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Wednesday Meditation: 7:00 PM Sunday Service: 10:45 AM |
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Palm Sunday @ UCC:
Lesson Title: - Peaceful Earth Dreams
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Dear Unity Family,
We heard the rain this morning -- wonderful, refreshing April showers, clearing the air and blessing the earth, and we thought again, "Somebody prayed for rain! We're getting showers of blessings!"
We hope you are receiving our enewsletter, where we include updates about the Church finances and goals, and we just want you to know that your gifts of love and substance truly are making the desert bloom for our Church! Thank you and GOD BLESS YOU, with all our hearts!
It is true that, because of your active faith, we see the grass greener all around for UCC, and we are so very grateful!
Our expectation is that as we continue to practice the prosperity principles, the supply will come forth -- as fully as spring rain, in right timing and in ways that are a blessing to all. We call God's blessings the "rain of Jehovah” and we know that our good cannot be kept from us, nor can your good be kept from you.
The Prophet Elijah (II Kings) told the kings to dig irrigation trenches in the desert when there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. They dreamed of rain, and the rain came!
Charles Fillmore, Cofounder of the Unity Movement, said --
"If we pray for rain, we should be sure that we have our umbrellas with us” (Charles Fillmore, Prosperity, 1936).
We have our umbrellas ready, and we affirm, “Now are the showers of blessings!”
Gratefully, Leddy and all the Board of Directors of UCC
Thought you might like a UCC prosperity update.
As a result of the appearance of the current global crisis, UCC's regular income is down significantly due to the postponement of classes and meetings and a decrease in the usual love offerings placed in the offertory at Sunday services.
While we work to decrease non-essential costs, expenses continue for payroll, utilities, grounds-keeping, insurance, and similar items. Although our staff works at home on computers as much as possible, our helpers continue to take care of our Church home by doing organizing projects, repairs, maintenance, and oversight.
Several folks have inquired as to whether UCC has made application for government assistance for which UCC does indeed qualify as a small nonprofit business and an employer for our small but dedicated staff. The answer is YES, as empowered by our Board of Directors, as well-advised, our Financial Manager has indeed made appropriate applications. We were informed by our bank, PNC, that although our application was placed early, the allocated funding has already been distributed. Should more funding be allocated, our application will be considered. For now, in regard to hoping the government would be our "source," that has never been the case.
I'd like to share the following:
"God is our Source; 'my expectation is from Him.' If our good is to appear from government assistance, then we will welcome it. If not, then we will continue to look to God, our instant, constant, ever-accessible and inexhaustible Source, as we have always done. Meantime, we continue to pay Staff salaries and send loving tithes to the musicians we had been compensating regularly. We are also prepared to go to our Church reserves to continue to meet these commitments, unless the Board of Directors advises us to do otherwise. If this Church is alive in the minds and hearts of our people, then it will survive. We place it in God's hands."
Many of you have inquired how you can express loving and faithful support for your Church at this time. Because of the seeming uncertainty around health and safety issues, we cannot say yet when or how we might be able to gather at our Church again. We affirm scientific insights and thoughtful process. The Church that Jesus built was not a physical place, but a spiritual consciousness. He understood cyberspace! Therefore, we work every day to increase accessibility to the Jesus Christ teachings of Unity through the internet, Facebook, and Zoom;. More folks than ever are being drawn to UCC over the internet! Many enjoying interacting through the chat function during our 7:00 PM Wednesday "Faith Lift" Prayer Times with The Reverend Judy Tafelski and 11:00 AM Sunday services on FB and our website with The Reverend Leddy Hammock (with music from Sue Riley or Tim Burnaman at both events).
All prayer requests sent by mail or email receive a loving and personal response. We are very grateful for those who donate on line or mail in offerings and tithes to UCC, as they feel led. Our Church and its leaders and members continue to tithe, freely donating ten percent or more of all income to spiritual work and workers who feed our world spiritually.
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There's also some info there about this little guy.
Please
notice that from the time when the Unity work began in Clearwater in
1941 through the present, through changes and challenges of many kinds, our Church has neither sent out financial appeals nor issued pledges. According to our faith, it is being done.
UCC is much more than just a building. It is a spiritual consciousness!
We intend to go on, though that will no doubt take intentional effort
to create new ways of being together and continuing to live out the
mission and ministry of our beloved community.
Thank
you for your commitment and generous support for UCC – during these
challenging times and always. We see you serenely sheltered and richly
prospered in every beautiful way! |
| | On Sundays We've Started Streaming at 10:45 To See If We Can Get a Little Headstart on the Church Internet Traffic
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| | This week’s lesson inspired by lyrics to “We Share the Dream of Peace” by David Roth, Jana Stanfield and Sue Riley:
God is good and God’s creation is good. The earth is made out of Good and made for good! God is good, and God’s creation is good: the earth is made out of Good and made for good! Imagining the future, remembering the past, together, we can co-create a vision that will last.
The earth is our sacred household. We are in charge of caring for the earth and all of its creatures, wisely and lovingly. We have the precious present and our presence holds the key to a world that is more loving as we share the dream of peace.
God bless the earth and all who live on earth. In universal Spirit, there are differences allowed. But, halfway ‘round the world, we know, their rain brings rainbows, too. Though we might seem so different, I am just the same as you.
God’s name is Good — always ready to be expressed — in our good thoughts, words, and actions, in all the earth, for the highest good of all. We have the precious present and our presence holds the key to a world that is more loving as we share the dream of peace. |
| | | | Y'all Are Keeping Us Encouraged |
| This Week's Kind Words from Trina Anderson
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| “Whenever a challenge from a worldly and/or personal view appears in my life, I stop, relax and breathe.
I can remember some of the most important lessons I have heard and learned at UCC to help me—Let Go and Let God, and I Choose Love.” |
| | | In the past couple of weeks many have asked "what's the best way to send an offering to the church?"
We're checking mail every day, so checks sent through the mail are fine as are checks sent from your bank's online bill pay.
If you feel led you might consider setting up an automatic recurring donation. This can be done through your banks bill pay or on the church's donation form.
We've also been asked about the processing fees the church has to pay when the online form is used. The fees are a small percentage (3&-4%) of the total donation, however there is an option to cover fees that you may select if you feel so inclined. Every little bit helps and we're grateful if you decide to turn that option on.
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| | "Love in Action" & Video by Pam Rose
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| "Love in Action"
"When you go out and see the empty streets, the empty stadiums, the empty train platforms, don't say to yourself, 'It looks like the end of the world.'
What you're seeing is love in action. What you're seeing, in that negative space, is how much we do care for each other, for our grandparents, for our immune-compromised brothers and sisters, for people we will never meet.
People will lose jobs over this. Some will lose their businesses. and some will lose their lives. All the more reason to take a moment, when you're out on your walk, on your own way to the store, or just watching the news, to look into the emptiness and marvel at all of the love.
Let it fill and sustain you. It isn't the end of the world. It is the most remarkable act of global solidarity we may ever witness." -- Author Unknown |
| | Love is in action around the globe, as illustrated in this marvelous video by emPower Music and Arts (emPowerMA.com) Posi Award Recipient, brilliant singer-songwriter, Pam Rose.
We featured her song, "If I Fly" from her great CD of the same name at UCC last October.
We had invited her to perform at Unity of Clearwater on a Sunday this spring, before Covid19 changed our plans. We will certainly ask her to come again when we are able to gather together in person.
Please listen to her amazing voice, singing a prayer for all humankind. We're sharing this article on "Love in Action" in our enewsletter for two weeks, so as many people as possible can read the above quote and view the video, as we approach Earth Day (April 22).
Love is alive and breathing on planet earth! |
| | Free Playlist from emPower Music (click image)
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“All things and all conditions of body and affairs have their origin in mind . . . . ‘God and [hu]man[kind, heaven and earth, and all the healing powers that be now unite in healing me.’ . . . It is universally recognized that the whole human family . . . [are] asking one another at every turn: what next? What will be the outcome? . . . . We hold that those who have had revealed to them the peace-giving power of the Christ mind should be unusually energetic in declaring it to be the dominant quality in the minds of [people] everywhere. Do not argue or contend with error but silently (and aloud if the occasion seems propitious), declare the presence and power of the Christ. . . . It will require more than moral fortitude and courage to cope successfully with the conditions that are imminent inhuman affairs, and we shall all need the help of a higher power. This higher power we shall find the Christ Mind. Cast out fear as far as the tribulations of the world are concerned. Affirm: I press forward with courage and boldness in the power of God.” – Charles Fillmore, in “Healing through Praise and Thanksgiving” from Jesus Christ Heals, 1939. |
| Your Weekly Affirmation:
WE TRUST IN THE POWER OF GOD, PRESENT AND ACTIVE IN EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE IN THIS WORLD AND WE PRESS FORWARD WITH COURAGE AND BOLDNESS TO SHARE THE DREAM OF PEACE ON EARTH.
THANK YOU, GOD! |
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