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OCTOBER NEWSLETTER Beloved Friends, Unity Church of the Bay Area is a loving spiritual community embracing the teachings of Jesus Christ. We inspire minds, awaken hearts and empower lives. We envision a magnificent spiritual center of Love, beholding a world in which all people honor each other and live together in peace and harmony. October marks the beginning of our new fiscal year. What a busy and abundant year it has been! We have been blessed in every area of our ministry. Our church continues to grow and prosper through the wondrous gifts of time, talent and treasure that you each share with our church. Our mission and vision statement above continues to guide us as we seek to know and do the will of God through our church. Our Love in Action teams have been blessed with new members. Our newly formed Outreach and Development teams are busy finding ways and means to create abundance for our church and ways to share with and serve our greater community. This year we have created a Building Fund so that one day we can own our own church. We have been blessed with two major donations to support this vision of our own church home. We have been able with these contributions and others to build this fund to over $62,000. Praise God! Each gift to the Building Fund is a seed planted and nurtured with Divine Love. Together, we bring the vision alive! Charles and Cora Fillmore wrote in the book, Teach Us To Pray, “Give of your substance with the thought that it is God's money you are handling. Realize that it is his tenth you are giving for His glory. With this thought in mind you will begin to attract new spiritual resources and things will begin to open up in your affairs.” Our church tithes faithfully on all monetary gifts received. We are blessed by your gifts, a living testament to the power of giving freely and receiving freely. I invite you to consciously live from a deep awareness of God each and every moment of every day. Your days will surely be filled with peace, abundance and joy. Thank you for your generous giving! Prepare yourself for abundant receiving! I give in love. I receive in love. I am part of God's Divine Plan! In Christ Love, AMY’S ANGLE When one door closes, another one opens. And sometimes when we're a little afraid, God sends some angels to hold the door for us. It's truly been an honor to serve you as a Board of Trustees member and as your President this past year. As you know, Barb Clemons and I are rotating off the Board this month. We will be electing our new Board members at our Annual Meeting on October 10th. It's an important meeting for all Unity Church of the Bay Area members to attend, to be a part of this exciting and sacred decision making time at our church. It's hard to put into words how much serving on the Board has meant to me. How do you explain what it means to be a part of a team of loving, growing people who are committed to Unity principles and to their own spiritual growth in service to our church? I have a new confidence and an acceptance that I didn't possess before. But guess what – it came from stretching, from reaching out to others, from facing my fears and asking for God's help. And now another door has opened. I recently completed the Chaplain Training. Now, to be honest, I had some rather intensely fearful moments in this training (as did some of my fellow neophyte chaplains). I'm talking breathe through this talk to myself moment by moment kind of fear at times. And for me, the scariest part was having faith that I could do it, with God, even when I had no "left brain crutches" in one exercise we did. Not only did we all do it, but I walked out of there feeling so loved and connected to all the angels (a.k.a. chaplains and Rev. Steve) surrounding me, that I floated home. Have you wanted to get more involved, to join a team, to stretch a bit or face a fear? The door is open. Angels will be there to hold it. God will walk every step with you. And always remember, we chaplains would love to pray with you! Amy Groblewski BOARD TALK By Barb The Board voted to split the tithe for August between Unity School (60%) and the Chaplain program at Unity of Phoenix (40%). Unity of Phoenix originated the program and is taking it to other Unity churches. The program has been very successful here. The Building Fund tithe for July will be split between the Building Fund for Unity Church Universal in Kansas City (the first one) and the fund for the work that Sister Leggol is doing in Honduras. The Survey showed that, at this time, we do not have enough interest in an early service. A nursery worker has been hired to care for our younger angels during Sunday services. This is working quite well and frees up volunteers to help teach or assist with the older children. Gayle McFadden reported on Team activities. The Teams are doing well but new volunteers are always needed and welcomed. The Building Fund is doing well. We received contributions of $21,875 in August. The Nominating Committee for the elections at the Annual Meeting on October 10th has received nominations for four candidates. The Chaplain training session was very successful and we have 14 chaplains now. Rev. Steve will have a Blessing of the Pets on Saturday, 10/16. There was a good turnout last year and it was a lot of fun for those that participated. On a personal note, I would like to thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as a Board member for the last three years. It has been a very rewarding experience and a fun one. I shall miss it. YOUTH ED THANK YOU to all those who serve and recently volunteered to be a part of our Youth Education team! Our children attending Sunday school continue to grow in numbers. All volunteers are loved and appreciated as we minister to our most precious gifts, our children. We are always open to any and all help you can offer in our Youth Education department, if even for one Sunday a month! We each are incredibly blessed to be living in this country. However, what we consider a basic need is often a luxury item for an average family in Central America. I have a deep passion for helping children around the world to receive all of the help they need. You CAN make a difference for a child that needs our love and support. Please bring new or gently used twin sheets and pillowcases by October 24th to the church. I will deliver them during the first week of November in Honduras on the island of Roatan. We will be building beds, assembling them so that children will have for the first time a real bed. I will also take the pillowcases that our own youth decorated earlier this year. These pillowcases reflect their blessings, hopes & dreams to their global brothers and sisters with pictures and phrases in English and Spanish. The program, A Bed For Every Child is the primary focus of SOFTLY International (see their web page at www.softlyinternational.org for more info). These beds provide a safe place to sleep, study, pray & dream. I believe education is very important in uplifting and improving lives. However, it is difficult to learn in school if you are not getting a good night's rest or if you're sick from parasitic infection due to sleeping on the ground or floor. Please help me share our love and blessings with these precious souls. Children ARE our future - in our family, our community, our country and our world. Youthful Blessings, Chris Bennett SUNDAYS IN OCTOBER October 3rd – Use Your Imagination! October 10th – Faith That Moves Mountains! October 17th – Spiritual Understanding! October 24th – Finding Our Strength In God! October 31st – Tapping Into Our Inner Wisdom! Reverend Stephen P. Horn NEW CLASS The Gospel of John: The ChristJoin Reverend Diane Plamondon for this exciting class that uses a dynamic film that dramatically portrays the Gospel of John as translated by the American Bible Society in the Good News Bible. Each class will have approximately 35 minutes of film presentation followed by discussion of the verses covered in the film. We will discuss how these verses have impacted us and how we are able to personally apply the spiritual principles contained in the Scripture to our daily lives. The purpose of this class is to understand that the Bible holds meaning for our lives. It is a loving message given us by the Holy Spirit and meant to be used as a manual for living. The student is expected to come to class having read the verses that will be covered. Questions are always welcome. Everyone’s point of view will be respected. We are not there to convince anyone, only to open ourselves that the Holy Spirit might convince us. Rev. Diane will be using the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible for the course. Each student may opt to purchase a Good News Bible at a bookstore or can use other translations, but we will not devote a lot of time to discerning differences in translations. It is suggested that the Scripture be read prayerfully over a period of several days and after prayer. Please read Chapters 1-4 of John for the first class on October 20th. Wednesday Nights: 7:00-9:00 pm
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