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From the Chapel Hill NewsRabbinical student leads inter-faith congregationBy Patrick O’Neill, reprinted with permission from Chapel Hill News Mark Malachi has a vision to make the Unity Center of Peace Church on Seawell School Road into what he calls “an inter-faith center” for the Triangle. All indications are Malachi is just the person to make it happen. Raised a devout Jew on Long Island, Malachi, 39, calls himself the spiritual leader of Unity Center. Even though Malachi has been called to shepherd Unity Center — a Christian congregation — he is still studying to become a rabbi. He says he does not use the title reverend or minister because he wants to be more inclusive. Unity Center reflects Malachi’s commitment to inter-faith diversity. He leads a monthly Jewish service at Unity Center. The church also offers a monthly inter-faith service. A Sufi Muslim group meets at Unity, as does the newly established Episcopal Church of the Advocate. Malachi also invites monthly guest speakers from other faith traditions to preach. “We are a diverse and welcoming community,” Malachi said. “We tend to draw free-thinking independent people. We have a strong inter-faith focus. I would say that we are a very spiritually oriented community. We seek to have as much experience with God as possible. Rather than just talking about God, we seek to experience God, which would make this church mystical.” The worship ritual at Unity includes mediation, which draws on Buddhist practice, communal prayer, “a very expansive music program” and Malachi’s sermons “about an aspect of practical spirituality.” Where Unity deviates from most mainline Christian denominations is in its belief in universal human divinity. “In a nutshell, what distinguishes Unity from all other denominations of Christianity is that we believe that everyone is divine just like Jesus,” Malachi said. “As opposed to worshipping Jesus as God, we believe we’re all God. We all have divinity within us. “We view Jesus as actually a great rabbi. We view him as a great teacher. He’s the way-shower. We believe that he came to demonstrate that we are all divine beings.” Although Unity believes all humans are divine, Malachi says Jesus “was more enlightened. He was awakened. He was an awakened teacher. He realized he was God. He woke up to the reality that he was God. I believe that it was his hope that we all awaken to the reality that we are God.” The Unity movement, which is a sister church of Christian Science and Divine Science, was founded in the late 19th century by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in Missouri. Unity and its sister denominations all believe in “the divinity of the individual and the power of the mind to directly influence one’s life,” Malachi said. “The Unity view of Jesus and of religion is very close to Kabbalah, also known as Jewish mysticism,” he said. “A lot of Unity teachers acknowledge that the Unity view of Jesus is closer to Judaism than it is to Christianity. Jesus was Jewish, and all the disciples were Jewish and all the early Christians were Jewish. “And Jesus’ teaching come out of Judaism. There’s very little conflict, I believe, between what Jesus said and what Judaism teaches. He was just a radical Jew, and the Jewish powers that be at the time were not able to accept his radical ideas because they were too busy worrying about how the religion was going to survive with the Roman Empire breathing down their necks. “He believed that love was the highest law, and so it could supersede the other laws. Jesus felt like you can’t follow the law at the expense of loving your neighbor.” Malachi’s involvement with Unity Center began in 1989 when he took a part-time position in music ministry while he was earning a master degree in clinical psychology at UNC. He also holds a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Michigan and a degree in comparative religion from The American College of Metaphysical Theology. Malachi was ordained as inter-faith minister at The New Seminary in New York City in 1990. While living in New Mexico in the 1990s, Malachi helped create educational and musical programs designed to bring together the various houses of worship and faith groups in Santa Fe as president of the Interfaith Council of Santa Fe. “With the notion that we are all worshipping the same God, although using different liturgies, rituals, and sacred texts,” Malachi said he sought “to bridge the gulf of misunderstanding and xenophobia that has kept the various world faith traditions at odds for the last two thousand years.” Malachi, who is also an accomplished musician, has served several Jewish faith communities as a cantor, including the Chapel Hill Kehillah, and he was director of Chazzanut at Raleigh’s Temple Beth Or. A vocalist, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Malachi has performed all over the United States, and he has made 15 recordings of original sacred and secular music. In his resume, Malachi wrote that the core of his teaching is “the understanding that God is One, that nothing is excluded from this Oneness, and therefore all are a part of the same God/Goddess/All That Is. Since all of humanity is connected in the Grand Oneness of All That Is, it is incumbent upon all people to demonstrate compassion, acceptance, mutual understanding and love.” While Unity is not interested in politics, Malachi said he instructs members to cultivate “our relationship with God, and through that relationship we are able to make decisions based on our inner guidance.” Because we believe that everyone is divine, part of our practice is to see the divinity in each other, so that gives us another way to encounter God, to see the God in each other, to see that divine spark.” Malachi says he sees a spiritual hunger in the world today, “and it’s extremely varied,” running the gamut from traditional approaches to religion to alternative approaches to religion. “There’s definitely a hunger, but I think there’s just as much of an apathy,” he said. “My vision and the vision of Unity is that peace is blossoming now, and it’s happening in small ways. And it takes people to focus on peace rather than focussing on war to create peace. The more people can focus on peace, the more peace will blossom. The more people focus on war, the more war will blossom. Unity teaches whatever you focus on your get more of as part of the creative power of the mind. “I hold that the highest good will manifest in this situation. I know that God’s love is present here with us now.”
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