What an amazing thing we have created as Abundant Life Unity Church. We are a vibrant, thriving Spirit-led community, who join together to love and support each other, learn spiritual truths, experience the Presence and share ourselves. We recently celebrated our one-year anniversary with the theme "WE ARE ONE!"  and this milestone gave us the opportunity to reflect on who we are, what we have created and where we are going. I am eternally grateful to Spirit, who is leading this journey, and for the amazing group of people we have attracted together who are energized to manifest a brighter future for all.

To recap our special day on September 25, 2011, it is shocking to look at what we manifested in our first year!

In addition to our regular Sunday services, we also held/created:

Thanksgiving Potluck, Special Advent Service, Christmas Eve Service, Burning Bowl Service, White Stone Service, Prayer Consciousness Circle, The Creative Process Group, Palm Sunday Potluck, Pre-Easter Movie Nights (2), Good Friday Contemplative Prayer Gathering, Easter Service, Special Mother’s Day Service, Special Father’s Day Service, Spiritual Movie Nights (3), Blessed Beads Workshop, Chicago Botanic Garden Lunch and Stroll Gatherings (2), Introduction to the Enneagram Class, Prayer Ministry, The Gathering Group, Guest musicians Chris Stewart, Megon McDonough and Marienne Kreitlow, World Day of Prayer – 100% participation, Monthly Contemplative Interfaith Services, Special 9/11 Service, Prayer in every group/class, Four from ALUC attended SEE classes, Awesome website with an online Community, Presence on Facebook, Meetup and Twitter, Eleven group pages on our website, Formation of Welcoming Team, Promotion Team, WE ARE ONE Team, Connection Café Team and Contemplative Service Team.

From the very beginning, we have lived our inaugural service theme, “Something wonderful is about to happen.” There have been some personally trying times for me, which is part of any journey. But we always pull through because we trust Spirit. We have a fantastic congregation, and our future is not just bright, but unlimited.

As far as our future goes…we have a dream! We envision our community being a place where we:

LOVE and support each other

LEARN the Truth about God and ourselves - that there is only One Presence and it is Love and it is Good; that we are divine and perfect in nature and active creators of our world

EXPERIENCE the Presence and continually expand our awareness of God

SHARE with others what we learn and who we are through service, demonstration and outreach, and we invite people freely into our circle

In our second year, we will build upon our strong community-centered foundation. We will organically form small groups where every one is cared for and we will invite more into our family. We will find the best ways to get the word out about us because we care about people and we want the multitudes to experience the Presence and learn how to live freely, responsibly and authentically as spiritual beings. We will manifest a vibrant family ministry where all our children learn that God is Love and God is Good and they are God’s beautiful creation. We will manifest a talented in-house band, which supports our message and enlivens our services. We will see our community members step up to serve and generously share in every area of our ministry. We will initiate a membership program for those who are ready to enter a more committed spiritual life.

Today we celebrate because WE ARE ONE! Tomorrow we continue to bring our Oneness into manifestation. Thank you God, for this amazing ride. We know that something wonderful will always happen when we say, "Yes!" to Spirit.

"I came so they may have life and have it abundantly." John 10:10