Adapted from the writings of James Dillet Freeman*
People often ask, “Is Unity a church?” I usually answer, “What is a church?”
Unity is a church, but a new and different kind of church. It has teachings, but not a creed. Above all, Unity emphasizes the belief that God is within you. You have a divine potential. Unity does not demand that you subscribe to a creed. Unity does not ask whether you are a member of some particular religious organization. Unity does not require you to perform certain rites and practices. In all these matters, it leaves you free.
Perhaps the essence of Unity’s meaning as a new and different kind of church is in its name: ”UNITY.” This name leaves no one out.
*Rev. James Dillet Freeman (1912 – April 9, 2003), a poet and Unity minister, was the Unity Movement’s poet laureate. He was sometimes referred to as the “poet laureate to the moon” because his poems were twice taken to the moon. His 1941 “Prayer for Protection” was taken aboard Apollo 11 in July 1969 by Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin, and a microfilm of Freeman’s 1947 “I Am There” was left on the moon by James B. Irwin on Apollo 15. Though the essay above was written by Freeman many years ago, it remains a wonderful and relevant description of what we call Unity.
