Unity Church

I was a member of the Unity Church of Little Rock from 1973 to 1982.

My dad was quite the reader of religious and faith related books. In the early 70's he read a lot of Emmett Fox. Some of Emmett Fox's books were published by the Unity School of Christianity.
Unity publishes The Daily Word which is similar to the Methodist Upper Room.

Dad decided to look up Unity in the phone book and discovered that there was a Unity Church in Little Rock. When we began visiting the Unity Church I was so moved by the focus on Love and Positive Affirmations and prayer and meditation that it was only after a few visits that I joined. The rest of the family joined the Unity Church over the next few months.

Unity was very much where I needed to be at the time. As opposed to being told how terrible and miserable I was, I was told that I was created in the image of Christ and that I needed to work on realizing the "Christ in me". LCMS spent so much time teaching about how much we needed Christ to die on the cross that one began to feel personally responsible for Christ's crucifixion. I also got the childhood impression that if I sinned the least little sin died before I could ask for forgiveness I would go straight to hell. The Unity Church also included a meditation as a part of every worship service.

Unity was an important part of my spiritual development. They taught me to meditate and gave me the ability to pray in a more friendly and positive manner. They also gave me the opportunity to develop leadership skills. At that time the Unity Church in LR had very few children & youth. I was then able to participate in adult classes and even teach occasionally.
Unity also taught me to tithe.

Unity would not be for me now, but I think that they are a pretty good place to pass through for people that have been trapped by the image of a mean & angry God or that have low self esteem.

Unity is also where I discovered inclusive language. Way back in 1973 I heard a prayer that began "Father-Mother God". My mother almost had a cow and I thought it was really neat. They also had adapted a lot of the words to hymns. Their version of Amazing Grace had the change "saved a soul like me" instead of "waved a wretch like me". I prefer the wretch now that I have a fuller understanding of the hymn but that was a time when I didn't need to be a wretch.

Unity was a necessary part of my path to becoming a Methodist. Unity exposed me to a theology of love, female clergy and a more contemporary worship. The Unity church was also multi-ethnic in a time when most people were still fairly uncomfortable with whites & blacks attending the same school or church. (yes, I know there are still people like that.)

I now have some distinct issues with the Unity Church but I fully support their particular mission.

Good Things about UNITY:
Strong Healing Ministry
Positive Thinking
Teaches meditation
Prayer
Open Minded
Progressive

Things about UNITY that don't work for me:
Non-sacramental: No Communion - No water involved in Baptism.
A little to much "prosperity gospel"
Non-Liturgical
Very New-Age

I don't know about now, but at the time a large percentage of the members of the Unity church only stuck around for a few years. Many used Unity as a recovery center from fundamentalism. Some used it as an introduction to easy Christianity. A lot of the people I knew from the church eventually ended up in Methodist Churches.

Little Rock now has 2 Unity churches, the larger one was where I was a member. The smaller Unity church rents space from a UMC church.