Unity of Bozeman

Unity of Bozeman Non-denominational spiritual education movement, based on the teachings of Jesus. Founded by Mary Wessel, Unity of Bozeman, lead by the Reverend Philip A.

Zemke, is a chartered member in good standing of Unity Worldwide Ministries. We gather in community to manifest peace, joy, abundance and compassion, for ourselves and for the world. Through prayer, education, celebration, and service, we experience the transformational power of Love, the inner Christ-spirit.

09/04/2026

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING (V.2-i.274) The Unity Message
~ HOLY SPIRIT INDWELLING: Bless us today with the gift of grace, which is ours in all things. Let us be grateful, and willing to have grace meet our every need as it arises, for ourselves and all others. AMEN

Our word of wonder today is: GRACE. Our affirmation of assurance is: I AM GRATEFUL FOR GRACE.

Grace is the love of the Divine, flowing to us and through us. Grace keeps us steeped in the awareness of Divine Presence, helping us realize our lives as blessed beyond measure. Each time we recognize the beauty of Divine love and wisdom in all creation, we experience grace. Let us give thanks for Divine Grace for everything and in everything. We are comforted as we remember that we do not need to earn grace by our thoughts, actions, or beliefs. Grace is the wonderful gift freely given. Let us receive grace with a heart full of gratitude. Divine Grace infuses our every interaction. We feel blessed in each encounter, and live each day knowing we are deserving of grace and worthy of Creator’s goodness.

“And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” – 1 Timothy 7:14

Christ is the archetype of imagination. It is primal consciousness arising in image and feeling. Wisdom is the form of our images in harmony and balance. Imagination full of love, and wisdom full of harmony, are fundamental essences of the Divine. They are present and active in all our experiences. They are a grace; a gift given freely, that we may know the Divine and ourselves as Divine.

All of life is a gift given freely. Even the supposed mistakes or errors in life are gifts for our learning and transforming, for our moment of awareness on the experiential journey of reunion in heart and mind with the Divine Source of our being.

The idea of a “fall from grace” is not true at all. Our desire, which is imaged by some as the eating of the tree of good and evil, can be realized as our quest to know. Thus, it is a gift of grace, and not a curse. In seeking to know, we are in the image and likeness of the Creator, who, in accord with the Hadith of mystical Islam, is “The treasure that desires to know itself.” The Creator, as First Thought, was seeking to know itself. We too, desire to know ourselves in unity with the Divine.

The elemental desire to activate the educating nature of ourselves is fundamental and natural. “Educate” is a Greek conceptual term which means “To give rise into awareness, the natural wisdom of harmony that lives essentially in each of us.” To taste the world ~ Adam and Eve tasting the Apple ~ is an image of necessity, to participate through experience in the wisdom arising in and through us.

As every experience is necessary to us as a gift freely given for our education, it is also grace revealing itself. No guilt is required as we learn. Let us be grateful that we are blessed with Divine Love and Wisdom... that we are creatively present to the grace that nourishes us; as we taste Divine life in all its images and likenesses. AMEN

Love and Blessings

Grandfather Philip

09/02/2026

SUPREME ABUNDANCE (V.2-i.273) The Unity Message
~ HOLY SPIRIT ABUNDANT: Bless us today with the awareness that our abundance is beyond the material, for it is the flowing good in all that we have, as love and wisdom and beauty. Let us be grateful. AMEN

Our word of grace today is: PROSPERITY. Our affirmation of truth is: PROSPERITY ABOUNDS AS I LIVE IN THE FLOW OF DIVINE ABUNDANCE.

Knowing our oneness with the Divine Presence within is the source of our abundance. We begin each day with a grateful heart, taking time to center ourselves in Divine communion and conversation. Throughout the day, let us notice the blessings that surround us, and rejoice in the faith that all our needs are being met in perfect ways. If thoughts of insufficiency arise, we gently refuse to give them any power. There is never a lack of Divine Ideas for the reality of abundance. The Creator is truly infinite power, and that power lives and moves through each one of us. We are prosperous... living, moving, and having our being in an ocean of infinite substance. We are in the flow of abundance, trusting that the more freely we give, the more richly we will receive.

“And God (the Creator) is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.” – 2 Corinthians 9:8

Prosperity means to thrive. It is not a matter of quantity as much as quality. When we value and are grateful for what we already have, we open the heavens to receive even more of that which we need, so that we may realize our sense of thriving in, and as, Divine substance in abundance.

Back in the days when all humans were hunter-gathers, the proportion and balance for harmonious living was paramount, and realized as essential. Traveling groups were seldom more than sixty people in number, for that was the carrying capacity for wherever they camped and harvested the resources of a particular place. Camping in one place was seldom longer than three days, for depleting resources by over-use was not deemed wise. Only when they were hunting large migrating animals or fish in large amounts, was a stay in one place extended for the necessary time to process the harvest in a storable transportable manner. When humans have to be wise to survive and thrive, they get clear about proportion and balance in unity with their environment.

Balance in unity with the environment was also the foundation of the first agriculturalists. Even as they learned to harvest plants and to store them for future use, they nonetheless made choices about the size of fields to plant, and the resting of some fields. This was all done all in accord with balanced and proportional needs of the people of their villages, and all done in a sacred and ritualized appreciation for the Divine Source.

With the advent of agriculture, the previous traveling hunter-gatherers settled into a specific place. Caring for a certain place for a duration of time, often years, brought forth new awareness about balance in unity with their environment. Let us be grateful in acknowledging that our ancestors ~ as hunter-gatherers and initial agriculturalists ~ thrived through a wisdom of balance and stewardship of their relationship with the world that they lived and had their being in... The world sacred and abundant.

Our ancestors were spiritual in their relationship with their reality. They were intentionally sacred in their unity with a prospering world. We can live in that reality as well, if we choose to. Just saying... AMEN

Love and Blessings

Grandfather Philip

08/31/2026

Setting Affirmative Intentions (V.2-i.272) The Unity Message
~ HOLY SPIRIT PRESENT FOR ACTION: Bless us today with a ready willingness to begin each action with an affirmative intention to have the right and good outcome be manifest. Let us begin to offer to Divine the role of lead, in whatever comes to us and through us as the true, good, and beautiful. AMEN

Our word for today is: READY. Our affirmation of willingness is: I AM READY TO LIVE A FULL AND ABUNDANT LIFE.

Let us begin each day open to our good and ready for new opportunities. Let us follow our Divine guidance and use our wisdom and will to discern and choose the perfect new opportunities and adventures. Whatever comes our way, we are ready to dive in and take part in it. Let us be grateful for the faith and confident trust that inspires us, and the imagination that fuels our dreams of new possibilities. We affirm that we are worthy of good things as we welcome each new blessing. We are in the flow of divine life. The Divine is with us as we feel adventurous and ready to give ourselves to a greater experience of living. There is a rising time of vitality with us. We affirm: I am energetic, courageous, confident, and enthusiastic. I am ready!

“When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” – Exodus 3:4

A favorite Unity song goes; “Here I am Lord, it is I Lord, I have heard you calling in the night. I will go Lord, where you lead me, I will hold your people in my heart.” This song was sung recently in the MaitriBodh Parivaar meditation hall during a dedication ceremony acknowledging the transformative spirituality of Selfless Sacred Service. It was offered by a dedicated long-time member of Unity of Bozeman. People from around the world were in attendance, and many were hearing and feeling the loving depth of this song’s message for the first time. Many were weeping in response. Most had never heard of Unity, and yet the message of love that Unity shares with the world was fully reaching their willing hearts.

We may have an obvious occasion to experience the reach of our heart’s work as it lifts up the hearts and souls of others. With regard to giving with love in dedicated spiritual service, on many occasions it is ultimately unknown to us, and even to those we reach out to. This week, we send our prayers of support and encouragement during the challenge being faced in Nepal. Those in the middle of this crisis do not know us, and may not fully understand our thoughts and feeling for them. Still, they are reached through Divine Grace and assurance by our intention of thought for relieving their suffering. The Divine uses our reaching out of compassionate love, without a doubt. The effect is assured, even if the source of the compassionate thought is unknown by those who it reaches. Reaching out in love goes forth to do work in ripples of grace that we will never know occurred. How marvelous.

Our work, The Great Work, is to be the one who sends love and grace to wherever, and to whoever needs it. They will receive it in full measure. We give love unconditionally and it finds it mark and does its work. We are all granted love in its fullness, because that is the Way of the Divine. AMEN

Love and Blessings

Grandfather Philip

08/30/2026

opening new possibilities for Good

08/28/2026

FORGIVING KINDNESS (V.2-i.271) The Unity Message
~ HOLY SPIRIT OF FORGIVING KINDNESS: Bless us today with a kind heart that forgives every aspect of creation as it journeys in its healing process. Let us be generous in forgiveness towards all. AMEN

Our word of grace today is: FORGIVING. Our affirmation of generosity is: FORGIVING OTHERS RELEASES ME FROM PAST BURDENS AND SETS ME FREE.

The surprising gift of forgiving others is that forgiveness releases us as well. We may feel justified in harboring grievances when another person has acted unkindly towards us, but we also pay a price by keeping old grudges alive. Forgiving liberates us. As we forgive ourselves and others, we release old ways of thinking and resentments, clearing away mental clutter that clouds our thinking and blocks our hearts. Forgiving is an essential part of our spiritual growth. To let perceived offenses go is similar to clearing an overgrown field, it allows new crops of diverse ideas to flourish. Free of the roots and tangles of seasons gone by, we produce a bounty of good relationships and self-confident living. Forgiving frees and empowers us.

“Esau ran to meet him and embraced him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” – Genesis 33:4

There is a story about Jacob and Esau, the sons of Issac. Esau the eldest son was to be given the inheritance of his dying father, as was the custom of the times. Jacob in a cleverness of trickery, got Issac to give him the inheritance instead of Esau. Esau became furiously offended and Jacob mortality fearful, and a deep grudge arose between them, and they lived for years far apart from each other.

Jacob, after years of guilty misery, invited Esau to come and punish him if that would end the feud. Jacob waited in the night for Esau and his soldiers to arrive. During the night Jacob was engaged in a struggle with what he first thought a demon, which turned out to be an angel. After the struggle, which Jacob won, the angel revealed its true identity and asked Jacob for a blessing. Jacob chose forgiveness as the blessing, for the angel, for his role in stealing his brothers rightful good, and for the years of his seeking to escape the effects of his actions.

So great was Jacob’s humble forgiveness and the kindness he felt for the struggle and the potential reunion with his brother, even if it meant his death, that the angel, the Divine messenger, changed his name from Jacob to Israel; “Nearness to the Divine.> His forgiveness was as a radiance, and when the brothers met, there was nothing more to do than embrace each other in love and kindness.

We all are at times Esau and at times Jacob, we are offended or are the offender. In forgiveness we are also given the name of “Nearness to the Divine.” For, forgiveness is one way, and a mighty way indeed, for our spiritual transformation to be achieved.

Bless us all as we forgive, and give love kindly to ourselves and others. Such a blessing. AMEN

Love and Blessings

Grandfather Philip

08/26/2026

Spiritual Housekeeping (V.2-i.270) The Unity Message
HOLY SPIRIT OF SIMPLICITY: Blessings be ours today, as we inventory our lives and make good choices to let go of what does not serve our spiritual health and joy. Let us ask to be guided in simplifying our lives, that we may have a clear and clean adventure therein. AMEN

Our word for today is: SIMPLICITY. Our affirmation of clarity is: SIMPLICITY IS THE KEY TO LIVING WITH EASE AND GRACE.

The world moves faster and gets more complex by the day. The speed of change can feel overwhelming, even exhausting. Today we remind ourselves of the joys of simple living. Time spent in solitude, engaged in spiritual practice or mindful pursuits, can soothe our sense of being. Unhurried moments with close friends and family can bring us back to the simple love in our hearts, and give us a precious sense of belonging. Time spent in prayerful communication with our Divine Friend, keeps us grounded and focused on what matters most – living a Spirit-centered life and feeling our oneness with Spirit. As we value simplicity and make time to enjoy it, we will be able to better manage the pace of modern living.

“Blessed are those who trust in the Divine, whose trust is simply Divine.” – (paraphrased) Jeremiah 17:7

What does it mean to live simply? On the material level, it can mean to stress less by toning down our plans and expectations about keeping up with the Jones, who ever our Jones are. On the spiritual level, it can mean that we stop pressing ourselves so much to be spiritually perfect, whatever that perfection is to us. On the level of Divine feelings about life, it can mean that we accept more easily the flow of life, and do not get caught on feelings of “the unaccepted” that stop us in our tracks and which, like a log-jam keeps piling up, thus hinder our flow with life.

We complicate our lives when we spend a lot of time imagining all the things that might go wrong in any situation, our projection into the unknown future. It is assuredly simpler to put our trust in the infinite wisdom of the Divine and let the future flow to us. We chart our choices and affirm our future from our attention and intentions. It is coming forth with Divine Grace, intact and self-evident, as we relax and invite it to appear.

The unknowable, yet imagined, future is always uncertain in all its details. Yet our faith in the yet unseen is necessary ~ as a trusting feeling of the love flowing from the Creator as our greatest good. We all seek our greatest good, and if we complicate our seeking by doubting and fearing what might go wrong, we might get overwhelmed with the tending of all the possibilities or error and upset; and miss the simple beauty of living fully in the treasure of life, which is self-correcting and adaptively wise in all its ways of being.

Worrying, as a habit of mind, complicates our lives, and sucks up our time and energies. Better to trust Divine as being for us, thus simply enjoying the love and true beauty that life offers to us every day.

Resting our attention on attending to the world as Divine and Wise, claims that this simple yet profound life is truly ours. AMEN

Love and Blessings

Grandfather Philip

08/24/2026

BEING THE CHANGE (V.2-i.269) The unity Message
~ HOLY SPIRIT OF COMFORT: Bless us today with peace beyond understanding. Let us be the presence of peace, regardless of appearances. Let us be peace personified and made real. AMEN

Our words of contemplation today are: WORLD PEACE. Our affirmation of intention is: EACH POSITIVE THOUGHT AND HELPFUL ACT BUILDS LASTING WORLD PEACE.

If we find ourselves focusing too much on conflict and disharmony in the world, we may feel discouraged and doubt our ability to make a meaningful difference. But we can take heart as we remind ourselves that there are others who are seeking harmony and working toward world peace, just as we are. We recall the wise words of the cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead, who said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Each time we work toward world peace, we are joining with those other like-minded folks. Together, we are helping to replace strife with harmony, shining the Divine Light into every corner of the world.

“Let you then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual up-building.”—Romans 14:19

Let us give peace a chance. In the ancient of days, in the long span of wisdom traditions, the goal of a lifetime of harmony and peace was the standard of all life on earth and beyond.

The age of conflict, the opposition of male and female, humans and nature, and of one tribe against another tribe, is recent in the human history of consciousness. That it may have a glimpse of necessity to it must be entertained. The concept of the separation between self and other may have been needed to grow our consciousness of being individuals.

The idea of being unique as individuals still contains the seed reality that the word individual comes from the root concept of being “indivisible” or unable to be separated ~ as a part ~ from the whole. Even as we say “I and you,” the you is essential and necessary for our knowing and seeing ourselves as “I”. None of us are islands unto ourselves, however. We are part and parcel of the whole, made of all the other parts. We cannot be divided from each other, or from the creation, or the Creator.

To be in peace and harmony with the totality of life, is our goal of unity with the source and its diverse forms, images, and ideas. We can be in universal reconciliation with all that is. The mercy seat, the place of ‘finding no fault with creation and Creator’ is possible for each one of us. And when we group up to hold this way of being, we together give forth a mighty and potent energy of goodness for our world.

Yes, we see conflict ~ engendered suffering ~
for the disharmony that it is. Nonetheless, we do not need to become disheartened, for we have the power and presence to reset the moment in peace and acceptance of Divine Love and Wisdom. Temporary disharmony will pass. Harmony and dynamic peace are constant, always present; simply needing to be enacted to have its day in the Sun of that illuminate Wisdom and Love.

Buck up dear ones. Be the peace you wish to see. The peacemakers are called the Friends of God. AMEN

Love and Blessings

Grandfather Philip

08/23/2026

We are the Divine Light!

08/21/2026

Love Heals ALL Just Right (V.2-i.286) The Unity Message
~ HOLY SPIRIT OF LIFE: Bless us today with the vitality of healing wholeness. Let us fully embrace the Divine Love everywhere, healing all that needs healing unto wholeness. AMEN

Our word of wonder today is: HEALING. Our affirmation of assurance is: PRACTICING SELF-CARE, I WELCOME MY HEALING.

Healing unfolds differently in each season of our lives. Sometimes it requires diligent work. At other times, we need only plant small seeds of intention and allow them space and time to grow. Some days we need consistent care, and other days the results of our healing work become our nourishment. Even during periods of unseen growth, wholeness remains the truth of who we really are. When we show ourselves love, grace, and care, we support our healing and restoration. Whether our healing need is physical, emotional, or spiritual, we are never absent or apart from the Divine. Co-creating with the Divine within, we honor our healing and know our wholeness.

“The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your needs in parched places... and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.” – Isaiah 58:11

Life is ever-flowing. Like the water of a stream; it is constant and whole as itself. When the water meets a rock in its path, it could get stopped-up and cease to flow, unceasingly bashing into the rock as an obstacle. But the flow of life-water does not do that. The water seeks its good and true nature by flowing around the rock. Nothing is an ultimate obstacle to the flow of life; It finds a way even if it must carve a new path for its flow. It keeps flowing as the wholeness that it truly and always is; as its essence of being.

In the flow of life, in cycles and rhythms, in the making of new cells to replace old cells, in the transformational dynamic of creation creating, the flow never stops. Our bumps and bruises, our illnesses or dilemmas, are a part of life, but they are not the whole. We are being restored in our wholeness, regardless of a temporary sense of imbalance in any part. The completeness of the Divine idea is always greater than a momentary appearance in any part. In truth, the part is whole in its current state, even if we don’t think it is in the moment.

When Connie and I went to the Medicine Wheel last fall to do the “putting to rest” ceremony, it was blowing gale force winds. We huddled in a grove of trees and began making the offers of the ceremony. When we came to the offering of Sage I spoke the healing words of my Mandan relatives. “There are no obstacles.” Immediately, and to our great surprise, the winds ceased blowing in the grove. It was completely still. It was whole in the way of healing. After a few moments we stepped from the grove to the open expanse of the Medicine wheel. There, the wind was still blowing at gale force. Only in the grove where our prayer was offered, could we see and know the still truth of complete wholeness. In that wholeness of no obstacles, we realized that all the prayers prayed throughout the year at the Medicine Wheel had been answered.

In the certainty of wholeness of love’s healing there are no obstacles. AMEN

Love and Blessings, Grandfather Philip

08/19/2026

Bravely Going Forth (V.2-i.267) The Unity Message
~ HOLY SPIRIT CHRISTO-SOPHIA: Bless us today with the courage to meet our world with love; warts and all. Let us accept our lives as Divinely ordained, a gift to be bravely shared in goodness. AMEN

Our word of strength today is: COURAGE. Our affirmation of steadiness is: THROUGH THE POWER OF THE DIVINE WITHIN ME, I HAVE THE COURAGE TO RISE TO CHALLENGES.

Calling upon our courage and becoming willing to do difficult, challenging, or unfamiliar things, can broaden our experience of life and boost our self-esteem. Even so, there may have been times in our past when we wanted to act courageously but did not. Rather than carry regret about missed opportunities, let us courageously look to the future. Now, when a situation calls for courageous action, we summon the Divine gift of strength from within us. Feeling the indwelling presence of the Divine gives us new fortitude, a steeliness that steadies us and helps us to act bravely. Courage is an aspect of our Divine Identity, a gift from the Creator. We use this gift to rise to challenges and overcome obstacles. As we do this, we know ourselves as the strong, spiritual beings we truly are.

“Keep alert; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” – 1 Corinthians 16:13

There are days when it might seem that it is courageous and brave just to get out of bed, and to immerse ourselves in the busy and at times confusing world. If we awaken from sleep and feel the imposing world about to capture us before our feet even hit the floor, that might be the time to get into an intimate conversation of felt-thought with the Divine; before we start anything else. It will ground us in Spirit to simply put ourselves in the care of the Divine at the day’s beginning. We can continue to have our Divine reunion throughout the day’s challenging moments. We can attend and inspire, and co-create our lives by agreeing immediately with the universal plan of love and fulfillment that is at the heart of all our lives.

Agreeing to be guided by the caring love of the Divine, does take courage. We have to be brave to let the Divine step forward and invite us into our greatest harmony. We are in the habit of being the doer, and may think that we have to figure things out, in order to keep or get control of life’s ever-changing images. Yet, with the power of our imagination (and great is this power) we can visualize Divine care and guidance for our lives as constant and assuring. Our personal tactics to stay safe benefit from our being grounded in Divine Love and harmony.

We prosper ourselves when we let the Divine lead, rather than letting it only be a band aid after the wounding experience. Let us be brave and courageous in allowing ourselves be kept from injury, rather than trying to fix up a challenge that comes into our lives after the fact.

We can bravely go forth each day into the not yet known or seen on the manifest level, going forth with faith and trust in the Divine Friend that strengthens and illuminates our path. Then we can buck up and meet everything that life is doing in its dynamic of transformative reunion with the Divine as the Divine. AMEN

Love and Blessings

Grandfather Philip

Address

1919 Fairway Drive
Bozeman, MT
59715

Opening Hours

10:30am - 12:30pm

Telephone

+14065862559

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Unity of Bozeman posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Place Of Worship

Send a message to Unity of Bozeman:

Shortcuts

Share