News You Can Use

FALL PROGRAM EMPHASIZES THE POWER OF POSITIVE PRAYER

STRANGE THINGS

VISION DAY 2006

PASTORAL CARE COUNCIL WANTS TO SERVE YOU!

DRAMATIC WORLD CHANGES WITH DR. GEORGE CATLIN

A WHALE OF A TALE

WANTED: SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER!

PAINLESS GIVING 101

MANY YEARS AGO I BEGAN TO WRITE DOWN PRAYERS and personal self-revelatory musings in a book. As I began to read and prepare for our fall program based on the book Adventures in Prayer by Rev. Sharon Connors, I pulled my prayer book out and began to look through it. Some of the prayers or affirmations are from the Bible, people, or from other religions, both modern and ancient. Here is a musing from my prayer book, that I heard spoken many times by a Unity minister I greatly admire, Rev. Stan Hampson:

God never hurries and is always on time.

This has certainly placed things in perspective when I think things aren’t moving quickly enough. It also evokes the ancient writings by the author of the book of Ecclesiastes: For everything there is a season.

Here is an excerpt I wrote down from Lord Ayyappan, VI Temple on Sabari Hill:

Innocent Vijaya did not know the secret veil beneath his prayer, that is to say, that the Divine was working through him to fulfill his purpose on earth. He did not know the invaluable and sacred service that he was rendering to mankind at large by his prayer.

These words are a reminder that prayers are not static. They are not idle words with no power or meaning. Prayers are filled with energy! Many of us can cite examples of answered prayer and some of them are seemingly miracles of God’s goodness and grace. I am reminded of a thought that miracles are God’s way of remaining anonymous.

REVEREND SHARON CONNERS SPEAKS

On November 12th, Rev. Connors will be at Tampa Unity to present the wrap-up to our fall series. I know Sharon from my time spent at Unity’s School of Religious Studies and her time as Senior Minister at The Village Chapel at Unity’s World Headquarters. Rev. Connors stands true to the Unity way of prayer and she offers a lot of practical methods and prayers for both understanding and Praying Your Way to a God You Can Trust. No doubt many of the prayers she gives in this book, will find their way into my personal prayer book.

FELLOWSHIP HALL AND LIBRARY DEDICATION

In the spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving, we will bless and dedicate our beautifully renovated Fellowship Hall and the new Carol McEwen Dyches Library after our Sunday morning service on November 19. Following the dedication ceremony in Fellowship Hall, we will enjoy some refreshments.

At one of our focus meetings, an attendee mentioned how peaceful they felt when they walked into our new library and just sat on the sofa in silence. They could sense and feel the prayers that are embedded in the walls. In the words of Lord Ayyappan, maybe there is “secret veil” beneath those prayers, a veil through which the Divine is working through all of us at Tampa Unity to fulfill our purpose in our spiritual community and indeed, in the world.

Life is all about the unveiling of our Divine Self... the Christ spirit within. And along the path of life, we sometimes create opportunities to grow quickly into that Divine Self. Most likely that was the case with me on March 8, 1995, because I wrote the following prayer in my book and I leave you with this prayer in the hopes that it will make a difference in your life.

Sweeten my tongue with words of encouragement and love, that I may not offend Thee and, just as importantly, myself, my Divine Being.

Rich and Abundant Blessings,
Rev Allen Moss

PRAYING FOR OTHERS AND PRAYING FOR YOU IS A JOY FOR ME. I love taking time to pray for specific needs and requests for you, my friends and my family members. But, praying for myself for specific outcomes? I am so blessed in so many ways, what could I ask for? Sometimes I feel like the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, with my arms outstretched in two different directions. Should I pray for something specific or be open to whatever God wants to send me or have happen? Should I pray for my will or God’s will? Is there a difference?

Adventures in Prayer, by Rev. Sharon Connors, has really helped me focus on my own specific needs and to remember (I needed to be reminded) that both ways of praying have merit and power. It is appropriate for me to pray specifically as long as I can release the outcome, let go and let God, and stop trying to “make” something happen through my own will. If I’m too emotionally attached to an outcome, then my best solution is to pray “Not my will but Your will, God.” Always, always for me my most powerful prayer is “Ok, God, I have done all that I can do; now I need Your help.” Then to the best of my ability, I let it go and get still and quiet. Almost always some divine inspiration will come to me at that moment or later. This prayer has never failed me; more accurately, God has never failed me!

Adventures in Prayer is a beautifully written book capable of reminding all of us how to pray believing and affirming positive prayer for ourselves and others. I hope that each of you will join us as we study Adventures in Prayer weekly beginning October 1 for seven weeks. You will have an even more meaningful experience by either hosting a home study group or joining one. These groups are open to everyone and you can pick one that is close to your home or work. Being a participant in a home study group will surely be a very spiritual and memorable experience for you and you will be blessed.

At the very least, I invite you to get the book and study on your own the questions that will be posted in our bulletin every week beginning October 1. Attend the Sunday Services based on Adventures in Prayer and you are especially invited to hear Rev. Sharon Connors speak at both services on November 12. She will be facilitating a workshop that afternoon following the 11:00 a.m. Sunday Service.

In the meantime remember you are always in my prayers.
Love & Blessings,
Rev Debbie Moss

I LOVE THE RAIN. Some people do not care for rain. But, in Florida, in the summer, I love the rain. When the season is at its muggy worst, an afternoon thunder storm is a welcome segue from the hot afternoon sun to the cool shadows of the night. Cumulus clouds collect like mountains on the horizon. Anticipation builds as they billow and darken. Afterwards, a sunset is much more interesting when it filters through the spent rain clouds. And, strange things grow in the rain.

Walking in the dark evening shadows is an adventure in sound and shadow. The rain has amplified the night. Foot steps echo on wet pavement. Frogs sing excessively. Water drip, drip, drips from over laden leaves. The night is a strange concert of sounds: drips and chirps, and wet rustles and croaks. The wind speaks in riddles. Did someone call my name? I stop and turn, listening, waiting for the voice again. After a protracted stillness the wind whispers again, just the wind. Thunder reverberates in the distance. More rain is coming.

The sunrises on a wet world. Strange things have grown in the rain. Over night the garden world has taken on a Jack and the Bean Stalk magic. Every thing is larger than life. That vine, that shrub, when did they get so big? The butterflies are immense. Fungi scallops encircle fallen tree limbs. Fairy rings of mushrooms have appeared where none were to be found just yesterday.

In the morning, after a stormy night, the moss hangs wet and low. The air is clean and hollow. Birds caw and whistle from far away. Mysterious ponds and puddles appear inviting them hither for a bath and breakfast of fat, wiggling worms. The drive is green with algae. The smell is of earth and damp.

Grey clouds are tinted with pink as they disperse in the wake of the rising sun. The increasing light turns each wet drop to diamond as a fresh, green day begins. Strange things grow in the rain like the promise of a new beginning.

Janet Stanley

26 PEOPLE GATHERED IN FELLOWSHIP HALL on Saturday, August 19th. Our mission was to envision our goals for the following areas within Tampa Unity: Pastoral Care, Youth Education, Volunteers, Music Ministry, Spanish Ministry, Facilities and Grounds.

We began by reviewing the accomplishments of each group over the past year. Just having the meeting in our beautiful Fellowship Hall was a testimony to one huge area of success! In addition, we discussed any challenges the groups had experienced this past year.

Next, each group met separately to revisit last year’s Mission Statement, make adjustments, and return to the large group with their decisions, revised statements, and justification for changes.

The most important addition to our efforts this year was for each group to consider the following guidelines in identifying new goals: How does this goal help attract people to Tampa Unity? How does this goal serve congregants at Tampa Unity?

Our final step was to join together and share the goals and the implementation plans outlined.

Communication continues via email now as we closely monitor the due dates and goals completed. We will share an overview of the Vision 2006 Plan at the Annual Meeting on October 29th.

Working with these dedicated and passionate people is both empowering and humbling and I am honored to be assisting in this process.
Thanks to All Who Participated!

Nancy Mercurio

DURING OUR VISIONING DAY THE PASTORAL CARE COUNCIL, which includes Rev. Debbie and Clara McLaughlin and Chaplains Mary Riley, Julene Gordon (Chaplain Emeritus), Lori Collins, and Carol Borchert, created this vision: “To identify and meet the prayer and pastoral care support needs of Tampa Unity Church’s members and visitors..”

In order to succeed, we need your help. Please let us know when you have a prayer need. For example, when you’re going to be in the hospital, or are homebound due to injury or illness. If you know other members or attendees of Tampa Unity who may need pastoral care, please advise us as well.

MANY WAYS TO PRAY

The Pastoral Care Program consists of Chaplains, who are trained to pray with you before or after the service for your challenges and joys. They also call members who have requested it every month just to see if they have a prayer need.

There is a Prayer Team. These dedicated people take each prayer card and pray for the individual and their need every day for two weeks. Afterwards, the cards are sent to Silent Unity where they remain in prayer for another 30 days. These team members remain anonymous and never discuss any prayer needs. Confidence and privacy are maintained for everyone, who drops a prayer card in the prayer box or calls the office with a need.

We also have a Chaplain Prayer Line. If you have a prayer need and would like to have the Chaplains know about the need and hold you in prayer, please call 813-870-0731, ext 301 and leave a message. This line is checked daily and your prayer need will be met.

For a quick prayer “pick-me-up,” try the Dial -A- Prayer line with a recorded inspirational message and prayer at 813-875-0102.

VISITS TO THE HOMEBOUND

With the Adopt An Elder Program, volunteers telephone a homebound or nursing home Tampa Unity member once a week and visit them twice a month. Our elders and seniors represent some of our members with the greatest needs in terms of face to face contact. You have no idea how much a phone call and a short visit means to someone who is homebound, in an assisted living facility, or a nursing home and likely to feel “forgotten” by their church.

SUNDAY SERVICE TO GO

We provide tapes or CDs of every Sunday Service. These are sent free of charge to our homebound seniors or someone recovering from an illness or hospital stay free.

AN INVITATION...

We invite you to join in the blessings of Pastoral Care. Volunteer opportunities are available in all areas of Pastoral Care. Do you have an activity or talent such as singing, clowning, magic or even crafting or games that would interest seniors residing in an assisted living facility? Please contact Rev. Debbie.

We would like to create a team of volunteers who would be willing to prepare food for those who are homebound due to hospitalization or illness.

A volunteer is needed to coordinate the cards for seniors so that we can put this program back on track. We provide the cards and encourage members to write short notes sending blessings and love to our homebound members.

We would also like someone to co-ordinate a transportation program for those who are unable to drive to Sunday Services.

And please watch for more information concerning Chaplain training in the upcoming new year.

There is no greater joy or rapid path to spirituality and enlightenment than serving others; every prayer prayed leaves a carbon copy with the prayer. The Universal law of giving and receiving works rapidly through serving others and the blessings are incredible. We invite you to join one of these teams. Simply call Mary Riley at extension 301 or Rev. Debbie at 813-970-0731, ext 201 to express your desire to serve. Your service is needed and you will be generously blessed!

Rev Debbie Moss

ACCLAIMED AUTHOR AND LECTURER DR. GEORGE CATLIN, PHD, will speak at Tampa Unity on Tuesday evening, November 7. His topic is The Way into the Heart of Humanity, the Return of the Teachers. Dr. Catlin asserts that the world is on the threshold of a genuine transformation of its most basic structures. He says, “Our current model is based on a sense of separation and competition. Very soon we will know beyond all doubt that we are inwardly connected to everything, and that will profoundly affect all that we do.”

Dr. Catlin cites the dramatic rise in non-sectarian spirituality as the first sign of what is to come. Regarding the future, he claims, “Very soon we will see a group of extraordinary individuals emerge on the planet who will voice the yearnings of all human hearts: the desire for peace, justice, and sharing. As we respond to their call for right human relations, we will remake the world.”

In Catlin’s view, all forms of modern society are ripe for change: “Education, commerce, politics...you name it. All our structures are the result of our past understanding, and that understanding is about to change. We will soon see that only through cooperation can we survive, and only through cooperation will we ever find real joy God/Spirit/the One really exists, and when we consciously participate in that one life, we find personal and collective fulfillment.”

Dr. Catlin is the author of The Way to Happiness. If you believe that everything we do is motivated by our desire for happiness, wouldn’t you think we’d be happy by now? This force lures us like a great homing signal, yet we seldom find our way to it. Why then is it so difficult to find and hold on to happiness? Why are we so limited in our ability to find happiness? Do we know what "happiness" really is?

These are the questions George Catlin, Ph.D, claims you must ask yourself before you embark on your search. These are the questions he will help you answer in his new book from DeVorss Publications, The Way to Happiness. Questions and discussion will take place after Dr. Catlin’s talk. His book will also be available.

Questions and discussion will take place after Dr. Catlin’s talk. His book will also be available. Dr. Catlin has devoted his professional and personal life to understanding the whole person with an emphasis on psychological health. The heart of his work is the result of research while investigating not only what could go wrong psychologically, but also by concentrating on what could go right. He studied extensively at the University of Massachusetts where he earned his PhD in Psychology followed by an academic career as a Professor at Carthage College and Amherst. He now resides in Southern California with his wife and family.

Please join us on Tuesday, November 7 at 7 pm for an informative and inspirational evening. Presented on a love offering basis.

TAMPA UNITY’S NOREEN MAIER PRESENTS HER ONE WOMAN SHOW, WHALE HO! in Fellowship Hall on November 10 and 11 at 7:30 pm. The autobiographical piece recounts memories of a childhood spent in the small Long Island fishing town of Sag Harbor. With subjects spanning from the Olympic career of Olga Korbut to the tasty crunch of fried blowfish; from art films to alcoholism, the show is at once funny, poignant and insightful.

The performance is co-produced with Rose and Thistle Theater Company and marks the debut of Tampa Unity’s Creative Café in the Fellowship Hall, where we plan to offer more evenings of entertainment in an intimate setting.

Noreen originally developed Whale Ho! with the Tampa Bay Performing Art’s Center’s Artists Collective. The Collective introduced participants to nationally acclaimed performance artists such as Doug Cooney and Rhodessa Jones. Students worked with the artists to develop their own original material, which was presented in showcases at the Center.

Noreen had been active in the local theater scene for over a decade. She is the creator of two one-person performance pieces and has studied acting and writing at the Center’s Patel Conservatory.

She will facilitate a workshop on Saturday, November 11, in Fellowship Hall from 1 to 4 pm. Anyone interested in the creation of their own original performance piece is invited to attend on a love offering basis.

Participants will enjoy an afternoon of creative writing and movement exercises designed to take ideas from conception to performance. We hope to produce a showcase for the Creative Café sometime after the holidays. Children’s classes are also planned for a later date.

Tickets for Whale Ho! are a $10.00 suggested love offering and are available in the bookstore and 45 minutes before show time.

We asked for Sunday School Teachers and Assistants and many have answered the call. Insurance guidelines call for two adults present in each class room. Leaving with our sincere gratitude for their service are Carolyn Deese and Sharon Hall. Brenda Hunt, Ann Marie Huggins, Maureen McCarthy are continuing on for the next year. They are joined by new teachers Andrea Barreto, Karen Murphy, Alex Boyer and Silyvia Gregory.

Teachers pair up in teams and teach on alternate Sundays. Assistants fill out the staff so that we can meet the two adults requirement. Brenda Hunt is in need of a partner for the Uniteens class. If you enjoy working with preteens and would like the satisfaction of providing a positive impact upon the life of a young person, please see our Director of Youth Education, Jean Wynne, after Sunday Services. If you feel unable to make the year-long commitment, you can still help by signing up to be an assistant.

Check out the bulletin board at the entrance to the Youth Ed Area in Fellowship Hall for new updates and useful information. And parents, please remember to register your child. Due to insurance regulations, we must have paperwork for every child in our Sunday School Program.

COMING SOON: Children’s Christmas Play. Watch your bulletins for try-out, rehearsal, and performance information!

his is a refresher course on ways you can help Tampa Unity. And it doesn’t cost anything or require you to expend any energy. I call it the Painless Way in three easy lessons.

Lesson 1: If you are going to order anything from www.Amazon.com, first log onto www.unitytampa.org and go to the Bookstore site. Click in the Amazon logo at the bottom of the page and make your purchase. The church will receive 5% of whatever you spend. See, that was easy!

Lesson 2: Bring in all your empty ink cartridges and deposit them in the box located in the bookstore. When the box is full, we tape it up and call for a postage-paid pick-up. We even have individual plastic bags you can take to mail from home. They are pre-stamped and printed with our account number. Just drop your used cartridges in the your mailbox. You can even take the bags to your place of business and encourage your co- workers to mail in their cartridges. It is SO easy! We receive from $2 to $4 for each cartridge.

Since joining this recycling program in 2004, we have received over $1200.00 in donations! This not only helps Tampa Unity, but keeps the cartridges out of the land fills. And that helps Mother Nature, too!.

Lesson 3: www.igive.com is another website that will donate up to 26% of your purchase to Tampa Unity or your favorite charity. They have over 676 major stores on this website.

Please be sure to stop by the Bookstore and say “Hi!” And while you’re here, check out the new releases and, of course, the old favorites on Truth teaching.

Please note: Tampa Unity does not endorse any of these websites but only offers you a way to support your church painlessly as you go about your everyday life.

Clara McLaughlin