As the reflecting pool glimmered at the Christian Science Plaza on the second day of June, hundreds of people made their way inside the extension of The Mother Church for Annual Meeting 2008. Though they had to leave the sunshine outside, attendees from such disparate places as Boston, Cuba, Korea, and South Africa found just what they came for—the spiritual sunshine of simplicity.
Newly elected Church President Richard Bergenheim welcomed all those gathered, whether they were attending in person or listening on the Internet, and read passages from the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's writings. Next, he shared the conclusion of Mrs. Eddy's Retrospection and Introspection, a poem by A. E. Hamilton—the message of which seemed to touch every report that followed:
Ask God to give thee skill
In comfort's art:
That thou may'st consecrated be
And set apart
Unto a life of sympathy.
For heavy is the weight of ill
In every heart;
And comforters are needed much
Of Christlike touch (p. 95).
