NEW SMALL GROUP BEGINNING:
SOUL COLLAGE w/ Alison McNeal
I am delighted to invite you into the process of Self-discovery known as SoulCollage®, a powerful, intuitive tool that puts you in touch with your inner wisdom that sometimes remains dormant when we need it the most. Seena Frost, the founder of the process, has said, “Images have a way of bypassing the chatter of our logical minds and nudging our deep soul wisdom where intuitive answers can be found and spoken.” I was so intrigued with the idea of creating my own deck of SoulCollage® cards, that I took the training and became a SoulCollage® facilitator in May 2021.
And when I first launched into my SoulCollage experience about five years ago, I had enormous amounts of pleasure creating small, 5” X 8” collages on matt boards that I purchased. Making the collages introduced me to an easy way of expressing myself that was totally new to me. Although my daughter is an artist (and a philosopher), I have no art background, but yet I could create these amazing images.
Further, the SoulCollage® process has taught me how to allow these self-created images to speak to me and shed their (my) inner wisdom on any questions that I bring to them. It has shown me how to allow the images to speak to me through their point of view. Rev. Rose has referred to the cards as a form of visual prayer, and I see them as a reflection of who I AM at the deepest part of me.
So, if you would like a taste of the SoulCollage process to see if it might be something you would like to pursue in regular meetings, please join me for an in person meeting at Unity Spiritual Centre on Saturday, February 18 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM. There is a small fee of $2.00 per person to cover the cost of provided materials for your first encounter with the SoulCollage® process. And, if you would like to have a bite to eat, bring along a food offering and join members of Rev. Rose’s Metaphysical Bible class when their class is done at 12:15 P.M.
Sound Bath Experience Returns in 2023…
Maria and Calvin Wagner of The Center for Sound Therapy in Boardman, Ohio, will return to Unity in 2023 in February, May, August and November at the Center, 1226 Naylor-Lloyd Road, Girard, Ohio (between Belmont Avenue and Route 11). The sessions will be Wednesdays at 7PM, with a fellowship hour starting at 6:00PM just before the sessions. The first session is February 15, 2023. Please honor Covid-19 protocols and do not attend if you have symptoms. There will be a free-will love offering taken. Please share with your friends who may be interested.
A sound bath can be a mesmerizing experience, blanketing you in a deep state of surrender, into pure sonic bliss. Join us and Maria and Calvin Wagner from the Center for Sound Therapy for this amazing session to relax, recharge and re-balance your mind, body and spirit. This inward meditative journey allows you to completely let go and receive a re-alignment to your energetic body using powerful sound vibration. The quartz crystal singing bowls, gongs, pyramids, drums, flutes and other instruments produce a matrix of healing energies that are used to induce relaxation, expansion, clearing, and rejuvenation on every level of your being. As you listen, you receive. The various frequencies work from the "inside" out and will help to relieve all forms of physical, mental or emotional stress. The vibrations produce a deep state of relaxation as they balance the brain hemispheres, release stress and muscle tension, stimulate the flow of our vital energy and accelerate our healing and recovery. You will feel this powerful shift within as your cells become more awakened and alive.
Over thousands of years, it's been well documented, that music and sound vibration offers an effective approach to healing. The practice of sound healing can take many forms. Based on ancient healing techniques, this experience works at our cellular level to re-calibrate your mind, body, and spirit, providing a renewed sense of health and well-being. You will leave feeling truly, vibrant and alive.
Being bathed by sound, brings forth clearing and healing to raise your vibration to align with the frequencies of peace, calm and serenity. This experience will bring your body back into a state of balance and alignment, which allows for deep healing. Come let the busy world melt away as we guide you through a soul soothing journey that induces a deeply restorative state, which activates the body's natural ability to heal. All you have to do is lie back, relax and experience a whole new type of bliss.
Dress comfortably and bring your pillows and blankets and prepare to let go and be carried into a deep state of being.
Cost: Love Offering
Future Wednesday evening sessions: May 17, August 16, and November 15, 2023.
Unity Small Groups- In Building, Online & Outside!
Click on the Pictures for More Information!
OM (Ongoing Metaphysics) continues to meet virtually on Tuesday nights.
From 6:45-7:30PM Eastern Time is Sanskrit mantra study and practice using the pamphlet Mantra: The Power of Sound. This pamphlet has pronunciation, alphabet, various mantras, and a mapping of all the 50 Sanskrit sounds through “nadis” (or, spiritual energy rivulets) onto the body known as “marma” points where energy lines come together. This is roughly similar to acupuncture points and meridians of the flow of energy in the body.
From 7:30-8:15PM Eastern Time we transition to the guided meditation “Coherence” from Dr. Joe Dispenza’s Becoming Supernatural. This is a great 45-minute meditation to help you enter into coherence. It is described as finding contact with the eternal infinite field of possibilities, which can make things happen faster than dealing with the physical world where the speed of light is a limiting factor. Entering into the infinite field can make things happen without being limited by the speed of light.
You may attend either or both of these 45-minute sessions. This is all virtual so you can simply sign on before the start time for either session using www.freeconferencecall.com. Instructions are at www.unitycentre.org.
February 5: Set Your Heart Free in 2023 - Rev. Rose Houston
February 12: Conversations with the Heart of God - Rev. Rose
February 19: The Power of Love - Rev. Rose Houston
February 26: TBA - Larry Etheredge
You are cordially invited to join us each Sunday in our Celebration Worship Service followed by breaking bread with our spiritual community at Fellowship. Breaking the bread together literally means becoming one body in Christ, forming an unbreakable family bond, not just with one another, but also with God. It’s a symbol of familiarity, of welcome, of openness, as well as a gesture signifying peace and friendship.
We think of it as having a meal together, which it is, but the language of breaking bread together seems to have much more significance, because the emphasis is more on the connection between the people than on the fact that they are eating. It is more about the relationship than the food.
Our inclusive spiritual family at Unity Centre is a community based in a welcoming, loving acceptance of all people. We look forward to seeing you soon to worship and break bread together at Fellowship. (Hint ~ there’s a little more than just bread)
You are also invited to our 9 am Community Breakfast on the second Saturday of each month.
Love an.d Blessings,
Rev Rose
PS: Please do not bring additional food to share at Fellowship. We ask this be observed due to the continuing concern of Covid. The food provided by the church has been prepared professionally. Thank you.
We have come a long way since I first began working for the Centre in 2016. It’s a laundry list of a lot of little things that add up to a lot of big bonuses: too numerous to list for these small paragraphs.
I want to thank everyone for their support and patience along the way. Change is hard, and a lot of paper has disappeared as we went more and more digital. In the wake of COVID, many of the changes have ended up being a blessing for us all. Our community’s willingness to accept these technologies (like virtual meetings), I believe, has made a huge impact on our community’s ability to stay connected with one another and thrive in ways that others have not managed as well.
But today, most especially I wish to address with all of you the issue of live streaming our Sunday Services.
In 2017, we bought our first Canon Camcorder with $700 and began recording the services using the built in microphone each week. I found a hosting service, linked it to our website and began weekly to edit the videos down to the meditation and message only, posting them to our website player for on-demand watching later in the week.
Fast forward to the present moment: we are now live weekly on both our website and Facebook. We have a sound/live booth with audio coming into the live-streaming computer from our Mackie sound board, three (3) video camera feeds (one for the speaker, one for the music team and one for a long shot of the sanctuary) and a video feed of our PowerPoints. All of these inputs are possible because of the Open Broadcaster Software (OBS Studio) that I read about and implemented years ago when we first began live-streaming… back when it was still just one video camera on a tripod and a computer desk at the back of the sanctuary. We were blessed because much of the planning and executing of these changes happened right before Covid hit, allowing us to continue to operate even when our Centre was closed down.
It has been a labor of love for me, and I have pushed myself far outside the boundaries of my original technical skills to make these things happen for us all. But even I have limitations.
There are A LOT of complex pieces of equipment up there in that booth. If one piece is not operating correctly it causes a chain reaction – and no one can predict where, when or if it will happen. It’s the nature of the beast. Computers, their software and hardware and other equipment need constant updates and often equipment and programs will return to default settings. For someone with my experience these things are easier to catch and fix on the fly, but it is much more difficult for our volunteers.
Each Sunday there is only one person up in the booth doing EVERYTHING: turning all the equipment on and ensuring it is all set up, checking the mics, sound checking the speaker and music, running the sound in the room, monitoring the sound on the live, changing out three camera angles/scenes and the PowerPoint, interacting and monitoring Facebook… the list is huge. It requires a ton of focus and mistakes are easy to make with so many moving parts. Currently, besides myself, only Lyn and Roger have stepped forward to help on Sundays so I can also have a break.
We get a lot of emails, phone calls, text messages and comments when things don’t go right.
Most recently, “Microphone gain is an ongoing problem. When Cay was speaking we would set our sound at 60 percent of volume and Nina at 40 percent when speaking but 25-30 percent when she's singing. When Rose speaks at 70 percent. The sound needs to be balanced out for the online listening so that we don't need to constantly raise and lower the volume. Today's speaker was great when we could hear him. He was being picked up by someone else's mic during meditation and finally we could hear him during the message at about 90 percent volume. These issues should be addressed as they have been going on for a long time. We truly appreciate the online service on Girard Unity and we want better audio for all who visit our online church service.”
Believe me when I say we appreciate your frustration. Everything we have set up was done on a budget. Neither I, nor any of my volunteers are sound technicians. We certainly don’t have the budget to hire someone. And the audio is much more complicated than you can imagine. The team and I have gone around and around with ways to change and possibly improve our sound but we are limited to how much a human can really juggle up in that booth realistically, even if we had enough money to throw at the issue. With only three total people who can run the system, simple is best for now.
All this said, I would like to point out that the sound inside our Sanctuary is great! It will vary a bit from person to person as we all hear differently, but it is where you will have the best viewing/listening experience. Being able to offer our live-streaming services online was never meant to be a substitute for an in-person experience. It was meant to be a supplement for those who were home sick, traveling etc. to get their weekly dose of spiritual wisdom. Covid changed everything. We realize this. If you are truly unhappy with your online experience, I recommend you come into the Center some Sunday and worship with us in person.
Meanwhile, please have patience with us. I have added a limiter to the audio in OBS studio that will keep the volume from “blasting” over a certain level, but this in of itself has other ramifications.
I invite anyone to come in one Sunday at 10 am when the action starts and sit up in the booth and observe exactly what goes into producing the live stream. It really takes watching a service in action (or learning to do it yourself if you would like to volunteer!) to truly appreciate the great efforts we have made. If you are interested in this, please let me know and I will arrange for you to do so. And of course, we will continue to strive to make the experience better.
Blessings,
Nicole Niewoehner
Set Your Heart Free in 2023
February is the month most associated with the idea of Love. God’s gift of Love to each of us is endless, yet, the truth is, we must be able to receive it. In order to receive the full benefit of this tremendous inheritance, the Power of Love, we must develop our capacity and willingness to live a life of Love. In answer to the scribe who asked how to enter the Kingdom of God, Jesus, the Way Shower, commanded us to love one another. Jesus said, “Do this and you shall live.” So, it is not enough that we speak of love—or feel love. In fact, we may not feel loving at all when we first attempt to “DO LOVE.”
We must work conscientiously to develop the Divine faculty of Love that is one of the 12 powers that our cofounder, Charles Fillmore taught. The most important work we will ever do begins with accepting that within ourselves is the indwelling spark of God. Developing the Faculty of Love as taught by Unity means we start with a healthy self-love. To obey this commandment means to love God with all that we are. Love of God is to consume our lives. Love of God, self, and our neighbors is to leave no room in our heart for hatred, revenge, jealousy, or resentment. During this incarnation, our love for God, self, and others is to be the guiding light on our soul’s journey.
Kabbalists teach every single one of us has a unique job to accomplish in this world. We all have a distinct soul and Light we are destined to reveal. Nobody else in the world – past, present or future – has or will have the ability to do what the Creator has entrusted us to do. If all the greatest spiritual giants were to come down and work for a million years, even they could never do what we can, and must do.
One of the greatest ploys of our negative side is to convince us that we are not enough. We think others are more knowledgeable and better suited to do great things, whereas, we are somehow limited in what we can accomplish. There is an old saying, “Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!”
Look within and ask yourself, “What is it my unique gift to this world?” When it’s revealed to you, cherish it and resolve to set your heart free in 2023 to be a “Do-er” of love and a “Revealer” of love. Nobody else can reveal the unique Light you are meant to reveal and shine into the world in order to give a better concept of God’s Spirit in this world.
Blessings of Love and Light
Rev Rose
Greetings All!
February is the month of Love! And we love that our Centre is so blessed to be operating in the black, made possible by your generous gifts and donations. For the month of December we showed a positive net income of $2162. We give thanks for this prosperity and see all of you receiving in return.
We anticipate our new small group Soul Collage to begin this month, and Bryan Basket will be back in February for a healing service as well. Also be on the lookout for a new prosperity class facilitated by Mark Klotz to start in March. In January, all board members signed a new Code of Ethics and Conflict of Interest policy to support our promise of responsibility, and Rev Rose has put together an emergency policy that will be sent to all small group leaders. This policy will also be posted on the bulletin board in the hallway, and will outline what to do in case of an emergency. There is a tentative board of directors training and development opportunity sometime this spring to be led by Rev. Greg Coles, a member of the UWM Consulting team. We are looking forward to this training where we can network with other board members from our Great Lakes region while gaining tools and resources to grow and develop. There have also been some comments/concerns regarding the sound on our livestream. Please note that our sound and livestream techs are volunteers, not sound engineers. We are aware of these issues and are addressing them to the best of our ability. Thank you for your continued patience. And lastly, you will soon see expanded snack options for our coffee hour after service every Sunday, so stay awhile and fellowship with your fellow truth seekers!
Maria and Calvin Wagner of The Center for Sound Therapy in Boardman, Ohio, will return to Unity in 2023 in February, May, August and November at the Center, 1226 Naylor-Lloyd Road, Girard, Ohio (between Belmont Avenue and Route 11). The sessions will be Wednesdays at 7PM, with a fellowship hour starting at 6:00PM just before the sessions. The first session is February 15, 2023. Please honor Covid-19 protocols and do not attend if you have symptoms. There will be a free-will love offering taken. Please share with your friends who may be interested.
We have come a long way since I first began working for the Centre in 2016. It’s a laundry list of a lot of little things that add up to a lot of big bonuses: too numerous to list for these small paragraphs.
