Unity of Walnut Creek

2023-05-28 I AM Remembering Rev. Kristin offers a powerful Memorial Day reflection that honors military veterans while inviting us to remember our deepest spiritual identity. Drawing on the story of Moses and the burning bush, she explores how the sacred "I AM" presence lives within each of us - not as beings born of original sin, but as original blessings made in the image of the divine. Rev. Kristin encourages us to move beyond ego-driven fear and reconnect with our true essence through stillness, authentic self-expression, and mindful use of our words, reminding us that the only difference between us and the spiritual masters is that they never forgot who they were.

2023-05-21 Your Service is Sacred Rev. Kristin explores the sacred nature of service through the ancient Hebrew story of Reb Nakem, whose smallest act of kindness - flicking mud from a farmer's shoulder - ultimately tipped the scales in his favor at life's review. She reminds us that service is a free and powerful antidote to isolation, depression, and low self-esteem, connecting us with the divine and with one another in ways both grand and simple. Drawing on scripture, Gandhi, and the random acts of kindness movement, Rev. Kristin invites everyone to recognize their unique gifts and share them generously, affirming that every act of service - no matter how small - creates ripples of goodness throughout the world.

2023-05-14 May 14, 2023 – The Wholly Mother Rev. Kristin Powell Rev. Kristin delivers a heartfelt Mother's Day message exploring the sacred and expansive nature of motherhood as spiritual practice. Through a touching story of two elephants embodying the cycle of giving and receiving - "first you, then me" - she illuminates how the love ethic of the mother lives within all of us, regardless of gender or parental status. Rev. Kristin weaves together wisdom from indigenous grandmothers, Myrtle Fillmore, and the divine feminine tradition to invite us into fierce, compassionate, wholesome love that can transform our relationships and our world. She encourages us to be mindful sowers of seeds - choosing words of kindness and compassion - and to recognize ourselves as holy mothers called to bring forth healing for each other and for Mother Earth.

2023-05-13 May 14, 2023 – The Wholly Mother

2023-05-07 May 7, 2023 – Journey to the Ancestors Guest Speaker: Michelle Cicala Michelle Cicala shares her passion for ancestor work, guiding the community through a beautiful ritual of building a sacred altar and connecting with ancestral guides. She explores the many types of ancestors who support us - those of blood and bone, lineage, affinity, and our beloved dead - while also honoring the descendants who will come after us. Through offerings of roses, water, light, and gratitude, Michelle creates a sacred space for a guided journey to the ancestral realm, reminding us that when we heal ourselves and align with our divine purpose, we heal our entire lineage across time and space.

2023-04-30 April 30, 2023 – Riding the Wave of Transition Rev. Kristin Powell In this first of a two-part series, Rev. Kristin explores the spiritual art of navigating life's inevitable changes through four phases - embracing, emoting, emptying, and envisioning. Rev. Kristin invites us to befriend the "nothingness" that lives between one door closing and another opening, reframing that uncomfortable hallway as one of life's richest spiritual spaces. Using the metaphor of surfing, Rev. Kristin reminds us that much of life is spent waiting and being rather than doing, and that standing at nil with patience allows spirit to reveal our next steps in perfect timing.

2023-04-23 April 23, 2023 – Earth Dreaming and Waking Rev. Kristin Powell Rev. Kristin delivers a heartfelt Earth Day message exploring our sacred connection with the natural world, reminding us that just as gravity pulls us physically close to the earth, there is a spiritual pull inviting us to pay attention and reconnect with all life. Through stories of a boy's reverence for his ant farm and a Native American prayer practice of embodying rain rather than asking for it, Rev. Kristin illustrates how presence, compassion, and sensory awareness bridge the mystical and the physical. She invites us to uncover sacrilege wherever life has been dishonored and restore it to the sacred through embodied prayer, compassionate action, and conscious oneness with all living beings.

2023-04-16 April 16, 2023 – Ascend to Heavenly Consciousness Rev. Kristin Powell Rev. Kristin explores the beloved story of Jacob's Ladder from Genesis, revealing that the pathway to heaven is not about climbing or efforting but about recognizing that we are already home. She illuminates how Jacob's dream reveals three points of spiritual contact - rest, realize, and recommit - inviting us to discover that our bodies are the house of God and our hearts the gateway to heaven. Drawing on wisdom from St. Teresa of Avila and her own experience among ancient bristlecone pines, Rev. Kristin reminds us that divine abundance flows simultaneously and effortlessly when we simply open to love.

2023-04-09 April 9, 2023 – Come Alive in Truth! Rev. Kristin Powell In this inspiring Easter message, Rev. Kristin Powell explores the profound question Pontius Pilate posed to Jesus - "What is truth?" - and traces how truth moves through stages of ridicule, opposition, and finally self-evidence in our lives and world. Rev. Kristin Powell draws powerful parallels between the Easter story and our personal journeys of transformation, highlighting Mary Magdalene's shift from follower to teacher as a model for our own resurrection. She invites us to release old identities we cling to, embrace the Christ consciousness within, and become living testimonies to the absolute, unchangeable spiritual truth that sets us free.

2023-04-02 April 2, 2023 – Blessing Prepares the Way Rev. Kristin Powell Rev. Kristin delivers a powerful Palm Sunday message exploring how the cry of "Hosanna" represents not a plea to be saved, but a practice of heaping blessings upon the divine Christ within each of us. She illuminates how blessing is a gift available to everyone - not reserved for the ordained - and how it serves as both preparation for spiritual growth and a transformative practice that ripples outward into the world. Drawing on stories from Suzuki Roshi to a husband's morning blessing ritual, Rev. Kristin invites us to become the blessing in every moment, recognizing that as we bless others, good multiplies in our lives and across the planet.

2023-03-26 March 26, 2023 – Blessings Flow from Emptiness Rev. Kristin Powell Rev. Kristin explores the transformative power of spiritual emptiness through the parable of a desert monk whose sustained vision of the divine kept him on his path long after others fell away. Drawing on the wisdom of Unity co-founder Charles Fillmore's "Keep a True Lent," she invites us to release the unrealities - habits of negativity, distraction, and separation consciousness - that block our experience of the divine. Rev. Kristin shares her own profound wilderness fasting experience and reminds us that our work is simply to slow down and empty ourselves, trusting that Spirit fills us with overflowing light, love, and renewed life.

2023-03-19 March 19, 2023 – Blessing Brings Joy Guest Speaker: Johanna Van Gelder Guest Johanna Van Gelder offers a heartfelt exploration of blessing as a transformative spiritual practice, using the parable of the prodigal son to illustrate how we all journey away from and back toward our divine nature. Drawing from her own life experiences - from rejecting God as a teenager to exhausting herself with affirmations alone - she shares how surrendering and reconnecting with the divine presence brought her home to herself. Guest Johanna Van Gelder demonstrates how blessing ourselves, others, and even our surroundings dissolves separation, releases self-judgment, and restores the joy that flows naturally when we recognize the divine in all things.

2023-03-12 March 12, 2023 – Soulful Service Rev. Kristin Powell In this inspiring fourth installment of the Core Values Series, Rev. Kristin explores soulful service as the action piece that brings love, connection, and wisdom to life. Rev. Kristin shares powerful stories of divine guidance unfolding through everyday moments - including her own journey into ministry - illustrating how following intuitive nudges leads to sacred purpose. She invites listeners to ask three guiding questions - What are my gifts? Who are my people? Where is home? - as a pathway to discovering what makes them come alive. Rev. Kristin reminds us that the world needs each person's unique contribution, and that when we say yes to spirit's call, we are fully supported.

2023-03-05 March 5, 2023 – Accessible Wisdom Rev. Kristin Powell In this third installment of the Core Values Series, Rev. Kristin explores the difference between knowledge and wisdom - reminding us that while knowledge comes from the outside in, wisdom is an innate inner knowing we all carry within us. Drawing from Proverbs, Unity teachings, Sufi stories, and personal experience, Rev. Kristin offers a simple yet powerful mantra for accessing divine guidance - listen, trust, and follow. Rev. Kristin encourages us to approach life with childlike openness and humility, trusting the wisdom of our solar plexus - our "second brain" - and allowing divine discernment to guide our choices toward the highest good.

2023-03-04 March 5, 2023 – Accessible Wisdom

2023-02-26 February 26, 2023 – Divine Connection Rev. Kristin Powell In this heartfelt message on divine connection, Rev. Kristin explores how we bridge the distance between knowing and feeling God's love - drawing inspiration from Dr. Maya Angelou's powerful journey from reading "God loves me" to truly embodying that truth. Rev. Kristin invites us to ground our spiritual connection through physical practices like walking the labyrinth, movement, and everyday rituals that help us carry the divine presence in our bodies, minds, and spirits. Highlighting the unity of all beings, Rev. Kristin reminds us that when our cup is filled through connection with the divine within, we naturally connect with others in ways that smooth our rough edges and awaken remembrance of our shared oneness.

2023-02-19 February 19, 2023 – Neighborly Love Rev. Kristin Powell In this opening message of the Core Values Series, Rev. Kristin explores neighborly love as the foundational core value of Unity of Walnut Creek, drawing from the golden rule shared across the world's religions to illuminate our essential oneness. Rev. Kristin invites us to examine where we draw the boundaries of our hearts - who we might be leaving out of our circle of love - and challenges us to expand those edges with compassion, generosity, and celebration of diversity. Through stories of Mother Teresa and Harriet Jacobs, Rev. Kristin reminds us that love is not merely an intellectual concept but a lived practice of seeing every living being as our neighbor and treating them with the kindness that flows naturally from our shared divine source.

2023-02-12 February 12, 2023 – Creating a Harmonious Life Guest Speaker: Dimitry Doronkin Dmitri Doronkin shares his personal journey with tithing, describing it as an ancient spiritual ritual that harmonizes your life through energy exchange. Drawing from eight years of experience at Unity of Walnut Creek, Dmitri Doronkin offers candid stories - including experiments with giving more, less, and nothing at all - to illustrate how dedicating 10% of income to your place of spiritual nourishment creates a two-lane road between you and the divine. He emphasizes that tithing is not about supporting a community but about becoming the primary beneficiary of a powerful spiritual practice that brings harmony and flow into your life.

2023-02-05 February 5, 2023 – The Cosmological Power of Synergy Dr. Brian Swimme Brian Swimme explores the cosmological power of synergy - the beneficial effects that emerge only through relationship - revealing how this force has driven the universe's creative unfolding from elementary particles to complex life. Using vivid examples from neutrons that last a billion years only in partnership, to single cells that eventually gave rise to whales, Brian Swimme illustrates how deeper relationships bring forth capacities we cannot predict or imagine. He connects this cosmic principle to our present moment, encouraging optimism and hope as the human expressions of synergy entering conscious self-awareness, reminding us that civilizations have always been built by those who trust in what is yet to emerge.

2023-01-29 January 29, 2023 – Centered & Affirmed, Principles #4 and #5 Rev. Kristin Powell Rev. Kristin closes out the Unity Big Five series with a heartfelt exploration of prayer and meditation, reminding us there is no wrong way to pray - whether conversational, surrendered, or structured through Unity's affirmative prayer method of acknowledging, claiming, and expecting. She explains how regular meditation practice helps us become the compassionate witness of our thoughts, giving us greater access to wisdom, peace, and confidence in daily life. Rev. Kristin encourages us to simply do it - pray and meditate - so we can live spiritually centered, joy-filled lives as instruments of divine peace.

Unity of Walnut Creek - Messages