Community Gathering Highlights — A Spirit of Connection and Renewal:
After Sunday’s service, we held a wonderfully well‑attended Community Gathering. The intention was simple: to check in with one another, listen deeply, and get a sense of how folks are feeling about what is unfolding here at Unity Center for Spiritual Growth.
It was a rich and heartfelt conversation.
We began with ministry updates, starting with the Garden Team, who announced their first meeting on March 29 following the service. They are preparing for another season of beauty and nourishment in the gardens as they grow fresh vegetables for our community and for the Windham Food Pantry.
Our Labyrinth was part of the discussion as well, with updates on this summer’s focus — tending the flower boxes, giving extra loving care to the arborvitae, and ensuring the space remains a living sanctuary for reflection and prayer.
Another meaningful thread in the conversation centered around how we share Unity with the wider community, especially those who consider themselves “unchurched” but are longing for a spiritual home. We talked about the importance of belonging—how vital it is right now for people to feel connected, seen, and spiritually supported.
While we will continue exploring outreach ideas together, there is one immediate step each of us can take: Share your Unity experience with someone you know. A personal invitation, a heartfelt conversation, or simply saying, “I’d love to have you join me on Sunday,” is still the most powerful form of outreach we have. Word of mouth remains the best advertising there is.
We also affirmed something essential about our ministry: Unity Center for Spiritual Growth is a spiritual oasis, a place where people can feel safe, breathe deeply, and return to their hearts, which is where all spiritual work truly begins.
There will be more gatherings like this as we continue listening to Spirit and to one another. In the meantime, one small but meaningful practice makes a world of difference: When someone new arrives, greet them. Welcome them. Let them feel the warmth of this community the moment they arrive.
Together, we are creating a space where love, connection, and spiritual growth flourish.
This Week’s Message: The Jesus Who Disrupts Our Stories
In this week’s talk, we explored the Jesus who lovingly interrupts the stories we tell about ourselves—the narratives that once kept us safe but now keep us small. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus meets people right at the point where their inner story no longer fits: the woman at the well, Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, Martha. He gently disrupts their assumptions not to unsettle them, but to free them.
We reflected on how each of us carries old scripts: “I have to be the strong one,” “I’m on my own,” “I can’t disappoint anyone.” And we considered the spiritual truth that disruption is often compassion in motion. It’s the moment when Love whispers, “This story isn’t big enough for who you’re becoming.”
I shared a dream from this week that revealed how deeply these old narratives can live in us, and how releasing them can feel like loss even when it is really liberation. Jesus invites us to step out of outdated roles and into a larger, truer identity grounded in love, presence, and spiritual freedom.
The invitation we carried into meditation was simple:
“Jesus, disrupt the story I’ve outgrown. Reveal the truth of who I am.”
May this week be a time of listening, releasing, and opening to the larger story your soul is ready to live.
Next week, we continue our Meeting Jesus Again series with a powerful and transformative message: “The Holy Interruption.”
We’ll explore the moments when Spirit steps into our lives with clarity, truth, and invitation—moments that may disrupt our plans but always lead us toward deeper freedom and alignment.
Join us as we look at how Jesus interrupts not to unsettle us, but to awaken us.
May this year invite us into deeper awareness, expanded possibility, and the joyful knowing that as we live our light, we bless the world. Together, we affirm there is always more good seeking expression through us, and it begins right here.
You are a blessing in my life,
Rev. Patricia Bessey
