Unity Church in Albany is very excited and pleased to announce that we have a new minister, Rev. Crystal Muldrow!
During the summer and fall of 2015 our Search and Find Team brought in three applicants they discerned to be both well qualified and a great fit for our church community. They were indeed, each one having their own considerable gifts, passions, strengths and visions for our 21st century Unity church. We are deeply indebted to Rev. Nat Carter and Rev. Julie Montague — first of all for considering Unity Church in Albany as a congregation they would be willing to serve, offering up heart and soul and time and effort as our spiritual leader, not to mention the significant uprooting and life change that such a development would have required for either of them. For all that they shared with us in their interviews and weeks of dialogue with our S&F team, for all the careful and prayerful thought they gave throughout the process, and especially for all that they shared on the weekends they visited – through their workshops or presentations, their meetings with staff, board and teams, those difficult Q&A sessions, and especially the wisdom and prayerful presence they offered to us at Sunday services – we thank Nat and Julie from the bottom of our hearts. We know that Spirit will guide them forward on their journeys to their own next adventures for the unfolding of their highest good and those they will serve.
Rev. Crystal Muldrow
Our new Senior Minister, Rev. Crystal Muldrow visited us on the weekend of September 18-20. As with our other candidates, Rev. Crystal led a Saturday morning workshop, spoke and led meditations at the Sunday morning services, held a question and answer session on Sunday afternoon and took part in the Sunday evening service.
Rev. Crystal’s cover letter to us provides pertinent background information as well as demonstrating her interest in serving our church community.
Rev. Crystal wrote:
“I am excited to be considered for the position of Senior Minister at Unity Church in Albany. I believe that my personal abilities and spiritual gifts make me a great match for the minister you desire. As the founding minister of the Internet ministry, Unity Community of Spiritual Unfoldment (UCSU), I gained extensive experience about how to create all of the varied components of a ministry. My involvement at UCSU prepared me for my position as the interim minister, where I worked with the board of trustees and the congregation of Unity Church of Peace: Practical Spirituality (UCP) in Jefferson City, Missouri. I was instrumental in imbuing the church with renewed energy and empowering it to shine in new and beautiful ways that quickly attracted their next Senior Minister.
Because of my healthy relationship and former success with UCP, when their minister announced she was resigning, I was the first person they asked to support them through the transition. I was given the option of returning as either their new Senior Minister or as an interim minister. Although I love this community, my guidance was clear that I return as their interim minister. With these positive experiences in guiding a congregation, I now realize that the time is right for me to search for a ministry where I can provide spiritual leadership for congregants in ways that were not always possible with an Internet ministry nor as an interim minister.”
In addition to being a Unity minister (ordained in 2006), Rev. Crystal was also ordained as a Buddhist monk in 2012 and has served as a dharma teacher for Dharmakaya Buddhist Association in Kansas City, MO.
The Community’s response
The Unity Albany community responded very positively to Rev. Crystal’s visit. The overall impression she left with us is conveyed visually in this “word cloud,” which compiles words people used to describe their experience of Crystal. The more a particular word came up in the evaluations, the larger it appears in the cloud. Thanks and kudos to Cheri Warren for creating this visual.
Rev. Crystal’s message from Sunday, September 20, 2015
“Is It So?”
The “amen” at the end of our prayers may be the most important part of our prayer. More than just a perfunctory “let it be so,” our amen offers us the opportunity to make a conscious commitment to manifest that for which we pray.