Our Sunday Service is at 11 a.m.
Join us in person or via livestream!
Learn more about livestream.
We are more than a Sunday Service!
9:30 - 10:30 New Thought Café in the Spirit Room. Learn More
10:35 - 10:50 Group Meditation in the Chapel. Learn More
11:00 - 12:00 Sunday Service in Unity Hall.
11:00 - 12:00 Youth and Family Ministry in the Elementary School classroom. Learn More
12:00 - 12:30 1 on 1 Prayer with a Prayer Chaplain in the Sanctuary.
12:10 - 12:30 Coffee and fellowship in the Community Room. Donations of baked goods or store-bought goodies are always welcome.
Meet our Prayer Chaplains
At the podium: Team Leader, Michele Coles. Back Row: Ellen Severson, Shannon Sabol, Karen Kaszmer, Terri Brewer, Joanne Gerhart. Front Row: Shannon Hoff-Smith, Donna Foote, Margie Samosky, Pam McCue. Not pictured: Laurie Grimes.
Every Second Sunday. Learn More
Every Third Sunday. Learn More
Board President Greg Skuderin also leads our Worship Committee.
Sunday Service Archives
You will find video archives of past Sunday Services on our Facebook page and YouTube page.
Our Sunday Service archives appear immediately on Facebook. Enter “Sunday Service” in the search bar at the top of the page. Visit our Facebook Page.
Our Sunday Service archives do not appear immediately on YouTube. The archives usually appear on our YouTube page on Monday and are in date order. Visit our YouTube Page. Enter "Unity Spiritual Center Westlake" in the search bar at the top of YouTube.com.
Sunday Service Archives
You will find video archives of past Sunday Services on our Facebook page and YouTube page.
Our Sunday Service archives appear immediately on Facebook. Enter “Sunday Service” in the search bar at the top of the page. Visit our Facebook Page.
Our Sunday Service archives do not appear immediately on YouTube. The archives usually appear on our YouTube page on Monday and are in date order. Visit our YouTube Page. Enter "Unity Spiritual Center Westlake" in the search bar at the top of YouTube.com.
Photos by David Schwartz
Welcome to our Fall Program!
Please click here for details on our Fall Program.
We have new songs for the Fall Program! They are "Spirit Is in This Place" and "All That's Good," both by Denise Rosier.
Click on the above links to hear the songs. Look for the lyrics at the bottom of this page.
Sept. 29: Week 1 - Chapters 1 and 2
Chapter 1: What is Affirmative Prayer?
An access point to spiritual realization, affirmative prayer is the practice of recognizing oneness, integrating our human and divine identity, and realizing we are fully able to respond to life’s circumstances by means of innate spiritual prayer.
Chapter 2: Oneness, the Prime Principle.
The principle of oneness, this singular power, is not a person but the very essence of life, the organizing principle and formless intelligence out of which everything and everyone comes into existence. All physical and spiritual principles are contained within oneness.
Rev. Linda Martella-Whitsett begins our Fall Program. She is the co-author of Discover Your Divinity: A Modern Guide to Affirmative Prayer. She teaches that we are here to be the light of the world. Her message promotes humanity’s innate capacities to respond to life’s circumstances in spiritual maturity. She is retired from serving as Vice President at Unity World Headquarters, leading Unity’s 24/7 global prayer ministry, Silent Unity.
The title of her message is Prayer from the Ledge. If you’ve ever prayed in desperation, chances are you have learned that times of deep trouble just might be our greatest opportunities to discover our deepest spiritual capacities! How to trust in the midst of distressing circumstances? How to thrive when weakened by disillusionment? This and more about the pivotal power of prayer!
Our soloist for September 29 is Roberta McLaughlin.
Oct. 6: Week 2 - Chapters 3 and 4
Chapter 3: Transformative Mind Action. The power of mind action is the creative process at work in the flow of affirmative prayer. The creative process is the way the invisible becomes visible, and the infinite gets expressed in finite ways. It is an orderly progression of mind, idea, and expression, the action of divine order.
Chapter 4: Affirmation and Negation. Affirmative prayer relies upon statements of Truth, or affirmations, as anchors for shifting awareness from powerless to empowered. A complementary tool is negation, or in classical Unity teachings, denial. Negations are statements renouncing false beliefs with their accompanying negative thinking.
Rev. Karen Shepherd is our speaker. She began her life-long study of yoga and metaphysics as a teenager. Her studies led her to become a Prayer Practitioner in 2002 and a Licensed Unity Teacher in 2007. She enrolled in the Unity Urban Ministerial School in 2012 and was ordained in 2014. She received approval from the Board of Trustees of Unity Worldwide Ministries to operate her Unity Good Shepherd Ministries as an Alternative Unity Ministry. Rev. Karen is active in Unity ministry as a guest speaker, workshop leader, and wedding and funeral officiant in local Unity ministries.
Oct. 13: Week 3 - Chapters 5 and 6
Chapter 5: Recognize the Nature of God. Wrestling with our understanding of God leads us to a greater God, a God we can identify with. When our grasp on God expands, our prayer leads to expanded consciousness.
Chapter 6: Claim Divine Identity. Recognizing the nature of God as principle, we can claim the principle as our own. We claim the spiritual authority of I AM, by which we become able to heal, to thrive, and to manifest the life we deeply desire.
Rev. Ric Schumacher is our speaker. He is an ordained Unity minister and a nationally recognized speaker, trainer, and writer. He is an adjunct professor at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. He has a bachelor’s degree in religious studies with concentrations in archaeology and Islamic and Judaic studies. He lives in Akron, Ohio, with his wife Heather, two dogs, and a gray cat named Earl.
Oct. 20: Week 4 - Chapter 7
Chapter 7: The Affirmative Prayer Flow. In the flow of affirmative prayer, each movement leads to the next. As we inhabit each movement our consciousness, like a fern frond, unfurls from the tension of a prayer concern toward the expansiveness of divine realization. It is in the realization that we can concretely activate the divinity we are.
Michele Coles has spent the last 40 years exploring spiritual practices like prayer, meditation, journaling, and the modern alchemy of decluttering. She has studied various theologies and has spent the last 18 years in Unity. Michele is in her second year of ministerial school with Unity Spiritual Institute. She considers herself a truth student and finds relatable teachings in pop culture. Michele shares her gifts of song, storytelling, and laughter to spread joy throughout our community.
Oct. 27: Week 5 - Chapters 8 and 9
Chapter 8: When Prayer Seems Not to Be Working. The ability to meet ourselves – to be present with our fears, worries, and doubts and meet them with truth – is the heart of integrative affirmation prayer. It is a personal process of healing where we actually choose to listen for those voices of doubt, worry, or fear – not to squash them but to reform them.
Chapter 9: Preparing to Pray with Others. When praying with others, we are realizing the Truth about their divinity, it is by our spiritual authority to name and claim our own divine nature that we can also name and claim their divine nature.
Our speaker is Bruce Price. Bruce has been a student of Unity since 2005. He has served the Unity Community in various leadership roles, including interim Spiritual Leader at Unity Chapel of Light in Tallmadge, Ohio. Before his time in Unity, Bruce engaged in multiple endeavors. He began as a farmer, then became a collegiate athlete, a chemical engineer, an international businessman, and a facilitator of behavioral transformation workshops. Currently, he is an occasional speaker and consultant. In addition, he enjoys spending time with his partner Nikki and his son Noah while maintaining an avid curiosity to explore the mysteries of life.
Nov. 3: Week 6 - Chapters 10 and 11
Chapter 10: Evolving Your Prayer Style and Vocabulary. When we are praying with others, we are not having a conversation with them, we are speaking from spiritual authority as the I AM. We are declaring Truth. We are speaking about the reality of their divine nature. Speaking, activating, claiming from our divine spiritual authority is an embodied experience of oneness; we are expressing an elevated consciousness.
Chapter 11: Praying the Five Movements with Others. The prayer process when praying with others is not for them; it is a process that enables us to awaken more deeply to our own divinity, know that our divinity is their divinity, and then share that realization with others.
Rev. Linda will be with us in person over the weekend to wrap up our Fall Program. She will give the message at our Sunday Service. The title of her message is Serving the World with Thoughts and Prayers. Every time a legislator responds in a communal crisis with “thoughts and prayers,” social media screams back. Not thoughts and prayers, but action, we say! Author and teacher of affirmative prayer in the Unity movement, speaks about the value of thought and prayer as a first step, a critical platform and supreme act of service: cultivating being for mature doing.
Fall Program Congregational Songs
“Spirit Is in This Place” Lyrics
We have come together as a family.
We have come here as we are. Ooo
We have come with arms wide open.
We have gathered here in love. Mmm
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Raise the roof with shouts of praise,
spirit's in this place.
We sing in celebration.
We sing with words of prayer.
We affirm all life as sacred.
We declare that peace is here, Mmm, yeah.
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Raise the roof with shouts of praise,
Spirit's in this place.
INSTRUMENTAL
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Spirit is in this, spirit is in this place.
Raise the roof with shouts of praise,
Spirit's in this place.
"All That’s Good" Lyrics
I’ve heard it said that we’re small
and alone on our path
But my mind is set on
a life that’s greater than that
And my heart is open wide
My heart will be open wide
All that’s good that flows
from above and below
I am that, I am that.
All the joy and love
that a life can hold
I am that, I am that.
All that’s good, all that’s good
Some say the answers I seek
are found on my knees.
But I listen inside to the
whisper that’s all that I need.
And my heart is open wide
My heart will be open wide
All that’s good that flows
from above and below
I am that, I am that.
All the joy and love
that a life can hold
I am that, I am that.
All that’s good, all that’s good.
Oh, all is for me
Oh, I am worthy, I am worthy.
Oh, all is for me
Oh, I am worthy, I am worthy.
All that’s good that flows
from above and below
I am that, I am that.
All the joy and love
that a life can hold
I am that, I am that.
All that’s good that flows
from above and below
I am that, I am that.
All the joy and love
that a life can hold
I am that, I am that.
All that’s good
All that’s good.