April 3, 2019

Dear People,

Along with the references and the topic letter we've posted for you, you'll find under 2019 Association Assignment Responses an early sampling of several responses to the Association assignment. (There are many more, which we'll post a little later.)

You know, I've been trying for a long time to say how unique and special your anonymous sharing of healings and responses to assignments are but I want to try once again. To me, they have extraordinary qualities, not necessarily found elsewhere. They're different from articles in the periodicals or even remarks at Wednesday church services, as important as these are. Your anonymous responses are freer and more open, like visits with close friends (because you don't hold back about what you're learning in Christian Science and how you're having to work things out in your own life.) Your insights are fresh and often deep.

I feel as though I'm there with you, listening to you talk – and learning a lot from it. In other words, the whole thing is lifted out of being a kind of obligatory assignment (that there isn't really time for) into something that can be felt tangibly strengthening our Association. There's an outstanding healing in one of these responses, and in some others, passionate straight talk about what Science affords in regard to the Bible. And no, this doesn't mean that what you're sharing is wrongly personal; it means that you're speaking from the heart and it simply feels like what we might expect from working shoulder to shoulder together in this greatest Cause. Thank you dear guests and members.

Skip

P.S. A couple of you sent along with your responses a comment about what you got out of working on the assignment. Here's one:

"Thank you for this Association assignment! I found it a wonderful opportunity to count my blessings, and also an exercise in growth itself."

Another person wrote: " Last summer, I started spending many hours a day re-studying the Class references and my notes, reading Science and Health and then reading through the gospels. My main motivation was a need for physical healing, but I felt strongly that part of what needed healing was a sense that studying the Bible and S&H were things I ought to do, rather than loved to do. I knew that wasn't the truth about me, and I longed to dive into the Pastor, to love it, and feel that it loved me too. A lot of learning and loving happened in that time, and my answers to the questions are deeply informed by my experience over the last year or so."

A guest wrote: "I'm very grateful for this assignment. It gave me an opportunity to think about how fortunate we are to have a spiritual interpretation of the Bible. It also pointed out to me how much I have learned about the Bible without really becoming one who studies Biblical research. The Bible Lesson-sermon really has a huge impact on those who study it regularly."