Seattle Unity

"What if you lost everything? What would remain, and what matters most? Because life is impermanent, and yet we act as if it isn't."Senior Minister Rev. Karen Lindvig takes us deeper into this series on the Alchemy of Transformation. In recent weeks, this journey began with our willingness to see things clearly, then letting go, and then opening our minds to dreams and even mystic visions. Now we ask what is our core? and what is our essence?  Through stories of loss and crisis, she leads us to consider: after everything is taken away, what is still "you" about you?Jennifer Bolles gives the reading, a Mary Oliver poem called The Journey.The talk begins at 15:30 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time features first time guest singer Sheila Blackwell.  Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"Halloween is an opportunity to lean into the mystical side of life, and to contemplate death in a playful way."Senior Minister Rev. Karen Lindvig revels in the symbolism of Samhain, drawing deep and delightful meaning out of such stories as the Jack O Lantern and Treat or Treating.  As she shows, various cultures and institutions have their dogma, but Karen encourages each of us to investigate for ourselves, and consider what we can personally intuit about this big question:  what happens when we die?Raymond Langberg gives the reading, entitled Calling to the Ancestors.The talk begins at 18:40 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time features Jesse Whitford on vibraphones.  Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"The Alchemy of Transformation invites us to let go and accept life as it is, before we can change it."Rev. Karen returns from her various sojourns to open the doors to this next series. As she explains it, again using the core metaphor of lead-into-gold, The Alchemy of Transformation "takes the lead of things that are no longer working or needed in our lives, and transforms it into the gold of the more awakened, centered, and kind self". She also begins dipping into the wealth of materials she has gained in her trip to Greece, this time introducing us to Aesculapius, and related ideas around healing, dreaming, and the doors to the underworld.Steve Peha gives the reading, The Guest House, a translation of Rumi, by Coleman Barks.The talk begins at 19:17 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time features special guest Shauncye Omar.  Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"You are in relationship to everything, seen and unseen. Since the Divine is everything and everyone, all of your relationships are aspects of your relationship to God."Gues Speaker Rev. Eric Odel finishes our series on The Alchemy of Relationships. He uses material from great spiritual masters including Ernest Homes and Emily Cady, along with several examples ranging from funny to frightening, from his own life and learnings.Jennifer Bolles gives the reading, a prayer about love from Ernest Holmes.The talk begins at 15:40 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time features special guest Sage Suzerris. Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"The Alchemy of Relationship takes the lead of separation and transforms it into oneness and love."Senior Minister Rev. Karen Lindvig returns from her trip to Greece to speak to our current series on the Alchemy of Relationship. She focuses mostly on the type of love characterized in scripture as Phileo - brotherly/sisterly love - better known as Friendship. She asks us to remember the moments of shift, when we opened our hearts to a friend, and saw the Divine in them in a new and greater way.Scott Meihn gives the reading, a poem from Roy Croft called I Love You. The talk begins at 18:25 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time features special guest Stephanie Anne Johnson. Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"I think if we're doing relationships right, then it's a little bit of both:  a little bit of nurture, a little bit of challenge, a perfect kind of mix."Associate Minister Diane Robertson continues in our series on The Alchemy of Relationships. She enlists the testimony of Carl Woestwin and Marcia Rutan, and highlights how our relationships with ourselves are played out onto all our relationships beyond ourselves.The talk begins at 14:25 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time features special guest Lavon Hardison. Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"Alchemy means 'the pouring' so the idea is pouring things together and mixing them up so that you have something entirely different after it's all stirred. So the Alchemy of Relationship has behind it the notion... that this cosmos is the mixing bowl."Guest speaker Michael Bogar returns to kick off our series on The Alchemy of Relationships.  Michael uses the story of Eros and Psyche to illustrate the transformative power of relationship. Along the way in his re-telling, he dips into concepts of Soul-making, Neo-Platonic wisdom, and 4 types of Soul Mate, all necessary for the full cultivation of the Soul.The talk begins at 17:34 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time features congregants Jennifer Bolles, Chris Sullivan, Andrea Carino and Rose Ramm. Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"Pagans follow what we call the Wheel of the Year, which is our cyclical model for the passing of time. We don't see time as linear, we see it as cyclical. And hopefully as we go, year after we year, we ascend and evolve and become better human beings.  "Guest speaker Rev. Judith Laxer returns bring her pagan perspective to this moment. Concluding our series on the Alchemy of Service, she leads us to re-write the story of Perspehone, shifting some of the older victimization tropes into empowered choices. In doing so, she models allowing and aligning with the transition of the seasons, as a form of service to the planet, to ourselves and each other.The talk begins at 14:39 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time includes special guest Anamaria Guerzon. Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"When we as a community take on this notion of service as an attribute, very often we take it on from the side of privilege. We take it on from the side of 'we have something to give'. And, with that, in the back of our minds sometimes is this kind of shadow of shame. 'I shouldn’t have what I have.’"Guest speaker Ann Holmes Redding returns in person this time, speaking to our topic of service.  Ann is on staff at the Interfaith Community Sanctuary, which has had Service as their annual theme for 2021.  She brings the weight of her personal stories, family legacies, our shared cultural baggage, and some deep practical wisdom to this idea of Service in community.The talk begins at 15:30 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time includes special guest Tiffany Wilson. Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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"I do this instead of complaining, because now I feel like I'm building hope --  hope for the homeless individuals, their families and our city, and I also restoring my own hope that through acts of service small groups of dedicated people can help change the world."Senior Minister Rev. Karen Lindvig quotes Board member George Edwards, who wrote about the work he and wife Kathy are doing with The Hope Factory. This is just one example of how our community members walk the talk, serving in their daily lives. In our continued examination of The Alchemy of Service, Rev. Karen uses these and other real-life examples to highlight how work, fueled by love, can change the world for the better.  Dian and Mike Brennan also gave an Outreach update, and a special reading entitled On Work, by Kahlil Gibran Rev. Karen's talk begins at 18:31 in this podcast.Our Worship Arts team this time includes special guests Jeff Fielder and Teka Waterfield. Full service video is here.Please join us in person next Sunday, at 10 a.m. at our Sodo venue, Metropolist.And take advantage of all the ways we can stay connected,  including after-service fellowship, Daily Prayer Boosts, and Wednesday evening prayer services.  And as always, see our Facebook  page or our Instagram, for shareable quotes from our lesson notes, readings, and more.Want to get regular updates?Stay updated with our most recent newsletter here. 

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