On the eastern edge of the Country Club Plaza, where Kansas City's outdoor shopping district meets some of the city's oldest neighborhoods, a brick and limestone building has stood for nearly eighty years gathering steam beneath its tile roof. Unity Temple on the Plaza, at 707 W. 47th St. at the corner of Jefferson, is part church, part meditation hall, part recovery meeting place, part concert venue, and - in the words of its founders - a haven of rest and inspiration for all people. More than 5,000 people move through its doors each week for roughly seventy different activities, making it one of the most active spiritual centers in the region.
Sunday Morning at 707 West 47th
Sundays at Unity Temple are stacked back to back in a way that most congregations would never attempt. Two parallel congregations - one Unity, one Buddhist - and a long afternoon of recovery meetings all share the same building.
The Unity Sunday Service fills the Sanctuary each week at 10:30 a.m. A minister or guest speaker delivers a message that the church describes as a positive approach to life, seeing the good in all people and circumstances, affirming that for every need there is an answer. The service also includes a period of meditation and music from the Temple Chancel Choir, soloists and guest musicians. The 10:30 a.m. service is livestreamed for those who prefer to watch from home. Live broadcasts of the Sanctuary service appear online, and an archive of recent services is kept on the platform.
An hour earlier, in the Charles Fillmore Chapel, the Temple Buddhist Center gathers for a different kind of morning. Noble Silence opens the service, followed by a Dharma talk that applies Buddhist teachings to daily life. The morning ends with a loving-kindness practice and time for refreshments and conversation. A 9 a.m. TBC service is offered both in person and online; a second TBC service begins at 10:30 a.m. inside the same Charles Fillmore Chapel.
From 9:30 a.m. until about 12:30 p.m., Unity Hall downstairs opens for Community Time - coffee, snacks and conversation, with a quote from Ernest Holmes above the door inviting newcomers to think of the whole world as their friend. At 10:15 a.m., Sangha member Kyle Webster hosts an After-Service Discussion in the Heritage Room, available both in person and via Zoom.
Once the services are done, the building reshapes itself as a recovery center. By noon, AA meetings are gathering in Classroom A and B, with additional evening slots at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. The Sunday-only Buddhism and 12-Step Recovery meeting runs from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Heritage Room. Two brief Serenity Pause meditations step into the Myrtle Fillmore Chapel at 12:10 p.m. and again at 5:30 p.m., and the building stays open until 1:30 p.m.
Temple Buddhist Center under the Same Roof
Temple Buddhist Center is a working Buddhist sangha that has called Unity Temple home since 1996, when Ben Worth founded what was then called the American Buddhist Center with Duke Tufty, Robert Brumet and Vern Barnett. It is now directed by Victor Dougherty and operates under the principle that the goal is not to win anyone over to one lineage or philosophy, but to cultivate a shared experience of mindfulness, oneness and love.
TBC describes itself as Western-style Buddhism, a blend of Eastern philosophy and Western psychology. Services are dynamic, inclusive and practical: chanting and meditation sit alongside discussion groups, recovery work and focus sanghas. Dharma teachers who have spoken at TBC over the years include Robert Brumet, Bethany Klug, John Corbaley and Ben Worth, joined regularly by visiting teachers such as Kevin Griffin, Nicoya Helm, Phil Jones and Shaila Catherine. Each Sunday a guest musician provides contemplative music for meditation.
The TBC calendar adds several recurring items beyond the Sunday services. Third Thursday evenings bring group chanting. Monday nights fold into the broader recovery calendar, and the Heritage Room hosts the Buddhism and 12-Step group. Annual retreats bring the sangha together for longer practice sessions, and the calendar also lists New Year's Retreat: The Dharma of Insecurity among recent offerings. All TBC services are offered on a love-offering basis.
Serenity Pause: Meditation Twice Daily, 365 Days a Year
Among the things that set Unity Temple apart from most churches is its Serenity Pause program, which the congregation describes as free secular meditation, seven days a week, three hundred sixty-five days a year. Sessions meet in the small Myrtle Fillmore Chapel on the main level at 12:10 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. each day.
No previous meditation experience is required. Each thirty-minute session includes instruction, sitting time, and an open conversation. Both chairs and mats or cushions are provided. The program's name plays on the difference between meditation as discipline and meditation as hitting the Pause button in everyday life.
By hosting Serenity Pause, the building stays open to anyone looking for a quiet hour in the middle of the day. Office hours run Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but the building itself is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. and Sundays from 8:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m., so dropping in during either session is possible.
The Fillmore Legacy and the Birth of Unity
The story behind Unity Temple on the Plaza runs deeper than its 1948 cornerstone. The Kansas City sanctuary grew out of a much older spiritual movement founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889, one year after Myrtle had been told she had tuberculosis and had less than six months to live.
When traditional medicine had nothing left to offer, Myrtle turned to spiritual healing and to what became known in the Unity tradition as Affirmative Prayer - the practice of affirming that what is being asked for is already in the process of coming to be. She and Charles began writing about their beliefs. In April 1889 they published the first issue of Modern Thought, later renamed Unity Magazine. In 1891 they chose 'Unity' as the name of the new movement, and the Society of Silent Unity began answering prayer requests that would eventually run into the millions.
The Fillmores went on to found the Unity Society of Practical Christianity in 1903, and the Unity School of Christianity in 1914. Charles Fillmore gave what is documented as the first radio sermon by a clergyman in Kansas City in 1922 over station WOQ. The first issue of what became Daily Word appeared in 1924.
Charles had long dreamed of a magnificent temple on the Country Club Plaza, dedicated to Myrtle. In 1928 he bought a lot at 47th and Jefferson, committing to pay $5,000 a year for eight years. The Great Depression and World War II pushed construction back fifteen years. In July 1945, sixty-five thirty-foot pillars and roughly 199,000 bricks came together on the corner, and the building began to take shape. Costs more than doubled when the construction company hit wartime shortages; the project survived only when Lowell Fillmore, Charles's son and head of the building committee, issued Unity Temple Bonds. Money poured in from more than 100,000 contributors around the world.
On June 20, 1948, after fifteen years of planning and five years of construction, Unity Temple opened its doors. The day it was dedicated, a phrase was added to the dedication that has become the building's motto: "A place where diversity is praised, and peace and harmony are the rewards." The bonds and all remaining debt on the building were retired in 1960.
Around the same time, the temple evolved beyond Sunday morning. The 1980s brought the first AA support group; by the early 1990s, more than twenty twelve-step meetings a week were being held in the building. The Cornerstone Foundation, founded in 1993, brought national speakers to Kansas City for a Speakers' Forum. Tim Whitmer started Spirituality and All That Jazz in 1994, a monthly jazz series that has outlived the founding vision and become one of the longest-running jazz programs in the country. In 1996 the American Buddhist Center (now Temple Buddhist Center) was launched in the building, and Serenity Pause followed in the same decade.
Around the building's 70th anniversary, more than 5,000 people were again passing through its doors each week.
Twelve-Step Recovery and the Whole Spectrum of Support Groups
One of the clearest signatures of the building is the sheer volume of recovery work it hosts. In the mid-1980s, three retired railroad men began a weekly AA meeting in the building. The number has grown to more than twenty different twelve-step meetings each week, drawing upward of three hundred people.
Alcoholics Anonymous meetings fill most of the schedule. Three daily AA meetings run at noon, 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with a 12 p.m. Sunday meeting and two evening Sunday meetings at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturdays add an early 8 a.m. meeting and a 6 p.m. Saturday AA Speaker Meeting, often held in the Charles Fillmore Chapel. A separate Sunday gathering, Buddhism and 12-Step Recovery, runs from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the Heritage Room and is open both in person and via Zoom.
Other recovery meetings housed in the building include Saturday morning Gamblers Anonymous (G.A.) and Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous (S.C.A.) meetings at 9:30 a.m., and a Thursday Remote Recovery meeting at 7 p.m. A long-running A Course in Miracles discussion group, facilitated by Ace Wagner and Victor Martin, meets Monday evenings at 6:30 p.m. and has been sponsored by Unity Temple for thirty years.
Outside of formal meetings, the building's Counseling Center hosts licensed practitioners who rent office space. Nancy McCormick (CRAADC, LAC) works with adults and families on addiction and domestic violence. Rev. Ron McCorkle, Ph.D., combines psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, EMDR and music therapy. Marty Dybicz, Ph.D., has worked at Unity Temple since 1998, providing psychotherapy and personal growth counseling.
Pastoral prayer support is provided through a Prayer Chaplain program staffed by volunteers. Lead Chaplains Diana Greer and Connie Dodson lead the program, which is trained and commissioned to pray with people during services and to make pastoral, home and hospital visits. The chaplain line (816-994-8082) connects visitors to the team.
Classes, Studies, and the Wide Range of Weekly Groups
Beyond the main Sunday services, the building holds an unusually dense weekly calendar of courses and small-group gatherings.
Rev. Sandra Campbell, the Associate Minister, leads two of the more rooted offerings. On Sunday mornings she teaches a Metaphysical Bible Interpretation class; on Wednesday evenings she leads a Mid-Week service at the church. Rev. Campbell has been a member of Unity Temple since 1980, served three terms on its Board of Directors, co-founded the Temple Toastmasters Club, taught Sunday School and sang in the Chancel Choir. She completed ministerial training at Unity Urban Ministerial School and was licensed and ordained by Unity Worldwide Ministries in 2013, and is also an Adjunct Professor with Webster University.
The Temple Women's Circle meets the first Wednesday of each month from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The current iteration, called the Divine Feminine Women's Circle, is described as a sacred space for authenticity and vulnerability, with guided practices, meaningful conversation and a focus on sisterhood.
The Unity Temple Reiki Circle gathers on the second Wednesday of each month from 6 to 8 p.m. in Classroom C for an evening of healing energy and connection. Line Dancing with Lyra, a beginner-friendly social dance class, takes the Temple Space on the third Thursday of each month.
Adults looking for a longer course can join A Course in Miracles on Monday evenings. Children and families have their own rhythm: an Angel Loft Nursery for newborns through age three runs at 10:30 a.m. each Sunday, and programs for ages four to sixteen - the Unity Temple Youth Program and TBC Kids Meditation - meet during the same hour alongside the main services.
Special speakers and one-off classes keep the calendar in motion throughout the year. Past events posted to the calendar include the Holiday Jazz concert with Joe Cartwright and the Kansas City Jazz Allstars in the Sanctuary, the Candlelight concert series (90s Unplugged, Coldplay & Imagine Dragons) and Inspirational Speakers under the Cornerstone Foundation.
Marriages, Memorials, and Other Ceremonies
Unity Temple performs Weddings, Holy Unions, and Vow Renewals for couples of any religious background or none. Ministers travel to the venue of the couple's choice - including Unity Temple's two chapels or the recently remodeled Temple Space, adjacent to Unity Hall.
The standard wedding package includes use of the facility for three hours, a Wedding Planning Session with a minister, an organist or pianist (the Sanctuary and Charles Fillmore Chapel house a Steinway piano and a reconditioned Skinner pipe organ), a wedding coordinator who oversees the rehearsal and ceremony, a Wedding Planner Booklet with suggested readings, on-site rehearsal, dressing rooms, brass candelabras, and technical and custodial services. Couples work with Event Director Jennifer Watts to plan their ceremony. Wedding coordinators do not include videography, flowers, photography, decorations or a reception; those details are arranged separately.
Memorials and christenings or spiritual blessings are also offered through the Special Ceremonies program, with ministers available both on and off site.
Inside the Building
For a 1948 building, the public spaces at Unity Temple are exceptionally large and well-equipped.
The Sanctuary - the building's main auditorium - seats 1,262: 780 on the main floor and 482 in the balcony. The platform sits beneath the Love Window and holds a Steinway piano and a reconditioned Skinner pipe organ. New audio and visual systems have been installed in both the Sanctuary and the Charles Fillmore Chapel, along with a projector and screen.
The Charles Fillmore Chapel, just up the stairs, seats 300 (220 main floor, 80 balcony) and has its own piano and pipe organ. It hosts the Temple Buddhist Center Sunday services, Saturday AA Speaker Meetings and the morning TBC livestream.
The Myrtle Fillmore Chapel is a smaller, more intimate room that holds about thirty-five and serves as the home of Serenity Pause twice a day. The Heritage Room is set up like a living room and seats about forty; it functions as a meeting space, classroom and bridal dressing room, and it regularly hosts the Buddhism and 12-Step Recovery meeting, the A Course in Miracles group and the Sunday Sangha discussion. Unity Hall, downstairs, seats 175 and has its own kitchen, same-level restroom, and a handicap entrance; it is used for receptions and Community Time. The Temple Space seats 100 and is used for receptions and large classes. Classrooms C and D each hold up to thirty.
The building was designed to be a shared space, and it acts like one. A six-level parking garage sits adjacent to the Temple, and an outdoor patio opens onto the Plaza. Recent work upgraded audio and visual systems and remodeled the Temple Space for receptions.
Renting the Building, and the People Who Come to It
Unity Temple routinely hosts weddings, fundraisers, concerts, conferences and corporate events for outside groups. Recent and recurring guests include Rainy Day Books, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, St. Luke's Hospital, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Bernstein-Rein, the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, Spirituality and All That Jazz, the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, the Psychic Studies Institute, the Kansas City chapter of the International Feng Shui Guild, and the Mayor's Office. The Temple accommodates ten to twenty events a day on its busiest days.
Anyone interested in renting a room can submit a booking request through the online form or call Jennifer Watts at (816) 561-4466 ext. 121. The Sanctuary, chapels and halls are available for hire, as are the classrooms and the remodeled Temple Space. Event types range from single meetings to large gatherings, with technical and custodial support available.
The Candlelight concert series has become one of the building's most distinctive outside offerings. Multi-sensory classical music concerts by candlelight run on scheduled Friday and Saturday evenings in the Sanctuary, with separate programs rotating through popular songbook themes.
Volunteers, Staff, and Pastoral Care
Unity Temple is staffed by a small core team that includes Senior Minister and CEO Rev. Anne Tabor, Associate Minister Rev. Sandra Campbell, Chief Operating Officer Cassie Bender, Chief Financial Officer Cindy Lais, Event Director Jennifer Watts, Building Manager Christopher Schulze, Conservator Wairimu Njeru and Finance Manager Kathy Sweany. Temple Buddhist Center is led by Director Victor Dougherty, who can be reached at extension 115. Rev. Anne Tabor holds a Master of Divinity from Unity Institute & Seminary and a B.A. in Journalism from Georgia State University. Before joining Unity Temple on the Plaza in 2025, she served as Senior Minister at Unity of Arlington, Texas, for more than nine years. She is the creator of Daily Fillmore, a long-running daily quote ministry drawn from the writings of the Fillmores, and the founder of "Put A Myrtle On It!" on YouTube.
The staffing list reflects how big the operation has grown. The cornerstone of the volunteer program, however, remains the lay people who show up every week. Volunteer teams include Receptionists and Greeters, Ushers, Sanctuary and Charles Fillmore Chapel helpers, Service Assistants for the Buddhist Center, Media Assistants (who help livestream the services and run social media), Socialites (who set up Community Time), the Youth Team, singers for the Chancel Choir, and the Chaplain Ministry.
The Chaplain Ministry deserves a special note. Prayer Chaplains are trained and commissioned to provide prayer support during services, to make pastoral calls, and to visit members at home or in the hospital. Visitors who would like prayer support can reach the Chaplain office at 816-994-8082.
Garden Fairies keep the landscaping on the building's edges tidy and blooming, and reception and holiday helpers assist with events. Volunteer inquiries for the main congregation go to Jennifer Watts, extension 109; TBC volunteer inquiries go to Victor Dougherty, extension 115. Staff and volunteers also point neighbors toward Shaklee's Second Helpings program, in which a portion of each online purchase goes back to the Temple.
Giving: Ambassador's Club, Endowment, and the Wider Tapestry
Unity Temple supports its work through several giving channels. Recurring donors can join the Ambassador's Club, which provides a 15 percent discount on merchandise at the in-house Book Store (excluding items already on sale), complimentary tickets to selected Temple events, invitations to Ambassador's Club social gatherings, and a free wedding package for the member or an immediate family member.
Text-To-Give allows contributions by sending a text to 833-808-5558 with the message "unitytemple" and following the link provided. Online giving is set up through a secure giving platform. Mail-in checks payable to "Unity Temple" go to the 707 W. 47th St. address. Larger gifts - including those through wills, trusts, retirement accounts and life insurance - are managed through The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation as part of the Temple's endowment fund.
Five core values underlie everything Unity Temple does: Peace, Love, Harmony, Diversity, Equality, Inclusivity, and Compassion. Underneath those values sit Unity's Five Truth Principles: there is one power and one presence in the universe; the Spirit of God lives within each person; we create our life experiences through our way of thinking; affirmative prayer and meditation deepen our understanding of Spirit; and we are each called to put these spiritual principles into practice in our daily lives.
From a Sunday morning at 10:30 in the Sanctuary, to an AA meeting at noon in Classroom A, to a thirty-minute Serenity Pause meditation at 12:10 in the Myrtle Fillmore Chapel, to a Buddhist Dharma talk at 10:30 in the Charles Fillmore Chapel, to a Wednesday evening Reiki Circle in Classroom C, to a Monday-evening A Course in Miracles discussion in the Heritage Room, to a Tuesday evening AA Speaker Meeting in the Charles Fillmore Chapel, the building on the corner of 47th and Jefferson stays in near-continuous use, week after week, in the long spiritual wake of Myrtle Fillmore's affirmative prayer.