What is Unity?

Question: What is Unity?
Answer: Unity is positive, practical Christianity. We teach the effective daily application of the principles of Truth taught and exemplified by Jesus Christ.
We promote a way of life that leads to health, prosperity, happiness, and peace of mind. Unity has established centers of study and worship throughout the world where people discover and practice the Unity way of life. We address physical, mental, and emotional needs through affirmative prayer and spiritual education. We serve those who seek inspiration and prayer support as well as those who use Unity teachings as their primary path of spiritual growth.
We believe that all people are created with sacred worth, and we strive to reach out to all who seek support and spiritual growth. Therefore, we recognize the importance of serving all people in spiritually and emotionally caring ways. Our ministries and outreaches are free of discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age, creed, religion, national origin, ethnicity, physical disability, and sexual orientation. Our sincere desire is to create spiritually aware organizations that are nondiscriminatory and support diversity.

Question: Does Unity believe in the Divinity of Jesus Christ?
Answer: Yes, Unity was founded on a belief in the the divinity of Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus was the revelation of God to us as God relates to the human family. We also teach that although we are not equal to Jesus, the same spirit of God lives in us. We believe that every person, no matter the level of his or her awareness and understanding, has the same spark of divinity within. That gives every soul the potential to express the perfection of the Christ.

Question: What is the role of the Bible in Unity?
Answer: The Bible is Unity’s basic text book. We do not teach its inerrancy but examine it in the light of its language, culture and time. We also examine it in three ways, for its psychological implication, its literal application and its metaphorical meaning to soul development. Scripture comes alive when it is understood in application to our daily experiences.

Question: Is there any connection between Unity and Unitarianism?
Answer: No, there is no connection, although there is sometimes confusion because of the similarity of the names. Each is a distinct organization with its own set of beliefs and practices.

Question: Is Unity an offshoot of Christian Science?
Answer: No. However, our founders, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, thoughtfully studied many spiritual paths before they jointly decided that the way of Jesus Christ was the Unity Path. After much prayer, trial and practice, and seeking spiritual guidance, they were guided into what became the Unity Way of practicing the spiritual principles of Jesus in spiritual healing and in soul development . The application of principles, the methods of teaching, the emphasis on personal revelation from Spirit, the use of medical treatment, and the organization of the two movements are quite different. Unity’s has always both permitted and encouraged the use of medical services. For healing needs, Mr. Fillmores’ primary statement was, “First to God and then to man as God directs.”

Question: Does Unity offer Communion?
Answer: Yes, from the beginning Unity has offered communion. In the beginning, communion was celebrated as a spiritual process including forgiveness, denial and affirmation in a service designed to focus on our relationship with God. The elements were not included. Today many churches also offer the traditional “Lord’s Supper" with the elements to heighten its members' awareness of their relationship of oneness with God. Unity of Austin offers communion on a regular basis. The bread signifies the spiritual substance of God which provides all our needs and the wine/water symbolizes our spiritual life force. Our purpose in communion is to strengthen our relationship with God by following Jesus’ directions to remember him in doing so. 

Question: Is Unity Considered "New Age"?
Answer: Unity does not identify itself with New Age, which is the name given to a broad range of open-minded explorations, techniques and beliefs which began in the 1960s. The fundamental principles of Unity began to be identified and explored with prayerful spiritual guidance given to the Co-founders, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. Unity’s first publication was a magazine called Modern Thought published in 1889 to offer a way of looking beyond the appearance of things to the reality of spirit beyond .

Question: Does Unity believe in prayer?
Answer: Certainly Unity believes in the power of prayer. We stand on the scripture, that ”the prayer of faith will heal the sick” and “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful.” We do not believe that prayer changes God nor do we have to beg God for mercy or for the fulfillment of our needs. Instead we believe that prayer changes us and also the circumstances of life experience. As we pray, we unite with God in accepting and yielding to His will for us which is always for our good, and the circumstances of our lives change to reflect God’s great love and provision for us. Jesus asked us to pray believing that what we seek is ours already by the power of God’s will. Unity calls that affirmative prayer.

To learn more about our church’s prayer ministry, click here.