The 2017 Fillmore Festival is on Friday, September 22 2017. Rev. Joyce Kramer and Jim Blake, CEO of Unity World Headquarters, will lead this fast-paced, intensive day. And it is part of an intensive, fast-paced week of special events (scroll down for more info).
The Fillmore Festival is a time to explore the true foundation of the Unity movement — what I call the DNA of Unity. In today's world, we study DNA to learn how a living thing expresses itself. What we see in Unity today is an expression of Unity's DNA, which is filtered and conditioned by current trends and events. We need to dive deeper.
There are a small number of places one can go deeper and truly access Unity's DNA. One of them is the Unity Archives and another is the Fillmore Festival. There are others, but these two are essential. The Unity Archives is the repository of Unity's sacred treasures. The Fillmore Festival is the premier gathering of Unity's most profound scholars. Together, they can reveal how and why Unity has unfolded as it has.
2017 is the fifty-year anniversary of the original Fillmore Festival, held in April 1967 in Santa Monica, which was hosted by another Unity legend, Sue Sikking. Rev. Joyce Kramer has kept the FF running for over half of these fifty years. It's no wonder. Women like Sue Sikking and Joyce Kramer have launched and sustained programs that spread Unity's message since the beginning of the movement. Attending this 2017 FF is an opportunity to be a part of Unity history.
We will see a passing of the baton for the Fillmore Festival to Unity World Headquarters, and we can look forward in the future to an annual gathering of Unity's best scholars meeting at Unity Village, the repository of Unity's most sacred treasures.
This is a pivotal event in Unity's history. I hope you will join us.
The week of September 18-23 at a glance
The 2017 Fillmore Festival is part of a week-long event/celebration in Virginia Beach. Here's what's lined-up:
Preceding the FF, from Tuesday through Thursday, September 19-21 the Independent Alliance of Mininisters in Unity will hold their Fall Convention. This meeting is open to all ordained Unity ministers and to spiritual leaders of Unity churches.
Running concurrently is an intensive SEE week, just across town from Virginia Beech is Unity Renaissance of Chesapeake, who is hosting an intensive SEE week Monday-Friday. “The Wisdom Is Within You” is the theme for S.E.E. Week. This year, they are offering six required or elective S.E.E. classes. Along with the standard classes, they have an additional focus this year on the Gnostic Gospels including: “The Gospel of Mary Magdalene” and “The Gospel of Thomas.” Instructors include Rev. Elizabeth Mora, Rev. Laura Barrett Bennett, James Scott LUT, Rev. Paula Mekdeci and Richard Mekdeci LUT. Click here for a PDF of the program.
The FF itself is on Friday, September 22 2017. Rev. Joyce Kramer and Jim Blake, CEO of Unity World Headquarters, will lead this fast-paced, intensive day.
However there is another reason join us on September 22nd. September 22nd just happens to be Rev. Joyce's birthday!
So Friday evening we celebrate the ministry of Rev. Joyce. We invite all friends and fans of Rev. Joyce to this special party, where we will honor her fifty years of ministry and service to Unity. We also honor the quarter century that Rev. Joyce has kept the Fillmore Festival running for the Unity movement. And — even though she didn't reveal what year ;) — we celebrate her birthday.
Joyce Kramer's work may be the finest living example of the woman-led viral ministry that established Unity centers across the country. The development of the Unity movement would not have occurred without the work of people like Joyce Kramer.
