November 25, 2023

Dear Ones.

In 2020 I embarked upon a journey I thought would involve one year of interviews, synthesis of input, community exploration of the input, and finally a public release of our insights and perspectives.  As the new spiritual leader at Friends of Unity, I was motivated to meet more of the folks and create a deeper conversation about spirituality and the questions we all process about life, living and relationships. But 2020 included significant change: the global pandemic and hundreds of thousands of deaths; confusion, anger, and blame; racial reckoning and murders in the communities across the United States; and, a presidential election that was vehemently contested by the outgoing president, an insurrection, and an increasing sense of polarization in our country.  2021 was equally as difficult with economic fallout from the pandemic, and surges of covid worldwide.  In 2022 I was to synthesize interview insights, and begin sharing with the larger community.

As I think back over the last three years and finish 2023, I see a country and a world that struggles to know how to work with differences, grievances, and ultimately love. I marvel at this exploration of a significant soul question, “What is forgiveness?”, and the number of years it has been so present in my mind and heart as a spiritual leader. I have questioned my delay in finishing the synthesis but now I see a timely connection to our current study and exploration of The Sacred Human at Friends of Unity. The insights lifted from the interviews and contained in this synthesis are deeply meaningful. I read them as a raw treatise to be studied and shared. Guidance to answers for our persistent questions about living spiritually, love, and the illusive potential for improving life on the planet, are revealed.

Sitting with so many who have studied in Unity for years, perhaps it is not a surprise that no one had a sense of God forgiving them, or, God doing the forgiving.

And, most had few, or, no examples of someone forgiving them.  I am heartened by this; it is evidence of integration of the indwelling reality of that which we call God. God that is always ready to be expressed through us.  It is like treasure buried within and when once discovered, we open our hearts to the power of God and the ability to create heaven on earth.  May all who read this find personal insight and revelation. READ MORE

Love, Kathy Harwood Long, Senior Minister