The metaphysical meaning of Easter , according to Charles Fillmore and the Revealing Word, is "the awakening and raising to spiritual consciousness of the I AM in man. Easter is a time of awakening: new flowers bloom, and oak trees shed their dead leaves, replacing the old with new fresh green leaves. Some would also note the pollen which accompanies the new green leaves and new blooms. There is a feeling of the earth coming to life again and we are surrounded by even greater beauty. Many of us feel an extra excitement about life and are driven outside to work our gardens, walk, and bike, and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.

It may seem that Easter and spring just appear very suddenly, yet there was the winter of preparation. The bulbs and seeds were in the cold, dark ground; the oak leaves had to die; many plants experienced a frost this year. All of this represents preparation. The preparation work is required before the fresh green leaves and beautiful blooms appear. There can be no resurrection without a crucifixion.

The same principle applies to us humans; we often experience a dark night of the soul, and times when we feel crucified, spiritually challenged, or even feel hurt by another person. We need to apply the same metaphysical meaning of Easter to our experiences of feeling "crucified." We can remember that "Easter" means the awakening and raising to spiritual consciousness of the I AM. Feeling crucified or challenged by someone or something can lead to that glorious Easter feeling of renewal and new life. Charles Fillmore also wrote one of the metaphysical meanings of Resurrection the restoring of mind and body to their original undying state. A new flood of life comes to all who open their minds and their bodies to the living word of God.

We grow and mature spiritually when we work our way through challenges, when we realize that no one is against us, and when we realize that our experiences good and bad create opportunities for spiritual awareness and growth. There can be no resurrection without a crucifixion. Happy Easter!

Love & blessings,
Rev Debbie

SPRING IS HERE AND OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL IS WINDING DOWN THE SCHOOL YEAR and getting ready for summer. The last day is May 31, which will be a game day. During the summer, our regular Sunday School Teachers will take a break, and we ask for volunteers to fill in. It's a great way to see if teaching Sunday school is right for you, without making a big commitment.

Summer Sunday School goes from June 7th through Aug 23rd - that's only 12 Sundays! You can volunteer for as little as one, or take the plunge for up to 12! Curriculum is provided; we just need your time and love. Sign-up sheets are located in the Youth ED Department. Class ranges are Pre-K, K - 1st and 2nd grade, 3rd through 5th grade, 6th through 8th grade, and Uniteens.

HEAVEN ON EARTH!

This year's Vacation Bible School program is called Heaven on Earth - Where God's Love Starts, from June 8th through 12th, 9am till noon for ages 3 to 13. Children will learn how to use Unity's 5 Basic Principles and talk to God through Day Dreaming (meditating) in their "Tree House." There will be games, lessons, crafts, and snacks - and on the last day, a fun Pizza Party!

Registration is May 3 through May 24 and there are 35 spaces available on a $20 love-offering basis. If you would like to volunteer to help with Vacation Bible School, please see Jean Wynne on Sunday.

OUR KIDS NOW HAVE A GREAT NEW OPPORTUNITY AT TAMPA UNITY -A ROTATION OF CHILDREN'S FINE ARTS ACTIVITIES!  Each activity will be a short- term commitment, no more than 6 or 8 Sundays, from 10:15 to 10:50 am, and each will culminate with a performance (or display) for the congregation. Children sign up only for those sessions they are interested in.   

Parents can drop off their children in Youth Ed and then enjoy a cup of coffee with other parents in Fellowship Hall, read a book in the TU library, or, if so inclined, stick around and help out.

We have many educators and artistic talents in our congregation whom we plan to tap for help with our various arts units - a true network of artistic opportunities for our kids!   

The first TUCAN activity is the Children's Choir. Director Jennis Thomas is planning a fun, musical experience for children age 5 and older. No previous experience necessary! Many thanks go to the talented Tanya McEwen, who has offered to serve as the group's accompanist on the piano.

Children will be expected to adhere to group rehearsal etiquette guideline and must be willing to practice a bit outside of rehearsal. As there are only 5 rehearsals, attendance is important. The Group will perform at the 11 am Sunday Service on May 17.

Pre-registration is required. You can sign your child up now through Easter Sunday, April 12, at the Youth Ed table.

Possible upcoming TUCAN activities include drama/theatre where we will present a short spiritually-themed play at the 11 am Sunday Service, visual arts, and a children's hand bell choir, which will perform at the 11:00 am Sunday Service.

Please contact Jennis Thomas for further information: jennis.thomas@gmail.com

THE YOUTH OF UNITY ATTENDED THEIR SPRING RALLY, MARCH 13-15 IN LEESBERG, FL.  They were in good company with 230 participants from all over the Southeast Region, including groups from North Carolina and Tennessee.  The theme for the weekend was "Who do I say I am?".

In a workshop lead by Robin Powers they explored the ANTS (annoying negative thoughts) that we give power to in our lives and learned how to take that power back! 

The Y.O.U. held a business meeting to elect two Y.O.Uers to serve as their leaders for the next year.  Our local zone area includes Y.O.U. chapters from Tampa, St Pete, Clearwater, Sarasota, Ft. Myers and Venice. Our own Ali Baltzell was elected to serve as one of their leaders for the coming year.  She is already hard at work planning a Lock-in and Service Project for May 2 and 3. 

Saturday evening was aglow in candlelight as the group honored the young people graduating this year.  Our own chapter honored 5 who leave us for college in the fall.  Thank you for all your tremendous support which helps to offset the cost of attending these extraordinary events.  Our next adventure will take us to Asheville NC. for a week long event in June.

DR. D. FRANKLIN SCHULTZ, PHD, RETURNS TO TAMPA UNITY ON FRIDAY, APRIL 24, FROM 6:00 TO 10 PM.

DR. SCHULTZ IS THE AUTHOR OF A LANGUAGE OF THE HEART: THERAPY STORIES THAT HEAL, a book that explores the language we use to describe our lives and offers tools to make sense of life and relationships. It provides a healthy approach to managing the daily stressors that so often lead to depression or anxiety.

His one-hour presentation on managing fear and anxiety will be followed by a talk that is essentially the first half of A Language of the Heart. Participants will receive program booklets with information and exercises to take home. Dr. Schultz's A Language of the Heart: Therapy Stories That Heal and other recommended reading materials will be available for purchase.

Dr. Schultz is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Lakeland, Florida. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and has been licensed as a clinical psychologist since 1994. Dr. Schultz works with individuals, couples, and families, and he presents communication workshops for corporations, individuals, and premarital and married couples.

If you missed him in February, this is your chance to take advantage of his insightful seminar. Later in May he will offer a full-day workshop. Attendance at one of the evening presentations in a prerequisite. The evening is presented on a love-offering basis.

THE PROCESS OF PERSONAL GROWTH, OR MATURATION, CAN BE LOOKED AT FROM MANY ANGLES, but beneath all of these interpretations you will find one commonality. It involves the bringing forth of unconscious material and integrating it into consciousness. More simply, we strive to know ourselves.

I have been the music director here at Tampa Unity for nine years now, but I also have another profession as a licensed mental health counselor. Lately, I have been collaborating with our minister, Debbie Moss, in the study of a very powerful and influential theory of psychology: Bowen Family Systems Theory.

Family Systems Theory has a unique vantage point into the forces that drive human behavior. Particularly, it focuses not merely on the activities of the individual, but how those activities work in unconscious concert with others.

Studying this point of view has been very inspiring to Debbie and me. It has led us both to a greater understanding of ourselves and our interactions with our families of origin, as well as our present nuclear and extended families. We have both experienced improvement in our relationships with our loved ones (and not-so-loved ones) as a result.

Debbie and I are offering a workshop, Defining Self: Looking at Life From a Family Systems Perspective. It will be a three-part series, offered on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm in Fellowship Hall at Tampa Unity. The dates are April 18th, May 16th, and June 20th. Participants should bring a bag lunch. The cost is your love offering.

We promise to make it fun as well as informative, with skits, exercises, discussions, and video examples from movies. During lunch, I will play some well- known songs that demonstrate the principles. We hope to see you there.

John G. McEwen, LMHC

Defining Self:
Looking at Life From a Family Systems Perspective.
3 part Series
Starts Saturday, April 18

RECENTLY IN CHURCH, REV. ALLEN SPOKE OF ALL THE CHANGES WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY. Your Board of Trustees would like you to be up-to-date and well-informed about proposed changes in our Spiritual Community.

We have been working hard, evolving into a Community-centric model for our Church , which involves more of you creating and manifesting new visions. What that means to us as congregants is that we have more of an ownership in how we design our spiritual community.

Most churches run on the old clergy-centric model, meaning that the Minister leads and the congregants follow. Rev. Allen and Rev. Debbie have worked for years to build the foundation of a community that would work together and build a spiritual home that would work for all of us. Each of us has a say in the "running" of the church and each of us - if we so choose - can give input and help in the setup of each part of our church.

Is this an easier model for our Ministers? Absolutely not. As all of you know, if you put three people in a room and get them to talk about their spiritual beliefs (or politics), you will get three completely different opinions. So the huge growth that comes from this model of church is that we truly get to test our spiritual beliefs and learn to accept each other, exactly as we are, disagree when needed, yet be able to stay above it all and continue to respect and love each other as the expression of God that we all are.

As a result of our community-centric model, an important change is being proposed and we are asking for your input. We have observed that most churches in the Unity movement are called "Unity of (whatever town they are in)." Looking back at our history, our spiritual community was first called "First Unity Society," followed by "Tampa Unity." The Marketing and Facilities Teams, along with the Board of Trustees, have looked at this and have decided that "Unity of Tampa" would place the emphasis on Unity rather than Tampa. Your Board believes Unity of Tampa better represents who we are today and is a more effective name to use on our church signage and in our marketing. We would appreciate your support in this decision. You will see questionnaires in the next two church bulletins asking for your feedback.

This is an exciting and challenging time at Tampa Unity (or Unity of Tampa). Change is always growth- inducing, and to some it may be uncomfortable. Together as a community, we go forward, knowing and affirming that everything comes to us in the right and perfect time

by Dr. Scott Barry

MY BROTHER SAID HE HAD TO SEE IT, GO INSIDE ONE LAST TIME. So, we met at what had been my Grandmother's house, a tiny retirement cottage on a garden lot, the centerpiece of which was a magnificent live oak tree with a long, twisting branch extending at a right angle from its trunk.

Now the house was in foreclosure, abandoned and deteriorating after too many turn-overs in a real estate market gone sour. I accessed the lock box and inserted the key into a conspicuously shiny deadbolt. We stepped back hastily as termite pellets sifted down from the lintel. A smell of damp decay wafted out in greeting.

"Why are we doing this?" I wondered.

Stepping across the threshold, I felt the floor give slightly beneath my step. I recognized that varnished wood.

Cautiously we walked through to the gutted kitchen. My grandmother's china cabinet, an informal piece housing jelly jar glasses and jello molds, had once stood against the wall to my left. Her framed Little Orphan Annie prints had hung opposite, above the table that served as baking spot and sewing spot.

I noticed the crumbling drywall, the termite tunnels showing through the woodwork. "There is no hope of redemption in the neglected frame of this house," I thought.

I peeked in the bedroom, a room just large enough for a dresser and a twin bed. Everything about this house had been scaled down, like a doll's house. As I turned to where the bed had been, I had an image of a little girl quietly finding her grandma in that very spot, and waking her from her nap. The girl takes her grandmother's hand and assists her from the bed.

We returned to the kitchen and went through to the back room, reminiscing about how it was when we visited here - even lived here for a time - with our Grandmother.

Someone had painted over the knotty pine ceiling, but a surprise greeted us. The over-sized closet with its tiny wood-framed window and paneled door, complete with skeleton key lockset was still - amazingly -intact.

"I want to take some pictures," my brother said. "Outside. I have an old snapshot of us standing beneath the tree. We can duplicate it."

This house had been the playground of my early childhood, with a sidewalk to run down; a floral carpet on the varnished floor had been the jungle for my zoo of miniature animals. In its kitchen, I had learned to bake and sew. Now only the sidewalk and the huge live oak remain - and the closet with its paneled door and tiny window.

My brother hands the camera to his wife. He stands with his arm across my shoulders beneath the long curving limb that reaches over and above us.

We smile and the shutter clicks.

by Janet Stanley

WILL YOU BE A PERMANENT PART OF TAMPA UNITY?

You will be, if you purchase a beautifully engraved brick to celebrate a birth, a wedding, or any other memorable event in your life. This is also a wonderful way to memorialize a loved one who has passed on or to provide an enduring testimony of your, or your family's, connection with Tampa Unity.

These deeply etched bricks are available in two sizes: 4" x 8" and 8" x 8". They'll be placed in a temporary installation in the courtyard and, in the future, they will become part of permanent walkway here at Tampa Unity.

This will be an on-going fundraiser for Tampa Unity, but if you order your brick(s) now, you'll enjoy these "first order" special discounts:

A 4" x 8" brick, engraved with up to 3 lines (14 characters or spaces per line), is $75.

An 8" x 8" brick, engraved with up to 5 lines (14 characters or spaces per line), is $125

Make sure you get your order in on time! We've extended the deadline a little, but if you don't make the first order, the cost of the 4" x 8" brick will be $125; the 8" x 8" brick will be $175.

Order forms are available in Fellowship Hall and on our web site (www.unitytampa.org) and sample bricks are on display to inspire you to come up with your own ideas. Need more information before you order? Email Carol at UnityVolunteers@aol.com with your questions.