THIS WONDERFUL MOVEMENT WE CALL UNITY BEGAN when Myrtle Fillmore healed herself from tuberculosis in 1886. Most of us in Unity are very familiar with her healing and how the thought “I am a child of God and I do not inherit illness,” which she heard in the lecture by E. B. Weeks, changed her life. She learned that by changing her thoughts and beliefs about her illness that she could improve her health and life. For two years she prayed to all of her organs and life centers every day and she was healed. She then began sharing the good news of her healing with anyone interested and ultimately Silent Unity and Unity were born.

End of story, or was it? While her initial healing from tuberculosis is widely known among Unity students, I suspect the rest of story may surprise many. So, “What is the rest of the story?” as Paul Harvey always said.

From the book, Torch-Bearer to Light the Way, by Neal Vahle we learn many of Myrtle’s ideas about healing and health from the numerous letters she wrote. She said in one of these letters:
“Until the individual wakes up and puts himself into the intelligent efforts to free himself from the mental mistakes, and to bless and renew his body, he gets only temporary relief…Until there is a change made in mind and living habits, the same thing which caused the so-called disease will continue to reproduce it.”

She also warned those seeking healing to be persistent yet also counseled against trying too hard. “Stop trying to get well, it is not by personal might or personal power that all things are accomplished, but by the Spirit of God.” and “Too much effort has a ring of anxiety in it, and anxiety acts as a tightening process.” Her advice was to “let go and give up the strenuous efforts.” Most important to Myrtle was strong faith, “faith is the first and most necessary step in healing.”

Still more to the story it doesn’t seem widely known that she and Charles became vegetarians shortly after they began practicing Truth principles. She wrote, “I can’t bear anything with animal grease in it.” She also believed that “appetites need to be disciplined as well as thoughts” and, “The attention to diet is to help the dear body in its renewing work, and to supply it with the very best building foods with which to work.” Myrtle viewed alcohol and cigarettes as two of the unhealthiest substances that could be consumed by the body.

She was very interested in food chemistry “We need to know just the elements the body requires.” She followed a diet prescribed by a doctor/dietitian. Last, but certainly not least, she also believed and practiced daily exercise.

Myrtle was absolutely right in so many ways. Scientists/Biologists such as Bruce Lipton have research to prove that it is not our DNA or genes that determine our health. According to Dr. Lipton in his book The Biology of Belief, two factors more important than DNA are the environment (nutrition) we provide for our cells and our beliefs about ourselves, our health and well being.

I believe to have optimum health at any age we need to:
Eat healthy, nutritious foods
Exercise regularly a minimum of 3 times per week
Pray & meditate daily
Avoid toxic substances such as smoke, even second hand smoke or unhealthy foods
Supplement daily nutrition with good quality vitamins and supplements

Once again we must thank Myrtle Fillmore for her incredible wisdom and insight to good health for mind, body and spirit. Science has finally caught up with Myrtle!
Love & Blessings,
Rev. Debbie

Mary, Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
- Nursery Rhyme

THE SUN ROSE AND I WAS INSPIRED TO PLANT A SEED. I was fired up. It’s is a funny thing about seeds, I have discovered. Some quickly sprout and take root, budding neatly in a row. Others do not. The ground is not right, the timing wrong, or there is no water.

Some seeds grow slowly, resting in the ground, sleeping seeds. They may awake when least looked for.

And, sometimes what grows isn’t what you think you planted. Even if the packet you chose appeared clearly marked. Even if you were so sure.

Plantings take on their own life for better or for worse. They can grow into thorny, uncomfortable things. They get too big for their pots. They become unpredictable.

Yet, you can never write off a seed. They are full of surprises. I think it is important to get passionate and plant a seed. You may not get exactly what you anticipated. Sometimes what grows may seem a weed, but flower unexpectedly. They are the seeds of change. They feed the butterflies, the wings of inspiration and imagination.

If you never plant, you will never grow. So, plant even if it is wild thing, a different thing. Batten down the hatches when the winds blow. Bask in the glow of your flowers when they bloom. Plant and let your colors fly.

Janet Stanley

TO START THE NEW YEAR OFF RIGHT, I decided to take Rev. Debbie’s Imagine Yourself Healthy guided imagery class. I had been exposed to this sort of process before but never really had much success. I’m a “hands on” person and picturing things in my mind has never been easy for me, but I wanted to give it another try.

On a Saturday morning in January, I joined 23 others in the Fellowship Hall. After we had made ourselves comfortable, Rev. Debbie guided us as we imagined creating a room. In the room we would have all the things that we would need to heal ourselves. We were encouraged to embellish our rooms with decor and locations such as in the mountains or by the sea.

Following this first session we took a break and listened to Debbie talk on healing. Further guided meditation took us back into our individual rooms. This time, it was suggested that we bring a “inner healing” guide with us.

Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch off site and returned to view colorful anatomy charts, which helped us to further visualize the body areas we wished to bring health to.

I found this workshop to be especially effective because we started out with simple exercises and meditations, and then moved up a little with each new one. With the techniques I learned, I feel able to practice Imagery Meditation on my own. This class was designed for healing, but the technique can be used for any reason or challenge you choose. We even received a tape of the meditations recorded during the class to aide us.

This class will be offered again in April. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Clara McLaughlin

REV. ALLEN BEGINS A NEW 7 PART SERIES, SET YOUR HEART ON FIRE, Sunday, February 19. The talk series is based on the inspirational book, Setting Your Heart on Fire: Feel Everything by Raphael Cushnir. The program promises a new outlook on achieving love, wisdom and creativity while letting go of life’s struggle and stress.

Sunday talk titles will “invite” you to “Feel Everything” and “Resist Nothing;” “Love like you’re dancing,” and “Widen Your World.”

Prepare to attend each Sunday from February 19 through April 7. The book is available in the bookstore for $12.95

Book Review by Rev. Debbie Moss

In Setting Your Heart On Fire author Raphael Cushnir offers Seven Invitations which guide the reader through choices, emotions, behaviors and beliefs in a very “mindful” way. He writes about the importance of feeling our emotions, neither ignoring nor diminishing the truth of our feelings. Feelings can lead to personal growth if we allow them to surface so that we can accept them and work through any negative feelings.

The first invitation is to notice when we “shut down”, experience emotions in our bodies, allow feelings, identify primary triggers, face the emotions we fear, discover what keeps us from feeling and to see difficult people as emotional signposts.

Invitation by invitation this book leads the reader from identifying and feeling emotions all the way to compassion, love and the knowledge that “The One is none other than the All, the All none other than the One.” Not only are we “one in spirit” we are connected through our consumer goods. Our homes are full of international endeavors. Our cotton clothes and sheets from Egypt, rugs from India or China, wood floors from Canada, oil from Iraq or Venezuela coffee and food from South America. We live in a global community and are interdependent on each other. The author makes the point that every faith offers grace before each meal; perhaps it would be wise for each of us to bless the divine, natural and human energies that went into each meal’s creation. Setting Your Heart On Fire was inspiring and opened my heart to a wider, more global view of the world.

THE SEASON FOR NONVIOLENCE BEGINS ON JAN 30 and dedicates the 64 days between that date and April 4 to cultivating a peaceful way of life individually, locally and globally. The Association for Global New Thought has a web site full of new ideas and affirmations to celebrate the Season for Non violence.

The simplest way to support the Season for nonviolence is to incorporate simple statements of peace into your own daily life. Examples include, “Today, I will look at opportunities to be a peacemaker., “ and, “Today, I will practice nonviolence and respect for Mother Earth by making good use of her resources,” or, “ Today, I will take time to admire and appreciate nature.” Visit agnt.org for more ideas or create your own!

Tampa Unity supports the Season for Nonviolence with screenings of The Long Walk Home on Feb. 10 and The Consciousness of the Christ on Feb. 24.

In addition, pledges for nonviolence in the home, school and work place are available in the Narthex or Fellowship Hall. Watch your Sunday Bulletin for ways to promote peace in our lifetime.

IN HONOR OF FEBRUARY AS BLACK HISTORY MONTH, Ada McFarley, Youth Pastor at Bethel Community Baptist Church, will speak on “The Miracle of Unity.”

Ada is the wife of Tampa Unity Board Member, Angel Rosado, Jr. She has a degree from Bethune Cookman College, and an MBA from National-Louis University. She is currently a doctoral candidate for Pastoral Counseling at St. Petersburg Theological Seminary and preparing for Florida certification as a Family and Marriage Therapist.

Co-speaking with her will be Senior Pastor Dr. Manuel L Sykes, who is soon to receive his Master of Divinity Degree at St. Petersburg Theological Seminary. He is also president of the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary. It is his vision that churches unite in preaching, teaching and training.

Join us at Sunday Services on February 5 to hear these two inspired speakers.

MANY CHRISTIAN FAITHS OBSERVE THE LENTEN SEASON, the 40 days prior to Easter. In his book, Keep a True Lent, Unity’s Co-founder, Charles Fillmore said, “Lent is a church institution and there is no authorization for it anywhere in the New Testament.” Yet, we in Unity observe this forty day period spiritually. Every year Unity Institute publishes a very inspiring daily meditation booklet for these special forty days.

Lent is patterned after the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness in preparation for the beginning of his ministry. So often you see the number 40 in the scriptures and metaphysically, the number 40 simply means enough time has passed to accomplish a thing. This is just one more example of how Unity understands the Bible metaphysically. Easter falls on April 16th this year so I invite you to take time every day during the 40 days preceding Easter to spiritually prepare yourself for something wonderful.

Rev Debbie Moss

FILM DIRECTOR KELL KEARNS SHARES SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT JESUS AND THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE CHRIST IN THIS EXCERPT FROM HIS DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT.

I believe there is a desperate hunger for a film like The Consciousness of The Christ. For too long –1700 years, in fact –the real life teachings of Jesus have been sublimated and manipulated by a Jesus Religion that is often an exact opposite of the Jesus Way.

Many fundamentalist Christian institutions, although they encourage personal piety, glorify and sustain a culture of death, sin, guilt, fear, war and hierarchical oppression. This would have been anathema to Jesus. He came to awaken us from these very nightmares. The idea that Jesus will return, sailing down through the skies on God’s roller coaster to make war on billions of unbelievers, and, once they are safely in hell, establish his kingdom, is blasphemous to his actual teachings. The Consciousness of The Christ answers that Jesus was about a new humane humanity that lives within our potential here and now. Jesus manifested absolute love and absolute forgiveness. He was, as Gandhi said, the most nonviolent person in history. He rejected no one, and no group of people. There is room for all in his vast territory of love.

I refuse to yield the universal Christ of universal love to a fundamentalism that is the tool of violence, prejudice, domination, and wealth that exploits and oppresses the impoverished. Jesus knew that through personal and collective transformation we can do away forever with these great plagues which have brought us to the edge of global destruction. The principles of this New Humanity are what his earliest followers lived.

Our purpose has been to retell the story of perhaps the greatest spiritual genius of human history. We tell of his belief in our true innocence and sinlessness, of our potential to live beyond duality in a Unity of eternal love which can re-make creation itself into the image of love.

We want to re-introduce people to Jesus of Nazareth.