A Teacher
James Dillet Freeman
The ever-present indwelling of divine Spirit
The transmission
James Dillet Freeman was born in 1912. He began working for the Unity School of Christianity in the summer of 1929 at the invitation of co-founder Myrtle Fillmore, and joined the full-time staff in 1933 as a letter writer and telephone prayer worker for Silent Unity, Unity’s continuous prayer ministry.
Over a long career within Unity he served as a minister, administrator, and writer, and came to be regarded as the movement’s “Poet Laureate.” He authored The Story of Unity, a history of the organisation, alongside many books of poetry and devotional prose.
Freeman is best known for two poems that became staples of New Thought devotional life. “Prayer for Protection,” composed in 1941, expresses the indwelling and surrounding presence of divine love and light; it was carried by astronaut Buzz Aldrin aboard the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969.
“I Am There,” written in 1947 as his first wife was fighting illness, voices the constant nearness of Spirit to the individual. These works carried Unity’s affirmative, presence-centred spirituality to audiences far beyond the movement. Freeman died in 2003.
What they gave
Devotional voice of Unity: As Unity’s poet laureate, gave the movement’s affirmative metaphysics a memorable, widely recited devotional form.
- “Prayer for Protection” and “I Am There”: Two enduring poems that distil the New Thought conviction of an ever-present indwelling divine power into language used in prayer and affirmation.
- Silent Unity prayer ministry: Through decades of prayer-and-letter work, helped sustain a practical channel for the New Thought practice of affirmative, expectant prayer.
- Affirmation through repetition: His verses functioned as repeatable affirmations, reinforcing belief in a benevolent indwelling presence.
In their words
The light of God surrounds me. The love of God enfolds me. The power of God protects me. The presence of God watches over me. Wherever I am, God is!
Do you need Me? I am there. You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by. You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice. You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.
The line they stand in
Taught by / Influenced by: Unity co-founders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore and the wider Unity School of Christianity in which he spent his career.
- Taught / Influenced: The Unity movement and its Silent Unity prayer ministry, and the broader stream of devotional New Thought poetry and affirmation.
Revelations they taught
Orders & Societies
Essential Works
- The Story of Unity1951
- Prayer: The Master Key1968