Dear Unity Friends,
Let me begin by thanking each of you for twelve plus years of support, friendship and encouragement. I arrived in Albany as a newly ordained minister with a desire to help and share and also with much to learn. You welcomed me not just as your minister but also as a part of your community and spiritual family. Together we spent twelve years learning and growing together. We also grew in relationship and many of you have become friends. Your love and support allowed me to both serve you and to grow in my ability to serve. Reflecting back I am delighted at how much we have grown together. And together we have welcomed many new friends and supported them in their spiritual growth. I invite you to reflect back on our time together and consider the growth you have seen and experienced. While we may not have reached the end of our learning and growing, we have definitely made great strides forward as individuals and as a church community.
Now the time has come for me to move forward in another way. I know that for some of you this change brings up painful or fearful feelings, perhaps even anger. As I move through this change I also continue to experience feelings of both fear and sadness at times. Yet I understand that these are natural and represent bits of old stories and belief systems that are calling out for healing, not reaction. So I am mentally redefining them as “opportunities” to learn, to be gentle with myself and to remind myself of what it really True about me. I also suspect that they will continue to pay occasional visits until I have fully released what Charles Fillmore would call “my old thinking.”
As you move through your experience of this change I invite you to also be gentle with yourselves and take any challenges that arise in your mind or difficult emotions as opportunities for healing rather than reasons for self-criticism or blame. I invite you to trust and support our teams and leaders in their work and to reach out to friends within the congregation for the support and connection you need.
My intention is to maintain a presence on Facebook so that we can continue to share our ongoing journeys together. Please know that a big part of me would love to stay with you in Albany; however, a higher part of me is clearly guiding that now is my time to move on. So please know that I love you all, I care about each of you deeply, and I will continue to hold you in my mind and heart as beloved friends. May our paths cross again in the not too distant future and may you be safe and loved and well in the meantime.
Blessings always,
Rev Jim
I am your church dear Lord
Send all your people to me.
And I will love them, every one
And help them to be free.
4 Comments
Dear Jim & Kay,
Although I have not been in actual attendance at the Church for the last 2 years – I have continued to assist with the reading of The Daily Word, and have also followed along via sermon recordings. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and Kay for all that you offered me during a most difficult time in my Life. I was looking for a place to belong and you both were very welcoming and helped me to see my Spirituality through different eyes. I feel I’ve grown in no small part to Unity.
I wish you both the very best as you continue on your journey – wherever that may be. Peace to you both in Mind, Body and Spirit. You will always hold a spot in my Heart and I will keep you both in my thoughts and prayers.
Peace,
Margaret Reinold
Jim and Kay, I wish you both the best as you move forward to your next great adventure. I know that you both shared so much of yourselves with this congregation and were a true blessing. Twelve years, as we learned in ministerial school is a long time in one ministry, and very unusual for a first-time ministry. But you made the commitment and I admire you for it. May this next chapter of your life bring you great joy and much fun. You deserve it!
With love & great admiration,
Your Classmate & Friend
Carla Golden
Jim:
I (and Rhett, of course) wish you and your wife the very best always; we cannot express to you our gratitude for performing our marriage ceremony in a beautiful and soulful way–even though we had not been attending your church for that long; we felt welcomed by you and learned a great deal during our attendance there. And of course, you made our marriage day truly special and unforgetable!
Please forgive our not knowing that you were leaving or when….and for not saying goodbye in person; we will always treasure that we knew you and shared so much with you.
God bless you on your journey; wherever it now takes you; and I wish you inner peace and blessings! Beth
Hi Jim,
I wish you and Kay wondrous experiences as you move forward in your lives. In thinking about loss, I am reminded that many of us often find that each new loss can feel harder than the last. We might be fully aware that at a soul level, the loss is an illusion, and yet the knowing of that doesn’t lessen the painful feelings. I find that if I remember that my earliest losses may not have been fully grieved, then I can use a new loss to help me release the really old feelings. Of course I hurt, of course I am sad and angry. My little (inner) child was devastated by experiences of abandonment. Something that Michael Mirdad said is so helpful in dealing with seemingly contradictory moments like this. He said “Know the truth, but respect the illusion.” I wish us all a good cry, or many, or a shouting out of our hurts, until our bodies and selves feel much freer.
Judy Avitabile
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