Unity Village, Mo. ? One of the oldest prayer lines in the world is celebrating its 100-year anniversary.

Silent Unity began in 1907 with one man in a rocking chair using a “candlestick” phone. It has since grown to 13 centers worldwide, with associates answering more than 1.5 million prayer requests each year.

“We answer the call; God answers the prayer,” said Lynne Brown, vice president of Silent Unity. “Anything in the human condition, they hear it.”

Brown said praying for others is a central part of the religious movement known as Unity School of Christianity, founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889.

Myrtle Fillmore organized Silent Unity soon after, with members praying silently at 9 a.m. each day. By 1902, about 100 letters a day were coming to Silent Unity at offices then in Kansas City. In 1907, Fayette Drake was assigned the job to take prayer requests by phone.

Associates are selected from people who have active prayer lives, Brown said. They receive three weeks of training, but they don’t have a script to follow, and they don’t ask for donations.

When a call comes in, an associate, who remains anonymous to the caller, types a description of the call into the computer. The associate offers to send a follow-up letter after the 30 days that a person’s request stays on the prayer list.

Those with prayer requests can call (800) 669-7729 or go online to www.unityonline.org /prayer/requestPrayer.

Unity is headquartered on 1,500 acres southeast of Kansas City. The organization has churches across the country and publishes the “Daily Word,” an inspirational magazine printed in eight languages and read by 1 million people daily.