Dear Friends,
As we enter the Season of Light, we thank each of you for your love and dedication to your Unity in Albany family. We are deeply grateful for your continuing support now and throughout the years, and especially during these challenging times. Your continued commitment to our shared vision and mission has enabled Unity in Albany to continue to be a beacon of light in our community and beyond.
This year, as we welcome our new Senior Minister, Rev. Brigid Beckman, we invite all to come together to embrace this spiritual gift we have been given – the right and perfect minister for us! With a minister who recognizes we are the right and perfect community for her, we believe that Unity of Albany now stands at the threshold of an exciting time of growth, evolution and outreach. Indeed, what we have to offer our community as we affirm the Divine Order at work in our own lives and in our world, is needed now more than ever.
Standing at this threshold would not have been possible without the unwavering, inspired leadership and creativity of Rev Roger, the Search and Find Team, the Music and AV Teams, the Building and Grounds committee, Nina Forgette Corcoran and our Board. For the past nearly two years, their dedication and loving service have kept the Unity light burning while we navigated a pandemic and the search for a full-time senior minister!
The sacred service of so many has enabled our ministry to remain a vibrant force in the community and your love offerings have enabled us to navigate these past two years with a good measure of financial stability. Our beloved community has lived our mission in myriad ways over the past year, despite and in response to the challenges we faced. You all showed up in countless ways, large and small.
For example:
- Community members stepped up to share their wisdom as guest speakers for Sunday messages.
- Volunteers worked in the office, watered plants, and supported our beloved Danny through his surgery and finding and settling into his new home.
- Other volunteers worked miracles in the garden and/or created wonderful outdoor weekend adventures and hikes, created Open Mic nights, outdoor gatherings and Thanksgiving dinner.
- Many members of the community hosted and/or participated in the Monday night reading group, Spirit Groups and Fellowship.
- Many also reached out in love and prayer to Cathy Williams and Gina, as well as to other beloved congregants dealing with health and other challenges.
- Prayer chaplains continued to support and affirm the wholeness of all in our community through prayer ministry and weekly prayer hour on Zoom.
- And WOW! The Music and AV Teams kept our weekly services vibrantly ALIVE in Spirit AND Covid-safe, and are The Glue that kept us coming back week after week.
In the coming year, we will listen deeply and respond together to Spirit calling us into awakening. Faced with varying levels of our own fiscal realities, we are called now to step out in trust. Along with our spiritual abundance, together, when each of us gives from our depth, we trust that God, ever-present and all good, will meet our every need. We are grateful for YOU: for the tangible gift of your presence, and for the blessing of your generous love offerings.
As always, you may go to www.UnityAlbany.org/giving and use the PayPal link or the Vanco link to send your offering online. The tear-off below is for your convenience to use with the enclosed pre-addressed envelope. Regular monthly donations are especially helpful, and we are happy to provide information on how to remember Unity of Albany in your estate planning. *To contribute to an end-of-year bonus for Roger, please make a note in the memo on your check that the funds are meant for him.
On behalf of the Board, Rev Brigid, and Rev Roger, deepest thanks for your efforts to keep Unity of Albany financially stable, spiritually alive and continuing to serve our Capital Region community. We look forward with JOY to seeing you in 2022.
Blessings of peace, love and joyful abundance to you!
P.S. Stay tuned for more information to come about joy-filled (SAFE!) holiday events being planned to bring our beautiful community together to celebrate!
Contribute through PayPal or Vanco, or send in your check made out to Unity Church to us at 21 King Ave., Albany, NY 12206. Write “annual appeal” in the note area of the check.
