A look at the Unity faith
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By BOB REEVES/Lincoln Journal Star
In the mid-1880s, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, who lived in Kansas City, attended a lecture by a medical doctor who believed in metaphysical healing.
Myrtle Fillmore, who suffered from a number of ailments, left the hall repeating the words, “I am a child of God, and therefore I do not inherit sickness.”
She went home, threw away her medicines and began praying for healing. Soon she was restored to good health.
Charles Fillmore began studying the reasons for his wife’s healing. He sat in silence every evening seeking communication with God. Nothing happened during those sessions, but he started having very realistic dreams.
“I watched my dreams closely and found that there was a wider intelligence manifesting in my sleep than I seemed to possess in the waking state,” he wrote. “It flashed over me one day that this was the mode of communication that had been established in response to my desire for information from headquarters.”
By headquarters, he was referring to “omniscient God, who is Spirit and accessible to everyone.”
In 1889 the Fillmores launched “Modern Thought,” a journal of what they termed metaphysical philosophy. Myrtle Fillmore started the Society of Silent Help, which became Silent Unity in 1891.
They chose the word Unity because of their belief that “all human beings are children of one creator and that we are spiritually united with God and with all people everywhere,” according to Charles R. Fillmore, the son of the movement’s founders.
Not seeking to establish a new denomination, the Fillmores founded the Unity School of Practical Christianity. The word “practical” referred to their desire to put Jesus’ teachings into practice in everyday life.
Their goal was to teach a “metaphysical” approach to understanding Scripture, which could be used in any Christian church and even by non-Christians.
Prayer is a central part of Unity practice. Unity practitioners see prayer as “a method of attunement to divine wisdom through proper preparation and receptivity,” Charles R. Fillmore wrote in a 1989 centennial history.
The movement is related to Christian Science, said the Rev. Carole Lunde, minister of Lincoln’s Christ Unity Church. The Fillmores were ordained by Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, but went their own way.
Like Christian Science, Unity practitioners believe that illness is not part of spiritual reality and can be overcome through prayer. Unity members don’t refuse medical treatment, but they believe in the power of prayer and right thinking to create health, Lunde said.
“If someone comes to me sneezing, I tell them I don’t believe in contagion,” she said. “I know that if your mind is on track, you won’t get sick. If you’re healed, you go to the doctor to prove it to yourself. God works through doctors. I tell people, ‘When you have to go to the hospital, don’t forget to pray for everybody there — the other patients, doctors, nurses, everybody.’”
Lunde was a divorced mother with two children working at an airplane dealership in Michigan when she began attending a church of religious science related to Unity. The minister told her, “You’re not a victim of your life, you’re intended to be the hero of your life,” she said.
She went on to study the principles of Unity, and in 1986 became a Unity minister. She served churches in Columbia, Mo., and San Jose, Calif., before coming to Lincoln in the fall of 2004. She also made two visits to Russia as a spiritual teacher, before and just after the fall of the Soviet Union. She received the Susan N. Krauss award from Global Family of Marin, Calif., for her work with global peace.
Lunde also has worked at Silent Unity at the movement’s headquarters in Unity Village, near Lee’s Summit, Mo. Silent Unity receives 4,000 phone calls a day, which are answered by people who work in eight-hour shifts 24 hours each day. People call with all sorts of personal prayer requests. The service offers no advice or counseling, but rather a listening ear and affirmation of spiritual truth, Lunde explained.
Unity also publishes “Daily Word,” a booklet with a daily affirmation, a short devotional passage and a Bible quote.
The “Daily Word” reading for today (May 3, 2008) begins with the affirmation, “I gratefully receive the gift of God’s grace,” followed a meditation on being open to God’s “mercy, love and gentleness.” It ends with a quote from Ephesians 2:10: “We are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works.”
Christ Unity, 135 N. 31st St., is a small congregation — fewer than 50 members — but it has a loving, family atmosphere, Lunde said. It’s one of about 1,000 congregations in the Unity Association of Churches, which includes churches across the United States and in some other countries.
There are two Unity churches in Omaha and a Unity study group in Grand Island, Lunde said.
The Lincoln church has a weekly worship service at 10:30 a.m. Sunday, plus an adult class at 9 a.m.; Sunday school for children and Youth of Unity for teens meets at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Services are televised on Time Warner Cable Channel 13 at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The church also sponsors “Dial-a-Prayer.” Anyone may call 476-7172 to hear a short reading, with “ideas for spiritual living as well as uplifting prayer,” Lunde said.
To learn more about Unity, visit www.unityonline.org. To call Silent Unity, dial (800) 669-7729.
To subscribe to Daily Word, visit www.dailyword.com or call (800) 969-2069.
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.
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