Dear fellow members and friends,
We warmly invite you to Annual Meeting 2017! Join us in Boston or online as part of our worldwide church family. Below you will find a message from the Christian Science Board of Directors. There is also an invitation video with this year’s Chair, Allison W. Phinney, sharing some thoughts on the theme of the meeting.
Warmly,
Suzanne Riedel
Clerk of The Mother Church
Dear Church family,
It’s time to be thinking ahead to this year’s Annual Meeting, and we can’t help being inspired by the prospect. We have felt a strong spiritual impetus from each of the recent Annual Meetings. Your wholehearted participation and support have contributed greatly to moving our Church forward with renewed spirit. The outcome has been new steps that are now visibly strengthening our Cause.
As you recall, some recent themes have been “A spiritual foundation of Christ-healing,” and then, “ ‘A spiritual foundation of Christ-healing’—continuing to build.” Last year we looked squarely at our Church’s mission of “healing and saving the world” (Mary Baker Eddy, Church Manual, p. 19). And this year we’ll be thinking together about that which enables all of us to act in response to the unique call to this greatest of all causes. Our theme is “Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life.”
Those words are found in the chapter “Footsteps of Truth” in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 249). They remind us that whatever the human steps we are led to take, they are not taken because of human will or personal ability but are truly footsteps impelled by Truth itself. As Mrs. Eddy said, “Every step of progress is a step more spiritual” (The People’s Idea of God, p. 1).
So, whether we’re witnessing (as we are) a greatly increased number of visitors to the Plaza with a new openness to hearing about Christian Science, or whether we’re seeing (as we are) the leavening of human thought that brings ever stronger demands for just treatment of all the members of human society, we know it is Spirit, the divine influence and energy, that is touching the heart of humanity.
At Annual Meeting this year, we look forward to sharing with you some of the many examples of awakening going on today in regard to the sheer practicality of Christian Science healing. Plans are underway for an interactive panel and audience discussion on the practice. We’ll also be discussing fresh views of the year-round potential of Christian Science associations of students. And we’ll have a session on new forward steps for The Christian Science Monitor and how we can more closely rally to support its significant place and power in a world that has a very real hunger for healing solutions.
To continue spiritual building in these times, the fidelity of the lives of Christian Scientists is certainly going to be required. We think you’ll enjoy the spiritual vision and straightforward talk of the editorial entitled “Let the energy of Spirit fill the Church” in the March issue of The Christian Science Journal.
We so greatly value the devotion of all the members of our Church family, and we look forward to being together in person and online at Annual Meeting 2017.
With deepest gratitude for your love and unity,
The CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD of DIRECTORS
Robin Hoagland, Allison W. Phinney, Scott Preller, Margaret Rogers, Lyle Young
