Letters & Conversations

Relating to 'today's (not yesterday's) seekers' What's heartening about the October 2003 Journal —and every other issue of the Journal and its sister, the Christian Science Sentinel, of late—is that the publishers, editors, and writers keep making one point abundantly clear. Namely, that the scientific system of spiritual healing called Christian Science was never meant to be clutched tightly by a denomination or practiced solely—much less secretly—by dyed-in-the-wool adherents.

October issue In your lead story [see October, pp. 6–8], the interviewee says, "Many women [in Indonesia] carry heavy loads of firewood or vegetables to the market in slings on their backs.

Christian Science practice and healing I really enjoyed the articles that focused on Christian Science treatment in the July issue. They were encouraging and inspiring for me in my journey toward the practice.

Response to August issue, book reviews Thank you so much for the timely August Journal. This morning I was praying for my community in regard to the high crime rate.

Journal article encouraging amid Zimbabwe's struggles When the May Journal arrived, its beautiful picture of the sea's wave and the sun reflected on it made me want to read it right away, and the article by Peter Tonge, "Going forward, never backward" [pp. 49–51] was the first one that I opened to.

On the practice When I was a young boy there was a Christian Science practitioner whom I used to love chatting with. I always looked forward to such occasions with eager anticipation.

Finlayson a model for peacekeeping I was at first disturbed and then inspired by a comment of Ian R. Finlayson in his article "What a soldier can do" in the June Journal, [p.

Deeper articles of late Some time ago, I wrote to you with a request for articles that were more metaphysical in their explanation of the healing effect of prayer in Christian Science. I've just read several very inspiring and helpful contributions in the April issue of the Journal that were included in the article "How I pray.

Thanks from Africa I thank our Father-Mother God wholeheartedly for the Frontlines articles concerning freedom in the February issue of the Journal. They give wonderful insights in how to pray for that extremely rare commodity.

War and peace As the world is considering how we should approach Iraq, what unique timing was your interview with Peter Ackerman as chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict in the February Journal [pp. 7-9].