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UNITY OF TAMPA'S CORE VALUES
MEET THE FIVE UNITY PRINCIPLES |
ON A FRIDAY EVENING AND A SATURDAY MORNING
IN MAY 2009, A GROUP MET TO REVISIT UNITY OF TAMPA'S MISSION AND
VISION. It was a powerful two-day event. After reviewing the
statements that had led our way for many years, the group developed
a new mission and vision: Vision:
Centered in Love, we celebrate an enlightened world of peace,
harmony, and abundance for all.
Mission: We are a thriving spiritual community that embraces
diversity and inspires personal transformation by living Unity
principles. The new statements were
presented to the congregation the following Sunday asking for
feedback. The vast majority of those present that Sunday gave the
Mission and Vision their thumbs up, and they were adopted.
Afterwards, the Core Values team began work to identify our top five
core values using the data gathered from the Friday night session.
Values are defined as ideals, customs, or ethics. The team selected
Spiritual, Progressive, Loving, Peaceful, and Inclusive. These Core
Values, unique to our spiritual community, are ideals or ethics that
we either already demonstrate or aspire to demonstrate as our
ethical behavior. Since the Core Values were explained through a
three-Sunday series, someone had a few questions. Specifically, how
do the Core Values fit in with our Five Unity Principles?
We share the Five Unity principles with the
entire Unity organization. Principles are defined as "an accepted
basic law or doctrine." We believe our Five Unity Principles are the
Truth or Law as we know and understand it and these principles
represent our denominational doctrine. The Five Principles are:
- God is absolute good, everywhere present.
- Human beings have a spark of divinity within them, the Christ spirit
within. Their very essence is of God, and therefore they are also
inherently good.
- Human beings create their experiences by the activity of their thinking.
Everything in the manifest realm has its beginning in
thought.
- Prayer is creative thinking that heightens the connection with God-Mind
and therefore brings forth wisdom, healing, prosperity, and
everything good.
- Knowing and understanding the laws of life, also called Truth, are not
enough. A person must also live the Truth that he or she knows.
How do our Core Values work together with our Five Principles?
Unity is our philosophy and practice for living, not a prescribed
set of beliefs or dogma. Believing these principles is easy;
living these principles takes practice. The only measurements we
have of how well we are living these principles would be found in
the amount of peace of mind and the quality of our relationships,
and by observing what we are manifesting in our outer worlds. It
is up to each of you to decide for yourselves how well you are
living our Five Principles.
Our Core Values represent the ethics and ideals that we as a
spiritual community hope to demonstrate both in our daily lives
and in our community. The Core Values team identified several
personal and community-wide behaviors that would demonstrate each
of these Core Values.
Again, each of you must decide for yourself if you are
demonstrating these values in your lives and in your spiritual
community. In Unity, you are always invited to seek your own inner
guidance and determine for yourself your beliefs, values, and
spiritual principles.
Our Core Values represent the collective consciousness of our
spiritual community. Our Five Principles have been received
extremely well by our entire Unity organization and have stood the
test of time. Connie Fillmore, the great-grand-daughter of our
co-founders, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, wrote the Five
Principles in 1990.
I hope this has clarified the difference and synergy of our Unity
Principles and our Unity of Tampa Core Values. In my mind they go
hand in glove. What do you think? I always appreciate your
feedback and thoughts.
Rev Debbie
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