This Sunday in the Sanctuary ~ February 23, 2025

All Times are Eastern Standard Time – See links below to join us in the Sanctuary 

Join us at 9:30 am ET/ 7:30 am MT for “Shiny Things” with Claire Bhavani

What is Truth? And how do we find it in a life that is pushed and pulled around by the cravings, aversions, and ignorance of the human mind and senses?

There can be no confusion about where to start, for it is all laid out within the eight limbs of Raja yoga, as described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Shiny Things provides practical guidance to apply the path of Raja Yoga in daily life, relieving suffering and accessing an inner sparkle, within a supportive group environment. It includes consideration of how we conduct ourselves in the world, how we relate to our spiritual practices, appropriate care of the body and vitality, a gradual quieting of the mind and senses, throwing out what is false, and glimpsing what is True.

We will initially use the book by Bhava Ram: The Eight Limbs of Yoga, Pathway to Liberation, as an introductory guide. If you don’t have the book, you can still join us. Later in the year, we will commence a deeper immersion into a full commentary of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Join us at 10:15 am ET/ 8:15 am MT
for Our Weekly Gathering with Rev. George Maddox

Topic: “Becoming the Empty Shell“

Description: From NTI, 1 Corinthians ch. 9, “There is a voice within you that claims to be you. The voice is mistaken. Listen to me. You are not what you think you are.  That is why I ask you to become a willing empty shell.” The primary theme of NTI, 1 Corinthians is about, what the empty shell is. How do we become the empty shell? Join me as we explore the difference between the self we believe ourselves to be, and the Self that is the truth of who we truly are.

Reading: Susan Bacon will read from NTI, 1 Corinthians chapters 9 and 10.

Enter Sanctuary Here

*Weekly gathering is held every Sunday morning at 10:15 am ET/8:15 am MT in the Awakening Together Sanctuary. Join us after the Gathering for our Fellowship Time, hosted by Joy Bedford.

Join us at 12:30 pm ET/ 10:30 am MT for “Transcending the Addiction to Mind” with Rev. David Hemphill 

David invites us to explore the belief in separation through the lens of addiction to the mind! On this journey we will explore many topics such as:

1. What does it really mean to have spiritual awakening as part of my path?
2. What is my unique path?
3. Why do parts of my path feel uncomfortable?
4. How do I navigate the uncomfortable parts?
5. Where is the inherent bliss and joy on my path that spiritual awakening says is there? How do I access it now?
6. Why does my bliss come and go? Why do the bad parts always come back?
7. How do I get “unstuck” if I’ve been on this path many years and yet still have the same issues I’ve always had?
8. What is “Self-will” and why do I need to pay attention to it in order to get unstuck?
9. What is the nature of “desire” and “aversion,” and how are they related to stuckness?
10.  Once I understand everything, or if I already understand everything, how do I actually make the realization happen?
11.  What are paradoxes and how should I react when I find one?
12.  What specifically is it that will permanently lead to spiritual awakening? How do I cultivate this?

Join us at 1:30 pm ET/ 11:30 am MT for Reflections from the Dyad Online Retreat

Join us to hear from the recent retreat participants who attended the online Dyad retreat. Melody Brauninger will be our facilitator.

This 3 day online Dyad retreat was facilitated by Revs. Anne Blanchard and Kate Brennan. During this retreat, participants experienced deep self-inquiry by learning a powerful way of going deeper within one’s self to see that which is beyond one’s daily conscious awareness.

During this Reflections program, retreat participants will have the opportunity to share their experiences and insights. They will also be discussing any breakthroughs and wisdom gained from the retreat.

We invite everyone to join us!

Join us at 5:00 pm ET/ 3:00 pm MT for “The Mighty Companions Hour – The Voice That likes You” with Rev. Yolanda Mapes

Join Rev. Yolanda as she continues to share her beautiful voice and heart during The Mighty Companions Hour. This is a program she and her late, beloved husband, Rev. Glen Ganaway began in 2020.

Rev. Yolanda Mapes, who is an interfaith minister, shares a delightful, funny, and inspiring hour of A Course in Miracles. Come join in on the fun, the laughs, and the music while unlearning the ego through the lessons and chapters of ACIM.

You can discover more about the Mighty Companions on this website: www.themightycompanions.com. Also, Rev. Yolanda has a site where you can purchase her beautiful, spiritually uplifting music: www.Yolanda.net/audio If you feel to contribute to her ministry, you can do so here: www.patreon.com/RevYolanda

Join us at 6:00 pm ET/ 4:00 pm MT for “Deepening Into Clarifying the Teachings Together” with Rev. Jacquelyn Eckert

During this program, we will listen to a portion of each previously recorded “Clarifying the Teachings” program. Afterward, we will spend time contemplating and teaching ourselves what is most alive for us at the moment. We may also spend time practicing what Regina is teaching. And…we will start at the very beginning.

Bring your journals, openness, and curiosity as we explore what is most alive in us and ready to be seen. We hope you feel inspired to join.

Join us at 7:00 pm ET/ 5:00 pm MT for “Resting in Our Immaculate Nature” with Jill Grace & Joy Bedford

Jill and Joy invite us to gently rest and welcome our immaculate nature into full awareness. As we rest into our natural state, we relax beyond fear—letting go of the energy, beliefs, and egoic desires that contribute to suffering. Together, as a sangha, we cultivate a deepened recognition of our True nature, allowing the energy tied to false beliefs about ourselves to return to its natural state of Pure Divine Light.

Gathering as a sangha heightens our ability to detect obstacles–blocks to our immaculate nature…dense, lower frequency Light–so that these aspects of our being that we made up are welcomed into awareness, hastening their return to the original state as Pure Divine Light. As a sangha, we will use practical examples from our lives. Notably, resting in our True, immaculate nature supports noticing how the false identity that isn’t really what we are, enjoys, even wants!… to believe limiting beliefs (the false/unreal) until we realize what we actually are, immaculate, unaffected Divine Spirit. Join us as we put obstacles on the altar of Truth and free light that has been blocking our palpable awareness of Divine Love. Pointings from The Way of Mastery, ACIM, NTI and more will be used

Join us at 8:00 pm ET/ 6:00 pm MT for Movie Watchers Discussion Group with Laura “Joy” Bedford

Movies are modern day parables. Watching movies with your inner guide can inform rather than just entertain you. This Spirit Led Movie Watchers Discussion Group, facilitates the participants’ ability to identify spiritual themes in everyday movies and to use movies as a way of uncovering unconscious beliefs about ourselves and the world we live in.

Interstellar is a 2014 is a science fiction drama starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain. Set in a future where life on earth is facing extinction, the film follows the life of Coop, a widowed former NASA test pilot turned farmer, his children and his father-in-law, as well as astronauts seeking another habitable planet for humanity. Coop’s daughter Murphy (“Murph”) discovers dust patterns in her bedroom, which she attributes to a ghost. It turns out the patterns are being caused by a gravitational anomaly. She and her father translate the patterns into geographic coordinates, opening a door to an astounding unfolding of events.

Spiritual topics include the power of Love to transcend dimensions; time; the power of joining; honesty and deception; holding onto suffering and letting it go/forgiving; fulfilling Love’s function/fulfilling one’s purpose even when we’re not sure that’s what we’re doing; service involved in following one’s passion; choice for love or the absence of love; following guidance and not following guidance, yet a miracle/accomplishing the impossible occurs; fear; desire for control, desire for wanting something to be different and other desires; seeming risk of everything; seeming sacrifice of the body; Love is all there really Is.

The Sanctuary will close at 9:00 pm ET

Enter the Sanctuary or see the complete listing of speakers.
All Times are Eastern Standard Time –  See helpful links below.
How to Enter the Sanctuary