Youth of Unity Member Comes Full Circle at Unity Village

By Lysa Allman-Baldwin

In 1954 Sharon Varner was a soft-spoken yet adventurous 14-year-old. Her first trip away from home was by train from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Unity Farm, Missouri—the world headquarters for the Unity movement (now called Unity Village)—to attend the annual Youth of Unity (YOU) conference. This summer she returned to Unity Village, and to her surprise found herself in the midst of the 2010 YOU conference. Although it has been 56 years, she knows that the Unity principles she learned then still apply to her life.

Memories of Unity Farm
YOU is now called International Youth of Unity (IYOU). It provides youth ages 14-18 with opportunities to learn about Unity principles and how to demonstrate those principles in daily life.

Varner came to numerous YOU conferences and remembers fondly her experiences at Unity Farm. “The boys and girls were separate, of course,” she says. “The first year, there were 25 or 30 of us in one dorm building.” After breakfast, the youth met to sing uplifting “joy songs,” enjoyed talks by the Fillmores and James Dillet Freeman, and shared Daily Word magazine.

According to Varner, the opportunity to meet and interact with youth on a spiritual level was an invaluable experience. “In Unity, they would tell us, ‘You are a child of God,' and ‘You are perfect,' and it made such a difference. The most alive part of my life was when I got to high school with a mass of people and I had Unity principles to follow.”

“Every afternoon we had free time, so we went to the pool, and we'd have music and dance at the clubhouse,” Varner recalls. “There was a first night banquet to get acquainted, where they played music from the ‘50's and the girls danced with the girls. My first ‘boyfriend' from Akron, Ohio, took me to the top of the tower.” (The Unity Village Tower is 165 feet tall, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.)

Coming Home to Unity
This past August, Varner traveled by train from her home in San Diego, California, to Unity Village to participate in a Nehemiah Retreat. Held several times a year, these retreats bring volunteers to Unity Village to assist in rebuilding and restoring the campus. Participants perform service projects such as painting, landscaping, masonry work and other duties. In exchange, Unity provides each guest with complimentary room and board and programs that focus on fellowship, spiritual renewal and growth.

Varner saw a notice about the Nehemiah Retreats in the bulletin at her local Unity church. “It was perfect because Unity had done so much for me, and it was a way for me to give back. Service to anything is so rewarding.”

Varner spent her volunteer time helping in Unity's Customer Care Department, organizing some of the thousands of prayer requests received each week in Silent Unity, Unity's 24/7 telephone prayer ministry. What Varner didn't know is that the Nehemiah Retreat coincided with the 2010 IYOU retreat, “Peace be Still.”

Learning that Varner was on campus, the youth invited her to join them. They asked about her experience at Unity Farm and how YOU influenced her life. “I told them, ‘Try to absorb and practice what you learn [here] as much as you can. Once you leave and go back, it's a lot harder to practice [Unity principles]. I'm not saying that it's easy here, but you are with like-minded people who automatically accept you. Remember this time with Unity, because that's what will carry you through.”

The youth gave her the special YOU blessing:

We love you;
We bless you;
We appreciate you;
And we behold the Christ in you!

Then a spontaneous line formed, each youth hugging and thanking Varner for sharing with them. “The blessing was beautiful,” she says. “I felt so accepted and seeing all those kids with their smiling faces...I was feeling more and more drawn to come back here to Unity Village. It was like coming home, but I never would have imagined this.”

The Circle of Life
Varner, now 70, still maintains a close relationship with several friends who attended the early YOU conferences with her. “Even now a friend and I just talk and we don't have to explain [our feelings],” she says. “We went our separate ways for about 25 years, but now we talk about Unity and how daring we were; how we stayed in a hotel in Kansas City. I can't wait to tell [my friends] I was here again!”

In 2011 the International Youth of Unity will hold its 75th Anniversary Reunion. Varner plans to attend. “I am really excited about it,” she says. “I would love to hook up with other people and hear them share their experiences.”

Suddenly realizing she had taken the train to Unity in 1954, and again this year, Varner smiled through tears and said, “If I never get back here, I am complete. [This experience] completes the circle.”

Read more about the International Youth of Unity.

Learn about Unity Village Nehemiah Retreats.

Unity Village
Established nearly 100 years ago, Unity Village is located 15 miles southeast of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. Today, the Mediterranean-style campus still offers a quiet refuge and nurturing activities for body, mind and spirit.

The pristine campus includes 1,400 acres of beautiful countryside along with formal gardens, magnificent fountains, walking trails, a “green” hotel and conference center, a swimming pool, a nine-hole golf course, the best and most extensive library and archives in the region for books and other resources on spiritual education and personal growth, a bookstore and coffee shop, and a variety of peaceful indoor and outdoor chapels for prayer and meditation.

Two of the buildings at Unity are included on the National Register of Historic Places: Unity Tower and the original Silent Unity Building (now the Education Building). Unity Village is the perfect setting for a wedding or commitment ceremony, business meeting or peaceful personal getaway.

Youth of Unity
Youth of Unity groups, which often meet Sunday mornings at Unity centers and the International Youth of Unity (IYOU) continue to flourish today. IYOU brings together scores of youth for fellowship and spiritually empowered leadership events, fundraisers, service projects, rallies and other activities. Over the years, many YOU graduates have gone on to lead their own youth groups or have become Unity ministers.

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