Unity is a Way of Life! It is a positive, practical, progressive approach to Christianity based on the teachings of Jesus and the power of prayer. We teach the practical application in everyday life of the principles of Truth taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ. We believe all people are created with sacred worth. Our sincere desire is to create spiritual opportunities for growth and fellowship that are nondiscriminatory, that support diversity, and that honor the spark of Divinity within each and every one of us.
Unity is a sacred space where boundaries dissolve. Different religious traditions are like spokes on a wheel, with the hub being God. Humankind seeks God in many ways, and Unity honors the universal truths in all religions and respects each individual’s right to choose a personal spiritual path. Someone coming to Unity is not asked to give up the tradition of their past, only to come with an open mind, an open heart, and a willingness to look at this experience we call life from a new perspective… and to experience God in a very personal way.
Unity is a positive approach to life, seeking to see and accept the good in all people and in all of life. Unity believes that to see God as a physical being up in the heavens seeks to limit God. God is Spirit, everywhere present, the one and only Spirit behind, in, and through all things, visible and invisible. God is seen as having many attributes, but most importantly, that God is Love.
Unity absolutely believes in the divinity of Jesus Christ. When we refer to Jesus the Christ, we are intentionally acknowledging that Jesus the man perfectly understood his divine nature, fully demonstrated his divine potential, and completely fulfilled his divine purpose on this earth… his Christ consciousness. We also believe, literally, what Jesus said in John 14:12, “Those who believe in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact, will do greater works than these…” This is our assurance that we, too, are children of God and also have the potential for that divinity which Jesus attained.
We believe there is only one Power and one Presence working in the universe and in our lives, and that Power and Presence is God the Good — Omnipotent (all Power); Omniscient (all Wisdom); Omnipresent (all Present). Unity is grounded in prayer, meditation, spiritual education and service. The Bible is our fundamental spiritual textbook. We teach that from Genesis through Revelations, the Bible is the story of each soul’s own spiritual development. Unity seeks to relate spirituality to our daily needs, affirming that for every need, there is God’s perfect answer.
Unity emphasizes the divine potential within each person. We believe through a practical understanding and application of what Jesus taught, everyone has the ability to realize and express his or her own divine potential for a happy, healthy, fulfilled, prosperous and successful life.
Unity believes in prayer, not as a technique for pleading with or changing God, but as a way to expand and transform ourselves. Rather than asking God to change a circumstance or a person or anything we perceive as “wrong,” we ask God to have us see the situation differently, and to help us find the good. Much emphasis is placed on the effective power every thought, feeling, word and deed has upon our lives. We believe the action of our minds affects our bodies and all circumstances of our life. Modern books and films, like What the Bleep Do We Know? and The Secret, along with ideas found in the Law of Mind Action (often called The Law of Attraction), have popularized what has been taught in Unity since its inception in the early 1890s.
“Unity is a nondenominational spiritual organization of worldwide scope. It has no creed or dogma and attempts to lead all people, regardless of organizational barriers of theological differences, to a new personal experience of spiritual unity with God and with one another. Unity emphasizes that God is in each individual and through prayer and meditation each person can find God for himself.” — Rev. Ken Michah Murdock, D.D.
“Unity is a Way of Life! It’s a way of thinking: optimistic. It’s a way of praying: positive. It is a way of seeing the world: full of God. It’s a way of believing in the overriding goodness of oneself, one’s fellowman, and God. It’s a way of trusting one’s own God-given powers to discern right and wrong, light and darkness, strength and weakness.
“It is true that the world and the human experience will always be full of change. It is true that no one of us has a crystal ball in which to read our future. But with God as our foundation and prayer as our sustenance, we can move forward with joy, optimism and excitement to meet whatever the future holds. Those of us who know this Truth are very blessed, for in the words of Jesus, our Way-Shower, this Truth will make us free.” — Connie Fillmore, former President Unity School of Christianity and granddaughter of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, co-founders of Unity