Unity Church

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Not to be confused with the Unitarian Church, the Unification Church, or unitarian theology in Christianity.
Unity Church
Unity Village
Unity Village
Classification Unity
Orientation New Thought
Origin 1889
Kansas City, Missouri, United States
Official website unity.org
Part of a series of articles on
New Thought
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Unity, known informally as Unity Church, is a spiritual philosophical movement within the wider New Thought movement and is best known to many through its Daily Word devotional publication. It describes itself as a "positive, practical Christianity" which "teach[es] the effective daily application of the principles of Truth taught and exemplified by Jesus Christ" and promotes "a way of life that leads to health, prosperity, happiness, and peace of mind."[1]

Unity operates several programs, including a prayer program called Silent Unity, the Unity Society of Practical Christianity, Unity School of Christianity, Unity Institute, the Office of Prayer Research, the Association of Unity Churches, and Unity House, the church's publishing arm. The home of Unity is at Unity Village, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City.

History

It was founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1889 by Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) and Myrtle Fillmore (1845–1931) after Mrs. Fillmore had been cured of her tuberculosis, she believed, by spiritual healing. This resulted in the Fillmores studying spiritual healing, and being influenced by Emma Curtis Hopkins and Mary Baker Eddy (the founder of Christian Science).

Unity School of Christianity, shares their insights through magazines, books, and pamphlets and through Silent Unity, a telephone and mail service that offered people help through prayer and counseling. This growth led to several moves within Kansas City, and eventually, after World War I, to the development of Unity Village, 15 miles from Kansas City. The movement was led, in part, after Charles Fillmore’s death, by the Fillmores’ sons and grandchildren.[2]

Overview of Unity

Unity School of Christianity

Unity describes itself as a worldwide Christian organization which teaches a positive approach to life, seeking to accept the good in all people and events. Unity began as a healing ministry and healing has continued to be its main emphasis for over 100 years.[3] It teaches that all people can improve the quality of their lives through thought.[4]

Unity describes itself as having no particular creed, no set dogma, and no required ritual.[5] It maintains that there is good in every approach to God and in every religion that is filling someone's needs.[6] Its position holds that one should not focus on past sins but on the potential good in all.[7]

Unity emphasizes spiritual healing, prosperity and practical Christianity in its teachings. Illness is considered to be curable by spiritual means, but Unity does not reject or resist medical treatments.[2] It is an inclusive faith that welcomes diversity of belief. Unity is accepting of the beliefs of others.[8][9][10][11]

Churches fall under the auspices of Unity Worldwide Ministries although each church is autonomous in its practices.

Basic teachings

New Thought Beliefs

Divinity

Omnipresent God ·
Ultimate Spirit · none · Higher consciousness ·

Beliefs

Law of attraction · Life force

Actions

Affirmations · Affirmative prayer · Creative visualization · Personal magnetism · Positive thinking
Glossary

This box:

Five basic ideas that Unity sets forward as its main belief system are:[12]

  1. "God is the source and creator of all. There is no other enduring power. God is good and present everywhere."
  2. "We are spiritual beings, created in God’s image. The spirit of God lives within each person; therefore, all people are inherently good."
  3. "We create our life experiences through our way of thinking."
  4. "There is power in affirmative prayer, which we believe increases our connection to God."
  5. "Knowledge of these spiritual principles is not enough. We must live them."

Unity is devoted to demonstrating that the teachings of Jesus Christ can be lived every day. Unity's basic position is that the true "Church" is a "state of consciousness in mankind."[13] Unity teaches that each person is a unique expression of God, that each person is sacred, and each person is worthy. Unity emphasizes the creative power of thought in people's experience, and encourages taking personal responsibility to choose life-affirming thoughts, words and actions, holding that when people do this, they experience a more fulfilling and abundant life.[14][15]

H. Emilie Cady's 1896 book Lessons in Truth, A Course of Twelve Lessons in Practical Christianity is considered a core text of Unity.

God

God is understood as spiritual energy which is everywhere present and is available to all people. In the Unity view, God is not a being in the sky who is capable of anger. The presence of God only seeks to express the highest good through everyone and everything.[16] According to Unity founder Charles Fillmore, God is spirit, the loving source of everything. God is one power, all good, wisdom, everywhere present.[17] God is Divine Energy, continually creating, expressing and sustaining all creation. In God we live and move and have our being.[18][19][20]

Jesus

Unity proclaims the divinity of Jesus, but also proclaims that we are all children of God and share that divine potential. Unity believes that Jesus expressed his divine potential and sought to show others how to do the same. Unity sees Jesus as a master teacher of universal Truth and one who demonstrated the Way.[21][22] Unity uses the term "Christ" to mean the divinity in all people. Jesus is the great example of the Christ in expression.[23][24]

The nature of humanity

Unity teaches that we are individual, external expressions of God. Our essential nature is divine and therefore we are inherently good. Our purpose is to express our divine potential as demonstrated by Jesus. The more we awaken to our divine nature, the more fully God expresses in and through our lives.[25][26] Salvation, in the Unity view, is found in conscious understanding of one's innate divinity and then putting this knowledge into practice in everyday life.[27]

The Bible

Unity founders, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, studied the Bible as history and allegory. They interpreted it as a metaphysical representation of each soul's evolutionary journey toward spiritual awakening. Unity understands the Bible as a complex collection of writings compiled over many centuries. The Bible is a valuable spiritual resource, but is understood as a reflection of the comprehension and inspiration of the writers and their times.[28][29][30]

Affirmative prayer

Affirmative prayer is understood, in Unity, as the highest form of creative thought. It includes the release of negative thoughts and holding in mind statements of spiritual truth. Through meditation and prayer, we can experience the presence of God. Prayer and meditation heighten our awareness of truth and thereby transform our lives.[31][32]

Prayer is valuable not because it alters the circumstances and conditions of your life, but because it alters you.[33]

Unity teaches that it is helpful to pray with the belief that we have already received all that we need. In this view, through prayer the mind is renewed and the body transformed. The awareness that we are conscious creators of our lives, has the power to make the bridge between the old Christianity where we are "sinners" to the new understanding that we are "learners."[34] The Unity school of Christianity holds that prayer is not a way to inform God of one's troubles or to change God in any way, but rather, prayer is properly used to align with the power that is God.[35][36]

Relationship to Christianity

Although Unity is not a traditional Christian teaching, the foundations are based on the teachings of Jesus and the Bible.[37][38][39][40][41][42] Unity stresses its agreements, not differences, with Christians.[8]

It has been generally accepted that Jesus' great works were miracles and that the power to do miracles was delegated to His immediate followers only. In recent years many of Jesus' followers have inquired into His healing methods, and they have found that healing is based on universal mental and spiritual laws which anyone can utilize who will comply with the conditions involved in these laws.[43][44]

Unity considers itself to be a nonsectarian educational institution although Unity ministers do complete a prescribed program of courses and training. Due to the interdenominational nature of Unity, its influence extends beyond its membership.[8]

Notable members

Well known persons affiliated with Unity include Betty White, Eleanor Powell, Wally Amos, Licensed Unity Teacher Ruth Warrick, Barbara Billingsley, Theodore Schneider, Erykah Badu, Matt Hoverman, author Victoria Moran, Patricia Neal,[45] Holmes Osborne[46] and Esther Williams and Sandy Diamond Chicago Minister

In March 2008 Maya Angelou stated that she planned to spend part of the year studying at the Unity Church. In 2005 she attended a Unity Church service in Miami and decided that day to "go into a kind of religious school and study" on her 80th birthday.[47]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions". Unity.org. Retrieved 2012-12-29. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Unity School of Christianity". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2009-06-26. 
  3. ↑ Rhea, Rosemary Fillmore, "Unity in the twenty-first Century" Unity Magazine, Sept–Oct 2004, pp. 32–34
  4. ↑ Omwake, Mary, "The Power to Heal" Unity Magazine Nov–Dec 2005, p. 38
  5. ↑ Rosemergy, Jim "No More Dogmas, No More Creeds, Unity Magazine, March–April 2003, p 17
  6. ↑ Bazzy, Connie Fillmore, "Unity School of Christianity and the Unity Movement" Unity Magazine, Sept–Oct 2001, pp. 4–6
  7. ↑ "Unity:A Path for Spiritual Living" Unity Magazine, Nov–Dec 2007,pp.41–42
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Unity School of Christianity, The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 1987, Vol 12 P, 162.
  9. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions about Unity". Unity.org. Retrieved 2012-12-29. 
  10. ↑ Kornfield, Jack, "The Wisdom of Not Knowing" Unity Magazine Nov–Dec 2005 p. 10
  11. ↑ Gaither, Jim, Metaphysical Musings, Unity Magazine, Jan–Feb 2008, p. 10
  12. ↑ "What We Believe". Unity.org. Retrieved 2012-12-29. 
  13. ↑ Fillmore(1997) p37
  14. ↑ Fillmore, Charles, Talks on Truth,17th ed 1998 pp. 7–13
  15. ↑ Cady, Emilie Lessons in Truth, 15th ed 1995, pp. 97–109, 143–154
  16. ↑ Shepherd, Thomas, "I've Always Wondered About" Unity Magazine, Sept–Oct 2007, p. 10
  17. ↑ Fillmore, Charles Talks on Truth, 17th ed 1998, p. 9
  18. ↑ Acts 17:28 "In Him we live and move and have our being"
  19. ↑ Fillmore, Charles Jesus Christ Heals, 19th ed 1999, page 29
  20. ↑ Shepherd, Thomas, "I've Always Wondered About" Unity Magazine, Sept–Oct 2006, p 10
  21. ↑ I John 4:17 "As He is...so we are in this world"
  22. ↑ Fillmore(1997) p111
  23. ↑ Fillmore(1997) p25
  24. ↑ Braden, Charles, Spirits in Rebellion:The Rise and Development of New Thought. 1987, Southern Methodist University Press. pp. 260–262
  25. ↑ Cady, Emilie, Lessons in Truth, 15th ed 1995 pp. 17–24
  26. ↑ Butterworth, Eric MetaMorality: A Metaphysical Approach to The Ten Commandments. 1988, pp. 119–122
  27. ↑ Braden, Charles Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought. 1987, Southern Methodist University Press. p. 238
  28. ↑ Fillmore(1997) p. 24
  29. ↑ Turner, Elizabeth S. Be Ye Transformed: Bible Interpretation Acts through Revelation 1988, pp. 9–13
  30. ↑ "What We Believe". Unity.org. Retrieved 2012-12-29. 
  31. ↑ Mosley, Glenn, "Learning to Pray," Unity Magazine May–June 2001, pp. 16–17
  32. ↑ "Official creed of the Unity/Unitarian Church". Bible.ca. Retrieved 2012-12-29. 
  33. ↑ Freeman, James Dillet, "Life is a Wonder" Unity Magazine, Mar–Apr 2001, pp. 18–19
  34. ↑ Baherman, Steve, "Unity: The Healing Edge of Christianity", Unity Magazine, Jan–Feb 2008, pp. 20–22
  35. ↑ Fillmore(1997) pp 152–154
  36. ↑ Cady, Emilie, Lessons in Truth, 15th ed 1995, pp 97–108
  37. ↑ Fillmore, Charles Jesus Christ Heals, 19th ed 1999, pages 9–35
  38. ↑ Turner, Elizabeth Sands, Your Hope of Glory, 10th ed, 1996, pp. 7–15
  39. ↑ Butterworth, Eric The Universe is Calling, 1994, pp. 129–135
  40. ↑ Freeman, James Dillet, The Story of Unity, 2000, pp. 9–19, 225–269
  41. ↑ Mosley, Glenn, "Unity, Much more than a Denomination" Unity Magazine, Mar–Apr, 2003, pp. 15–16
  42. ↑ Shepherd, Thomas, "That's a Good Question" Unity Magazine, Jan–Feb 2008, p. 7
  43. ↑ Fillmore, Charles Jesus Christ Heals, 19th ed 1999, p. 79
  44. ↑ Brumet, Robert, "Spiritual Healing" Unity Magazine Mar–Apr 2001, 22–25
  45. ↑ Raven, Barbara C. Badge of Courage. Unity Church of New York, 2002.
  46. ↑ Holmes Osborne mentioned attending on the cast commentary on the Donnie Darko DVD
  47. ↑ Maya Angelou at 80: Life is still an adventure, Hillel Italie, Phillyburbs.com, March 29, 2008

Further reading

  • Fillmore, Charles (1997). The Revealing Word: a dictionary of metaphysical terms. Unity Books. ISBN 0-87159-006-9. 
  • Vahle, Neal (September 2002). The Unity Movement: Its Evolution and Spiritual Teachings. Templeton Foundation Press. pp. 504 pages. ISBN 1-890151-96-3. 
  • Mosley,Glenn R. The History and Future NEW THOUGHT, ANCIENT WISDOM of the New Thought Movement, Templelton Foundation Press, (2006). ISBN 1599470896

External links

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  • Emma Curtis Hopkins
  • Unity Society of Practical Christianity
  • Unity School of Christianity
  • Association of Unity Churches
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