by Rev. Crystal Muldrow
“The Great Spirit is in all things: he is in the air we breathe. The Great Spirit is our father, but the earth is our mother. She nourishes us; that which we put into the ground she returns to us.”
— Big Thunder (Bedagi)
Wabanaki Algonquin
My usual morning routine when I drive up to the church is to delight in the landscaping that was done several years ago. During our spring clean up day, our garden team did a fantastic job of clearing out both our front yard and back garden. If you haven’t visited the back garden in a while, it’s time you do. Thanks to two of our congregants, we have a beautiful new seating area that takes the place of the old wooden bench.
As I see butterflies and bees enjoying the spring blooms, young birds and squirrels moving around and the neighborhood cat sunning itself in our backyard garden, I see how what we do to the land can bring joy and life to all. Likewise, what we do to the land can be devastating.
Unity’s fundamental belief is we are all one. Our first principle is, God is good, omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. Because we believe God’s wisdom and power is present everywhere, this means everything of this earth is interconnected and everything is sacred. As stewards of the Earth, it is important for us to care for creation. All creation is God’s, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. Water, air, soil, minerals, energy resources, plants, animal life, and space are to be valued and conserved because they are God’s creation and not solely because they are useful to human beings. We should meet these stewardship duties through acts of loving care and respect.
Last year, Unity Church in Albany started to seriously look at ways we can do our part in being loving and respectful to the planet. We are working to become a part of Unity Worldwide Ministry EarthCare Ministry Team. Their wonderful statement of purpose is:
“The Unity movement is guided by a vision of sacredness and the interconnectedness of all, the interdependence of all life. It is a journey of spiritual relationships with Earth and its creatures. It is through awakened consciousness that we see everything as the presence of God.”
We became more diligent in our use of the air-conditioning and heating systems, only using them when activities are happening in the ministry. We now are a ministry that recycles. Through technology, emails, Dropbox, and the networking of our computer system, we have become more paperless.
This year, with thoughts of how we can continue to do our part to love and respect our world, I recommended to the board that we continue our paperless pursuit and our capabilities to expand our use of technology by altering the way this newsletter is distributed. This newsletter will be the last one mailed out via the United States Postal Service. This shift allows us to continue to do our part as good stewards of our land and be good stewards fiscally.
We are excited to be able to offer you more information and a new format as we start emailing the newsletter to you in August. We don’t want you to miss a thing, so please make sure we have your email address. You can get your email address to us several ways:
- The sign up sheet at either entrance.
- Email us at unityalbany@yahoo.com with the Subject: Newsletter
Let’s continue to work together as a community to love and respect our planet. If you have any suggestions on how our ministry can continue this mission, please let us know. For as Thich Nhat Hanh said:
“You carry Mother Earth within you.
She is not outside of you.
Mother Earth is not just your environment.
In that insight of inter-being, it is possible
to have real communication with the Earth,
which is the highest form of prayer.”