Welcome Home to Unity!
Spiritual seekers often say that finding Unity is like coming home. Unity is an open-minded, accepting spiritual community that honors all paths to God and helps people discover and live their spiritual potential and purpose.
What is Unity?
Unity is a positive, practical, progressive approach to Christianity based on the teachings of Jesus and the power of prayer. Unity honors the universal truths in all religions and respects each individual’s right to choose a spiritual path.
The Unity movement was founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889 as a healing ministry based on the power of prayer and the power of our thoughts to create our own reality. The Fillmores regarded Jesus as the great example rather than the great exception; interpreted the Bible metaphysically; and taught that God is present within all of us.
Today Unity Worldwide Ministries is a worldwide network of ministries providing practical teachings to help people live healthy, prosperous and meaningful lives. Unity is a positive path for spiritual living.
Unity of Buffalo is one of the hundreds of established spiritual communities of study 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 teach the effective daily application of the principles of Truth as taught and exemplified by Jesus Christ.
What does Unity teach?
We encourage you to explore and apply Unity teachings based on your own spiritual understanding. We believe this spiritual understanding is enhanced through reflective prayer and meditation. The five basic ideas that make up the Unity belief system are:
• 1. God is the source and creator of all. There is no other enduring power. God is good and present everywhere.
• 2. We are spiritual beings, created in God’s image. The spirit of God lives within each person; therefore, all people are inherently good.
• 3. We create our life experiences through our way of thinking.
• 4. There is power in affirmative prayer, which we believe increases our awareness of God.
• 5. Knowledge of these spiritual principles is not enough. We must live them.
What does Unity stand for in the world?
Honoring Diversity Within the Unity Movement –
We believe that all people are created with sacred worth. Therefore, we recognize the importance of serving all people within the Unity family in spiritually and emotionally caring ways. We strive for our ministries, publications and programs to reach out to all who seek Unity support and spiritual growth. It is imperative that our ministries and outreach be free of discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, age, creed, religion, national origin, ethnicity, physical disability, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation. Our sincere desire is to ensure that all Unity organizations are nondiscriminatory and support diversity.
In our effort to reach out to all people as did our Way Shower, Jesus Christ, we support the modification of our facilities to make them accessible to all people, regardless of physical challenges; the translation of our materials into braille and other languages; and respect for the wonderful variety of human commitments and relationships.
We encourage ministers, teachers and others within Unity to honor the strength of diversity within their spiritual communities. It is with love and in celebration of our unity, in the midst of our wondrous diversity, that we affirm this position.
Statement for Peace –
Unity stands for peace in the presence of conflict; for love in the presence of hatred; for forgiveness in the presence of injury. Unity honors the many names for God, the many paths to God, the many ways to worship God; for there is only one power and presence of God and that God loves each of us equally. It is therefore the position of the International Association of Unity Churches and Unity to urge all nations, their leaders, and their people to turn to God by whatever name for guidance during these challenging times and pursue peace, not war, for this is what honors the God of all our faith traditions. Unity stands for peace in our lifetime.