Who is johnnie coleman

Colemon demonstrated leadership skills early at Union Academy High School, graduating as valedictorian of her class. She received her B. Open Your Mind and Be Healed is not only the title of her book, but her remarkable personal story of the use of universal principles of healing. After learning that she had an incurable disease in , with encouragement from her mother, Colemon enrolled in the Unity School of Christianity, Lee's Summit, Missouri, where she received her teaching certificate and became an ordained minister.

Colemon was a builder and a teacher. She built six structures to spread the better living teachings: three churches, two institutions of learning and a restaurant and banquet facility. The first church was Christ Unity Temple built in and its addition in The congregation expanded to the current Christ Universal Temple, located on the sprawling campus grounds at th Street named Rev.

Close to 4, people flock every Sunday and are taught how to think, rather than what to think. Colemon was the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Colemon was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree from her alma mater, Wiley College in Wiley, Texas; the degrees of doctor of humane letters and doctor of divinity from Monrovia College, Liberia; and a Ph.

On that day, I heard it, I saw it, I felt it. Johnnie Colemon spoke as one having authority. She was easy to listen to. Her message was clear, relatable, and down to earth. She seemed to be speaking especially to me on that Sunday. I have come to believe the mark of a great speaker is the ability to speak to thousands and having each one feel that the presenter is speaking directly to them.

Johnnie answered so many questions I had about Unity and the Unity teachings. She articulated the unsettled thoughts that blocked my grasp of the words I had been hearing. But I had been searching for something that would tie it all together for me. Back then, I had been wondering if Unity was for me. It seemed Unity was overwhelmingly led by whites, which seemed to be contradictory to the teachings. I remember back then Rev. She envisioned ministers serving urban areas creating the opportunity for more diversity in Unity leadership and an increase in African-American membership.

But she would return from her visits to the Association and report great resistance to the idea. I wondered if Unity was for me.

I had gone on a wonderful retreat at Unity Village and, while it was magnificent, there were few blacks on the campus. One black minister, Sallye Taylor, gave a short and powerful message but then she was gone. Other than that, the only blacks I saw were two other retreatants and a person who worked at the Unity Inn. I wondered whether behind the kind smiles I was really welcome there.

The optics with token amounts of diversity left me questioning if Unity was for me. In those days, I wondered also whether the teachings would work for me. My first treasure map had been amazingly accurate to what I desired treasure-mapping is a visioning tool using pictures to activate our imagination toward attracting what we want to manifest. But sometimes my prayers seemed to be answered and other times not.

The teachings did not seem to provide consistent results for me, as I understood them, and I often found myself wondering if the Unity teachings were for me. She was the first African-American student to be allowed to live on Unity grounds, but only after she threatened to leave the ministerial program. When some fellow classmates supported her, the school made available a cottage off in the distance formerly occupied by workers. It was Cottage J that became the quarters on campus designated for African-American students to share.

She was valedictorian of her high school class, then graduated from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, where she played tennis and sought a career as a saxophonist. Colemon moved to Chicago, where she became a teacher at Chicago Public Schools. She became an ordained minister in Colemon is survived by her husband, Leon Blair. The two were married in Visitation will be Jan. Cottage Grove Ave. Ashland Ave. Times of the services were not available Wednesday night.

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