This article appeared in Natural Awakenings magazine, 2012.
Reverend Mark Pope has one clear, powerful message for his congregation: Return to Source.
As the new interim minister of Unity of Birmingham, his ultimate mission is to lead those who are so inclined to focus their attention on the Christ Consciousness within themselves.
New to this community, Pope says he is allowing Source to guide him in his ministry. “The world as we know it is undergoing amazing and immense changes. I’m responding to presence. What does Source want to do? The New Earth is here, and I sense Unity of Birmingham may be one of the forms this new consciousness is taking. I’m just watching to see what it wants to become.”
Pope was invited to help the church in its period of bereavement after its long-time pastor Reverend Jerry Bartholow made his transition in June 2011. His previous ministerial position was at Unity of Sedona, Arizona.
Pope chronicles the path of his spiritual awakenings in his new book, The Final Prison Break: Adventures and Misadventures in Synchronicity, Grace and Awakening. As a youth, he was imprisoned for possession of drugs and, although innocent, faced a life sentence. He finally came to terms with the possibility that the dysfunctional parts of his life grew out of his own consciousness. As a result, he set out to transform the unconscious conditions that led him to crime and to a adopt reverence for the grace that saved his life. He explains: “The eternal, ever present, still, silent, Source of all existence has the capacity to alter anyone or anything anytime. A question we may want to ask ourselves is: Are we really open to this Grace now?”
What Pope hopes to inspire in individuals is the practice of being still and silent enough to sense into their true essence. “That idea has spiritual roots in prehistory. In modern times, it sprung from the teachings of Franz Anton Mesmer in Europe in the 18thcentury and was brought across the ocean and began to take shape and form is this country under the general idea of Christian Science. Eventually The formal structures Christian Science, Unity and Religious Science churches took shape. The leaders of these movements believed that by changing one’s attitude one could change one’s life. This idea allowed for a more mystical understanding to reach all who were open to this. This began to create the foundation of what Eckhart Tolle now calls the New Earth. This comes from scripture and suggests that a ‘new earth’ or new forms and expressions are
preceded by a new consciousness or ‘new heaven.’ This new consciousness is what occurs as we return attention to the Source within us…again, return to Source.”
Jesus was the historical character, says Pope, but Christ is the state of consciousness or the realization of the
oneness with God that dawned on Him and functioned through Him. “So when he says, ‘I and the Father are one’, he means it literally. There’s no sense of separation. And the second coming is that coming of the state of consciousness of the Christ in us all. We can wake up to the realization that we are one with Source and each other. That love and wisdom and that capacity to manifest the truth and to heal anything can be commonplace and natural to us all. The truth is one. It doesn’t belong to anyone or any particular tradition but is the Truth of Being and the nature of us all. All structures or teachings, if they serve the truth, are means through which individuals can see the truth beyond the teaching or structure that simply
points to this.”
The fast-paced lifestyle we live today distracts us from going within and leads us to focus instead on structures or forms, says Pope. “The world of form may become more frenetic, more accelerated. More and more structures: governmental, societal, cultural, educational, have revealed themselves to be relatively unstable. There is no stability in the old paradigm. And the way life is moving is to cause us to stop hoping the next politician or the next guru is going to save us. Eventually we will return to the Source of our internal strength and this return of attention liberates us from external dependencies.”
To experience this ever present Source directly, we simply turn attention away from the mind and toward the stillness
and silence beneath the movements of mind, Pope says. “Source is always right here, just beneath the words we are speaking. If you just take a breath and pause for a moment, there’s silence. That is where the power comes from.
You are the Christ. You are being called to turn your attention back to your own Christ nature, the Christ within you, the power of God within you. It’s closer than your hands and feet. You live in it and move in it and it lives and moves in and as you. It is expressing through you. You may have lost touch with it because you were temporarily caught up in the world of form. People think, ‘I’m a little me cut off from everything and everyone. I’m separate, there’s something wrong with me, or there’s something wrong with you.’ These are simply false beliefs from which we are now being given an opportunity to awaken. Many more than ever before are now beginning to emerge from the nightmare of false beliefs. A great Grace now seeks all willing vessels.”
When we draw our strength and guidance from Source, our lives take on new meaning, says Pope. “You can’t solve anything unless you solve it from an awakened place. So, your first job is to wake up and then see what you are guided to do from that awakened place. Be aware. Right here is the only place the answer is. That’s my job---to see if I can remember this myself more of that time and see who wants to join me. Let’s remember together and trust the process together and cease condemning those who have yet to remember. A New Earth is emerging and everyone is invited to participate as inspired from within.”
Reverend Mark Pope has one clear, powerful message for his congregation: Return to Source.
As the new interim minister of Unity of Birmingham, his ultimate mission is to lead those who are so inclined to focus their attention on the Christ Consciousness within themselves.
New to this community, Pope says he is allowing Source to guide him in his ministry. “The world as we know it is undergoing amazing and immense changes. I’m responding to presence. What does Source want to do? The New Earth is here, and I sense Unity of Birmingham may be one of the forms this new consciousness is taking. I’m just watching to see what it wants to become.”
Pope was invited to help the church in its period of bereavement after its long-time pastor Reverend Jerry Bartholow made his transition in June 2011. His previous ministerial position was at Unity of Sedona, Arizona.
Pope chronicles the path of his spiritual awakenings in his new book, The Final Prison Break: Adventures and Misadventures in Synchronicity, Grace and Awakening. As a youth, he was imprisoned for possession of drugs and, although innocent, faced a life sentence. He finally came to terms with the possibility that the dysfunctional parts of his life grew out of his own consciousness. As a result, he set out to transform the unconscious conditions that led him to crime and to a adopt reverence for the grace that saved his life. He explains: “The eternal, ever present, still, silent, Source of all existence has the capacity to alter anyone or anything anytime. A question we may want to ask ourselves is: Are we really open to this Grace now?”
What Pope hopes to inspire in individuals is the practice of being still and silent enough to sense into their true essence. “That idea has spiritual roots in prehistory. In modern times, it sprung from the teachings of Franz Anton Mesmer in Europe in the 18thcentury and was brought across the ocean and began to take shape and form is this country under the general idea of Christian Science. Eventually The formal structures Christian Science, Unity and Religious Science churches took shape. The leaders of these movements believed that by changing one’s attitude one could change one’s life. This idea allowed for a more mystical understanding to reach all who were open to this. This began to create the foundation of what Eckhart Tolle now calls the New Earth. This comes from scripture and suggests that a ‘new earth’ or new forms and expressions are
preceded by a new consciousness or ‘new heaven.’ This new consciousness is what occurs as we return attention to the Source within us…again, return to Source.”
Jesus was the historical character, says Pope, but Christ is the state of consciousness or the realization of the
oneness with God that dawned on Him and functioned through Him. “So when he says, ‘I and the Father are one’, he means it literally. There’s no sense of separation. And the second coming is that coming of the state of consciousness of the Christ in us all. We can wake up to the realization that we are one with Source and each other. That love and wisdom and that capacity to manifest the truth and to heal anything can be commonplace and natural to us all. The truth is one. It doesn’t belong to anyone or any particular tradition but is the Truth of Being and the nature of us all. All structures or teachings, if they serve the truth, are means through which individuals can see the truth beyond the teaching or structure that simply
points to this.”
The fast-paced lifestyle we live today distracts us from going within and leads us to focus instead on structures or forms, says Pope. “The world of form may become more frenetic, more accelerated. More and more structures: governmental, societal, cultural, educational, have revealed themselves to be relatively unstable. There is no stability in the old paradigm. And the way life is moving is to cause us to stop hoping the next politician or the next guru is going to save us. Eventually we will return to the Source of our internal strength and this return of attention liberates us from external dependencies.”
To experience this ever present Source directly, we simply turn attention away from the mind and toward the stillness
and silence beneath the movements of mind, Pope says. “Source is always right here, just beneath the words we are speaking. If you just take a breath and pause for a moment, there’s silence. That is where the power comes from.
You are the Christ. You are being called to turn your attention back to your own Christ nature, the Christ within you, the power of God within you. It’s closer than your hands and feet. You live in it and move in it and it lives and moves in and as you. It is expressing through you. You may have lost touch with it because you were temporarily caught up in the world of form. People think, ‘I’m a little me cut off from everything and everyone. I’m separate, there’s something wrong with me, or there’s something wrong with you.’ These are simply false beliefs from which we are now being given an opportunity to awaken. Many more than ever before are now beginning to emerge from the nightmare of false beliefs. A great Grace now seeks all willing vessels.”
When we draw our strength and guidance from Source, our lives take on new meaning, says Pope. “You can’t solve anything unless you solve it from an awakened place. So, your first job is to wake up and then see what you are guided to do from that awakened place. Be aware. Right here is the only place the answer is. That’s my job---to see if I can remember this myself more of that time and see who wants to join me. Let’s remember together and trust the process together and cease condemning those who have yet to remember. A New Earth is emerging and everyone is invited to participate as inspired from within.”
