How Did Unity Start?

 "Unity is a link in the great educational movement inaugurated by Jesus Christ; our objective is to discern the truth in Christianity and prove it.  The truth that we teach is not new, neither do we claim special revelations, or discovery of new religious principles.  Out purpose is to help teach humankind to use and prove the eternal truth taught by the Master."

Many people have little idea what Unity is.  They may have read Daily Word or called or written to Silent Unity for prayer, but they do not know what Unity is.  They do not go to Unity churches; they may not even know that such churches exist.  They are members of other churches or of no church.  But they find that Unity ideas help them meet their problems and live more effective lives.

Unity is a religious movement that began over a century ago.  I suppose it has to be defined as a church, though it is a very different kind of church.  It is a teaching rather than a creed, and this teaching crosses denominational lines.  It does not require students to become members or subscribe to a fixed set of beliefs.  Those who become interested usually refer to themselves as Unity students or Truth students.

In the 1880s Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, co-founders of Unity began to work with some new ideas about life that they had found.  Charles had a withered leg; Myrtle had tuberculosis.  But in a short time, she was healed, and his health was so much improved that other people, seeing the changes in them, were drawn to them to find out how they, too, could change.

The Fillmores had no thought of starting a new religion; they just wanted to help themselves and others who turned to them for help.  In 1889 they began to publish a little magazine called "Modern Thought", which a few years later they renamed "Unity".  In this magazine, they represented the ideas that had helped them heal themselves and find peace and strength.  These are ideas are simple.

God is good.

God is available; in fact, God is in you.

If God is good, God's will is good.  It is impossible to believe that a good God - a God who is love and intelligence - could have made you in any other way except to be healthy, happy, prosperous, loved and loving, courageous and strong.  If you are not healthy and happy, it can only be because you have separated yourself in mind from God - the only place you can separate yourself from God and God's good.

You have only to reunite in mind with God and your life is certain to be full and fulfilling.  You do this best by getting still and realizing your oneness with God.  Every thought, negative or positive, comes one at a time to the door of your conscious mind; there you let it in or turn it away.  To have a good life, you have to learn to say no to the negative thoughts that deny your oneness with God's good and say yes to the positive thoughts that affirm your oneness with God's good.

Unity feels that its teaching is a return to the religious ideas that Jesus Christ had, and at one time the movement called itself primitive Christianity.  Today it is more likely to refer to itself as practical Christianity.  However, Unity shuts no one out; many who are not Christians read our literature, join us in prayer, and even attend Unity churches.

Unity has grown almost entirely because individuals who have been helped by its ideas have told others needing help about it, sent them a subscription to Daily Word (more people have been introduced to Unity ideas through a gift of Daily Word than any other way), or suggested that they call Silent Unity.

Unity sets as its official beginning the publication of the magazine Modern Thought in 1889.  This is probably why Unity is such a different kind of religion.  Unity has been an interesting religious phenomenon, a religion that has spread throughout the world with no missionaries except magazines and other literature, cassettes, and the letters from Silent Unity.  Today Unity has ministers and teachers in many cities and many countries.  They are there because people in those cities and countries read the literature and became so interested and excited about it that they insisted on forming groups to study Unity and sending individuals to Unity School to prepare themselves to return and teach the principles.