Unity of Farmers Branch (Formerly The Church Of One Love)

Most of us would love to know what’s ahead.  We have all kinds of questions?  Will I be happy? Healthy? Alone? More spiritual? Aging gracefully?  Insecure?  All these anxious questions are about maintaining the illusion of control.  We think if we know what’s coming we can prepare for it.  Since we can never know what will happen in the world, the only way to be ready is to prepare our inner selve...

We love to think of ourselves as independent, but the truth is we are all inextricably connected in- and as- the One.   Physically, we cannot survive without each other and without the resources of Mother Earth.  In fact, we have become so specialized that in a literal sense we depend upon each other for almost everything—the intricate processes of providing for our daily needs of food, water, med...

…is that we all have it to a degree.  To be ignorant is to NOT KNOW.  And none of us can know what we don’t know until we know it.  Confused?  As we own our own ignorance, it can help us to have true compassion and empathy for those we might otherwise judge and condemn.  And one of the greatest gifts of admitting to ignorance is that we can then develop the sacred quality of Beginners’ Mind—in whi...

The Middle Way, a core concept in Buddhism, emphasizes finding balance and moderation between extremes, particularly in thought and action. 

We hear a lot about the gifts of  the “Divine Feminine,” and find that our masculine structures are often spoken of today in denigrating terms.  This is not about anything being wrong with the masculine, but about our being out of balance in expressing these divine energies. The Masculine Principle is both Divine and Beautiful: the other side of the same holy coin.  Our wholeness lies in finding b...

3. We Co-create with God; 4: We commune with God; 5. We express as God.  Since God IS the oneness in which we live and move and have our being, and we  are all individuations of that One, we have the power to create our experience of life as part of that vast divinity.  We do this by directing our thoughts, by immersing ourselves in the truth of our being, aligning our focus and purpose, and by ta...

1. God is Good, and God is all there is; and  2. We are that—the very substance of God is our substance, meaning our very essence is God, and is good. These statements are in alignment with COOL’s  tenets of oneness with God and with each other, yet regardless of our belief in our ultimate oneness, it is a constant challenge for us to see the world, other humans, God itself, as ultimately “good,”...

This week the service will be led by your Prayer Partner team!  Spiritual Growth does not occur through affirmative prayer alone, but through spiritual study and contemplation, different forms of meditation, and through spending quiet time with our Higher Self and our personal understanding of the Divine. We hope you will join us again as we share our prayer and meditation experience with you, our...

Throughout history, mankind’s evolution has been slowed or even stopped by the belief in the certainty of facts that were known to be TRUE, but turned out not to be so.  This is clearly true in the spiritual and religious world. Today, we will use a few current events and a Biblical story to see how our definition of God was formed from ancient literature, and how we can transcend those old belief...

Mother to child is maybe the most intimate and important of relationships, which does not mean that it is easy or comfortable—often just the opposite.   Yet, we all have at least two mothers:  we are offspring of Mother Earth, and we are children of our own mothers.  While Divine Mother is the perfection of the feminine principle in us, it was a very imperfect, very human woman who gave each of us...

Most of us began a conscious spiritual path because we wanted more understanding, inner peace, joy, wisdom, and love in our lives. This is right and good... AND there is more.  As we grow in love, peace, joy, service, we also grow the world in those things--even more when we make a conscious intention to do so. Our spiritual practices help us to explore and come to know the depths and edges of our...

Overcoming the ego is often touted as our greatest task on the spiritual path.  Yet, to be human is to have an ego; it is an inevitable part of life on planet earth. Are we really here to get RID of our egos?  Or to put them in their proper place—not as rulers of our lives, but as servants to Spirit?

Traditional Christianity is focused more on the fabled death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ than on the content of his teachings on love.  Jesus taught a totally new way viewing he world:  freedom from transactional, conditional love, spoke of the spirit inside all of us, which is unconditional and eternal.  Did Jesus really rise from the dead?  Does it matter?  Join us this Sunday to discus...

When our inner peace is dependent on outer circumstance it is fragile and unreliable.  We can’t control the world, or make anyone else peaceful, but we can learn to find peace in ourselves regardless of what happens around us.  Jesus was celebrated as a hero on Palm Sunday, and by the end of the week betrayed, reviled, abandoned, taunted, and killed.  Yet he kept his peace and humility throughout....

True compassion is not just feeling sympathy or even empathy for another—but it includes the desire to alleviate the suffering of others.  How do we fulfill this desire?  Especially for people we don’t know, will never meet?  This week we will explore 2 spiritual practices we can do anywhere, anytime--that are meant to assuage the pain of humanity, one a Buddhist practice, and one from the indigen...

What is compassion?  Is it feeling sorry for another?  Helping one another? Can one have compassion for oneself? Is it something to do or something to feel?  How can we lead lives of compassion in a world of overwhelming suffering? 

There is so much noise in today’s world—a constant soundtrack of news, music, entertainment, other people’s opinions and requests, continuous ‘to-do’ lists… To change our lives we must change our ways of thinking and viewing the world, and we can’t possibly know what we think until we get quiet enough—inside and out—to hear our own thoughts, intuition and guidance. Can time dedicated to quiet cont...

How does one distinguish between a thought and a prayer?  How much praying is enough? How would you change what you spend time thinking and believing, listening to- and watching-- if you knew that your thoughts had a direct impact on the world? 

We continue our series on finding refuge as we explore the Sangha: the community of all those who endeavor to practice the Way of love, peace, joy, and abundance.  We are uplifted, held, encouraged and supported by the community…to the extent that WE participate in community and allow ourselves this refuge.  What does it require to truly be a part of a community of trust and openness, where we can...

The Dharma is the Way itself…the directions we follow, the practices we engage in, the thoughts we think, the words we speak and the actions we take.  The idea is that we can find refuge, comfort, safety in our very way of being in this world. How do we find that? What practices will lead us there?

Join Rev. Janet Ellis as she speaks on finding and owning one's passion.

The Buddha in this context is not a person, but a representation of the One Presence and Power in the universe.  How do we contact that Presence?  How do we know it is there?  How can we activate this presence in our lives so that we may find our safety and our refuge in it?

In Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s letter, he outlines both the reasons for non-violence, why the time is right NOW, and the basic steps to ensure its success.  In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: 1) collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive; 2) negotiation; 3) self-purification; and 4) direct action.  How can these apply in our daily lives as we endeavor...

Welcome, Black History Month!

When we truly know what we believe, then our task is to truly live from that conviction.  In choices small and large--do our thoughts, words, and actions support, illustrate our beliefs?   Can others tell what we believe by the way we live?  Let’s explore what it means to live out our beliefs into the world.