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Called the "Poet Laureate to the Moon" or "a modern day Ralph Waldo Emerson", James Dillet Freeman has been one of the most popular of all Unity writers. His poetry has been read by more than five hundred million people.
He has had his work taken to the moon twice, a distinction he shares with no other author. His 1941 Prayer for Protection was taken aboard Apollo 11 in July 1969 by Lunar Module pilot Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. Aldrin had the poem with him when he made his historic moonwalk! Two years later, Jim's 1947 poem I Am There went to the moon with Colonel James B. Irwin on Apollo 15. Irwin left a microfilm copy of the poem on the moon.
James Dillet Freeman serves Unity School of Christianity, the parent organization of the worldwide Unity movement, as a writer and speaker. His poetry appears regularly in Daily Word, Unity's daily devotional magazine and he writes a monthly article called "Life is a Wonder" for Unity Magazine, a metaphysical journal.
Rev. Freeman retired in 1984 from his position as a member of the board of trustees and first vice president of Unity School, which he served for more than fifty years. For thirteen years he served as director of Silent Unity, the worldwide prayer ministry of Unity School that responds to more than three million persons annually. In 1984 he resigned that directorship in order to devote more time to writing and speaking on behalf of the Unity movement. Rev. Freeman is an ordained Unity minister and former director of Unity's ministerial training program. He is also an internationally known poet, author, and lecturer.
Born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1912, Rev. Freeman moved to Kansas City with his family when he was ten years old. He attended Kansas City public schools and the University of Missouri, where he was graduated with honors in 1932. He began writing verse and by the time he finished college, his poems had been published in national publications.
While still in college, Rev. Freeman was given summer work in 1929 at Unity School by invitation of Unity's co-founder, Myrtle Fillmore. After a year of post-graduate work at the University, he joined the Unity staff on a permanent basis in 1933, serving in the School's prayer ministry as a letter writer.
As the need for trained Unity ministers developed, Rev, Freeman was led in 1946 to organize a training program, which has now become the Unity School for Religious Studies. He served as director of Unity's ministerial training program for twenty years. He was responsible for guiding and training hundreds of Unity ministers now serving Unity churches around the world. In speaking to the question "What does it mean to be a minister? he says. It means to be God-centered and Human-hearted; to involve yourself in man's humanity and to keep your vision on man's divinity..."
As a poet and author, Rev. Freeman has inspired millions. He is a modem-day transcendentalist who writes in the tradition of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman. The universal appeal of his work has prompted translations in thirteen languages; one book of his poems, What God Is Like, has been translated into Japanese and published in Japan. His work has been published in The New Yorker, Saturday Review, Scientific Monthly, Christian Herald, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, The New York Times, Reader's Digest, and numerous Unity publications.
Rev. Freeman's books include The Hilltop Heart, The Story of Unity, Be!, What God Is Like, The Case for Reincarnation, and Once Upon a Christmas, all published by Unity Books. Five of his books have been published by Doubleday: Happiness Can Be A Habit, Prayer: the Master Key (since republished by Unity), Look with Eyes of Love, The Case for Believing, and Love, Loved, Loving. Rev. Freeman also had one book published by Harper & Row: The Case for Optimism.
Rev. Freeman's widest acclaim has come from his poetry. It is estimated that published copies of his poems exceed 500 million. His poem, "The Traveler," has been read at more than a million funerals; his "Blessing for a Marriage" at scores of thousands of weddings.
In 1995, "1 Am There" was featured on the television program, "Angels II; Beyond the Light," on N.B.C. In talking about the poem, which is probably his best-known work, Rev. Freeman says, "Of all the things I have ever written, 'I Am There' has meant the most to the most people. I wrote it in great anguish of spirit, out of a deep personal need. It has been reprinted many times and people have written from all over the world to tell me how much it has meant to them."
Rev. Freeman has the unique ability to speak as well as he writes. He is a dynamic, articulate speaker who is in great demand as a lecturer. Lecture tours have taken him across the United States many times, to Canada, Europe, and the West Indies. He has appeared as a guest on radio and television programs throughout North America.
Some poems by James Dillet Freeman:
Following my Heart
The Traveler
Freedom Within
By The Sea
On Wings of Song
If Stones Had Tongues
Pattern-Maker
Do you need Me? I am there
O You who made all that is make, I pray You make me like Yourself. You are the changeless, always changing; the eternal, momently fulfilled; the formless, only glimpsed in forms. You are freedom, yet the order that is indispensable to freedom; law, yet the love that is beyond law; power, yet the peace that is at the center of power. O mind of God, what must the mind be like that thinks suns, porpoises, trees, grasshoppers, moonflowers, comets, rocks, streams, sunsets, human beings! O heart of God, what must the heart be like that circles with its love the unimaginable reaches of the world of space, yet feels a sparrow’s fall! As a grain of dust is the earth, and a breath of air the atmosphere, and a raindrop the waters of the firmament, and a candle the quintessence of light and fire -- so you are in me and I am in You.
Prayer for Protection
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