTS Social Lights Presents:
Family Movie Night
August 25, 2017
7- 9 PM
Featuring: The Mighty (PG 13)
The Social Lights will be providing ice cream, popcorn, and soda.
Hope to see you there!
“Birthing a New Paradigm”
Life, as we know, is changing so rapidly before our eyes. Every generation seems to reminisce about the good old days. My parents tell me stories of what life was like before TV was invented and extended family lived next door to each other or lived within blocks. They share stories of how fresh the food was and how staples were purchased at mom and pop shops run by butchers, bakers, produce grocers and how milkmen delivered diary items to your front stoop. I tell my children about the days before iTunes and smartphones were created that I listened to music on eight-track and cassette tapes, and I completed college assignments on a typewriter.
Even though each generation experiences change, I believe the transitions that are underfoot today are epic. We are in the midst of a paradigm shift. A paradigm shift occurs when the usual societal and worldview undergo a significant transformation. Scientist, Thomas Kuhn, who coined the term, states that during such a time individuals will experience chaos, uncertainty, and even periods of “intellectually violent revolutions” as the old way of thinking and being is collapsing as the new shift in consciousness is struggling to emerge. The caterpillar struggling from its cocoon to emerge into a spectacular, colorful butterfly is a perfect metaphor for this cycle of emergence of a new worldview.
Currently, we are watching the breakdown of our educational, religious, economic, and political systems while the harmful effects of Global Warming are being experienced by the whole of creation. Rapid advancements in technology are not only changing the delivery of our media, but is also replacing man/woman power, and is having an effect on our social-emotional intelligence, on our person-to-person contact, and how we define community. All of this is exciting and can be frightening at the same time as we bid farewell to the comfortable and familiar as the landscape changes right under our very own feet.
Not only are brick and mortar businesses feeling the effects of our shifting times as some of them are forced to close up shop, but churches and spiritual communities are experiencing the impact as well. Forty-eight percent of the population born between the years 1984-2002 consider themselves to be unaffiliated when it comes to belonging to a church or spiritual community. As a result, Sunday service attendance is down nationally across all religions and many communities have had to close their doors because they were unable to remain financially solvent. Two months ago, I became dismayed when I discovered that over the last year one Unity spiritual community a month had to dissolve for the same reason.
When I heard this news from Unity Worldwide Ministries (UWM), I became fearful about how the changing times would affect Unity by the Shore as I witness a drop in attendance during the summer months. I knew quickly that I had to begin to shift from fearing the changing times to welcoming it. I began looking deeper at the paradigm shift that we are in the midst of, and I believe we are collectively being called to shift from the consciousness of separation to the consciousness of Oneness. I have shared in previous articles, that I believe that the patriarchal ways of competition, greed, and every man/woman for himself is being played out before us as leaders try to resist change by going back to how things used to be and by constructing walls to keep “the others” out as solutions to what ales our failing institutions. The polarization of duality and the consciousness of the “other” are also being played out among us as we argue, defame, and resist those who have a different political belief or worldview than we do. Spiritual teacher Dr. Shariff Abdulla states that we are collectively feeling the effects of four major shadows, violence, “the others”, lack, and despair, as we encounter our current global challenges. In order to for us to shift into the experience of Oneness, we must collectively unite in our efforts to bring the four Lights, peace and security, inclusivity and community, true abundance, and fulfillment of embodying on Divine gifts in service to one another. Dr. Shariff Abdulla is partnering with Unity World Headquarters (UWH) and UWM in bringing a pilot program to Unity ministries called Shadow to Light (S2L), and I will be sharing this program with UBTS this fall.
In the meantime, know that the board and I are looking to embrace the technological age by raising funds to purchase equipment so that we can Livestream services and key events. Over the remaining lazy days of summer, I invite you to take respite, recharge, and to recommit to the spiritual transformation of yourself, UBTS, and the planet. We need all hands on deck!
July 23, 2017 – Up, Up and Away – Revisiting Gift Auction and Ice Cream Social
An Awakened Life
Like many spiritual mystics, Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, professes that our life’s purpose is to awaken from our slumber, discover the Power of our innate Divine Nature, experience the Love and Joy of our being, and to be a force of Light and Love in the Universe. The spiritual path of awakening is not for the faint of heart. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell calls one who is willing to awaken and courageously transcend societal domesticated group mind a hero. He explains, “During our life’s journey, as with every hero’s quest, we have to suffer certain losses, leave the predictable comforts of home, and set out into unfamiliar terrain to realize our dreams. Along the way, the hero inevitably meets with dragons that block the way. Usually, her/his quest takes the hero into dark places to do tremendous battle with unseen forces for hidden treasure. Out of these struggles, the hero emerges with a grail of jewels or wisdom that he/she shares with others.”
To say yes to the quest means you are willing to live your life fully consciously and to courageously make choices that beckon you to boldly embody your spiritual gifts and to live from the consciousness of Oneness. For many, this will require you to leave behind ways of being that are comfortable and familiar. Living a life of Truth will demand you, to be honest with yourself. You must be willing to take a fearless inventory of your life and to release where you have been out of integrity and playing small. Once you look, see, and tell the Truth about where you have been living from fear, lack, jealousy, envy, hatred, resentment, greed, control, unworthiness and any other form of not “enoughness” you will be summoned to make amends with yourself and others. The act of forgiveness will stare you in the face again and again. You will be called to let go of deep pain and suffering caused by the betrayal, abandonment, selfishness, abuse, and deceit of “others”. Some of whom are your closest family members and friends. It will no longer feel comfortable to engage in gossip or to stand in judgment of yourself and others. Yes, even of our politicians. Your higher self will beckon you to challenge discrimination, violence, injustice, and selfishness in your behavior and in the behaviors of your friends, family members, community members, and institutional leaders. Challenging the consciousness of separation does not mean you have to fight or attack back with harsh and violent rhetoric and actions. It means you will embrace Principle and take action to bring about changes that are characterized by fairness, equity, empowerment, respect, dignity, and Love of our planet and all of humanity.
Living a life fully engaged as a spiritual warrior requires you to be stretched out of your comfort zone again and again. At times, this may seem daunting and downright exhausting. Some days you may even wish you could meet up with the character Morpheus from the 1999 movie The Matrix and ask him to give you the “blue pill” so you can just blissfully fall back asleep for a couple of days, weeks, months, and even years. When fatigue sets in remember two things. First, know how important it is to take the time to retreat as the Master Teacher, Jesus, demonstrated again and again. Taking time to rest in the stillness of your Being and to take respite in the beauty and Power of nature does wonders for the weary soul. Lastly, individuals who embark on a hero’s journey long enough will begin to experience a deep sense of passion, as an authentic sense of purpose wells up inside of them, and they truly discover what it means to be Alive! There is no greater joy than experiencing your Divinity as you open your heart up and boldly dare to rise up in all of your Glory to be what you came here to be, the Powerful embodiment of the Divine and a Universal Force of Goodness.
“Once the soul awakens, the search begins and you can never go back. From then on, you are inflamed with a special longing that will never again let you linger in the lowlands of complacency and partial fulfillment. John O’ Donahue
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