When he sought ordination from Unity School he was turned down by Charles Fillmore because he hadn't attended Unity's training program. When Fox began attracting large crowds in New York he felt that since he was ministering he should be ordained. One interesting story about Emmet Fox and Unity School is described by Braden (:352). According to Igor, Fox's teachings on God as the only power, that evil is insubstantial, love, forgiveness, living one day at a time, the trap of resentments and the correspondence of thoughts to the kind of life we live have contributed to an AA philosophy that has transformed the lives of literally millions of recovering alcoholics. S writes that it was the simplicity and power of basic principles of The Sermon on the Mount that drew alcoholics to Fox. Fox's secretary was the mother of one of the men who worked with Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill W., and partly as a result of this connection early AA groups often went to hear Fox. (S Igor) about Emmet Fox's influence on Alcoholics Anonymous. The 2nd reference note in the Wikipedia entry on Emmet Fox links to an article by Igor S. He was ordained in the Divine Science branch of New Thought (“Emmet Fox” Wikipedia). Fox became immensely popular, and spoke to large church audiences during the Depression, holding weekly services for up to 5,500 people at the New York Hippodrome until 1938 and subsequently at Carnegie Hall.

Soon he came to the United States, and in 1931 was selected to become the successor to James Murray as the minister of New York's Divine Science Church of the Healing Christ. He gave his first New Thought talk in Mortimer Hall in London in 1928. Fox attended the London meeting at which the International New Thought Alliance was organized in 1914. He came to know the prominent New Thought writer Thomas Troward. However, he early discovered that he had healing power, and from the time of his late teens studied New Thought. Fox attended Stamford Hill Jesuit college near London, and became an electrical engineer.

His father, who died before Fox was ten, was a physician and member of Parliament. Emmet Fox was a New Thought spiritual leader of the early 20th century, famous for his large Divine Science church services held in New York City during the Depression.

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