Editorials

"God opened a door for me," Liz Lopez Spence says. As pastor of the second-largest United Methodist church in Minnesota, Spence is one of the small percentage of women in the United States who have reached the top ranks in the ministry.

The natural desire of parents to provide a nurturing environment for their children's development is seen in the way a mother, with words of comfort and love, tenderly cradles an infant in her arms. But parents themselves can also feel the need of love and comfort—and of guidance, too—in nurturing their parenting abilities.

At first, two stories that appeared in the same issue of a weekly newsmagazine looked as different as night and day. One told of the Caribbean island of Montserrat, gradually being buried by volcanic ash.

Happy relationships—ones that bring out the best in people, and that endure through thick and thin—don't necessarily just happen. They are usually built with what each individual brings to them day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year.

The neighborhood Episcopal church of my youth gave me a feeling of deep reverence for God. I felt it in the liturgy, music, and prayers of its services.

• "Abstaining from extramarital sex is one of the most unpopular things a person can do, much less talk about.

Here's the question, as posed by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures : "Are we really grateful for the good already received?" Science and Health , p. 3 That question always gives me pause and makes me take stock of my thinking.

Sure, people can lock you up and take away all your possessions. They can isolate you from friends and family.

Healing is needed in the world. In every home, neighborhood, school, business.

People were being healed. There was no question about it.