VISIONING NEWSLETTER
August / September 2008

Our next community visioning teleconference is Tuesday, September 2 at 5 pm PDT. My guest will be Rev Joan Steadman and Rev Diane Harmony. Rev Joan Steadman is the Senior Minister of the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living, is the author of our new UCSL Visioning Curriculmn, and was one of the founding members of the Agape International Spiritual Center. Also joining me as a guest is Rev Diane Harmony, author of 5 GIFTS for an Abundant Life, an award-winning book and a thriving vision-based ministry that was created through and is anchored in visioning.

Join us for a dynamic conversation as we go back to the basics of visioning, discussing the fundamentals of visioning, creation of visioning cores and the facilitation of a visioning group at your church/center. I will also provide an update on the vision and expansion of our visioning facilitator program.

Please forward questions for the Q & A section of the call to rai@highervisioncenter.org

In the past 5 months, as I have settled into my role coordinating the UCSL Vision Core and Vision Facilitator Programs, I have found even deeper appreciation for those who paved the way. Please indulge me as I acknowledge key individuals who have supported me in this new role and laid the foundation upon which I am honored to build.

I am honored to carry forward the work of our previous Vision Core Coordinator, Rev Cynthia James. For six years, Rev Cynthia served as our first Vision Core Coordinator. Under her visionary and strategic guidance a new framework and approach has emerged which supports our covenanted communities in visioning. Many more individuals and communities are using visioning to grow and unfold their lives and ministries. Her strong leadership of our vision cores and programs has shaped the solid foundation that I have inherited.

Appreciation must go to Rev Dr Michael Beckwith, Founder and Spiritual Director of the Agape International Spiritual Center and the originator of the Life Visioning Process adopted by UCSL. Thank you, Rev Michael for allowing this divine idea to emerge through you and for gifting it to the world. This process has so profoundly changed me, as I know it has many others in our movement that I have dedicated my life to supporting people in using visioning for their own lives and for the Global Heart. To be serving in this position, carrying forward the use of this powerful practice in our movement, is a vision realized.

I also acknowledge Rev Dr Joan Steadman Senior Minister of the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living in Oakland, CA for encouraging me and countless others to give visioning a try, explaining the fundamentals of visioning in a way that I could embrace and understand. Rev Joan authored our new UCSL Visioning Class and has been most generous with her time in meeting with me to explore ways to expand the use of visioning ways while staying true to its principles. We have explored ways to clearly communicate to people the feel and the method of visioning. She continues to be one of my role models and mentors. Thank you, Rev Joan.

Deep thanks to my first teacher, Rev Dr Elouise Oliver Senior Minister of the East Bay Church of Religious Science in Oakland, CA for teaching me that my word has power, that my presence makes a difference and for creating a platform up on which to grow as a leader and teacher. Rev E, I am an embodiment of your vision, training spiritual leaders for great work in the Religious Science movement and in the world. In July I had the honor of coming back to my first spiritual home and teaching our new Visioning Class to a group of 45 receptive souls. Some are seasoned practitioners; some have been visioning for a long time. Others have only attended the church once or twice. It brought me full circle to go back to the place where I started this journey and offer something that I have such a passion for.

To Our Community Spiritual Leader, Rev Dr Kathy Hearn, profound gratitude for this appointment and for her leadership of our movement. And, thanks to the past and present members of the UCSL Vision Core and Vision Facilitator Program for your contributions to the consciousness of visioning now present in our movement.

Lastly, I honor our founder Dr Ernest Holmes, for through his powerful vision many great teachers of Religious Science have emerged, expanding and supporting thousands in realizing and living ever higher visions. I read our textbook daily to remain connected and anchor in our teachings and Dr Holmes’ vision.

To anchor the expansion of our Vision Facilitator Program, a Vision Core was formed 5 months ago and we have come together 2-3 times a month for visioning for moving from pilot phase to full implementation and for training and certifying new Vision Facilitators. And as our visioning most frequently expresses expansion, for example, new plans for rolling out a full vision facilitator certification and training program. I have drafted an implementation plan for expanding our work and will share highlights with you in our next issue.

Visioning continues to guide our use of visioning, producing greater clarity in how we do visioning and how to best support the unfolding of the Global Heart Vision in ways that honor the requests for visioning on various aspects of our organization while staying true to the principles and the focus on the inner transformation that is the essence of visioning. I’ll share more about this with you in our next issue as well.

Know that the UCSL Vision Core is visioning regularly for our movement and for the unfolding of the Global Heart Vision. Our vision facilitators continue to do great work supporting the expansion of communities all over the globe.

To find the Vision Facilitator for your area, and materials about visioning, visit: http://religiousscience.org/ucrs_site/education/visioning.html

The Vision Core and Vision Facilitators continue to hold you and your divinely inspired ministries in our prayers.

Rai Jordan-Toole, RScP
UCSL Vision Core Coordinator