Dear Unity of Tustin Community,

My heart is so full as I reflect on all that 2017 has brought for us as a community. In 2017 we will have:

• Offered over 120 Sunday and special services, inspiring, deepening and lifting people up through our prayer, ritual, music and message.
• Served the greater community through the OC Food project, delivering groceries to St. Paul’s, serving a Sunday meal once a quarter and donating backpacks to children in need.
• Focused on our Unity of Tustin community through our Ministry Fair and literally put our hand prints on the heart of the administration building, recognizing that our service does truly leave hand prints on the heart of Unity of Tustin.
• Celebrated our children and teens’ graduation and stories of events and spiritual insights.

There’s been so much vitality and aliveness in our community and it makes my heart sing.

In Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr says, “God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not waste too much time protecting the boxes.” I love this reminder. We set boxes around everything, even spiritual community. This year we came to you as a Board with our own awakening to some of the boxes we have been living in as a community. We realized that we have entered what Richard Rohr calls the liminal space (the space between). What’s bigger than the box we are currently living in? I see that something is wanting to be birthed. To go beyond the box and fully participate in the birth we have set our 2018 intention to focus on:

1. Revitalizing our Worship Experiences
2. Transition & Transformation Process
3. Reaching Out to the Greater Community

I’ve been in many planning meetings over the last couple of days, casting the vision and setting the intention for 2018. I’m getting so excited for what is ahead of us. I see our community impassioned by vision, connected in Spirit and on fire with service.

In my travels during sabbatical I became aware of how hungry my own heart and practice was for the experience of God, or what we call the mystical. 2018 will be a year of walking through our own transformation and cultivating our mystic’s heart. And, if you’re confused about what that means, stay tuned, we have some ways for you to find out more and experience it yourself in the coming year.

During the month of November at the 9 and 11 am service we as a community will set the field for this transformational year of 2018 through setting our own individual commitments to spiritual practice.

Every year for over 12 years I have sat down in prayer and considered how I will give at Unity of Tustin. I consider it part of my sacred practice and a gift to myself to consciously participate with my community. Making a spiritual commitment effects both my individual practice and our collective practice. Every one of us who practice matter to the whole. It matters to us that you are meditating. It matters to us that you are giving. It matters to us that you are doing your self-transformation work. It matters to us that you are serving. You AND We are affected by conscious, intentional practice. I encourage you to join me in coming to church with your commitment card in November prayerfully completed. We will be receiving the commitments as our community sings “Here I Am Lord.”

I read each commitment card received, blessing the intention and celebrating your devotion to the Divine. This information is held in strict confidence and your card will be returned to you in time for the beginning of the year. We use the financial commitments outlined in these cards to make our budget plans for next year.

As we approach our month-long invitation into commitment to spiritual practice and living the vision of 2018, I invite you into deep prayer as you open to the guidance of Spirit. How are you being asked to stretch in a way that supports and enhances that Divine creative flow? Let there be vitality, abundance and joy for us all.

In Deep Love,

Rev. Carolyne
2018 Commitment Card