American Unitarian Conference Forum

As some of you here may be aware, I've been visiting a couple of our local Unity Churches for the last few months. Decided that the one closest to my home here in Bella Vista was not EVER going to work for me but that the one down in Fayettville was a lot more promising. Yesterday, I took my son Rick with me to hear Neo-Buddhist Ben Worth speak and spend some time with him after the service. I really enjoyed Ben and, happily, Rick liked him a lot, also.

Reccently I made the comment that this church appears to me to be in a death spiral, but I may have reported this prematurely. In talking with Ben after the service, I learned that it has been in this condition for YEARS now and somehow manages to keep wobbling forward despite the many issues afflicting it. I have met some people in the congregation who I find, well, remarkable and that I like really rather well.

I am considering volunteering to speak on a future Sunday on the subject of the emergence of "Evolutionary Spirituality". I think that I have some interesting ideas on the subject and consder myself to be a lively and entertaining Public Speaker. If I get this opportunity, I will definitely mention AUC and the impact it has had on my thinking.

Within this congregation, there is a growing recognition that New Thought with its current emphasis on "Magical Thinking" and its drift into Left Wing "Peace Politics" has put the movement into a kind of drift into a Spititual Dead End. I'd also want to talk about NT Process Theology as signs of green buds emerging from the trunk of this once great movement. It seems to me to be a good topic for a congregation unable to get off dead center in launching a search for a new minister.

Fred

Good luck Fred...hey, video it and put it on YouTube!

Now, if we could get a video download capability here...if there is already I don't know about it.

I attended Fayatteville Unity yesterday and had a rather interesting experience. The sermon and a workshop later in the afternoon were conducted by a ministerial student just about to graduate from the ministerial college in Unity Village near Kansas City and proved to be a pretty interesting guy. A Black man who grew up in Detroit, I took him for being in his early 40s. He'd been through the Army and spent 15 years teaching public school in the NYC area. I think he may have visited us in connection with trying to find a position in a church, though he did mention he thought he was close to a deal with a church in the St. Louis area.

What I found interesting is that while I found much to disagree with him about intellectually, I felt that his "Emotional Intelligence" was extraordinary. His good humor and enthusiasm were quite unusual and infectious and he was very gifted in the area of bringing out the best in others. He came about as close to making conventional New Thought believable as any body I can remembering listening to, at least lately, and I found my intellectual objections being reduced to quibbles in the ocean of good fellowship and acceptance he created. Whatever I might think of his understanding of, say, Quantum Physics and its relationship to Thinking creating Reality, I was still in awe of his tremendous good will and ability to create fellowship in the face of intellectual differences.

I think that Soon-to-be-Reverend Michael is almost certainly going to be highly successful in the Ministry. He really brought home to me the existence and importance of forms of intelligence other than logical ability, though he certainly has his fair share of that. It became clear to me that it takes more than just logic to create and maintain "Community" and, arguably, that is not even the most important element in creating it.

A few random things I liked about him:

Made many references to Buddhism and the Buddha.

Referred to Jesus Christ as "Our Brother".

Showed an almost "Integral" respect for different points of view and the truth contained in all. Expressed appreciation and expectation of disagreement and a willingness to quickly see the truth in various points of view. I don't think he is familiar with Ken Wilber but seems to recognize that intuitively that all truth is partial and depends on the observer as well as what is being observed.

Alltogether, quite an interesting guy and a real credit to New Thought in general and Unity in particular.

Fred