New Unity Reviews 

Lovely staff cheap drinks

At first I was convinced I finally had found a community dedicated to love and justice (as they claim to be), which also are my values. This is why I became a mostly online member for 2 years with in person visits. They had a quite dedicated team around the former minister and are involved in different social justice activities including initiatives against racism and for inclusion.
New Unity also has a well funded heritage project which focuses on feminism, racism and LGBTQ+ topics, which I found to be very interesting and educating.
On Sunday New Unity offers a weekly Sunday service which has to be understood as a church like but non-religious approach with varying music both live and recorded, as well as inspiring poems or other readings. The minister, members of the congregation and sometimes guests often presented thought provoking topics in an about 20 minutes message and at the end of the gathering usually was space to share personal joys and sorrows with the community.

Overall, I had a great time joining the community in this 2 year period. And this in mind, I was utterly shocked when in July and September 2022 my confidence and trust in New Unity and its members was destroyed by a series of events.

I went for an in-person visit in July 2022 for two weeks and met a number of people from the New Unity community. Unfortunately I had to realize that some personal information I gave in confidence to someone was shared with people I didn't even know. And then one of the trustees from New Unity secretly drugged me.
Later, when I confronted the individuals, they were unwilling to confess or repair the relationship, but rather I was accused of abuse. When the new Minister in the function as safeguarding officer interrogated me, I didn't see any sign he would take action to repair the situation but rather accused me also of, quote, 'distorted thinking'. When I tried to attend the gathering afterwards, I was refused access and then on the Sunday afternoon received a short note from the minister that under safety regulations I was immediately expelled from all New Unity events. There was no warning, consideration of options or asking kindly to leave, just this note with the option to be reintegrated with 'Pastoral care'. The minister did not respond to my question what this would mean.

After carefully considering what happened and what different individuals said to me, I came to the conclusion that this situation was intentionally provoked by the leadership and some community members to create a critical situation for me all in the name of growth. (New Unity opens all gatherings with a note that says, they hope attendees would 'feel at least a bit uncomfortable, because that is how we grow.') One individual gave a hint that I would be thrown out and it seems I was not the only one. There were others members who left during this two year period and one former member warned me about the leadership.
I suspect the Sunday gathering, which are recorded are also used to analyse attendees reactions and body language to help create strategies for growth. The former minister once mentioned a 'growth task force' in one of the gatherings and although I did not hear anyone else talk about it, I believe they are still operational.
I conclude that New Unity leadership is so focused on the growth of attendees, that they might use anything to provoke it, even creating a situation of abuse (like in my case) and violation of bodily autonomy, as well as using private information all for the sake of other people's growth.
Only that these people (I and others) don't have the choice to decide what to deal with and when.
This situation violated several of my boundaries and was intentionally escalated, which does not speak of professional behaviour, except it was meant to be this way.
I already wrote a similar review on Google, but New Unity disabled reviews there afterwards, which also confirms my conclusion, because if people know they will be confronted with seemingly manipulative behaviour, they won't feel safe to remain long enough. Which also reinforces the need to exclude me from events, so I don't warn new or regular attendees.

So, please be aware that something similar might happen to you, should you choose to engage New Unity.