The following is an edited summary of the 2018 Annual Meeting of The Mother Church, held on June 4 in the Extension of The Mother Church and broadcast live online. To watch the full replay, visit christianscience.com/annualmeeting. All links in this report will be viewable until June 3, 2019.
To open Annual Meeting, Robin Hoagland, current Chair of the Christian Science Board of Directors, welcomed the worldwide Church family. After the singing of Hymn No. 601 from the new Christian Science Hymnal: Hymns 430–603, Robin introduced the officers of The Mother Church: Mary Baker Eddy, Pastor Emeritus; Scott Preller, Skip Phinney, Margaret Rogers, and Rich Evans, fellow Board members; Suzanne Riedel, Clerk; Lyon Osborn, Treasurer; Louis Benjamin and Diane Marrapodi, First and Second Readers; and Keith Wommack from Corpus Christi, Texas, the new President for the year.
Robin then turned the meeting over to Keith.
Keith Wommack: Good afternoon, dear fellow members of The Mother Church. It is a privilege and honor for me to welcome you here in Boston and on the internet.
In 1907 Arthur Brisbane, a New York journalist, interviewed Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science and the Founder of this Church. Brisbane later told friends: “It was my privilege to discover one of the keenest intellects I had ever encountered and the most gentle and sweet woman I had ever met. Her very presence was restful to me. During our conversation I mentioned this, telling her how very tired I was. She then asked me if I would like to have a Christian Science treatment and I told her I would. All I can say is that it was a most unbelievably beautiful experience … that treatment proved to me the great need in the world today for Christian Science” (Helena Hoftyzer reminiscence, July 27, 1942; © The Mary Baker Eddy Collection).
Today, the world is full of people seeking “a most unbelievably beautiful experience.” Fortunately, this Church is made up of members who are selfless, loving healers—followers of Christ who are blessing society with God’s comfort and love. These healers are learning the great need of living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit.
Keith read from the Bible, and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896 by Mary Baker Eddy:
John 5:2–9 there, 15–17, 19 Verily
Matthew 10:1, 5 (to 3rd ,), 8
Matthew 23:12 whosoever
Galatians 5:25
II Corinthians 8:7, 8 prove
Science and Health 138:17–22
Science and Health 52:19–21
Miscellaneous Writings 59:26
Science and Health 35:19–25 2nd Our
Science and Health 365:31
Science and Health 496:13–14
The readings were followed by silent prayer and the repetition of the Lord’s Prayer. Then Keith introduced a short video message from outgoing President Irmela Wigger (see youtube.com/watch?v=7Ier8i54mhA), followed by a video featuring a sampling of conversations with members of The Mother Church from meetings the Board of Directors held in the Field (see youtube.com/watch?v=AIz9g89miis).
‘If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit ’
Robin Hoagland: It just can’t be said often enough that these gatherings felt like family. We would meet someone for the first time, and within moments feel like we had known them and loved them our whole lives. But it was far more than a family reunion. We felt the Spirit drawing us together, animating these meetings.
Skip Phinney: There have always been wonderful instances of Christian Scientists loving and supporting each other. But as we’ve made these trips through the Field, we’ve also attended Wednesday evening meetings whenever we could, individually, and we couldn’t help noticing that there is a new spirit—more consistent caring for each other, working together, expressing patience with each other. Qualities like humility, affection, and unity are showing up more. And that’s not a minor thing; it’s transparency to the oneness of Mind.
Rich Evans: What struck me in our travels is an expansion of thought and a sincerity of the heart that was palpable. There’s less of a boxed-in sense of God, of church, and of what an individual can contribute to the Cause. It’s as if the veneer of the human sense of church is wearing off, and we’re seeing the genuine sense of church coming to the fore.
Scott Preller: I think some of that ability to unite is that this family feeling Robin mentioned comes from a maturing Christianity, where it’s not just family members getting together and being nice at a holiday event, but really living with a sense of having each other’s back.
We don’t have to face challenges fearfully. We have proved the Science of the Christ again and again in reliable ways, so we can go forward confidently, putting down fear with the thought: “I’ve got my fellow members. I’ve got the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s books. I’ve got testimonies of healing published in our periodicals and on JSH-Online.” These represent demonstrated victories that we take with us, and that puts us in a different place.
Margaret Rogers: Also, it’s an important point that struggle is not the same as failure. We think when we’re struggling that we’re doing something wrong. But so often the struggle we’re having in demonstrating the love of God and the life of God is because there’s a lot of worldly resistance to doing that. It’s like rockets that have to get out of the earth’s gravitational pull. But when we’re really having to struggle with something, it’s because we’re ascending; we’re lifting off. And it’s not our personal energy that’s going to get us out of that. It is the divine energy of Spirit that we all have.
Robin Hoagland: These are times that need each member. Whatever impacts one impacts all of us, as we are one body in Christ. This last year has been tough. We’ve seen senseless acts of violence against individuals we love and the communities we live in. We’ve had members who’ve been impacted by catastrophic events.
We were in London, Manchester, and Paris, cities that had all experienced terrorist attacks this past year. And when we were in Texas, Florida, and California, we heard about members being impacted by devastating hurricanes and raging wildfires. But what so moved us is how our members are going to God in prayer. They are turning away from the often mesmeric picture around them and are responding to the needs of their fellow members and their communities.
Robin introduced a video featuring church members sharing how they prayed for their communities in the face of a terrorist attack, wildfires, and other challenges (see youtube.com/watch?v=mRuPs8LGO8Y).
Robin Hoagland: Confronted with these extraordinary events that are defining our times, our members want to make a difference. But one of the things we want to think about today is going beyond that initial level of human kindness, which is so necessary and must be the first step. We’re really moving toward healing.
Scott Preller: As we think about being more effective in these situations, we can find new depth in the meaning of the theme for this year’s Annual Meeting: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” For me, the depth of this theme has showed up when I’ve asked myself what the opposite of the theme would be. It comes out as: “If everything is matter, let’s go nowhere in matter.” But the demand is always to see the allness of Spirit and to live it.
Mrs. Eddy writes in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: “ ‘There is no matter’ is not only the axiom of true Christian Science, but it is the only basis upon which this Science can be demonstrated” (p. 357). I think the more we hold that in our hearts, the more we get to the how of moving toward healing.
Rich Evans: Yesterday in “Walking with the Word,” a talk exploring the healing relevance of the Bible and Science and Health, it was so beautiful to listen to walkers in the Spirit share their healing experiences. I was reminded of a statement on page 15 of Science and Health: “The Master’s injunction is, that we pray in secret and let our lives attest our sincerity.”
You can’t do that just sitting in your chair thinking about it. It’s important to demonstrate truth every moment, in every interaction, in every thought resting on another. We can do it. We haven’t been given this truth not to see it expressed and see its effect.
Margaret Rogers: In other words, because we have been given the Spirit, we can walk in it.
Robin Hoagland: That’s lovely. And it brings us back to Keith’s readings. If we’re going to follow Christ Jesus, we’ve got to walk in the Spirit, walk in Love.
Now, many of you may know that Keith is Committee on Publication for the state of Texas. When Hurricane Harvey hit this last year, he and his wife were in their home without power. But they were on their cellphones, connecting with members who were impacted by the massive storm. They were in close touch with the Clerk and the Clerk’s Office here in Boston, too, connecting people with needs to people who could respond to them and care for them.
When events like this happen, what the Church is doing is often not very visible. It’s going on behind the scenes. It’s the quiet work of praying, listening, reaching out with love, making sure everyone is cared for. And that activity is making a difference.
Robin turned the meeting back over to Keith, who introduced a video featuring Nancy May Perry of Ojai, California. Nancy felt the mothering love of Church during the wildfires in her area last year. Just as her family were evacuating from their home, driving out on a highway that was in flames, her cellphone rang. The caller was a woman from The Mother Church, who said, “We’re calling everybody in the area. We just want to make sure you’re OK and let you know that there are so many people here metaphysically supporting the situation. You’re not alone.”
“I was so moved,” Nancy said. “I thought, There’s no other place to be than on the front lines of Christian Science.” (See youtube.com/watch?v=45oG5D6KNsk.)
Clerk’s report
Suzanne Riedel introduced María José Ocaña from Spain and André Kisonga from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who were representing 23 international Communications Coordinators (CC’s) that work with the international team of the Clerk’s Office to facilitate communication between The Mother Church and their fields. The CC’s were in Boston for a week of training and talking with one another.
Suzanne Riedel: The past three and a half years serving as Clerk of The Mother Church have helped me recognize more clearly the needs of members in many parts of the world. I’ve had the privilege of traveling to, speaking with, and thinking with members of The Mother Church and students of Christian Science in many areas of the world. I’ve gone to Japan, Puerto Rico, Indonesia, India, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Zambia. Later this week, I’ll go to Cameroon.
Regardless of cultures, languages, and distances, I’ve been so grateful that it’s divine Love that is speaking to and through these members of The Mother Church in all parts of the world. A passage from page 283 of Miscellany has been particularly inspiring to me during this time and helped me understand what our collective prayer can do for ourselves and for the world: “Individuals, as nations, unite harmoniously on the basis of justice, and this is accomplished when self is lost in Love—or God’s own plan of salvation. ‘To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly’ is the standard of Christian Science.”
We thought you’d like to hear from María José and André directly about how they’re supporting their fields and working with this communication.
Whatever problems we encounter, we can always resolve them by turning to God and replacing errors of thought with spiritual truth.
María José Ocaña: One of the things I love most about my field is that it doesn’t matter if we belong to a branch church or are part of an informal group, or maybe are in remote areas studying Science on our own—as members of the same family, we reach out to one another and take care of each other, support each other, and keep up conversations on Christian Science. It really feels like a family.
As members of a family, we sometimes do not agree on things, but thinking about our oneness with God leads us to feel the unity and recognize that each one of us has a unique role.
André Kisonga: In my field, we set up workshops about government. We explored the fact that the true governor is divine Mind, impartial and universal Love, and that everything and everybody in God’s universe is governed by Him. We considered that evil is never a person or a power, and that the Lord “maketh the devices of the people of none effect” (Psalms 33:10). Therefore it was clear that no one could, in reality, suffer or incur penalty because of the seeming mistakes of others.
Whatever problems we encounter, we can always resolve them by turning to God and replacing errors of thought with spiritual truth. This prayerful approach has helped to cool down social tension.
Robin paused the meeting to recognize Suzanne’s outstanding service as Clerk, saying, “She has poured oceanfuls of love on our members.” Robin also introduced the incoming Clerk, Barbara Fife, from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Treasurer’s report
Before discussing numbers, Robin asked Lyon Osborn to start by sharing his thoughts about the finances of The Mother Church.
Lyon Osborn: I’m grateful that the financial position of the Church is very sound, with savings at a historic high. But I’m also alert to the commonly held belief of cycles—that when the economy or an organization’s finances rise, they’ll inevitably fall sometime in the future. So much in material existence seems to have a start, growth, maturity, decline, and an end. But in Christian Science we know that divine Life is eternal, and that progress is the law of God.
In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, “Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.” She goes on to say: “Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight” (p. 246).
Robin Hoagland: Our Church Manual requires the Board of Directors to report on the amount of funds the Church has on hand, the amount of indebtedness, and its expenditures for the last year. Let’s start with the expenditures. Last fiscal year, which ended March 31, total expenditures were $121 million, an increase of $31 million from the prior year. Lyon, what was causing that increase in spending?
Lyon Osborn: Last year’s spending on Church healing activities, including our publishing activities, was about the same as the prior year. But we spent more on maintaining our facilities, including consolidating and updating our office spaces in the Publishing House, restoring our Church edifices for the long run, and revitalizing the Christian Science Plaza that surrounds all of our Church buildings. The Board of Directors has earmarked funds from our Church savings to pay for all of the costs related to these significant multi-year projects. If you want to follow the construction progress, you can go to christianscience.com and click on the “Plaza updates” link on the top right of the homepage.
Robin Hoagland: You mentioned Church savings, which is certainly one area where we’ve seen evidence of financial growth. As of March 31, the Church’s total funds on hand were $1.08 billion, an increase of $111 million from the prior year. Lyon, even though the Church spent more this past year, we still see quite an increase in our funds on hand. Would you explain that?
Lyon Osborn: There are three main reasons. First, the Church’s spending has been in balance with revenue, including revenue from your subscriptions and your generous contributions. Second, as the global economy and investment markets improved, the value of the Church’s invested funds also increased. And third, sales and long-term leases of Church real estate have continued to add to the total funds on hand.
Robin Hoagland: With the strengthening of the Church’s financial position in these past years, we often get questions like, What are we going to do with these funds? Or, Why don’t we just give away our publications for free? But we have to consider the intent Mary Baker Eddy had for these publications and whether we’re being faithful to that. Lyon, as Treasurer and as a Trustee of the Publishing Society, can you share how we’re thinking about this matter?
Lyon Osborn: Well, it’s important to remember that Mrs. Eddy established the Publishing Society as an arm of the Church, to support its activities. She expected that publishing healing, accurate, inspiring content in an efficient and effective way would pay for itself—would actually contribute to the Church—and not be a burden to it financially. In addition, the Publishing Society does offer financial programs for literature assistance.
Over the past ten years we’ve seen some significant changes. Even though the Publishing Society hasn’t yet achieved financial profitability, with your support, its deficit is less than half of what it was ten years ago.
Robin Hoagland: That’s remarkable!
Lyon Osborn: Yes, it’s good progress. And new titles like the new digital Monitor Daily and our new Hymnal have been demonstrating their spiritual utility.
Robin Hoagland: They’ve even sold faster than we thought they would. It’s really all about the value. Are we, as members, valuing these resources for our spiritual growth? If we are, then we’re going to subscribe—and we’re also going to read, we’re going to share, and we’re going to write for our publications.
So if publishing is expected to contribute to the Church financially, another question comes up: Should we use these funds for new initiatives for growth, either to spend here in Boston or around the world?
Lyon Osborn: Well, that would make sense if large increases in spending actually resulted in greater engagement with the Church and with Christian Science. But that hasn’t been the case over our Church’s history. When there have been periods of strong growth, Church spending was relatively modest.
With your support, the Publishing Society’s deficit is less than half of what it was ten years ago.
Today, where we’re seeing indications of growth or renewal within the movement, it’s happening naturally from healing and from sharing Christian Science. As we learn more about God’s true nature, our enriched affections lead us to embrace humanity, to fulfill our Master’s command to love our neighbors. No amount of spending here in Boston can substitute for the essential work of members practicing Christian Science.
Robin Hoagland: With the sound financial position we’ve already reported, it isn’t surprising that the Church has no financial indebtedness. But we could say we are indebted to our members for living this Science and for giving so generously to Church.
Keith introduced a video featuring Nancy Challenger, who told her story of how healing and sharing go hand in hand. Nancy was still recovering from an illness, walking on a walker, when she was inspired to share Christian Science with a man she met at the beach. He seemed hungry for the truth, and he eventually confessed that he had been planning to commit suicide that day, but something had told him to go to the beach instead. “When we walk in the Spirit, it’s about loving everyone we meet, caring about them, and reversing the things we’re seeing that are false about them,” Nancy said. “It’s a daily adventure.” (See youtube.com/watch?v=6SSPyVFt4aU.)
The meeting then paused for the singing of Hymn No. 453 from the new Hymnal.
Committee on Publication’s report
Kevin Ness: Hello, friends. Committee on Publication work blesses all whom it touches, including those who do the work. It clears mental roadblocks so the Science of the Christ may reach all humanity. It is a privilege to be a part of it. And the good news is, we all get to do it!
Before I was in this office, I watched the Committees on Publication with appreciation. I knew instinctively the work was important—to correct impositions on the public in regard to Christian Science and injustices done Mrs. Eddy and the members of this Church in the media, as the Church Manual describes. But thank goodness someone else was taking care of it, I thought. I didn’t have to do it!
But now I see more clearly that Committee work is the work of Christian Science practice, or healing of thought. This has been an ongoing focus for all Committees. It is obvious, too, that it’s the work of Church, so it takes all members united together. Mrs. Eddy expected us all to be participating.
As the Board has seen increased spiritual vitality throughout the movement, not surprisingly we’ve seen an increase in public comment on Christian Science this year. I can share three primary impositions we have frequently seen that would benefit from your dedicated prayer.
First, the imposition or false claim that Christian Science healing isn’t effective, or even real. Or that relying on prayer in a time of need is unwise and the equivalent of doing nothing. This claim isn’t new. It dates back to Mrs. Eddy’s time. It calls on all of us to be more consecrated healers, to affirm and demonstrate the efficacy and consistency of God’s healing power.
A second imposition on thought is the false stereotype that Christian Scientists are dogmatic and would therefore impose their beliefs on others. It has given us an opportunity to reaffirm publicly that we follow the Golden Rule by showing respect for others rather than imposing our beliefs. We are also obedient to the laws of the land, even while we have great conviction about our own healing practice.
Third is the imposition that Christian Science is not relevant in today’s technological society. If we find we’re going along with that kind of thinking, we need to correct it first in our own thought. A recent article relating to Christian Science had the headline, “Keep the faith or fill the seats?” What a false choice that is! There is great good going on in our Church—a vitality that is evident in the Field reports we’ve heard today and in our publications throughout the year.
We’ve been grateful for an increase in opportunities for Committees to give corrective talks to lift these impositions and others from public thought. We approach these talks as opportunities for healing—to show naturally who we are and remove misconceptions, not as promotion or public relations, but by heart meeting heart.
Two colleagues and I recently gave a paper and answered questions about Christian Science and its healing practice at an international conference on religion and healing in Asia. The invitation came from a professor in that country, a religion scholar who visited The Mother Church and came away with a changed view of Christian Science as misconceptions were cleared away. A warm relationship developed, and he strongly encouraged us to participate in this conference with other religious groups, academics, and medical doctors. He said Christian Scientists have something important to share with others about spiritual healing—a point he emphasized several times to the other participants in the conference. The occasion felt holy, with sincere and thoughtful questions from the participants.
Keith thanked Kevin and welcomed the Board back to the stage for a final conversation on the question, “Where do you feel we’re going from here?”
Robin Hoagland: That’s a great question, Keith, and we’re going to discover the answer together. But we’re not on this journey alone, are we? We have our unique and ever-present Pastor.
We thought we’d remind ourselves of what Mrs. Eddy wrote in her Message to The Mother Church for 1901, which is still so relevant today: “True, I have made the Bible, and ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,’ the pastor for all the churches of the Christian Science denomination, but that does not make it impossible for this pastor of ours to preach!” She goes on to say, “The Word of God is a powerful preacher, and it is not too spiritual to be practical, nor too transcendental to be heard and understood” (p. 11). She knew this Pastor is universal and speaks to anyone, anywhere in the world.
How many opportunities are just waiting for us as we pray and listen with sincerity and earnestness.
One of the most touching stories we’ve heard this year has to do with our Pastor, and it comes from our Church family in southeastern Nigeria. For the past ten years, volunteers there have been working on a translation of our textbook. And this last year, those efforts coalesced into the first translation into their local language of Igbo.
Robin introduced a video of Nigerian members of The Mother Church speaking about what the translation of Science and Health means to them. One woman recalled being asked to copy a handwritten Igbo translation of the textbook to share with other branch churches. During a week when she was doing this work, she was suffering with severe symptoms of pneumonia. She reported, “I came across the place where it says Paul understood that the illusion before his material senses was the problem, and then he changed to a spiritual sense, which is the only sense.… As I was writing that, I had an instant healing of pneumonia.” (See youtube.com/watch?v=dewHl4bWeOA.)
Robin Hoagland (holding up a copy of the translation): This is the labor of Love. Pretty amazing!
Well, not all of us can translate Science and Health into another language, but we are required to interact with our Pastor in deep and meaningful ways. What are some of the things you feel we can all do, and what kind of difference will it make?
Margaret Rogers: I was thinking back to something Nancy Challenger said in her video, that we need to love the Holy Ghost. Holy Ghost is defined in the Glossary of Science and Health as “Divine Science” (p. 588). That can sound sort of simple, but how much of our time are we trying to get the Holy Ghost to do something for us instead of just loving the Science, the truth that it’s presenting of what we are and what we have?
Jesus asked Peter at the Sea of Galilee, “Do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15, New International Version). One of the ways you could take that is, “Do you really love the truth more than you love just being comfortable in the world?” Of course, Peter professed over and over that he did. And each time, you felt he must really have been wanting to. I think that’s where we start, praying to want to—to want to love divine Science more than anything else. If we feel we don’t yet—and most of us feel we don’t yet—we’re still pretty much trying to be comfortable in the earth realm. But if we pray to want to, then there’s nothing that can stop us.
Rich Evans: I love the reference on page 248 in Science and Health about the mortal model and the perfect model, and the fact that we can turn 180 degrees and see the correct view of ourselves that will lead us out of a rut and get us to where we can be of service to humanity. How many opportunities are just waiting for us as we pray and listen with that sincerity and earnestness and expansion of thought that we talked about at the beginning.
Scott Preller: I think about the meeting we had over the weekend on the Pastor. So many people have commented on how just having ten minutes of quiet together to delve into the Pastor was such a joy. And when you look at the faces of the people who were working on that Igbo translation, they so powerfully tell us that it’s an imposition to think that engaging with our Pastor or being involved in church work is anything but an utter joy.
Skip Phinney: I was just thinking how appropriate it is that we’re ending with the Igbo translation of Science and Health, and what Science and Health means to us. During the last part of the time that Mrs. Eddy was here, she constantly urged people to turn to the textbook. She wasn’t asking for more people in the churches. She wasn’t asking for building more churches. She was asking for more of the healing that comes from what’s in the textbook, because she knew that it was this revelation of an entirely new world, a new universe of Spirit, that she had written down. She knew what that had done for her, and how it had initiated and developed and caused the Church to grow. And so she was urging us to get back to the books.
Robin Hoagland: Just to sum up: It’s about joy and it’s about love. If you didn’t attend Saturday’s workshop on Sunday Schools and Reading Rooms, or yesterday’s “Walking with the Word,” we encourage you to view the videos (see christianscience.com/annualmeeting). We think you’ll really enjoy them.
Robin introduced a video featuring Herb Webb, one of the participants in “Walking with the Word,” who described the Christian Science Pastor as “the most precious, meaningful thing to me.” He said, “Nothing in my life is more important than studying the Bible and Science and Health and applying what they contain. It’s well worth it because of the inspiration, because of the understanding. The more you study it, the more inspiration you get, the more you feel like demonstrating it, and the more you see the proof of what’s written in the book. Oh yeah, study the textbook!” (See youtube.com/watch?v=EqtYBlnPYEg.)
Annual Meeting concluded with silent prayer, then the singing of Hymn 139 from the Christian Science Hymnal and Keith’s reading of a benediction (Psalms 89:15).
Summaries of events held prior to Annual Meeting—“Reading Rooms and Sunday Schools in today’s world” and “Walking with the Word”—will appear soon in upcoming issues of the Journal.
