minister’s letter - unity lincoln · lincoln, nebraska june 2019 our vision for unity lincolnur...

1941 N. 68th Lincoln, Nebraska

June 2019

OUR VISION FOR UNITY LINCOLN

We have a beautiful facility that is receptive and responsive to the needs and desires of our congregation.

We have an abundance of resources to accomplish our mission with ease.

We support a minister who exemplifies the Unity Principles and our Core Values, with the capacity to recognize and maximize the strengths and talents of congregants and stimulate individual spiritual growth.

We have an equally shared, healthy, and productive relationship between the congregation, board, and minister resulting in effective governance of our community.

We provide transforming and positive programs for people of all ages for increased spiritual development.

We practice our spiritual awakening through service and action within the congregation, community, and beyond.

We are well-known in the Lincoln area as a healthy, thriving, spiritual community that welcomes all.

Unity Lincoln

P.O. Box 30209

Lincoln, NE 68503

Non-Profit Org.

U.S. Postage Paid

Permit No. 319

Lincoln, NE

June 2019

Blessings To:

Daily Inspiration: Dial–A–Prayer

(402) 476-7172

www.unity.org/prayer/request-prayer

Visit us at www.unitylincoln.org,

email [email protected],

or phone (402) 476-6887

When I read these ancient words, I feel a course of energy go through me from head to toe. I’m honored to be able to share them with you today. Breathe into them as you read…

Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity “May I be a guard for those who need protection

A guide for those on the path A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood

May I be a lamp in the darkness A resting place for the weary

A healing medicine for all who are sick A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles

And for the boundless multitudes of living beings May I bring sustenance and awakening

Enduring like the earth and sky Until all beings are freed from sorrow

And all are awakened.”

Now, breathe, exhale, release and be still for a brief moment… This prayer was written by Shantideva, a Buddhist monk of the Mahayana tradition who lived around 700 AD. He was a devoted practitioner who authored the Bodhicaryavatara or Bodhisattva Way of Life. Isn’t it remarkable that these words are just as meaningful and pertinent today?

It is said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama considers this text to be the ultimate source for developing altruism in your character and the “Spirit of Awakening.” It is also said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama recites this prayer every morning as part of his waking rituals. So, if you give it a try, you are in good company!

All of humankind, indeed all of life and substance, is inter-connected. We need each other. We survive and can only thrive because of our inter-connectedness. So, let us link hands. Let us join forces and share resources, people, plants, animals, and all of life. Let us live in a world where the only competition is to do the greatest good for all. Let us have open hearts guiding open loving minds.

June has been designated as a month for learning, healing, airing the feelings, emotions, thoughts and energies around racial, social and cultural wounds of the past. Yes, a month is not long enough. A United Nations Commission will be commemorating for the year. June marks the “400 years of African American History.” It is the anniversary of the first people kidnapped from Africa and brought into slavery; the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans in the English colonies at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619. I would say that nearly everyone has inherited pain from the legacy of this time. So, we will have some discussions. I hope you will listen and share with an open heart and mind. There is no way to fix what was done, but feelings can be shared and healed. And we can change what is still happening today.

God Bless You, ~ Rev. Toni

The light of God surrounds us

The Love of God enfolds us

The Power of God protects us

The Presence of God watches

over us.

Wherever we are ...God IS

And all is well.

OUR CORE VALUES LOVE

We are a nurturing community connecting with all from caring hearts and

compassion.

SPIRITUALITY We consciously connect with Spirit and

allow it to guide us. We affirm this Divinity within all creation.

JOY We delight in and encourage our deeply

centered happiness.

GRATITUDE We recognize, rejoice in, and give thanks

for all of God’s gifts.

INCLUSIVENESS We embrace each person as a unique

expression of God.

MINISTER’S LETTER

http://www.unitylincoln.org

mailto:[email protected]

Make It Happen Challenging Conversations: Part One

There are times we need to have challenging conversations with people. Whether with a coworker, a family member or a friend, there are many good reasons to say what needs to be said in a timely manner.

First of all, unspoken conversations keep us up at night. We begin to worry that we will hurt someone’s feelings or we might be misunderstood during the conversation. Take note, a challenging conversation done with integrity and compassion builds trust, inspires meaningful action and is a key to moving you to your next level of growth and contribution. This is how to prepare…

Prior to the conversation get very clear as to the purpose of the conversation so you can increase your focus and decrease the risk and frustration of a conversation getting off track. Ask yourself: “is this conversation to provide support, to apologize, to inform or teach?” Then ask yourself: “What 2 or 3 qualities or attributes am I willing to demonstrate during the conversation?” Choose to be clear, courageous, kind, attentive, and/or supportive. During the conversation be sure to demonstrate the qualities you have chosen.

Here’s my Tip: The hardest words of tough conversations are usually not more than only 3 or 4 words: “This isn’t working out.” (4 words) “I was wrong.” (3 words) “I’m sorry.” (2 words)

Select from these key words and practice them. Watch what you experience during the conversation. Have you relaxed a bit? Are you breathing again? If not it’s time to give me a phone call at 402-890-5741. In July I will share Challenging Conversations: Part Two.

If you need more guidance, email me at [email protected]. Until next time Go Make it Happen. — Kris Thaller

Best Wishes Annie & Ed!

May 30th long time member Annie Nuss and her partner, Ed Love, moved to Marshall, AR to join Rev. Sharri Johnson to live and work at her One Heart Retreat Center. Many people know Annie for her “Anniegrams” – Word Puzzle Poems that she writes. Annie served on the Board of Trustees for three years and was an active volunteer for years. Ed has served Unity Lincoln in many capacities including providing the Unity Lincoln coffee mugs which we enjoy.

The decision to move came after Annie and Ed vacationed in April and visited Rev. Sharri at One Heart. If you would like to see pictures and get more information go to https://oneheartretreatcenter.org. Retreats and ongoing classes are offered in person and online; for more information talk to Rev. Sharri at (501) 825-0108. We bless Annie and Ed in their adventure. We love them, we bless them and we truly appreciate them, and we behold the Christ in them, and are grateful for their time spent with us.

All Church Garden Work Day

Sweep, rake, pull weeds, have fun together! Saturday, June 15th bring your favorite tools and gloves. We do have some to share. At noon we will have lunch together in our beautiful back yard.

J u n e 2 0 1 9

-7-

J u n e 2 0 1 9

-2-

Mickey Seefeld, Treasurer

New Members Would you like to be a member of Unity Lincoln? We invite you to join us! Are you returning to Unity Lincoln after a time away? We welcome you back! Kindly RSVP to Unity Lincoln (402) 476-6887 or [email protected].

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Talk to the Board If you would like to present an item to the Board of Trustees in person, please let a board member know. The Board will then reserve the first 10 minutes of its next monthly meeting to listen to you.

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Email List If you would like to receive emails of breaking news and last-minute schedule changes, send an email to us at [email protected] and ask to be added to our weekly email list.

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Online Tithing You can contribute to Unity Lincoln online via the www.unitylincoln.org PayPal account. Log onto https://www.paypal.com and send your contribution directly to the Church’s Online PayPal account by whatever method you like — credit card, checking account, or savings. Click on "Friends & Family" to waive the Paypal fee so that your entire gift goes to UL.

================================== Ministerial Services Available

Personal and family services including the rituals: marriage, christening, baptism, blessings of various kinds as your heart directs. Memorial services. Counselling by appointment. Call: 402-432-8108. Email: [email protected]. Some services by fee and some on a love offering basis.

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When you write to us Though we are located at 1941 N. 68th St., mail you send us must include our P.O. Box. Send mail to: Unity Lincoln P.O. Box 30209 Lincoln, NE 68503

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To unsubscribe from this Newsletter Write to us at the above address, or email [email protected]. Please refer to the printed Newsletter in your note, with your name and address for confirmation.

BULLETIN BOARD

Finances– April 2019 Total Income: $ 11,492 Total Expense: $ 10,907

Net: $ 583*

Sources of Income*- Service Love Offerings: $ 4,724

Classes: $ 136

Building Fund: $ 817.76 SCRIP: $ 34

*includes special events, but not intended to equal Total Income shown above

Magic Pennies Report

Keep it up! You’re doing great!

Magic Pennies Accounting

2016 $132.22

2017 $615.80

2018 $290.31

January 2019 $16.92

February 2019 $19.74

March 2019 $26.71

April 2019 $29.95

May 2019 $10.56

$1,142.21

Merry Ford, President

Connie Rose, Vice-President

Janet Carlson, Secretary

Adeline Mickens, Member-at-Large

Liane Schmidt, Member-at-Large

BOARD MEMBERS

Ministry Team Leaders:

Hospitality—Dee Tonniges, Liane Schmidt

Leadership/Coaching—Kris Thaller

Licensed Unity Teacher—Rev. Evan Coleman

Music—Rev. Evan Coleman Prayer—Connie Rose Recording Team—Paul Fox,

Bob Kaenel, Connie Rose, Janet Carlson, Adeline Mickens

SCRIP—Paul Fox Website—Paul Fox, Rev. Evan

Coleman Worthship Team—Kris Thaller Worthship Leaders—Fred Berry,

Annie Nuss, Merry Ford, Kris Thaller, Carol Cunningham

Staff:

Minister—Rev. Toni Stephens Coleman

Associate Minister—Rev. Evan Coleman

Speaker—Rev. Fred Berry Music Director—Rev. Evan

Coleman Pianist—Svetlana Yashirin Office—June Niemann

Monthly Attendance

Ave./Sunday

March 23

April 22

May 22

Unity Lincoln logo t-shirts

now available-see Rev. T Teal with embroidered white logo –

$20 each XL, L, M (others can be ordered pre-pay)

(note on check: T for Building Fund)


https://oneheartretreatcenter.org






J u n e 2 0 1 9

-6- -3-

J u n e 2 0 1 9

World Peace Meditation

In the movie “Avatar” there is a greeting that expresses the nature and the naturalness of peace. The people of that distant planet knew themselves as one life, one organism and one Truth so whenever two people met their greeting was, “I see you.”

When we can live in that unshakable sense of Oneness, when we no longer need to remind ourselves that there is no place where God ends and we start, no place where we end and God starts, then we, too, will greet each other with this acknowledgement: I SEE you, and peace will be fully, completely, irrevocable revealed on Earth.

Please take 15 – 20 minutes to sit in the silence and contemplate our Oneness. SEE yourself then observe how you begin to SEE others. Take this awareness with you wherever you go. Think: I SEE you!

Love and blessings!

Rev. Sharri Johnson, Senior Minister

Unity Bookstore/Book Club

The Unity Lincoln Bookstore is open before and after Sunday services and for special events. Come by, browse, and select from our excellent gifts and new and used titles.

June’s featured bookstore title is The Path Made Clear by Oprah Winfrey. It is also the next title for Unity's Tuesday Night Book Club study group, beginning the end of June. Please join us! To get your book through the bookstore please order today by giving your check to Jim or Adeline.

From the publisher: In her latest book, The Path Made Clear, Oprah shares what she sees as a guide for activating your deepest vision of yourself, offering the framework for creating not just a life of success, but one of significance. The book’s ten chapters are organized to help you recognize the important milestones along the road to self-discovery, laying out what you really need in order to achieve personal contentment, and what life’s detours are there to teach us.

Please pre-purchase a copy of The Path Made Clear by seeing Adeline Mickens or Jim Wilson. The price including tax is $23.00. Checks may be made payable to Unity Lincoln Bookstore.

New Writer’s Group Forming

Are you interested in joining together to write, read and critique each other’s work? We’re looking for feedback to select the best day and time. Talk to Rev. Toni or leave a message on the church phone, 402-476-6887.

Newsletter Prayer Group

In 1890, Unity co-founders Myrtle and Charles Fillmore sent a letter to all Unity people to form a prayer group. At 11:00 am every day wherever they were they would join in a shared affirmation and a few minutes of prayer.

Your Board and Minister are asking for your support in such focused prayer. We ask that you pause for a few minutes at 11:00 am each day (or as soon as possible) and join your prayer energy with ours.

“At Unity Lincoln, we affirm that every chair is filled with spiritually compatible people on Sunday and young people are learning, growing and delighting us here. We are attracting young people, families and abundance.”

The 11:00 am prayer continues to this day at Unity Village, MO, so we will be joining in prayer with employees, staff, Silent Unity, retreats, and all others there also. Prayer at 11:00 am has a long tradition in Unity. Some of us use the clock to trigger the thought, some people set their alarm. Prayer at 11:00 am is a healthy thing to share and we hope you will join and share with us as we focus our energy on growth.

May 19th Talk Source

To see the cartoon article by Sarah Lazarovic in Yes! Magazine posted Mar 18, 2019, go to: https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/dirt/community-relationships-borrowing-from-neighbors-strengthens-democracy-20190318. The talk by Rev. Toni about relationships was entitled “A Cup of Sugar.”

Letting Go – Circulation Day?

The monthly theme for June in the Unity Movement is: “Letting Go.” In The Revealing Word, Charles Fillmore wrote: “Letting go of the old is erasing from consciousness thoughts contrary to Truth. This is done by denial.” Denial he defines as: “The mental process of erasing… false beliefs of the sense mind… making room for Truth.” Letting go of anything that doesn’t serve us, mind, body and spirit.

So, when we let go of anything, thought or thing, that stands between us and our good, we experience our goodness – our godliness. Unity Lincoln has an activity which celebrates these principles – Circulation Day – which was initiated in Lincoln by our friend Sharri in 2011. Several people have asked about Circulation Day since we moved here, yet no one has come forward to lead it. If you would like to organize this activity, talk to Rev. Toni. You will have plenty of help as people joyfully let go of that which no longer serves them and make space for more good in their lives!

BINGO

The Thaller’s share their Bingo game with us after church Sunday, June 30th. Good Fun! Choose from the bin of prizes. Stay and play! As before, bring coins to mark your cards and plan to leave them for the Magic Pennies jar.

One Heart Retreat Center 185 White Acres Lane Marshall, AR 72650

(501) 825-0108

https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/dirt/community-relationships-borrowing-from-neighbors-strengthens-democracy-20190318

https://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/dirt/community-relationships-borrowing-from-neighbors-strengthens-democracy-20190318

J u n e 2 0 1 9 J u n e 2 0 1 9

A few months after my wife of 34 years died, I bought a small figurine that consists of a woman sitting in front of a grave. On the tombstone it is inscribed “God gave us memories so that we might have roses in December.“ What it means to me is not that we should remember what we have had taken from us, but the blessings of life that, even though they aren’t in our possession, they were here physically and can remain in our memories.

I think that if all the good things in our lives were all here at the same time, we would be so overwhelmed as to not appreciate the things we had. I know that for some folks it seems like a chapter of John Steinbeck‘s book The Grapes of Wrath where, when you finish a chapter you expect the next chapter to be better for the Joad family, but instead things kept getting worse.

For some reason though, folks can remember the hard times without dwelling on everything that went wrong. When things change for the better, only the joy of having lived, and survived, the hard times remains. I’ve known many folks who lived through the great depression and almost all of them remember how hard things were but, hey, that was then, this is now.

World War II has the same effect on people. For someone who has lost a close loved one the funk can last longer, but as time goes by, the tears are replaced by the joys of new grandchildren, friends, and great grandchildren. Lots of times, still, I will watch a movie or read something that reminds me of times gone by and tears will come to my eyes. Though as somebody smarter than me once said “Time heals all wounds.” Somebody else corrupted that into “Time wounds all heels,” which may or not may not be true, but our memories seem to sift out and retain the good stuff. As time goes by we can often find ourselves laughing about different things connected with someone who isn’t in our life anymore.

As I get to the point where all of my children are over 60 years old and I have grandchildren over 40, I remember this song from the Fiddler on the Roof. “Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play? I don’t remember growing older. When did they they?”

May you never forget the best times of your life, but remember also those that weren’t so good. They are all a part of who you are, and you are perfect!

Peace, love, joy & blessings ~ John

-4- -5-

This I Believe

by John Jones

Deep Peace Concert Success!

May 30th, thirty people experienced Paul Temple’s deeply spiritual sound presentation at Unity Lincoln. Our Fireside Room converted into comfortable seating for the Deep Peace Concert. In soft warm lighting we were lead on a spiritual journey of vibrational sound. Precisely tuned bowls, flutes, chimes, guitar, and Tibetan chanting guided us to deep healing and deep peace. Everyone who was there agreed that it was a beautiful enriching experience. We look forward to having Paul Temple share with us again in the future!

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1

2

Friendship Sunday

9:00 am – 9:55 am Metaphysics

10:30 am – Service

talk: Letting Go

11:45 am

Prayer Service

3

11:00 am – 5:00 pm Landscaping Team

*WEATHER PERMITTING*

4

6:00 pm Book Club- The Art of

Finding Yourself

5



1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Play Cards!

6:30 pm Coffeehouse Church

6

7

5:30 pm Music Team Rehearsal

8

9

Friendship Sunday



talk: Open to All

11:45 am

Board of Trustees meeting

10



11


Finding Yourself

12




13

14


15

9:00 am – 12:00 pm All Church Garden

Work Day

(& lunch)

16

FATHER’S DAY



talk: Father’s Day

11:45 am Pot Luck Lunch

17



18


Finding Yourself

19



1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Play Cards!


20

21


22

9:00 am – 12:00 pm Heartland Light

Circle (non Unity event)

23

Friendship Sunday



talk: A Time of Healing

24



25


Finding Yourself

26




27

28


29

30

Friendship Sunday



talk: Human Stories

Bingo!

24



25

6:00 pm The Art of

Finding Yourself book club

26




27

6:30 pm Deep Peace

Concert

28


29

2019 Unity

Lincoln

Unity’s International Peoples’ Convention

minister’s letter - unity lincoln · lincoln, nebraska june 2019 our vision for unity lincolnur...

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