Universal Life Church October 2010 Announcements
Hello!
SPECIAL THIS MONTH - For the month of October, you will receive a free ULC pin for any order (not counting shipping) that exceeds $75.
LATEST LESSONS - Over the last couple of months, I seem to keep finding myself in the position to talk with people about self-perception, which makes me think I must be working on it myself. Those of us who tend to counsel others (and you all know who you are), do it because we can. Simple as that. As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Counseling isn't so much power as it is ability. And those who can, do. So I seem to find myself talking to some of the most amazing people I've ever met, helping them to discover that they don't need to keep feeling like there's something wrong with them. I have always found it odd that those who are the most capable and competent, question themselves the most.
The recurring theme I keep bumping into is about lies. Or should I say 'half-truths'. For instance, those who were told at a young age that abuse was love, and that they have no control over their world, other than to take the blame for the bad things that happen. It breaks my heart to see these amazing people feeling awful for the craziness around them, thinking the craziness is them. Or caused by them. Mostly, it's not.
I've also found, on a separate note, that it's frightfully easy to commit welfare fraud. I've not done this myself, of course, but it is being done by someone I know. A fraud investigation was promptly launched and we shall see if truth prevails. That kind of thing (another lie/half-truth) makes me crazy.
On a personal level, I was promoted to third degree black belt in American Kenpo last weekend. It has been years since my last promotion and, thanks to my wonderful instructor (who I got after my previous promotion) I have learned an enormous amount about the art. I know it's not ULC related, but it feels really good.
EVENT DIRECTORY - I've had a lot of people ask me how to record their ceremonies and events with the church. I have created a place for you to do that. http://www.ulcseminary.org/eventdirectory.php
Go to this page and you can input any and all of your weddings, funerals, handfastings, baby blessings/namings, etc. It will be recorded in our database for future reference. It won't be visible, but it can be retrieved if you ask. Check it out and let me know what you think.
NEW COURSES - I've had people ask me if I had a course planned on Life Coaching, spiritual counseling, and I believe the other was Humanism. I don't currently have anyone who has offered to write such a course, but if you or someone you know is interested, please review the page www.ulcseminary.org/coursesubmission.php and get back to me.
QUESTIONS ABOUT SOME OF THE LATEST ULC DRAMA - Hopefully, most of you have been kept out of the loop when it comes to some recent drama within the various sites of the ULC, but Kevin, Andre and I have all been receiving emails and phone calls about it for months, so it does bear addressing. If you have been spared the drama, then this may be of little interest.
As many of you know, there was a split between headquarters (ulchq.com) and the monastery (ulc.org) in August of 2006. This was due to an internal problem within the monastery, which is still under legal debate. Daniel Zimmerman (who owned it) closed the site, but not before it was 're-appropriated' by its current owner. Soon after, the monastery changed its domain name to themonastery.org, redirecting traffic, and call themselves the monastery storehouse. Neither headquarters, Kevin (ulc.net), nor I have anything to do with them. Their ordinations are separate and they are not part of the long-standing, international Universal Life Church, whose president is Andre Hensley. The monastery has since bought up over 200 domain names (including ulchq.net and .org) to confuse people into thinking they are the original and real ULC Headquarters. They are merely ministers, doing their own church, just like many of you.
This is not news. The thing that has happened more recently is the emergence of a man named, Michael Cauley. He began working for the monastery, managing their social networking site. While using their resources and collecting the information from ministers on that site, he decided to open his own church. He calls it the ulcnetwork and it's a Christian-only site. What he has been telling people is that, basically, if they are not ordained with him, they are helping Satan. Most people, I suspect, recognize the ridiculousness of his claims. Unfortunately, some people have been subjected to personal phone calls from him and insulting email rants. He has zero affiliation with the ULC, other than being a regular minister with his own little ministry and apparently a database of ministers from his association with the monastery. His 'school sign' is a computer generated one, making it appear he has a building. Even the monastery dismissed him from their employ. Your ordinations are valid if done through the Seminary, ulc.net or ulchq.com. I don't know about how the ones through the monastery are viewed. I can't say one way or another.
As for Cauley, yes he is the one with the long rap sheet for fraud. I find it too much of a coincidence that he be anyone but the same person with the same name, living in the same town. Florida doesn't seem to recognize supposed corporation. He promises employment for anyone who goes through his little academy at large salaries. He claims victimhood at the hands of George Freeman (Br. Martin, at the monastery). He's no victim. And he claims that all that attacks he made on me, Andre and Kevin, were part of the monastery's plan. "Just following orders" -- does that sound familiar? I believe we are responsible for our own actions and blaming others doesn't work for me.
ADDING ORDINATION OPTION TO YOUR OWN SITE - I had a cool thought last month. I thought it would be great if I offered to you the option of ordaining others through your own site. If you want to give people the opportunity to become ordained, I've provided the code to put on your site which will create a form that people can fill out to have their ordinations sent directly to headquarters. (It's free for you to do this, of course.)
I put the code at http://www.ulcseminary.org/ordinationform.php You can put it in a column, like I did at http://www.ulcceremonies.com or you can put it on its own page. I think it is a great way to spread the word of ULC and you're giving people the convenience of doing it right from your own site. There are also instructions to add a line to the code (cut and paste) so you will be notified whenever someone is ordained through your site. If you put the form on your site, send me a link and I'll check it out. :) Let me know if you have any problems and I can try to help. Please run a test on it to be sure it works properly.
NEW COURSES - The master of Spiritual Leadership course was sent out recently as a sample. For those who got a partial one first, I apologize. Weirdness with the mailing program. The new course can be viewed at http://www.ulcseminary.org/store/product_info.php?products_id=214
HEADER - On a side note: Somehow I messed up the header of our site. It looks fine on my side until I publish it. Suggestions for fixing it would be appreciated.
TESTIMONIALS - I know I keep talking about adding video to the site and I haven't done it yet, but I promise that it's on its way. I'd like to add more video to the website. I have a camera and I'm going to get started adding video sections with blurbs and such to talk about different things. What I would love is to have you all do the same thing, if you would. If you have access to a video camera of any sort, videotape yourself talking briefly about weddings you've done, any of the books or products that you've used, classes you've taken, the church you started, etc. I'd love to get a montage of these and put them throughout the site. A short .mwv file (2 min. or less) would be great. Something I can play on windows. I'll edit them together into a few clips to post. Cool, huh? It would also be great to put a face/voice with so many of your familiar names.
SPAM - The latest spam thing going out is to get emails from familiar addresses, but with no subject line. What that means is that if an email doesn't have a subject line, it will be deleted without being read. I'm sure I'm missing a few real ones that way, but to open all of them is very time-consuming.
I've also had a suggestion/reminder from one of our ministers to please be mindful of the elderly and disabled. If you live in an apt., be aware that they may appreciate some help from time to time. If there is an emergency, keep in mind to help them and check on them. There, but for the grace of God, go I.
If you're new to the Seminary, check out announcements from previous months at http://www.ulcseminary.org/announcements.php
Warmly,
Rev. Amy Long
President of ULC Seminary
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The ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program where you can earn the coveted title of Chaplain. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church materials to help you with your professionalism and confidence. I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and an amazed by the frequent upgrades and new functions of the seminary.
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