Seminary Program

This is where we post the essays from many of our Universal Life Church Seminary students. When students finish a ULC course, they write a comprehensive essay about their experiences with the course, what they learned, didn't learn, were inspired by, etc. Here are their essays.

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Friday, April 10, 2009

Spirit Quest


I just finished the final module in the Spirit Quest Course and I feel enlightened, free and a bit more prepared to face the world in to which I have been reborn.  The mission I have been assigned to complete has been elusive, but at this time clarity has been bestowed upon me. After my first near death experience there was an abundance of confusion, my thought processes were almost abstract. I had a sense of what happened but could not find relevance for my life. You see I had never been a religious person; until the age of maybe thirteen, I was raised as a catholic. I attended church services infrequently but I did complete the childhood sacraments christening, first Holy Communion and confirmation. Christmas was always special and even at a young age there was a distinct feeling within that was far more than just the enjoyment of being gifted with all of the worldly delights of a child. There was one more special time of the year when I would actually attend mass and other ceremonies namely The Stations of the Cross, which were celebrated during the Lenten season before Easter. During the Stations of the Cross I would again sense something very enjoyable and comforting and it was deep. I realize today that it was a very Spiritual sensation.

I think my confusion stemmed from the discourse I had felt while attending mass on Sundays and the classes I needed to attend to complete the sacrament of confirmation. By this time I had developed the cognitive abilities to Question. The things that I questioned the most were the way the Church (Catholic) would change the rules in mid stream to suit their needs. The time was the 1960's there were a lot of changes going on in the world and here in the United States. Technology was at its birth stage, television was more readily affordable for more of the population. The drug culture was in proliferation and people were getting busy with things other than going to Sunday Mass, at least that was the way it was for Catholics. This may sound petty maybe even a bit insincere but believe me this was the onset of my discourse with the Catholic Church and organized religion as a whole. Scenario, census in the Catholic Church had been dropping off for month's maybe even years; during this time the Church decided they could re-write Gospel and church law to suit their needs. While I was growing up we were prohibited from eating meat on Friday now this may sound trivial but it was profound to me. All of a sudden, it's fine now we can eat meat on Friday. They changed God's law. What Spirit Quest did for me, was to bring my focus back to my own spirituality and made me realize that God lives in me and even though I am more tolerant now of organized religion (I just opened Port St. Lucie Church of Spiritual Enlightenment) fully operational and all the legalities covered and Incorporated. So thanks to this course I obtained the strength to forge ahead. So from the very first lesson it was stated "Overcome the roadblocks that keep you from reaching your goals".  I found things in every lesson that helped me overcome my roadblocks.

Thank You,
Rev Glendon Ricker
Pastor, Port St. Lucie Church of Spiritual Enlightenment

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