Unity of The Blue Ridge (UTBR) is a welcoming spiritual community serving Asheville, Hendersonville, Mills River and surrounding areas. Our youth program and lessons emphasize universal spiritual principles and creative expression. We promote sacred oneness, unwavering acceptance and love for all beings.

We welcome you and your children of all ages to Sunday Services and Sunday School at 10:30 AM. Our youth programs include:

• Nursery
• UniTots: Pre-Kindergarten
• UniKids: K – 5th grade
• UniTeens: 6th – 8th grade
• Youth of Unity (Y.O.U.): 9th-12th grade

Bring your children into the sanctuary with you and they will be blessed and excused following the opening songs. And please, remember to pick them up before you leave. 

In addition to recently renovated classrooms (adjacent to the main chapel, your children have access to a safe, supervised playground when the weather permits. Expect to take home crafts on a regular basis! Fill out our Youth Registration form

We are family. 
Come sing with us, cry with us, 
laugh your socks off and enjoy this ride called life with us. 
We are all in this together and you know that’s true when you join us.

What type of Spiritual teachings will my child receive? 

Your children are exposed to age-appropriate learning through the exploration Unity Principles and of a wide range of spiritual paths. As a spiritual youth community, they learn in a safe place of love and acceptance. Your children and teens experience the recognition of their oneness with God, however you have taught them to name that Presence.    

Experiences they will have are through a number of different avenues: 

• Technology
• Art
• Music
• Dance
• Storytelling 
• And more

These activities invite the Divine potential in everyone to grow and expand. Using the tools of affirmative prayer, a New Thought curriculum, meditation and service, your children practice Unity Truth principles as a way of life. Topics they explore may include:

• The power of prayer
• Seeking a spiritual path
• The in-dwelling Christ/Divinity
• Bible stories through metaphysical glasses
• Building a spiritual family
• Being part of a community
• Forgiveness and kindness
• Unconditional love and acceptance
• Affirmations
• Meditation
• Service and responsibility

Who looks after my children while I’m in the main Chapel?

The teachers, leaders, sponsors and assistants at Unity of The Blue Ridge in Mills River are all background screened, and most of the UTBR teachers are trained professional educators. Your youth and family staff members include: 

• Director - Rev. Gaby Michel 
• Lead Teacher - Rev. Barbara Ann Simone 
• Lead Teen Sponsor - Rev. Meagen Gosiewski
• Assistant Teen Teacher - Jessica Ayala

In addition to professional educators, they’ll meet professional singers and songwriters, laymen and clergy, engineers, artists and creators of all sorts who generously tithe their time and talents to the youth regularly in “Mentor Moments”. 

Is everyone welcome at Unity? 

Families take many shapes and forms and your family is honored here – no matter what it looks like. It’s vital to the UTBR spiritual community that all families are served in spiritually and emotionally caring ways. The ministries, publications and programs your children are exposed to are free of discrimination on any basis. 

The youth and family ministry at Unity of The Blue Ridge employs the same basic tenets of Unity Worldwide Ministries, based in Lees Summit, Missouri. All are welcome at Unity and encouraged to participate in this message of the power of love and acceptance.  

Just as you enjoy the lessons in the chapel each week, your children will learn Unity’s 5 Basic Principles in their classrooms: 

• GOD IS: There is one presence and one power. God is the source and creator of all that is.
• I AM: We are all spiritual beings, expressions of the one God. The spirit of God lives within every person; therefore, all people are inherently divine and good. 
• I THINK: Our thoughts and awareness give shape to our life experience. “Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind.”
• I PRAY: There is power in affirmative prayer, which increases our awareness of God and our true nature. 
• I LIVE: Knowledge of these spiritual principles is not enough. We live them to experience them.

We look forward to seeing you soon.