Honoring Our Past, Creating Our Future

 
A Path To A New Beginning...

 
"Honoring Our Past, Creating Our Future"
at Unity of Columbus
Saturday, May 25 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Facilitated by Revs. Carrie Kenyon
and Greg Coles, Unity Ministers
_________________
 
 
On Saturday, May 25, 2019, Rev. Carrie Kenyon, Member Services Coordinator for Unity Worldwide Ministries (UWM), our parent organization headquartered in Unity Village, MO, and our UWM Great Lakes Regional Representative, Rev. Greg Coles, will co-facilitate an empowering process.  This process invites us to reflect, forgive, and heal - as well as value our history - in preparation for what we are called to be as a spiritual community in the present and future.
 
The workshop will be from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Wilson Hall.  Lunch will be provided on-site (details to come).  Everyone is encouraged to bring an open mind, a story to share, and to plan on being present for the entire time.
 
The Honoring Our Past, Creating Our Future ("HOPCOF") process brings the entire church community together to tell our story and begin to see the ways we have created identity, continuity, meaning, and purpose as the context from which we orient ourselves to present circumstances and future possibilities.  It will help us become aware of how our story has been compelling, limiting, empowering, diminishing, fragmenting, and freeing.  By understanding our story as a rich framework of our life together, we will discover that we are greater than our story.
 
Historical events are less important than the meanings we give them.  Honoring Our Past... is finding the activity of Divine at the heart of our story, which allows us to shift our meaning-making.  As Rev. Dr. Gary Simmons's book The I of the Storm relates, our hurts, conflicts, and difficulties are the effects of not being connected to our wholeness, our Divine Self.  As we realize this, we can begin to choose to relate differently.
 
While primarily focusing on the story of our spiritual community, the HOPCOF process also places an individual in relationship to his/her own narrative and the myths, challenges, and successes that are a part of their spiritual journey.
 
Who should attend: The entire congregation should attend.  Previous members / attendees are also invited.  It is important that all participants be willing and able to attend the entire Saturday session—no one can attend only part of it. 
 
Intentions:  
 
  • To honor the sacredness of this transitional time in the life of Unity of Columbus;
  • To provide support for the ministry as it moves through the transformative integration of honoring and healing the past with future possibilities;
  • To assist the congregation to move lovingly and effectively through this time of change and preparation for a minister search 
 
Key Tasks:
 
  • Honoring the Past
  • Healing the Present
  • Defining Current Identity 
  • Empowering and Expanding Our Leadership Base
  • Strengthening Unity Connections
 
We lovingly invite you to join us for this important step on our path to future greatness. 
 
To RSVP, please e-mail us at:
 
 
If you would like to send any thoughts, feelings, or ideas to us, please contact us at the e-mail address above, or call us at: 
 
(614) 267-4959.
 
About The Facilitators
 
 
Carrie, an ordained Unity minister (2009) and Licensed Unity Teacher, coordinates all aspects of the employment process for credentialed leaders, spiritual leaders and ministries, as well as providing support on questions regarding compensation, church governance and operations (bylaws, ministry policies, code of ethics). 
She also provides assistance (USA including Puerto Rico, Canada only) to those who are interested in starting a new church or alternative ministry,
or who want to know more about what support is available. 
 
Carrie works closely with a number of related ministry teams including Colleague Connect, Ministry Consulting and Transition, Credentialing and Standards. Her focus is to create connections with and between ministers/spiritual leaders/ministries and Unity Worldwide Ministries’ central office.
 
In 1991, Rev. Greg was guided to Unity Church of Christianity in Houston, TX, a vibrant spiritual community of about 2,000 members led by senior minister Reverend Howard Caesar. 
Rev. Greg knew he found his spiritual home. Among the many volunteer roles that Rev. Greg served during his years at Unity of Houston, he says the most personally rewarding were Prayer Chaplain, Platform Assistant, soloist, and Director of the Unity Players for an alternative service, Wednesday Night Live.
 
In 2005 Rev. Greg moved to Kansas to serve as the Director of Volunteers and Worship of Unity of Overland Park, coordinating the Sunday experience for more than 700 people each week. 
Rev. Greg earned his Master of Divinity in the Ministry and Religious Studies program of Unity Institute in December 2009 and was ordained by the Association of Unity Churches International in February 2010. Through the divinely guided ministerial search process in 2010, he found a new spiritual home with Unity of Bay City in Michigan, where he served as the Senior Minister through February of this year. He and his husband, John McMahon, are just hours away from their family in Canada. They are proud grandparents of two granddaughters, Brianna and Lauryn.