Editorials

To theater buffs, “Take five!” is a well-known order the director calls out in rehearsal. It means, “Take a break, relax, and come back ready to work!” One summer in high school, when I apprenticed at the Tanglewood Theater in North Carolina, the great Swedish actress Signe Hasso gave me a new perspective on “Take five!” Whereas most of us would bolt out of the sweltering rehearsal hall during breaks for some fresh air or a cold drink, Ms.

Have you ever reached for something in a dream and been unable to grasp it? Have you ever tried to get somewhere in a dream, and no matter how hard you tried, it eluded you? You may have woken up feeling sad, lost, frustrated, or you may even have wanted to go back to sleep to get back into that dream and to try again. Though you may linger a while, you do get up, brush off the memory of the dream, and get on with your day.

If you’re a member of a small church and there doesn’t seem to be much interest in Christian Science in the community, don’t worry. Keep working.

I love the stars. I grew up in a small village in the country with pitch-black nights and glorious starry skies.

On a trip to Ghana, West Africa, to visit church members, my colleagues and I learned about a traditional symbol of a knot that no one can untie. No one, that is, except God.

What does the 12-lesson “Primary class” Mary Baker Eddy provided for students of this Science have to do with God’s mother-love? For me anyway, lots! Because the profound metaphysical experience of class instruction, which I took in my late teens, propelled me into a lifelong education in God’s healing, parenting love. Not that I thought about God’s mother-love at the time.

History, often instructive, shows that dedicated people have destroyed “total” systems. The Indian National Congress, under Gandhi, exposed the moral bankruptcy of the British occupation and delivered independence.

“May we sing hymns accompanied by guitar?” “Why do you still use the King James Version for the Bible Lesson?” “Why does the Church occasionally use other translations than the KJV?” We regularly receive such inquiries, together with requests that the Board of Directors either issue clarifying policy statements—or reprint Board statements from the 1950s or ’80s, or even the ’20s.   As to Christian Science church services, we value branches finding innovative and interesting ways to follow the “present order of services” in the Church Manual.

Only a year ago the revolution known as Arab Spring began when a Tunisian martyr ignited a freedom movement that has rallied hope and support around the world. The Christian Science Monitor reported that the act jarred Tunisians and others to break out of the belief that Arab culture isn’t compatible with freedom and democracy.

Just before his martyrdom, according to tradition, the Apostle Paul implored his student Timothy: “Do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry” ( II Tim. 4:5 ).