February 3, 2020

Dear People,

Maybe we’d all agree that there’s never been so much news arriving for anyone with an iPhone, tablet or laptop! With the press of a button or two you can read, hear, or see news from the Ukraine to Washington, D.C., from London to Canada, Australia to Iowa.

And the emphasis is usually on breaking news. It’s the latest news! It’s coming to you live! It’s what’s happening now! The trouble is that with a few exceptions, like The Christian Science Monitor, the tendency in most of this news being poured out is to suppose bad news is bigger and more important than good news.

But what has all this got to do with Christian Science and our coming Association? Well, as you know, we seem to live in an atmosphere of thought and that atmosphere claims to influence how individuals think.

So, what are we as Christian Scientists thinking about these times?

Are we thinking, for example, that day-to-day life is more dangerous, sadder, more overwhelmingly material than ever, and so it’s harder to see and hold to the spiritual truths of Christian Science? Does it seem in some ways more challenging to be a Scientist now, harder to have healings because of the aggressive materialism of these times – because, for example, of the greatly increased claims of medicine to be the only practical answer to sickness?

I can hear some of you responding strongly, metaphysically. That’s great! That’s what you’re supposed to be doing. Bring that spirit with you to Association on Saturday, April 25. Because, we’re going to be talking together about all that this year at Association. We’ll be facing up to the mesmeric suggestions about these times and finding freedom from them.

The title of the address this year is “Lord, my times are in Your hand” (from Hymn 463).

We’ll be exploring the question of whether this argument about the difficulty of these times is actually all that new. We’ll be talking about the obligation to be healers rather than merely busy and active church members. How do you manage to do that? Can we help and heal each other without being Journal-listed practitioners? What’s the future of Christian Science?... and so on.

You’ll be hearing from fellow Christian Scientists who have had healings of all sorts and are willing to share how they prayed and how their metaphysical work led to breakthroughs. At lunch, for example, we’ll have break-out groups considering and answering these questions and you’ll have the opportunity to ask your own questions – more on that later.

All day we’ll be discussing the real how of “how do you heal.” And thinking, too, about Mary Baker Eddy’s prediction that the time would come when we needed to dig much deeper in our own study of Christian Science. Might this be the time?

Mrs. Eddy writes of Christian Science, “It is not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is God’s right hand grasping the universe, – all time, space, immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; constituting and governing all identity, individuality, law, and power.” (Mis 364: 12-17) How could we help but come to some fresh conclusions when a spiritual perspective like that is opening out and lifting us up?

So, with everybody’s prayer and help, I believe we’ll be gaining a new view not only of our lives as Christian Scientists but also of the role of Associations themselves. We’ll have more joy and love for so much that’s been divinely given us by the hand of God, and what that means to humanity now, not just to Christian Scientists.

With great affection,

Skip
Allison W. Phinney, C.S.B.

P.S. You will find more new fruitage posted on the website and also some early responses to this year’s Association assignment. It’s all colorful, honest, insightful, and good reading!

Do take a look, and above all, be motivated to send along your healings to awphinney@comcast.net as well as your own work on the assignment of completing the book A Century of Christian Science Healing and answering questions about it.

The letter of January 4, 2020, explaining the assignment, points out that this year we feel the assignment is so important we’re not considering it optional. We’ll have an entire afternoon section devoted to it, sharing individual responses, and I’ll be calling on you to answer questions. (If you don’t happen to find the book in your own library or a Reading Room, simply email Jonathan James at hatartist@gmail.com and he’ll find a way to get the book to you.)