Church from 30,000 feet

You view the world differently—more expansively and with greater clarity—when you're flying 30,000 feet or so above the earth's surface. Walls and borders disappear, time zones telescope, storm clouds turn into a carpet of whiteness, and the world's conflicts seem to dissolve into the curvature of the planet. But honestly, I never expected to see my Church differently from that height. That's what happened, though, the afternoon of June 2.

I'd just attended the first half of the 2003 Annual Meeting & Conference at The Mother Church in Boston, and was flying across the Atlantic to participate the next day in the final meeting of the three-day conference in Berlin. And somewhere along the line in that overnight flight, I began to feel, more intensely than I ever had, just how desperately our world needs the healing ministrations of Mary Baker Eddy's epoch-defining discovery—Christian Science. And how singularly well-equipped the Church of Christ, Scientist—the global Church she founded "to reflect in some degree the Church Universal and Triumphant" ^{Manual of The Mother Church, p. 19.}— is to care for those needs.

As this Journal's coverage shows, it would be difficult for anyone to come away from the 2003 Annual Meeting of The Mother Church & Conference without a vision for the universality of both Christian Science and the Church of Christ, Scientist. The meeting spanned not only two cities—Boston and Berlin—but the whole earth, via the World Wide Web. And I had the special privilege of experiencing that world span, by sitting in the audience on both sides of the ocean.

As thousands of us sat in The Mother Church auditorium in Boston, before the Sunday morning church service on June 1, we felt the momentous, symbolic inclusiveness and unity of the occasion—sometimes with tears in our eyes. On two-way simulcast, we watched on huge screens as thousands of members and friends assembled in Max-Schmeling-Halle in Berlin and listened to the prelude on the magnificent organ in Boston. We sang together—each in our own language—the glorious hymn by the 16th-century German reformer, Martin Luther. We heard Mother Church soloist Jennifer Foster sing in seven languages. We listened in English to the words of the Christian Science pastor—the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures—translated into six languages in Berlin.

Next was the Sunday afternoon "Welcome" program, telecase from the Halle in Berlin and hosted by Virginia Harris, Chairman of The Christian Science Board of Directors. There, Michael Seek, Senior Managing Editor of the German edition of The Herald of Christian Science, along with other German Christian Scientists, recounted the heroic efforts that led to the official recognition of Christian Science in East Germany, just before the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

Then, on Monday, came the climactic event of the conference—Annual Meeting itself. Church officers—some in Boston and some in Berlin—gave simulcast reports. Mary Ridgway, Clerk, invited attendees to deepen their relationship with Science and Health, in order to better fulfill the mission of the universal Church Mary Baker Eddy designed. Walter D. Jones, Treasurer, announced the opening of a new "Feed the hungry, heal the heart" Fund to support communication of the ideas in Science and Health to seekers around the world. And Virginia Harris, speaking for The Christian Science Board of Directors, urged attendees to go to humanity's rescue—to live Christ's compassion in this age, as Jesus did.

If ever there was a borderless, boundless coming together in the name of Church—one symbolizing "the Church Universal"—this was it. An assembly without walls or nationality, beyond time and space. So much so that, even midair between Boston and Berlin, I still felt part of it. True, I was missing a couple of sessions, but I still felt right in sync with my Church and its vision for the future.

Actually, I suddenly realized, the whole world was part of that conference, that vision, that Church. Not just on the Interent, but in a larger, more all-inclusive way. The passionate, practical caring for humanity's needs that radiated from that conference was being felt in the ends of the earth.

Unavoidably, Christian Science will have to encounter the whole universe—and pour its healing influence into every corner inhabited by humankind. That's because it's so much more than a creed or philosophy or theory or finite lifestyle. It is, as the woman who discovered it wrote, "God's right hand grasping the universe,—all time, space, immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect...." ^{Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 364.}

And, just as unavoidably, the international Church of Christ, Scientist—the Church entrusted with communicating the facts of Christian Science—will need to encounter and engage the whole universe. To accomplish this, the Church will need to be energetic, agile, and unified. It will need to be expansive and flexible. It will need to be hospitable to people of all races and nations and persuasions. It will need to help uplift the standard of health and living for all children, women, and men—everywhere. Without exception, without judgement, without holding back.

There's irresistible warmth and inclusiveness in these words from a letter Mary Baker Eddy once wrote to the Church she'd founded: "I cannot be the conscience for this church; but if I were, I would gather every reformed mortal that desired to come, into its fold, and counsel and help him to walk in the footsteps of His flock." ^{Ibid., p. 146.}

In Berlin, as I walked through the Brandenburg Gate—and then stepped across the end-on-end brickwork that marks where the Berlin Wall once stood—I remembered that view of Church from 30,000 feet. I acknowledged to myself that "God's right hand grasping the universe" had ultimately brought down that Wall. And that members of the Church of Christ, Scientist, had actively witnessed that historic event.

I thought of the other walls of oppression and separation that still remain in the world—from the fences dividing Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank, to the walls separating Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, to the land barrier setting off Muslims from Christians in Sudan. To say nothing of the mental walls imprisoning millions of earth's citizens in fear, disease, and poverty. And I felt more certain than ever that Christian Science—and the Church of Christ, Scientist—must ultimately play a role in dissolving those walls, for humanity's sake.

Mary Trammell, Editor