Unity aims to engage all of those, of whatever age, who wish to explore their relationship with Father, Son and Spirit in a journey of discovery. We wish to rediscover the old and be unafraid to experiment with the new in opening our hearts and minds to worship The Living God. Worship is not something where we should be passive observers in the pews. It should involve our whole being in celebrating the presence of Jesus among us, recognising the redeeming community that The Father welcomes us into and accepting the Spirit's call to be counter-culture change agents in the world around us. Meeting with Jesus Christ is an empowering experience that should change lives and challenge lifestyles.

Unity originated as an attempt to engage young people in the worship of a very real and relevant God. This involved a re-imagining of worship to encompass a range of music, image and word that would be relevant, exciting and challenging to those young people. In 1996/7, a series of three Unity services were held at St. Mary’s Haughton Green. A variety of young people and adults from within St. Mary’s, surrounding churches and outside of the mainstream church attended. It was soon realised that God was blessing us with gifts and visions that were far more than youth worship. In the year following the initial services, Unity became transformed into a form of creative worship embraced by all ages of the church. A series of small reflective services that took place monthly enabled us to experiment with forms of liturgy, music, image, meditation and symbolic rituals.

Unity is now an established part of the worship programme at St. Mary’s, every other month at 6.30pm. What is now developing is a community of worshippers who contribute to the services in various ways. This may be ritual acts of prayer and commitment; the creative use of imagination in meditation or story-telling and dance or drama. Others provide music and worship songs or visual images to support the service themes and enhance the atmosphere of worship. It is still an exploration of spirituality for many who are discovering new ways of relating to an eternal and loving God and recognising the power of Jesus to re-define the way we live our lives.

To worship in spirit and truth; to empower the members of the community at St. Mary’s and indeed anyone attending Unity to be bold with the dangerous message of Jesus and to be sensitve to the call to service in our many communities.

We wish to challenge every Christian to follow in the footsteps of Jesus:

"to preach Good News to the poor….proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour"