December 2015

Continued on Page 4

Reverend Patty Edwards has served Unity Ministries for over thirty years in various capaci-ties and is currently minister for Unity Church of the Hill Country in Kerrville, Texas. Rever-end Patty is the wife of Unity Minister Eddy Edwards, mother of five grown children, sixteen grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

“Have I Lived Before?”

This past week my husband, Eddy and I returned to Unity Village in Mis-souri, for a Regional Ministerial Conference. We walked the grounds, where we began to prepare for the ministry thirty some odd years ago. Young, idealistic, inspired by the Spirit of God that we could feel and see, we immersed ourselves in the work that was before us. That week, I looked around at our colleagues and I saw that same young, idealistic, inspired enthusiasm in the new generations of ministers, as they step up to move Unity and its approach to spirituality to an even greater place in the lives of so many, many people in the world. Once again, I felt young, idealistic, and inspired as well, because this present life is but a moment in time, part of a seamless continu-um with no beginning and no end. Our son, Scott lives near there and we were able to watch his children, taking on the mantle of adulthood, parenthood and finding a livelihood, that fits their gifts and talents. In reflection, I saw the seamless continuum of life stretching out in front of me in eve-ry direction into eternity and it lifts my spirit and gives me hope and gratitude. Something within the heart of humankind tells us we never really die…that our true identity is immortal.

Our persistent desire to live is a deep calling from within that speaks to our eternal spirit. Many of us believe in eternal life in the future after death, but many of us have a difficult time see-ing that our lives might just possibly be endless…that we lived before we were born and that we live after our bodies die. In “The Quest”, written by Richard and Mary Alice Jafolla, we read these words “Accepting the existence of the soul prior to its earthly appearance seems as logical as ac-cepting its existence after it departs from its earthly sojourn.”

Have we lived before? Jesus referred to the existence of the soul before birth, when he said: “Before Abraham was, I am”. If we can get the picture of life as an unbroken circle, with the earthly experiences as merely one part of that circle, we can start to see the unending aspect of us all. Each one of us, came into this world with unique individual lessons to learn and teach…each so very different from the other. Some with skills that just can’t be explained, and memories that can’t be explained either. For me, believing in an endless soul journey, open at both ends, seems to answer many questions. I believe that when I leave this plane of existence, I leave behind me people and places that will not be the same because I have been there…I see it in my children and their children’s children and in people I have met along the way.

More important than leaving behind a part of ourselves, we are being called daily to lay hold of life by faith and affirm without wavering that we are raised out of condemnation and death into eternal life. In this we die daily, and are raised daily. Each day some old limitation or error loses

its hold and passes away, and our consciousness is lifted higher into a consciousness, that this moment, right here, right now is eternal life.

The monthly newsletter o f Unity in the Olympics

PAGE 2 IN UNISON DECEMBER 2015

2917 East Myrtle Street Port Angeles, WA 98362

Phone: 360-457-3981 Email: uito@olypen.com www.unityintheolympics.org

MISSION STATEMENT

Unity in the Olympics provides an accepting place in which to experience the Peace, Love, and Oneness of the

Christ within so that we may more fully express these gifts in the world.

SUNDAY CELEBRATION Meditation 10:00 - 10:15 a.m.

Worship 10:30 a.m. Fellowship time following service

Office hours 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays & Tuesdays

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Teia Stitzel, President Duane Morris, Vice President

Janice Wyman, Secretary Alice Alexander, Treasurer

Steve Schach Charles Mawson

LICENSED UNITY TEACHER

Margaret Denstad

THANK YOU!

A big thank you to the AA Angel who recovered the folding

chairs...they look great!

Charlotte for coordinating beautiful music videos with our speakers’

talks

Jan, Alice and Gayle for working on the newsletter

Barbara, our snack and coffee hostess

Prayer Chaplains Charles, Pat and

Donna

All of our guest speakers

Alice for her bookkeeping skills

Marguerite and Duane Gardening and watering

Our church works because of all of you, and we are grateful!

4th Carol Clark

7th Kathleen Moore

17th Annette Larue

18th Judith Coates

Our birthdays are

like feathers on the broad wing of time.

Jean Paul

Our Church Finances

PAGE 3 IN UNISON DECEMBER 2015

Like any family, we are always in need of certain staples:

♥ Cough drops

♥ Toilet paper

♥ Paper towels

♥ Paper napkins

♥ Tissues (small)

♥ Postage stamps

♥ Hand Soap (No antibacterial)

Thank You!

October Income October Expenses

Tithes/Offerings $ 2959.50 Guest Speakers $ 800.00

Rent 495.00 Advertising & Promotion 117.55

Book/Lit Sales 36.00 Copy Machine 362.01

Insurance 0.00

Maintenance 0.00

Office Supplies 6.95

Kitchen/Building Supplies 0.00

TOTAL INCOME $ 3490.50 Payroll 892.73

Tithes (Sept., paid in Oct.) Telephone 173.28

Silent Unity $ 100.00 Janitorial 100.00

Northwest Region 100.00 Utilities 261.91

Unity World Wide 50.00 Computer & Internet 37.95

MANNA 50.00 Tithe Expense 356.00

Dream U 30.00 Bank Service Charges 3.20

Salvation Army 26.00 Postage & Delivery 49.00

Book/Lit Expense 194.35

TOTAL TITHES $ 356.00 TOTAL EXPENSES $ 3354.93

‘Tis the Season for Giving… And we have several ways that you can share. We’re collecting food to donate to our area food banks for those in need. There are baskets in the church foyer for your donation. Boxed or canned foods please...nothing perishable.

We’re also collecting new (tags on please) teddy bears and other stuffed buddies for the next couple of weeks. They will hang out in the pews to be hugged and blessed, then donated to an appropriate charity.

We will again have a Salvation Army Angel Tree at church with tags requesting toys and clothing for needy chil-dren . Pick a tag, make your pur-chases, then bring the unwrapped gift with tag attached and leave it under the tree for the Salvation Army to pick up and distribute.

PAGE 4 IN UNISON DECEMBER 2015

At the conference, we heard Reverend David Ault’s impassioned story of his own Quest to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. He literally had to be pulled to the summit, by one of his guides one step at a time and he had to surrender any idea that he could do it alone. When he finally reached the summit, a moment in time flashed through his mind, when he was sev-en years old, and his mother received a call that his father had passed on. She immediately called her sister and told of his death, and wailed out, “What am I going to do with a seven year old boy.” At that mo-ment, David made a decision to never be a burden to anyone, yet there came a time in his life, when the appalling truth became reality…at some point our greatest fears come up for us to face and he was a burden to his guide and could do nothing about it, but surrender…he had to die to his belief. He, and all of us, have to, at some point, surrender and step into the light of a new understanding…a new life…and that perhaps we may have lived before to learn to sur-render other beliefs and other stuck places in our consciousness.

There once was a woman of Samaria, who went to a well for water, and Jesus asked her for a drink. The woman was startled because at that time no Jew would ever speak to a Samaritan. Jesus spoke to her about the living water of God. It’s written in John 4:14 that He said these

words: “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water well-ing up to eternal life.”

None of us can fully understand what soul-needs another person brought into the world when they were born. Those needs must be resolved in some way, and like David Ault and the woman at the well life brings with it the opportunities to work out those things we came here to resolve. There are so many examples of people with

special talents, abilities and knowledge that seem to have no source in their present existence. Each of us brings our own gifts and our own baggage to overcome, resolve and rise above. We are on a soul’s journey of growth, expansion and wonderment.

Being open to the possibility of life before birth and after death…gives us much to explore, uncover and discover and isn’t that what life right now is all about. Our purpose is to express more and more of what we eternally are. We are on an ever unfolding, ever expanding spiritual journey. Charles Fillmore believed in the possibility of reincarnation, but more than that he believed in Re-generation. He believed that when a person connects in consciousness strongly with the idea of oneness with God and the idea that God actually lives and moves in and through us, then the life within that person is quickened and regenerated. We all have had regenerating experiences and thoughts.

Revisiting our Unity roots, reminded me that I am young, idealistic, and inspired too, when I look at this present life as a moment in time, part of a seamless continuum of life stretching out in front of me in every direction into eternity with no beginning and no end. It lifts my spirit and fills me with gratitude, because, I remember that something within the heart of all humankind tells me, we never really die…that our true identity is immortal…one with all that is and ever was.

Continued from Page 1

PAGE 5 IN UNISON DECEMBER 2015

My first memories of Unity were through my grandma, Helen MacNamarra. She gave us kids subscriptions to Wee Wisdom and read arti-cles to us from other Unity publications. As our parents were not members of a partic-ular faith, we were delighted to learn from Grandma. I re-member the little church banks that we got from Wee

Wisdom. They were penny banks with a steeple. We would save our pennies and then Grandma would send them in to Silent Unity. Those little banks were around for many years even after we opened our Unity Center.

When our Center opened here in Port Angeles, I came with my young ones. At that time, we had quite a few children and several teachers. We met in the Boy Scout Hall on 7th Street across the alley from our little church at 7th and Chase. I was also one of the teachers. We learned as much from the Unity prepared lessons as our children did.

Alice Alexander

By Enola Chamberlin

Be Still my heart! The Stars hold sway

Above the world tonight.

Far in the east one pulses with

A pure and holy light.

Be still my heart! The bells will soon

Their joyous anthem ring.

But now above their towers I hear

An angel chorus sing.

Be still my heart! This song I hear,

This glowing star I see,

Bear witness to the fact that Christ

Is born again in me.

A Thanksgiving dinner was held at Unity on November 15th following Deborah Brandt’s talk True Prosperity. Turkey and fixings were provided (including vegetarian versions) aug-mented by potluck dishes & desserts

PAGE 6 IN UNISON DECEMBER 2015

Clara is our charming and gregarious Hun-garian pixie and holds a special place in our hearts.

♥ Heads up the Prayer Force

♥ Maintains our prayer list

♥ Is a welcoming spirit to all who visit Unity

♥ Is a prayer advocate for world peace

♥ Helps with “housekeeping” after church

♥ Attends regularly & supports financially

♥ Is open and helpful

ANGEL OF THE MONTH Clara Lakatos

Notes from the Board

The Board met on Nov. 15th with Teia Stitzel, Steve Schach, Alice Alexander, Duane Morris and Charles Mawson present. Jan Wyman was out of town.

Finances: The Oct. tithe of $373 (which includes $12 from last month) will be allocated as follows: Silent Unity $100, Unity NW Region $75, MANNA $50, UWWM $50, Dream U $43, and TAFY $43. Two hundred dollars each was allocated to the Minister’s Search Fund (now at $4066) and Bathroom/Sewer Fund (now at $7350). There are no outstanding bills.

New Business: Due to a request for name tags, $150 was allocated for cost. Lisa Schlaffman will be asked to help design them.

Administration: If the heads on our office calculator can’t be cleaned so tapes are readable, we will pur-chase a new machine.

Fundraising: We’re planning Sunday after church movies for a minimal charge.

Outreach: The congregation will be asked to bring teddy bears to sit and be blessed in the pews for a time and then donated to an appropriate charity.

Next Board Meeting: Sunday, December 20th following coffee time

We are grateful

to Clara for

all she does for our

Spiritual Home.

PAGE 7 IN UNISON DECEMBER 2015

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The true light,

which enlightens

everyone,

was coming into

the world.

John 1:9

...Christ in you,

the hope of glory.

Col. 1:27

Wednesday, December 23rd 7 p.m.

Give with a smile… It’s easy!

If you’re like me, whatever you can’t find at our local stores you buy at amazon.com. Here’s an easy way to make a donation to Unity in the Olympics based on your pur-chases:

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Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eli-gible AmazonSmile purchases to the charita-ble organization of your choice.

Go to smile.amazon.com….Choose Unity in the Olympics as your charity….Start shop-ping...it’s that simple!

PAGE 8 IN UNISON DECEMBER 2015

Unity in the Olympics will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016

The movement started in Port Angeles when Lou Lawrence started a study group that met at the library. Lou had read about and wanted to explore Unity, so she and several other participants met at the Port Angeles Library at least once a week. Some of the people who attended were Ada Williams, Bernice Houston, Velma Carney, Evah Mulford, Margaret Pohl and Helen Mac-Namarra.

They invited Marian Brown and John Adams from Bremerton to attend one of their meetings. Marian was the Bremerton minister and John was assistant minister.

Not long after John and Marian had come to the study group, John, after becoming ordained in Sept, 1966, moved his family here to become minister for Unity. The church joined with the As-sociation of Unity Churches in Lee Summit, Missouri and became a Unity Center. (Unity Church-es at the time were all known as Centers. The word church did not come until later. The 1966 Port Angeles Directory lists John Adams as pastor of Unity Church at 224 ½ E. 7th Street. In 1969, the listing is Unity Center of Practical Christianity.)

There are newspaper articles that talk about December 1968 being the first anniversary year, but I believe that is incorrect by a year. All the research I can find points to 1966 being the year the first services were held. There is also an article in the newspaper that is dated Dec 1969 that mentions a second anniversary. I believe we must go with the date John was ordained, even if it differs from the newspaper article.

In the following months, there will be more articles highlighting the Unity years and In December of 2016, we will have a celebration of our first 50 years. If anyone has pictures or memories of our beginnings, please feel free to share.

In following newsletters, I will talk about more history of our church and next fall, we will have a celebration of our first 50 years. Alice Alexander

As Still As Snow It is not hard to be aware When all goes well that God is there; But in my winter moments, when Doubts buffet my bare spirit, then It is that I must find God real. And it is then I pray and feel God’s peace upon my mind come down Like nightfall on a noisy town, God’s love upon my heart as still As snow upon a winter hill. May the God of hope fill you with all joy And peace in believing.—Romans 15:13