Unity on Greenville

This Sunday, I went to Unity on Greenville—a Unitarian “church”. Unlike all the other denominations, which all had a “churchy” feel to them, there was no such thing at Unity, even though it was held in a church building.

           

            The church service consisted of lots of recitations and readings from things that were not Scripture. They had positive affirmations, such as, “I am strong, powerful, and confident.” The lesson was about becoming more spiritual through showing love. And, the “pastor” commented that it was wrong to worship Jesus, since the “divine spark is within all of us.” Before prayer, the leader started the first couple steps of hypnosis, and actually mentioned that they needed to alter their state of consciousness, so they dimmed the lights, and started a few breathing exercises before they started praying.

            The service was full of interesting phrases that orthodox Christians would find discomfort with. For instance, during their greeting they said the Hindu word, namaste (the god in me blesses and honors the god in you), which they used to mean, “The Christ in me blesses and honors the Christ in you.” The phrase, “The Christ in you,” was used throughout—in fact, the bulletin says, “Unity sees the good in all people and blesses the Christ—the Spirit of God—in everyone.” There was a recitation that stated, “There is only on Presence and one Power active as the universe and as my life, God the Good.” The prayers were offered to Mother-Father god (lack of capitalization mine).

           

            The atmosphere was very New-Age feeling. Very inclusive. There were multiple gay couples in the sanctuary; some were discreet, some were more, shall we say, flamboyant? One person looked like she was an old hippie which fit with the general New Age/hippie feel.

            The visit was very informative, but Unity is definitely not the place for me. In fact, I don’t think I would even give them the right to be called a church.