UNITY

There is a church near us, perched high on a hill. It's called Unity, and every Sunday, when we see their sign at the entrance to our neighborhood, we tell ourselves that we really need to check it out one of these days. When I got a postcard in the mail recently, announcing that they were about to embark on a three-week study of one of my favorite books, Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, I knew that the day had arrived.

The facility is absolutely gorgeous, and must have been a lodge or something in its past life. I was a bit afraid that the church might be too weird for us, but needn't have worried. The service was mostly traditional, and resembled most I had ever been to, except for one major difference. The one thing I could never wrap my head around in most churches was the idea that if you didn't follow the precise rules of that particular sect, you were doomed to hellfire and damnation. Unity is not about rules, creeds, or dogma. They believe that we are all one in God, regardless of our path to enlightenment, that spirituality is more important than religion, and they encourage everyone, through the teachings of Jesus Christ, to be all they were created to be. This church just might fit me like a glove.