Unity Spring Garden Party!

Still looking for something special to do with Mom this coming weekend?  Skip the boring Brunch and come to our Women of Unity Spring Garden Party this Saturday from 1pm - 3 pm on the beautiful Unity of Richmond Grounds where you are encouraged to bring light refreshments to share!

Join Our Yoga Weekend Workshop this Friday & Saturday!

Come to our Yoga Weekend Workshop this Friday and Saturday, April 22 - 23.  Be grounded in Your Blissful Self and participate in this dynamic weekend of SELF-discovery, led by Senior Svaroopa Yoga teacher Melissa Fountain, with poses and meditation, providing reliable and deep changes in your body, mind and more.

After hearing Dr. Arun Gandhi’s inspirational words of peace and nonviolence, join us for this dynamic two-day yoga workshop to embody those words. “Too many of us juggle everything while trying to hold it all together. When you become grounded in your blissful Self and re-connect with this deep inner knowing, you become anchored, unshakable,” says Leading Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher Lissa Fountain of Boston.

Attend this two-day workshop to continue to embody those principles with standing poses, to become rooted, stable and solidly grounded in your feet and in your true nature

Friday-Saturday, April 22-23, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Workshop fee: $255.

Tibetan Gaden Monastery Cultural Tour

Unity Church of Richmond is hosting the Tibetan monks of the Gaden Shartse Dokhang Monastery for a week of events that will be open to the public! They are here with the blessing of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama to share their culture, practices and paths to inner peace and compassion.

Activities include teachings from Tibetan Buddhism, daily meditations, cultural performances, musical presentations with Tibetan singing bowls and chanting, sand mandala rituals, snow leopard conservation and more!

The Gaden Shartse Dokhang Monastery is part of one of the oldest and most revered monasteries in Tibet, now located in South India. This house has produced many important teachers in the Gelug tradition, including Geshe Thupten Jinpa, the primary English interpreter for His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

Funds raised on this tour will help to build a prayer hall, dormitories and provide for the medical needs for the monks of Gaden Shartse Dokhang Monastery.

A Brief History of Gaden Monastery

Gaden Monastery is one of the three most renowned monasteries of Tibet. Originally founded in Tibet in 1409 by Je Tsongkhapa (1357 – 1419), a preeminent Tibetan preacher, saint, and Buddhist scholar, Gaden is where the Gelugpa School or the Yellow Hat Sect of Tibetan Buddhism emerged. The monastery was built on a majestic mountain just outside of Lhasa.

Gaden quickly became well known for its moral discipline, academic strength, and spiritual values. Monks of all ages poured in from every part of Tibet, Mongolia, China, Japan and Northern India. By the 1950s the population of the monastery had grown to 5,000. The youngest monks started at age seven. All monks, irrespective of their specific focus of study, engaged in rigorous study at the monastery for many years. In addition to in-depth philosophical study, there were trainings in different vocations such as religious music, arts, sculpture, and administrative work.

The Gandhi Event Celebration!

We had such a fabulous time at The Gandhi Event this past Saturday.  All of our months of hard work and planning paid off with such a fabulous turnout - over 600 people!  We are so grateful to our amazing performers!  The Drums Not Guns group got the crowd going and excited which really created a joyful sense of community within the amphitheatre.  The Kuchipudi dancers from Sri Sai Dance Academy inspired the crowd with the beauty of their traditional dance.  It was truly a blessing to watch them perform!  Finally, we'd like to thank Dr. Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus for sharing their heartwarming experiences and perspectives of peace, understanding and harmony.  Your words on what non-violence means were enlightening and it was an experience that attendees are not likely to forget.  Thank you for taking the time to speak to our community and spreading love in our hearts. You truly are Peace Farmers.

Taking selfies and posing with Revs. Richard and Vicky Bunch and Bret Dealy

Sri Sai Dance Academy

Drums Not Guns 

Revs. Richard and Vicky Bunch making introductions and thanking performers

Dr. Arun Gandhi

Bethany Hegedus

Guest Speaker, Rev. Ellen Debenport

This Sunday, January 10, we are welcoming Rev. Ellen Debenport to speak about a subject that is relevant in everyone's lives: transition.  She has put all of her knowledge into her new book Hell in the Hallway, Light at the Door.  She will impart her wisdom and experience about what to do when one door closes, but another hasn't quite opened yet.  Her book will be available for purchase and she will be holding a book signing after both services.  We welcome her message and think it's a blessing that it has come at such a perfect time for transitioning into the new year!

This Week at Unity Richmond 11/16 - 11/21

Come celebrate the season with us this weekend at our Grand Illumination and Unity Holiday Festival!  This Friday from 6 pm - 9 pm and Saturday 10 am - 4 pm.

Please don't forget to donate to our canned food drive benefitting FeedMore Central Virginia Food Bank!  Bring any of these items and leave them in the drop box at church to provide food to the hungry.  We will continue collecting from now until Sunday, November 22nd.


Monday 16th

Svaroopa Yoga
9 am— 10:30 am
Experience easy poses, deep relaxation, and breathing practices that relieve aches and pains. Open to an abiding, steadfast calm and joy that’s part of your essential nature. Deepen your prayer and meditation practice as you embody the Unity principles in your whole being — spirit, mind, and body.

Svaroopa Yoga
6:30 pm— 8:00 pm
Experience easy poses, deep relaxation, and breathing practices that relieve aches and pains. Open to an abiding, steadfast calm and joy that’s part of your essential nature. Deepen your prayer and meditation practice as you embody the Unity principles in your whole being — spirit, mind, and body.

Tuesday 17th

Finance Team Meeting
5:30 pm— 7:30 pm

Ensemble Rehearsal
7 pm— 8:30 pm

Wednesday 18th

Mid-week Faith Lift Service
6 pm— 6:45 pm
Metaphysical interpretation and discussions on the ministry of Jesus.

Thursday 19th

Women’s Codependency Group
6:30 pm— 7:30 pm
Codependence is a disease that deteriorates our souls. It affects our personal lives, our families, children, friends and relatives, our businesses and careers, our health and our spiritual growth. It is debilitating, and, if left untreated, causes us to become more destructive to ourselves and others.

Codependency happens to individuals when they try to obtain love or approval from others without caring for themselves. Healing consists of awareness, acceptance and change.

Friday 20th

Unity Holiday Festival & Grand Illumination!!!
6 pm— 9 pm
Join us all weekend for holiday cheer!  Activities, food, and fun for the whole community!

Vendor displays Friday, November 20, 6-9 p.m. and Saturday, November 21, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

If you’d like to be a vendors or chili cooker for the Unity Holiday Festival, contact us to register.

Saturday 21st

Unity Holiday Festival!!!
10 am— 4 pm

Zen Center Meditation Group
9 am— 11 am
At Zen Center of Richmond we practice in the White Plum lineage as founded by the Venerable Taizan Maezumi Roshi, and the Red Thread Zen Circle of our own teacher, Louis Mitsunen Kyogen Nordstrom Roshi.

The purpose of the Zen Center of Richmond is to make accessible and embody the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha, as expressed in the Soto Zen tradition established by Dogen Zenji in 13th-century Japan and conveyed to us by Louis Mitsunen Nordstrom Roshi and all Buddhist teachers. We offer a nurturing environment where everyone is welcome.