Hi Friends -
By far, the most contentious moment in the history of the Unity movement was the suggestion of Jack Boland, the chair of the Association of Unity Churches, that the AUC acquire some of the assets of the Unity School of Christianity. The Fillmore family and many at Unity were stunned and terribly hurt. It led to several former AUC chairs stepping in and a temporary disruption of Boland's tenure.
This audio file is a partial recording of a meeting with Charles R. Fillmore, James Dillet Freeman, Jack Boland, Michael Murphy and many other prominent leaders in the Unity movement. The parts included in this audio are a response by James ("Jim") Freeman, Jack Boland and Michael Murphy.
We have a proposal today which is is similar, but in reverse. Today's proposal is that UWH (the Unity School of Christianity) acquire UWM (the Association of Unity Churches). While today's proposal is free from the rancor of Boland's 1980 attack, the proposed effect is the same, a transfer of assets from one of Unity's two national organizations to the other.
This audio is important for two essential reasons: (1) to underestand why it is in the best interests of the Unity movement that we have two separate organizations and (2) to understand the damage that occurs when one of our two national organizations begin to meddle in the affairs of the other.
Sunday, October 12, 2025
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TRANSCRIPT
James ("Jim") Dillet Freeman
As good Unity School brings success to the churches, of course it does, but there isn't anybody in this room who sits here and really analyzes how Unity has grown, who doesn't know that primarily it grew through the activities of Unity School and still is growing that way, primarily and basically. That it grows really more than any other factor was the invention of a little thing called Daily Word. It's been tremendously appealing. We've got 2 million subscribers or almost, 1,000,800 thousand, something like that at the present moment. Tremendously appealing to people everywhere and people of every religion, Catholic nuns and priests take our magazines. Jews take our magazines. I used to swear that we could have no appeal to Muslims because they're a very ingrained out there, but I have seen letters from Muslims. I don't know how they do it. Because they're very exclusive folks, but we have gotten letters from them and that's the way it's grown, silent unity.
And that's why we have some 2 million people that we have some kind of contact with. A lot of people, when as I tell you and I say it again, we've had enemies. Do you think this growth has come because those churches have been out there helping us to grow? No. They've done everything they could to hinder us from growing. They know we are a new religion and we are. And we're going to be a tremendous religion. Unity. And the word is unity. And nobody has been more for that unity than I have. From the beginning and always. And I've always believed in it and I want it. But it grows through churches and it grows through Unity School and one helps the other. But they don't have to do this thing together. At least not at this moment. They can't. There's no way they're going to.
Though I hope we can work together as we did and were working together until this wedge was driven between us. And a wedge has been driven, folks. Don't make any doubt about that. A wedge has been driven. I don't know how serious it will be. It depends on what happens with all of us, but as I say, it's grown and the churches help us because people probably originally hear about us through Daily Word or Silent Unity. Some friend tells them to call. Then sooner or later they go to a church. And then if you're any good, and many of you are, yeah, some of you are excellent ministers and I think you have improved a great, great deal from the time when I first knew anything about Unity, which was a long time ago and there weren't even too many of you. I've been in this thing for more than 50 years.
But if you're good, then the person who went to you because of Daily Word or Silent Unity and who hears there's a Unity church here, if you're good, they bring friends or they send Daily Word subscriptions out to somebody, which is the way it grows. Or they ask somebody in trouble to call Silent Unity. And the first thing you know, you got more people going. It's a mutual thing. You help us, we help you. Of course it is. And I hope it will continue to grow that way, but I feel we can grow most healthfully by your growing the way you are growing and let us grow the way we're growing.
Because we are growing, as Charles said, and he's right. We've grown in the last 10 years, oh, tremendously. I don't know how many Daily Word subscriptions we had 10 years ago, but I know it has more than doubled in that time. That's growth. That's great growth. And the people who call Silent Unity, when I first became director of Silent Unity, I think we had about sixty-some thousand people who would call us on the telephone. This last year we had about 560-some thousand who called us on the telephone. Of course we're growing, but we grow healthfully the way we are. Let us continue our inter-denominational thrust and you continue your church thrust. We're not opposed to it. I hope it will work. As I say, I hope someday there's going to be a great universal religion.
Like Charles said there, what was it he called it? The Unity Church Universal. And I hope it'll truly be universal, but it's growing the way it is now and we don't want to change. This thing that was saying we don't want to change now, this thing that was sent to us, as I say, drove a wedge because it was a scurrilous attack on us, no other name for it. It was very scurrilous, very, very unhappy.
We reacted to it. How do you think we would react to it? With hurt and anger. The hurt and anger are still there to some extent. And they've subsided a little because those things usually do. And as I told somebody on the board, I said, "I've already I forgiven you." He told me, he says, "Well, I was a member of your family and I want to still be." And I said, "You were a member of my family and I want you to be. Of course I do."
As far as I'm concerned, the worst thing about this thing as far as I personally am concerned is I say, I've been in this thing all my life and I've been connected with you ministers, I guess as closely as anybody in the whole Unity movement has been. I've taught so many of you, not only taught you, I babied you. I loved you. I did. I talked to you. You came to me with your wives-to-be and your wives-not-to-be, and the whole rest of it, I loved you. And suddenly some of the people that I really loved deeply had done something to me that was a very unfriendly act. They wrote me a very nasty letter saying, in fact, not saying anything but implying, that was worse, maybe if you'd come out and said it would've been a little more acceptable, but you insinuated, you didn't have that courage really to say it because you knew it probably wasn't true.
But you said these things and suddenly I thought at this stage of my connection with Unity, I should be able to spend the rest of my connection with the same intently, deep, close, loving feelings with everybody in it that I've always had. But suddenly I saw a wedge driven into me so that I couldn't be quite as close to these people that I had loved dearly as I had been. I didn't like that. I didn't like it at all and I don't like it because I don't want to have those feelings. I want to love those people. They have been my friends and as I say, I'm making an effort again. But it does take ... Nobody says things about you like that and you just walk off and say, "Well, isn't that sweet?" And they tell you, "Oh, well they didn't mean it. That's just business, Jim." Because that's what some of them told me. "That's just business." And it hurt. It hurt. But I'd like to say one other thing too before I stop.
True, the Fillmores have run Unity schools. Some members of it have always been in charge of Unity School. As long as Charles S. Fillmore was alive, he ran that school. There may have been other members of the board, but he ran the school and there was never any question that he was running that school and after he died and other people were put on the board, I don't know just how, there've been a lot of people on that board besides Fillmores, quite a few. I don't know who they all have been. Barney Ricketts who was treasurer for years and years and I think Retta was on it. May, of course. May was on it from the time Myrtle died. And Retta I believe was on it and Ralph Tackett and several other people, I think Alec and I don't know just who all they were, but they were on it at one time or another.
But it has always been under the domination of one of the Fillmore's. But stop and think. They've done a pretty good job haven't they? They've done a remarkably good job. I feel it has been the greatest fortune that has occurred to Unity, thank God. And this was one of the things we were afraid of from the communications we received both verbal and written, that what some of you people proposed to do was set up some kind of a prime-time religion with one of you as the great centerpiece of this religion. And I say thank God none of the Fillmore's ever wanted to do it because they didn't, none of them. Because if they had, we wouldn't have Unity today folks. We'd have Fillmore. We have Unity. We have a religion that's lasted for 90 years. That's a long time. It could last for another 900, but if it does, it will be Unity.
And I think we can owe the health of those 90 years to the very restrained leadership of the Fillmore's who had control of it and who could have run away with it. And none of them did. Not Charles, not Lowell and not Charles Rickard. They have run it with great thought for the movement as a whole. Well, that's mainly what I wanted to say. I would say one other thing I guess, because I know that there are, since the history of the thing was raised, there is one element of the history about which I know very little and that's the formation of the AUC and how it came into being. But there are some people here, Hal and Eric and I don't know who else, who actually brought this thing into being, and I think maybe they could throw some light on the relationship of Unity School and the Association of Unity Churches.
And I think maybe they'd like to. Now you may or may not want to hear from them, but I do think that they could talk to you perhaps about a phase of this movement, about which I really know very little because I don't happen to ... I was not included in the what negotiations that brought the AUC into being. But as I say, Unity School has prospered and grown. The churches have prospered and grown. Look at you, there's a big group of people here today. Be grateful and let them continue to prosper and grow, helping one another as we have helped one another.
Well, God bless you all.
Jack Boland
Thank you, Jim. Jim mentions that group of very active and dedicated men and women who have been a part of not only the formation of AUC, but the continuing responsibility of its growth. Among that group are the past presidents of the association. Some months ago, Jim Sherman and I were returning from one of the regional meetings and our flights ... I think Jim's flight was canceled or something, and he flew back with me to Detroit to go to Toronto. And as we rode along, we were thinking about that reservoir of talent, energy, dedication and insight that is represented by our past presidents who served on the board and then step into the chair of the president for a period of time. And then as so often as the case, seem to disappear. They don't really disappear. They're out there in their centers doing that, which all of us are dedicated to doing.
We thought it would be just a great idea to have a president's advisory council composed of a group of past presidents, a council that would be not too large and not too small, one that could be large enough to be effective, but not so large as to not be able to get the job done. And we thought about this idea, talked about it at some length. As a matter of fact, I wrote a letter to those of you who are here. There are a number of past presidents here, asking if you would be willing to serve on such a council. I was hoping I would get nine answers back saying yes, because that was the number of people that we decided upon. Actually, we got a few more than that. Now, this letter was written some two and a half, three months ago. I don't just remember when it planet-Wise, but the idea was not that this group would serve necessarily at this time to work with the board to come to the solutions, to the conclusions that we want.
At any rate, a president's advisory council was formed and it consists of Charles Neal as the chairperson. And as I call your names out I'd like you to stand for a moment. Charles Neal. Hal Rosencrans. Charles, are you here? Yes. Hal, are you here? Hal is back here. Mary Kupferle. Is Mary here? Lillian Matthews, Dorothy Pearson, William Fisher, Bill Fisher, Warren Meyer, Ralph Ray and Robert Stevens. Bob Stevens cannot be here this weekend, but he will continue to serve on this council.
And this group flew in here on Friday, thank you, and spent the day with Jim and me and have been very, very effective in working to advise, to make suggestions to us over the weekend. But the long-range goal that we had in mind and will have in mind is that this group will be working to, to in a conceptual way, to see the long-range needs and goals that the AUC has. When the board comes back as we do regularly, so often we're caught up in the immediate needs problems, the work activity that is there, and we need such a group as this. And you have formed now this group of men and women who will be working to implement their ideas, their concepts, and if you have any, go to them and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to receive your input. It's a part of what we are doing in AUC to move us forward into a dynamic season of growth. I think I would like to at this time to ask the board if there are any members of you who would like to speak to the body gathered here now.
Anybody? Michael? Michael Murphy from Hawaii.
Michael Murphy
I want to thank Jim for you sharing and Charles too. Charles and Jim have both been a very important part of my life, and that's why it's a privilege for me to be a part of the board because I'm more than just a member of the board of the Association of Unity Churches. I'm a member of Unity. And I think that this is what we continue to have utmost in our minds when we are making the decisions that we make on the board level. And I know that as we got together in consciousness and in love to share together, to see what we could do to continue to improve and to make AUC a better movement so that Unity would be better, several questions came to the floor that previously had not been presented to us.
Several of course were initiated because the letter that we had received from Unity School and some important questions came to mind. And I think the reason that these questions came to mind is because of the sincere dedication and devotion that each of us experiences, not just for the association but for Unity. And it's very difficult for me, having grown up in Unity, having been a part of all that Unity is, and knowing Charles and Jim and Otto personally and feeling that they are my family, it's hard for me to separate the two. Always they've been very much one to me.
And questions came up. And some of those questions were what would happen if the board that was in charge of Unity happened to ... And I know that it wouldn't happen, but we need to project deeply into the future, what would happen if persons not of the quality of the Fillmore's and people like Jim Freeman who inspire us continually with his wisdom and his wit and his true understanding of unity, people like Charles Fillmore, who are steeped in his family's tradition and understanding of what Unity is, what would happen if this board chose people or a person to be in charge of Unity who was not Unity, when Charles and Jim and Otto and myself have made our transitions?
So you have total respect for these people: for what they've taught, for what they've done for us, the fact that through their wisdom, they've been able to let Unity be Unity and not the Fillmore's. Is this something though that we can look forward to in the future? And this was an important question that I feel that we were facing as a board. What would happen to the movement if we didn't have an opportunity to have an integrated relationship with the movement Unity, to make sure that people of this high caliber and integrity continue to make the kind of good judgment decisions that have been made in the past, to guide us in Unity and bring us in its growth to this place.
Another question that came to the floor was, does one person hold the majority of stock and control the other members who are a part of this board? And if so then, would it be possible for a person who is Non-unity to take control sometime in a distant future? And then we had to ask ourselves questions like, why is it that AUC, which is very much a part of the movement of unity, why are we charged a rent? Is Silent Unity charged rent? Is the book department of Unity charged a rent? Is the chapel charged a rent? Of course, the questions to that are no.
And these were questions that continued to come to mind. And another question that came to mind was, as we continue to grow as an AUC organization and require more space, why is it that less space is becoming available to us? What can we do in order to get the cooperation and let them know where we are so that they can let us know where they are and what their needs are? And we found that there are important questions that need answering. Who is the one who makes the decisions to those answers where the boundaries cross between the activity of Unity School and the activity of AUC, our foreign ministries.
Who indeed should make these decisions? What can be sold by the student bookstore? How much space can be available to AUC? What kind of and what amount of national attention should be directed toward Unity? What information is available to the AUC through Unity School as to potential members of Unity churches? How could we answer these questions with integrity, with wisdom, and yet not step on the toes of the people we trust and admire and respect in the school? And I feel that this is why we decided to ask at this time that we work at coming together again as we once were, but coming together in a different way with mutual respect, with mutual love, with mutual working together in cooperation, because we know that there are needs, experience, and expressed by both of us.
Not only do we feel that we can be of assistance to Unity School as we have been to some degree, but I think more importantly, we as a board are aware of the tremendous assistance that Unity School can be to us as the association. There's so much love between the two. There's so much that we can draw upon. And as Jim says, there are so many things that are being duplicated just because there is a lack of cooperation or a mutual understanding of needs. And we propose that we get together, first of all to preserve the integrity of the movement we all know and love as Unity, especially as ministers who are sharing and teaching the very words that Charles Fillmore wrote, so that we could get together and share our ideas so that we could grow faster, stronger, and better.
Grow individually in our own areas as Unity School and AUC, but grow together in the same direction, mutually helping each other from love and respect and the desire to be the best that we how to be, and most importantly, the best that potentially we can be as a Unity school and an association of Unity churches.
As a board member, I strongly feel that we need to preserve the greatness of the Fillmores. The same greatness that has attracted each of us here. I feel that a way that we can do that is not by looking at the wedge that has been driven here. For indeed, that was not our intent. But instead of a wedge to create a bridge, a bridge of mutual understanding and respect and love and cooperation. And by using these qualities that not only Charles Fillmore, but the greatest of all leaders, Jesus Christ, said were important to us, so that we can be the movement that we should be and that we need to be. That was the intent.
And I feel that that intent has been misunderstood and to hope. I hope that here lovingly, we can come together and share. And I felt nothing but love for Charles and for Jim as they were up here. And Jim still is an inspiration to me in all that he says and does. And we need that inspiration. There is so much that we can receive, that we can get from Unity School. Oftentimes, I feel, however, they just do not have a clear understanding of our needs. So may we come together. May we form our committee to decide how it is that we can work together in cooperation to preserve that which we all know and love: Unity. Thank you.
