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Unity Village
​I love visiting Unity Village in Missouri. For over 100 years it has stood as a testament to the innovative and resourcefulness of the Fillmores as they designed and built many structures even though they had financial challenges relating to WWI, the global pandemic of 1919, the Great Depression, World War II, and more. 
Walnut trees that were dying on the property were reclaimed and made into doors and fixtures.  A new architectural building strategy of poured forms allowed local materials to be made into long-lasting walls and foundations in many buildings.  The cooling system in those early days utilized gravity and water in the tower, creating air conditioning in the buildings..
The classic story about faith from Myrtle Fillmore addressed the fear of money holding out; to this she replied, “Let’s pray that our faith holds out.” Myrtle knew that all the many prayers in the world do not get God to do anything. What God can do, God is doing as the great design and conviction for potential.
God is power, the very energy for us to be re-energized when we are fatigued or despairing about the earth’s woes.  God is life itself, and life begets life, not death; it is the very life energy we can faithfully honor even when our body has body parts that wear out, or the earth has glaciers that melt. William James, a great student and philosopher of the world’s religions, wrote that faith is “...the habitual center of (a human’s) energies.” Ella Pomeroy, who studied and taught with the Fillmores, in her book, Powers of the Soul, discerned “Faith, in Divine Mind, is an idea of direction.”
"Faith is the confidence in the universe that enables one to go forward in the dark."
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Carl Jung
The 21st century feels dark with no reassurances about the future of our creatures, water, air and humans. The Fillmores might have had similar feelings since the time in which they were in physical form was marked by what was happening to Native American people, the dust bowl, Great Depression, and the first pandemic.
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What did the Fillmores and those early spiritual leaders do?
They called upon faith, they called it out just as surely as Jesus called upon a fisherman by the name of Simon who became understood as Peter, the rock of faith in the spiritual. 
Peter was known as a hugely confident person who would walk on water to see Jesus.  We are walking increasingly through waters flooding across the planet, and we must learn the way of faith–conviction in our great potential. Our faith is our confidence to traverse forward to the Christ understanding for living today. Faith forms understanding for taking actions to care for creation even if so many others are not. 
Faith, as seen in the story of Peter (Matthew 14:22-23), does not involve something being done to him. Peter must get out of the boat, metaphysically, that container of his current consciousness of beliefs in the great sea of his life.
Movement and change is required of us also–first from within.  When we address our thinking and beliefs, we become willing to turn to Power greater than these ways of thinking that so dominate our earthly existence. 
Faith, as seen in the story of Peter (Matthew 14:22-23), does not involve something being done to him. Peter must get out of the boat, metaphysically, that container of his current consciousness of beliefs in the great sea of his life.
They, like leaders of this time, knew the spiritual implications of living lightly on the earth could mean health for all. Of course, not everyone did this, but they modeled a way forward of health and conscious ethical living. Our way forward as interdependent species on the earth is not only possible and doable, we are empowered with faith and potential, but we must dedicate ourselves to becoming the disciples of the spiritual way and make changes to do so.
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We as Unity folk have our work to do. As our structures are being rebuilt at Unity Village in Missouri, our ministries are also constantly remodeling and building structures throughout the world. This requires of us, as communities, forethought of our interdependence with all species, thought of water and the health of the earth and air. We, like the nations of our indigenous brothers and sisters, can think of the consequences of our actions seven generations from now. 
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Let us remember:
We are the principle of faith living here and now on the planet.
We are designed to know and act from Christ's awareness building an inner faith within our communities;
It is from the consciousness of faith as power for the potential that we will build outer structures and care for the earth wherever we are.
Here is a brief personal message from Earth Care Core Team member, Cylvia Hayes, at Unity Village, about her take on the power of faith.