The journey of your spiritual life
 A useful metaphor for a healthy Unitarian spiritual community is a "base camp for the journey of life." It is within such a community that we are nourished, prepared, and joined by companions to accompany us on the journey that makes up the meaning and heart of our lives. Unitarians recognise that personal growth is an ongoing process - one that is never done so long as we draw breath. The summits of our expeditions are never fully surmounted - there is always a new challenge ahead. It is the climb itself that matters and what we gain along the way. New Unity offers the tools, the training, the support, and the climbing companions for your most essential expedition - the adventure that is your life.
As we enter the base camp of New Unity and see mountains stretching into the clouds, we may wonder about the shape of the journey to come. We ask how best to enter into this new place, how to team with these people, and where to begin. Whilst it will be different for each person, there are commonalities and specific ways in which New Unity offers support and inspiration to each one of us.
We can understand the process of our journey in four stages. Although these rarely appear as separately as depicted them here, we hope that it will provide a useful guide:
Stage 1: Survey the territory and meet the team
Where you are
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As you first arrive at New Unity, its people and its ways will be unfamiliar and perhaps confusing. The goal of his first stage is to develop a clear sense of the congregation and what it stands for. Moreover, it is important for you to decide if this is indeed the right place for you - a radically-inclusive, non-dogmatic, justice-seeking faith is not for everyone.
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What to do
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This is an ideal time to take our three-session group class "Three facets of New Unity," which introduces Unitarianism, New Unity, and helps your to make connections within the community. It is also helpful to attend the various more social events that take place in the community.
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Time
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This stage typically last a few weeks to months |
Stage 2: Begin the climb
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Having determined that New Unity feels right to you, it is time to begin studying maps of the terrain and coming to trust and rely on your climbing companions. The twin goals of this stage are to learn more about the spiritual paths available to you and to build sustaining, human connections.
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What to do
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Courses such as “An Introduction to the World Religions” will help you to learn about spiritual pursuits. Practice groups such as weekly meditation help you to build your own spiritual practices. Small group programmes of all kinds are ideal for helping to build strong connections and friendships. Engagement Groups are especially recommended as these small groups use structure and commitment to create a safe space that permits deep interchange and connection.
It is during this stage that most people seek to be become formal members of New Unity
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Time
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This stage typically last a few months to a year or two. Of course, the learning and the deepening of relationships are processes that are never complete.
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Stage 3: Pull others up
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The journey of our lives is incomplete unless we are prepared to give assistance as well as to focus on our own needs. There are times when you have been pulled up a steep slope and now it is time to help pull others up. The religious journey is whole and balanced only when we enter into work to aid others in the larger world. At this stage, it is important to begin to or strengthen the focus on social action, justice work, or both.
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What to do
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It is time to begin or deepen the ways in which you help others by directly alleviating suffering and helping to create a more just world. You can do this alongside other New Unity members in the ongoing programmes to assist the homeless through Margins, in our ongoing social justice work, or in other direct helping action through the 100 Acts initiative.
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Time
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This stage, which typical overlaps the preceding one, is a lifelong engagement with the world’s need.
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Stage 4: Scale the peaks
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At this stage, you have built trusting and mutual relationships with fellow travelers. You know the terrain ahead and have begun to understand your own strengths. It is time now to begin the ascent - a journey that brings ongoing rewards and yet is never complete. This final stage involves deepening and exploring the work you have already begun. This begins a lifelong process in which our human connections, our service, and our individual spiritual paths each develop and deepen.
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What to do
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Dedicated spiritual practice and time for reflection are highly recommended; spiritual practice groups and the minister can help you to find one that will be right for you. Reflection on the interaction between the various aspects of the spiritual life is important and may be facilitated by participating in an "Advanced Practitioner" group. These groups comprise a small communities of people who share mutual support and guidance as they each continue to deepen their connections, their work in the world, and their personal spiritual journey. Please contact Rev. Andy if you feel you are ready for an Advanced Practitioner group.
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Time
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This is the life-long journey of growth and change
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