One of the questions most often asked of Unity is, "What is Unity?" We find that trying to answer this question meaningfully is an interesting challenge.

Unity Can Make Life an Adventure
We believe that Unity can make one's life an adventure because Unity arouses interest in our spiritual nature. It whets our desire to find out what our true relationship with God is. It poses questions to which we must seek understandable answers.

Unity tells us that our minds are our connecting links with God, and that if we are to control our spiritual growth and unfoldment, we must control our thinking. Such statements are highly motivating to that part of the intellect that seeks answers.

God Works for Good
In this world of seeming turmoil, conflict, and unrest, Unity affirms the bold statement: "We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28). To some, this may sound implausible, but it certainly makes one curious to find out the basis on which such a statement can be made.

Religious Growth Is a "Do-it-yourself Project"
Unity says that other spiritually illumined people -- ministers, priests or religious teachers -- can help one get started on the right path for finding God, but ultimately each person must find God individually. In other words, Unity says true religious growth is a "do-it-yourself project." Others can help you find a beginning: books and lessons can get you started by pointing you in the right direction, but if you truly want to know God, you must become acquainted with God yourself.

Unity Believes There is Good in Every Religion
Unity does not emphasize formal membership and has never been preoccupied with gaining converts merely for the sake of numbers. In fact, Unity says that one can subscribe to its teachings and still retain membership in any other church. Unity's viewpoint is that there need be no conflict of religious beliefs. Unity believes that there is good in every religion and that we should keep our minds open so that we may find that good when the opportunity is presented. In keeping with this attitude, people of various religions the world over find good in the practical Christian principles taught and promulgated by Unity. Unity has no strict creed or dogma. One might describe Unity as a religious philosophy with an "open end," seeking to find God's truth in all of life, wherever it may be.

What Do We Believe?
God gave us freedom of choice. Unfortunately, we have used this freedom to bind ourselves in chains of ignorance. As individuals, we have thrown up walls of self-incrimination and guilt in our consciousness, thus cutting ourselves off from the abundant good that God has in store for us. Collectively, people have built up false beliefs about sin, sickness, and death, causing us to lose sight of the true meaning of life, which is that we are all children of God. As such, it is our privilege, in fact our very mission, to be heirs to God's kingdom.

Unity tells us that the number and seriousness of our past mistakes do not matter to God. God holds no grudges and has no account book. For those of us who have gone astray, who have wandered down the wrong pathway, Unity says that there is no depth to which we can sink where God cannot find us, that God is ever ready to give us a helping hand if we sincerely wish to be lifted up.

"The Law of Giving and Receiving"
Unity teaches us that there is a divine law of prosperity, by means of which we can avail ourselves of the riches of the kingdom of heaven. By getting in rhythm with "the law of giving and receiving," as it is often called, we can demonstrate unlimited supply to meet all our needs. The secret is that we must learn to become open, receptive, responsive, and obedient to the law so that we make ourselve channels for the inflow and outflow of God's good.

Uniity assures us that if just one person has learned the secret of successful living, then anyone can, because "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34 KJV).

Unity is an adventure because it teaches us how to pray affirmatively. Our prayer ministry, Silent Unity, has been answering requests for prayer from all over the world since 1890. A group of dedicated people is in prayer 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Have they learned how to help other people pray? I wish you could see the thousands of testimonials Silent Unity receives!

Affirmative Prayer
Prayer in its purest form is simple. It is a matter of concentrating one's entire intellect on God, affirming a positive statement of truth, meditating on divine principle, and finally turning within one's own being in a wonderful time of quiet that Unity calls "the silence," wherein one becomes receptive to the "still, small voice" of God.

Finally, Unity is an adventure because it brings God and heaven right down to the here and now and makes God available as a full-time partner in our daily living.

Even in this space age, we have a tendency to visualize God on a golden throne, in a heaven with pearly gates, somewhere off in "the far beyond." In times of trouble, some of us still pray to a great man with long, white whiskers. We often betray our belief in an anthropomorphic God when a seeming miracle happens in life, and say, "I owe it all to the man upstairs," or "Somebody up there must love me!"

Today, leading theologians realize that we must expand our thinking where God is concerned if we are to keep the findings of science and religion compatible. Unity says that "heaven can't wait." Too many people are putting heaven off until sometime in the future. But it can't wait. It is around and about us here and now, pressing in upon us, waiting for us to acknowledge and accept it. Each of us is a unique, spiritual creation, a divine original with his or her own special God-given spark, capable of becoming a channel for God's love to pour forth into the world. That is God's plan. It is up to us to get into harmony with it.

God Is Our Full-time Partner
Yes, life can be a thrilling adventure. Unity helps us on this magnificent journey by arousing our curiosity about our spiritual nature, by telling us how to be open and receptive to our good, by helping us learn to pray successfully, and making God a full-time partner in our living.