SO WHAT IS UNITY?: AN ONGOING QUESTION
The question— What is Unity? — was being asked before I was born, and I believe that it will continue to be asked long after I make my transition.
This question seems to flare up every once in a while, almost like Haley’s comet coming near the Earth every once in a while. Mark Twain said that he was born the year Haley’s comet appeared in the night sky (1835), and he predicted that he would die the year Haleys comet came around again (1910). Twain’s prediction proved to be correct.
The creation of Unity’s Five Basic Principles was an attempt to define what Unity is. But many felt a need to have, in essence, a handy-dandy one line answer to the question: “What is Unity?”
When you get to one-liners it seems that you are almost trying to reach for a so-called “tag line.” In marketing a product a good “tag line” is worth its weight in gold. Before the call to ministry, I headed up market research for United Way for many years. I can’t tell you how many surveys and focus groups we conducted to come up with a new United Way “tag line” (which was— and still is— “Live United”).
When looking at the question “What is Unity?” are we dealing with theology and metaphysics, or are we dealing with marketing strategies? Well, my take is that we are in effect dealing with both theology/metaphysics and marketing at the same time.
So why has this question recently raised its head again within in the Unity movement? To answer this question I need to go into some Unity organizational structure issues.
There are two— and not one – – central organizations in the Unity movement. There is Unity World Headquarters (UWH) which owns Unity Village outside of Kansas City. The Daily Word, the prayer ministry, Unity Books, Unity Magazine, and many retreats and seminars fall into UWH’s bailiwick.
However, there is also Unity Worldwide Ministries (UWM) which is responsible for the teaching and ordination of ministers and providing a wide range of services to Unity churches around the world.
“Why does there exist two different central organizations?” That is a good question. Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, the cofounders of the Unity Movement, were not really interested in founding a new denomination. What they were interested in was having an educational center which taught key New Thought spiritual principles.
However, as the Unity Movement grew by leaps and bounds there arose what were numerous de facto Unity churches. These spiritual centers felt that they needed a wide range of services that UWH was not providing. So UWM was created.
Over the years, there of been several attempts to merge these two organizations into one. But this had not happened yet, and I don’t expect that it will happen in the near future.
For many years UWH was known as the Unity School of Christianity. Unity leadership tended to see Unity as a progressive branch of Christianity. Also, almost all of Unity’s leaders and teachers said that they honored all paths that lead to enlightenment and the truths in all of the great religions.
But then a few years ago UWH, with some support from UWM, conducted detailed marketing studies. The results of these efforts was to come up with a new marketing strategy, tag line, logo, branding etc. This new strategy emphasized such things as: “a path for spiritual living”; “spiritual, but not religious”; and a logo that is very different from traditional Christian iconography.
To simplify a bit, there have been at least two different wings in the Unity movement for many years:
— The first wing emphasizes the Christian/Jesus side of the Fillmore's life and teachings. Yes, it always was a progressive form of Christianity, but it was Christianity, this wing says.
—The second wing emphasizes the inter-faith side of the Fillmore's life and teachings. Yes, our roots are Christian, but we have progressed beyond just Christianity, this wing believes.
Rev. Shad Groveland
For some the shift in marketing and branding, was seen as a nod to the second wing. However, the current president of UWM, Rev. Shad Groveland, has been holding workshops around the country on— what he calls— “focused ministry.” I attended one of these workshops at Unity of Charlottesville.
In essence, Rev. Shad believes that Unity churches cannot be all things to all people. We need to focus on what we do well and on our core constituents, he insists. We also should not “run away” from our progressive and metaphysical Christian roots, he adds.
Needless to say there has been some heated responses to Rev. Shad’s position within the Unity movement. For example, some of this came out at the last UWM convention held in June 2023.
Meanwhile UWH has let it be known that it is not changing its emphasis on “a path for spiritual living,” etc. marketing and branding. I don’t see UWH changing on this.
At Unity of the Seven Hills, we have gone in an opposite direction from several of the proposals Rev. Shad has made. Rev. Shad has advocated that Unity churches stop live streaming and archiving their Sunday services. At U7H we have made the decision to improve and upgrade our live streaming and archiving of our Sunday services. We have found that this is a very positive service and marketing tool for U7H.
Rev. Shad has also advocated that Unity churches either stop or let their youth and family ministries program contract. At U7H we have decided to emphasize and invest in our youth and family ministry program. In the last year, we have seen strong growth in our youth and family ministry program.
In some other ways U7H has followed Rev. Shad’s advice. In many of our services and classes there has been an emphasis on progressive Christianity. But U7H has also held classes and services that have emphasized some of the classics of Eastern Spirituality— and we have held several kirtans, sound baths, etc.
Well, in light of the above, UWM recently sponsored a Zoom meeting that had an attendance of over 500 people. Many people there were Unity ministers and licensed Unity teachers. But there were also many board members and other leaders from Unity centers around the country and world.
There were discussions and breakout groups during this meeting. But there were also votes on several questions during the meeting. Let me say up front as an old market researcher that I think the wording of the questions could have been a lot better. But for what it is worth, here are the questions and the numerical results:
1) Is UWM New Thought?:
Yes: 92%
No: 8%
2) Is UWM Christian?
Yes: 56%
No: 44%
3) Is UWM Metaphysical Christianity?
Yes: 80%
No: 20%
4) Is UWM Practical Christianity?
Yes: 76%
No: 24%
5) Is UWM a denomination?
Yes: 32%
No. 68%
6) Is UWM non-denominational?
Yes: 69%
No: 32%
I think the results from this polling (particularly in the second question) indicate that both wings in the Unity movement have many supporters. I would suggest that we find meaningful and creative ways that both wings can feel at home in the Unity Movement. I believe that this is possible and the Unity movement can remain a “big tent.”
Right now we are seeing several major religious denominations in the middle of civil wars that are pulling their denominations apart. This is happening in the Methodist, Baptist, and Episcopalian/Anglican churches. It would be a tragedy to see the Unity movement added to this list.
Toward the end of his career, Sigmund Freud said that he felt he needed to add a second primary driving instinct to his model of the human psyche. Sex, of course, had been the one primary driver in the Freudian system. But in his later years, Freud added a second primary driver, and he called the second primary driver the Death instinct.
I have always looked at Freud’s so-called Death Instinct as sheer nonsense. But when I look at the recent behavior within several major religious denominations, I have at times said to myself, “Maybe Freud was right?”
But then I think of the wonderful teachings of Myrtle Fillmore, who taught us to “look beyond appearances.” I have faith that Unity will follow the wisdom of God: “Choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).
