Articles

On October 5, the American National Women's Hall of Fame will honor another select group of American women who have triumphed in the face of overwhelming obstacles and made a "trailblazing" contribution to society. The enduring value of their accomplishments—and of others inducted into the Hall of Fame in annual ceremonies held since 1973 —will be celebrated in Seneca Falls, New York, birthplace of women's rights in the United States, and site of the first Women's Rights Convention in 1848.

By 1905 Mary Baker Eddy had become a national figure. The media of that day were focusing more and more of their attention on her as Founder and Leader of the Christian Science movement.

After my husband and I had made half a dozen major moves, including two overseas, and several minor moves, we purchased a house with the unspoken but nevertheless heartfelt desire never to move again. A few years later I went into the public practice of Christian Science healing.

People sometimes find it hard to pray about disease, illness, injury, or for that matter, any difficulty. The symptoms and circumstances in the human scene are often so tenacious— and apparently so solid—that we may feel unsure.

Last year, with the permission of my branch church, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Rancho Santa Fe, California, another Christian Scientist and I wrote to all the Christian Science churches in our metropolitan county, proposing we unite in a three-month prayer focus to heal crime and violence. Eighteen churches and one society enthusiastically signed up.

In a letter sent out to our branch church membership, the executive board requested a meeting in the interest of dealing with insect infestation. It mentioned that we would be taking a vote to decide whether to authorize expenditure of over two thousand dollars to allow a pest control company to free our church building of termites and carpenter ants.

I just wanted to share with you the results of a lecture that First Church of Christ, Scientist, Charleston, South Carolina, sponsored a while ago on the topic of victimization. This topic was chosen by the lecture committee in response to newspaper articles predicting that a rise in abuse cases would accompany the stress caused by lost jobs.

A sense of purpose is essential to everything we do, whether we're faced with an important decision, searching for deeper meaning in our lives, or just looking for inspiration. Each of us can probably think of a time when gaining a clear sense of purpose made the accomplishment of a daunting task possible.

Suppose you are interviewing new applicants for membership in your branch church. When you sit face to face with someone braced for questions about his or her spiritual stance, you can lean on the steadying guidance Mary Baker Eddy gives in a letter written to her Church about "receiving or dismissing candidates" for membership.

At a meeting of our lecture committee in a Christian Science branch church, the very effective first-time chairman told of an insight she'd had recently about lectures. It was tempting for me to think or even say, "Oh, I thought about that forty years ago—and over and over again while on at least eleven lecture committees since that time.