Unity

Mary Caroline "Myrtle" Page Fillmore (1845 - 1931) was co-founder of Unity, a church within the New Thought movement, along with her husband Charles Fillmore (1854 – 1948).
Born on a Chippewa Indian reservation in northern Minnesota, Fillmore grew up in an Indian territory in conflict, with Chippewa, Sioux, and whites all contesting for the land. Besides being a farmer, his father worked as an Indian agent, and from early on that fact must have translated into as much intimacy with Indian culture as a white in a frontier locale could normally expect to acquire. Still more, according to Fillmore's report, when he was six and alone with his mother at the trading post his family operated, a roaming band of Sioux came and spirited him away. The kidnapping did not last a day, for a few hours later the child was returned unharmed.(Some websites report some kind of ceremony was done with him which could be either real or fantasy to him at the time but evidently no one has ever asked the Sioux if their ancestors rode around kidnapping children and doing ceremonies with them.) By 1889 and to beginning years of the Unity movement, Fillmore could confide to readers of his new journal Modem Thought that he had spent twenty years in the ranks of "progressive Spiritualists.

Early in 1890 Emma Curtis Hopkins went to Kansa City to personally teach a class. Myrtle and Charles Fillmore were in attendance. They had both been studying Christian Science since Myrtle’s encounter with Dr. E.B. Weeks four years earlier, in 1886, and her remarkable recovery from TB. She had left the lecture remembering and frequently repeating a phrase used by Weeks, "I am a child of God and therefore do not inherit sickness."As Myrtle Fillmore improved her skeptical husband began to study New Thought occult subjects. Her health improved by 1888.

By now Charles Fillmore was editor of the metaphysical/esoterical newsletter “Modern Thought”. As he wrote: “Since listening to Mrs. Hopkins’ exposition...we now see that the basic statements of Christian Science form the epitome of the basic statements of Christian religious teachings of the past.” It was through Hopkins that the Filllmores were introduced to Annie Militz and H. Emile Cady. A close bond formed between the Fillmores and Hopkins. And Hopkins made frequent trips to Kansas during the 1890’s.By the time the Charles and Myrtle attended Hopkins classes in Chicago Charles had discarded all forms of the occult – spiritualism,, palmistry, astrology, and others – embracing the singularity of Christian Healing.[ Self-help and popular religion in early American culture: an interpretive guide By Roy M. Anker[1999]

The Fillmore's became students of Emma Curtis Hopkins and were ordained in 1891 along with Annie Rix Militz.

Of Emma Curtis Hopkins, Charles Fillmore said:

"She is undoubtedly the most successful teacher in the world.
In many instances those who enter her classes confirmed invalids come out at the end of the course perfectly well.

Her very presence heals and those who listen are filled with new life.
Never before on this planet have such words of burning Truth been so eloquently spoken through a women."

Unity: http://www.unity.org/

In 1923 the first annual Unity convention was held. Attended by most Unity teachers and healers, it led to a growing awareness that all manners of teachings were occurring in the field. Concerned about occult and spiritualist ideas being offered in Unity's name, at the third annual meeting in 1925, a Unity Annual Conference was formed to govern teaching and regulate leaders of local Unity groups.

"Let no sleep fall upon thy eyes till thou hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day.
Where have I turned aside from rectitude?
What have I been doing?
What have I left undone, which I ought to have done?
Begin thus from the first act, and proceed; and, in conclusion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good."
~Buddha

Dedication and Covenant.

We, Charles Fillmore and Myrtle Fillmore, husband and wife, hereby dedicate ourselves, our time, our money, all we have and all we expect to have, to the Spirit of Truth, and through it, to the Society of Silent Unity.

It being understood and agreed that the Said Spirit of Truth shall render unto us an equivalent for this dedication, in peace of mind, health of body, wisdom, understanding, love, life, and an abundant supply of all things necessary to meet every want without making any of these things the object of our existence.

In the presence of the Conscious Mind of Christ Jesus, this 7th day of December A.D. 1892.

    (signed)

    Charles Fillmore

    Myrtle Fillmore

As Charles Braden goes on to explained in his book, Spirits in Rebellion: The Rise and Development of New Thought, .”Unity has never put a price upon its services other than a nominal one, because of legal necessity, on its publications.Unity has given freely, and yet there seems always to be money available to meet any obvious need..