UNITY is the largest movement in the New Thought tradition and shares New Thought's formative influences and general worldview. Founded in Kansas City, Missouri, by Myrtle Fillmore (1845–1931) and Charles Fillmore (1854–1948), a married couple, Unity is the second oldest and most distinctly Christian community within New Thought. The impetus to the formation of Unity was Myrtle Fillmore's recovery from tuberculosis through the use of mental healing rituals.

The founding of the movement occurred in 1889, one year after Myrtle Fillmore pronounced herself healed. The first venture for Unity, the periodical Modern Thought, began publication in 1889, and in 1890 the movement's original prayer ministry was established—The Society of Silent Help. In 1891 the name Unity was given to the Fillmores' enterprise, and the couple began publishing a new periodical, Unity, whose masthead bore what would become the traditional symbol for the movement, a winged globe. Concurrent with the initiation of the movement...