Original Blessing

With Rev. Jane Hiatt

As every parent holding their newborn knows, we are born a blessing—pure goodness. But our culture tells us otherwise. In particular, the Christian doctrine of original sin has contributed to a culture of unworthiness, shame, and disempowerment that is completely counter to the teachings of Jesus. As we face this shadow belief, we will uncover our power to create the world we long for.

Kids Activities this Sunday

This Sunday our kids ages 5 – 11 yrs will be with Leia Napoli exploring their innate goodness.

The nursery is open for children 4 years and under.

Spirit Group: Callings – Finding and Following an Authentic Life

Starts Oct. 4th at 6:30 PM. Hosted by William Gregory and Carol Fox – in person and on Zoom

This group will read and discuss the fantastic book by Gregg Levoy, who was also a past speaker here at Unity! Get more details and sign up below.

Meditation 101

5 weeks beginning Friday October 7th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at Unity with Colinda Finch

Over the 5 weeks of this class, you will be introduced to Meditation basics and explore different forms and styles of this essential spiritual practice. If you’ve ever wanted to begin a meditation practice but weren’t sure how to begin, please join us. Colinda has years of experience studying many types of meditation and she excited to be able to share her love of meditating and the important role it has in our lives and in our world.

Sound Bath Sundays

5:30 to 6:30 PM at Unity – All are welcome

Cost is $10 to $20 sliding scale which support our musician and Unity.

Join Unity member Greg  Warnick on singing bowls and harmonium, and Donna Benjamin on her native flute for this Sundays experience. Come in comfy clothes and bring a mat, pillows, and blankets to relax and let the beauty of the music and sounds soothe your soul.

Bring Your Donations for Bend Food Project to Service on Sunday

Every other month our community does a food donation to Bend Food Project. Consider picking up an extra item or two the next time you’re out grocery shopping.

Message from Bend Food Project – the demand for food assistance has increased substantially over the past 3 years due to the pandemic and now high inflation. The need today is greater than ever before. In fact, the demand for food has grown 38% this year alone. THE BEND FOOD PROJECT IS RISING TO THE CHALLENGE AND WILL MEET THIS INCREASED DEMAND HEAD ON. To do this we need to increase the numbers of food donors.  Word of mouth is our greatest advertisement.  WE ASK YOU TO SHARE THE BEND FOOD PROJECT STORY WITH YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY AND NEIGHBORS AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO JOIN US! Thank you for being part of this generous Bend community that has committed to combatting hunger this simple and intimate way.  You are the reason the Bend Food Project works. You are, indeed, part of something very special. Know that together, we are fighting hunger and changing lives – one green bag at a time.

Ongoing Programs for Adults

Women’s Activity Group – Join others for hikes and other fun adventures. Contact Suzanne Landry to be notified of what’s happening this Wednesday at 10 am and for other activities.

Men’s Group – Gatherings are held on the 1st and 3rd Monday at 6pm in the Unity Foyer. Contact Jim Pasmore for more info.

Singing Group – Join Unity SolShine Music director, Dave Finch every Wednesday at 7pm in the Unity sanctuary. No experience is necessary and all ages are welcome! Contact Dave for more info.

Exciting News – Teen Program Beginning!

Starting October 2nd from 4:00 to 6:30 PM

For some time we have been considering how to serve our kids who are in middle school and high school. The solution has arisen from a progressive interfaith clergy group that Rev. Jane is an active part of. This seems like a good way to give our kids a spiritual experience with other kids and to discover that, despite different faith traditions, we are really not so different.

Rev. Jane says, “I know the pastors of these churches well and they are very spiritual, good people. While, in an ideal world, we would have a thriving Uniteen and Y.O.U. group right here at Unity, for now, our numbers do not support that. This gives us the opportunity to be of service to our youth even while our youth numbers and volunteer numbers are still in the growing stage.”

Here is the plan as put forth by Rev. Jen Stuart from Bend Church (680 NW Bond) where the group will meet most of the time. We will start meeting weekly from 4:00-6:30pm at Bend Church in the Youth Room beginning Sunday, October 2nd. It will look something like this:

• 4:00-5:00pm – Gather to check in and then break up to play games (wii, basketball, ping-pong, etcetera)
• 5:00-5:30pm – Eat dinner prepared by parents or churches that have signed up. (We have to be out of the kitchen by 5:30pm because Alanon starts then.)
• 5:30-6:15pm – A different pastor each week will share our thoughts on questions the kids have asked, which will be gathered at the first meeting for the season. Note: Rev. Jen Stuart (Bend Church) and/or Rev. Chris Kramer (Nativity Lutheran), and Rev. Erika Spaet (Storydwelling) will be present every week.
• 6:15-6:30pm – If we’ve broken up into groups that week, we will come back together to share ups and downs and prayer.
• Once a month we will meet somewhere else to go bowling, hiking, or something like that.
• Once a month we will focus on a different mission project. The kids had lots of ideas about this.
• Once a month the kids will visit one of the congregations to worship together, and ask questions of the leaders about what might be different or similar between our traditions.
• Nativity Lutheran will host a weekly “Gather Round the Campfire” on Wednesday evenings for those who want to continue the tradition Pastor Morgan Schmidt created during the worst of COVID.
• Pastor Erika will send out a google form this week for the kids to sign up for the first retreat at Camp Suttle Lake November 4-6th. The focus will be on sabbath rest.

Member Appreciation – So Many This Week!

If you attended Sunday service this week you saw the Royal Weedership team get anointed by Queen Jane 😂. We’d like to give a big thank you to Lorraine Schechter for creating Jane’s beautiful cape and baking cookies for all the weeders! I think she was up way past her normal bedtime making sure those tasks got done. The skit wouldn’t have been possible without your contributions Lorraine.

We’d also like to give a shout out to Dan & Meagan Stephenson. A few months ago they donated funds to purchase about 50, 5 Principles books so we could offer them for free to visitors so they could have better understanding of Unity. The book had a big impact on Dan and he felt inspired to share it with others. Dan is also stepping up to help with property management, which will be a huge help, and Meagan is contributing her expertise as a color consultant helping pick the new paint colors for our Unity building. Their two sweet kids, Leon and Evolet, have been a wonderful addition too! We’re so glad you’re part of our community, Stephenson family.

Lastly, we’d like to thank our amazing guest musicians – Eostar and Mathias. They did a breath work & sound healing class Friday night, a concert Saturday night, and played at Sunday service. Their inspirational music is so beautiful. To hear more of their music find and follow them at Eostar and the Web of One on your music streaming app. We can’t wait to have them back!

Sign Up to Donate to Unity When You Order Items From Amazon

Did you know that Unity has a Unity Smile account? If you order items from Smile.Amazon.com and select Unity Community of Central Oregon as the non-profit you’d like to donate to we’ll get 0.5% of your purchase price. Every little bit helps!

Bring Your Contribution to the Fall Community Altar

Those of you that have been joining us in person for Sunday service may have noticed the large table as you now enter the sanctuary. One of our beautiful members, River Hedegaard, had the idea of creating a community altar that would greet people as they entered the space. That idea has been met with such enthusiasm we immediately moved the table there and began envisioning exactly what this altar would hold.

• This space will be home to items that hold energy you’d like to share with your Unity community and/or would like to be filled with energy from our space.
• We will be changing out the altar each season, so please keep items you bring appropriate for that season.
• If you don’t want the item in your home, we probably don’t want it in our space. We kindly request that this not be your opportunity to clean out those garage storage bins 😊.
• Items should be appropriate to be shared in our space and things you think will be enjoyed by others.
• Since our hope is that many of you will be contributing an item, please don’t bring anything too large. We want there to be plenty of space for everyone who wants to to place an item.

Ideas for things to bring:

• A stone from a beautiful place you have visited.
• A meaningful piece of art or photo.
• A poem.
• A seashell – for the summer season altar.
• An item from a person you love – example; the cookie cutter you and your mother used to bake holiday cookies – for the winter or fall altar.
• A small plant, maybe a blooming orchid.
• Something from your recent travels that holds special energy.