PART THREE
The New Church:
Revealing the Spirit
Where two or more are gathered in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.
MATTHEW 18:20
The church I founded, Unity-Midtown, meets in a lovely historical landmark building
in Atlanta called The Academy of Medicine. From the parking lot, a foot path
winds through a garden filled with flowers of the season, beneath a gracious
magnolia tree and past a towering cottonwood tree growing to one side of the
grassy lawn, to the wide front steps. Massive white columns support the gracious
portico, and a pair of large wooden doors open into the black and white marble-tiled
rotunda. There, hanging directly below a domed skylight, is a crystal chandelier
that originally made its home on the set of "Gone With the Wind."
Through another set of doors is the auditorium where
Unity-Midtown's services are held. The ceiling of the room is shaped and decorated
like a large Victorian Easter egg, painted coral with white frosting. Sunlight
pours in through tall windows along the length of curved walls. A medium-sized
stage is unadorned except for a small lectern, several chairs and a round table
with candles set in the position of the four cardinal directions. The rest of
the auditorium is filled with rows of plush seats covered in deep rust-colored
velveteen. It is an elegant, yet intimate space, with an acoustical sweet spot
that makes it possible for a whisper to be heard anywhere in the room.
The Academy of Medicine also houses several stately conference
rooms, a medical library, and a small room containing a museum collection of
old medical instruments. When we first considered holding services in this building,
I was amused that after all my attempts to get away from the medical profession
I found myself once again within the hallowed halls of medicine. The Caduceus
symbols which embellish the ceiling of the rotunda not only recalled the building's
early days in the '40s when it was originally a professional club for Atlanta
physicians, but also served to inspire me that this church, among other things,
could possibly be a healing ministry.
Indeed, many of the people who walked through the doors
of Unity-Midtown seemed to be looking for a kind of spiritual hospital. Many
of them had not been in any kind of church for twenty years or more. They were
often guarded and wary. They felt wounded in the churches they attended with
their families, and any church was a reminder of the past shame, guilt and condemnation
they'd accumulated in a religious setting.
A large number of Unity-Midtown's first congregants were
gay. Preachers had told them the Bible forbade homosexuality and condemned homosexuals.
Since this interpretation made it impossible for them to be themselves, they
chose to leave their childhood religions rather than live a lie. This was rarely
a decision made lightly. Many believed they were forsaking God when they left
their church-they had been told as much by parents and preachers. As a result
these men and women typically become self-sufficient outside of any religious
structure-they felt they'd been abused by religion and wanted no more of it.
However, since this new church they'd found offered them love and acceptance
no matter who they were, or what they believed or practiced, many felt they
could return to an active relationship with God. They began to speak of themselves
as "recovering Catholics" or "recovering Southern Baptists."
As the church grew, people other than gays began to attend.
These were mostly intelligent, educated, middle-class people who had become
disenchanted with traditional religions. Most proclaimed an aversion to the
hypocrisy of the churches they had attended as children. Others felt they had
outgrown narrow, dogmatic teachings that no longer seemed relevant to their
lives. More than a few had been, like me, sexually abused in a religious setting.
While this made for a diverse congregation, each person seemed to share a desire
to explore the spiritual side of life and all of them were extremely suspicious
of traditional religious forms.
I empathized with them. I knew firsthand the negative
attributes of organized religion. I constantly struggled to reconcile my calling
to be an agent of spiritual awakening with my job as a minister in a church
I both loved and hated. The anger about church that I shared with my congregates
seemed justified by our experiences, yet, on the positive side, it also motivated
me to try to do things differently. I very much wanted to create a new kind
of church for the twenty-first century. However, the more I tried to do some
different things in my church, and actually had some successes, the greater
I felt the inertia the traditional church form seemed to exert.
Everything I introduced that was in any way a reaction to traditional church seemed to meet with tremendous resistance from someone in the congregation-either it was too much innovation or too little. After a particularly powerful service, where the music and speaking and interaction with the congregation were truly inspired and satisfying to me, I'd get a call from someone who'd walked out halfway through because we'd left out the congregational song. Others would tell me they didn't come to church more often because they hated group singing. I was aware of how confined a psychological space I was trying to work in - congregants said they wanted things different but it seemed this was true only as long as the change didn't affect them! I just couldn't get it right. And I came to a stark realization that I had no idea how to get out of what increasingly felt like a prison. My apparent helplessness enraged me even more and I looked once again to the church I loved/hated to blame. I wanted to leave, but something else called me to stay. Stay I did, only to discover that something larger than myself-the evolutionary impulse-was already at work to bring about the changes I desired.
***
Part Three describes the New Church. I begin by describing
an evolutionary "wave" that is bringing new forms of religious expression
into being. I summarize the consecration or intent of the New Church, addressing
in a general way each of the points raised in the critique of the Old Church
from the perspective of the alternative the New Church offers. Then, I discuss
levels of church form as seen from an evolutionary perspective, with a description
of the psychological needs that are served at each level, and what growth tasks
need to be completed before graduating to the next level. Next, I provide some
general guidelines that may be helpful for bringing the New Church to life in
an already existing church, or in a new situation. As part of this, I give some
examples of my experience in creating the New Church that existed in conjunction
with Unity-Midtown.
Finally, I share what an actual participant has to say about her experience with the work of the New Church. For me, this testimony about how the quality of lives has been transformed affirms my decision to start (and complete) this book and the church it describes. The sincerity, innocence, wisdom and power of those who have in some way participated in the New Church experiment, have evoked whatever is best in me. For this, I am grateful.