Having no fixed topic, this week's meeting started slowly after members' readings which had no readily apparent common theme.

One of our members, now living in Ireland dropped in for a visit, so we let him go first. He described his interest in the way Margaret Laird presents Christian Science in her many tapes and books. He feels it is particularly modern and responsive to Lesbian and Gay struggles. We then went on to an extended discussion of how her healing methods differ from those most of us hear of in church and the publications. Different terminologies and concepts left some of us out on cracking limbs so our chairperson requested we move on to demonstrations.

One member used the week to work on his own internalized homophobia. As he carefully watched his thought and particularly the underlying feeling tone he found devastating negative forces and beliefs that constantly undercut his sense of well-being. He decided to confront the tendency to idealize non-Gay men — including romantic obsessions over some of them — and found the grace provided to allow him to just let go of one of these and move it to a friendly, non-parasitic basis. The former "pull" was gone! Powerful dreams, deconstructed with the help of a savvy friend, indicated some of the mortal roots for this problem. Late in the week this same friend sent him a gift in the mail — a book entitled, "If the Buddha Dated". This has some wonderful pointers in it, and while Christian Science and Buddhism have significant differences, he is deriving considerable value from it. He joked with his friend that maybe he'd write "If the Christ Dated". Note, not Jesus or Mrs. Eddy — for he could see clearly that mental science used to justify anything or model behavior on someone else's demonstration is dead if not deadly.

Another member worked on astrology. While he humanly discounts its claims, he has found the subject often comes up among friends and particularly among Gay friends. He found the following statement by Mrs. Eddy quite disturbing: "Astrology is well in its place, but this place is secondary," (Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 34:5-6). It appears in the article entitled, "Where Art Thou?" which basically refutes any belief in matter as cause. He also read this from Science and Health: "The planets have no more power over man than over his Maker, since God governs the universe; but man, reflecting God's power, has dominion over all the earth and its hosts," (p. 102:12-15). Another member then read Science and Health, p. 125:21-7, which includes this striking statement about the post mortal universe, "Error will be no longer used in stating truth." We concluded that astrology, like other forms of mortal learning, ancient and modern, is only an ephemeral hint of the divine all-Power.

Another member is being visited frequently by an uninvited rodent and wondered how we would handle it in Science. She was sad that the woman who is usually so clear in this area had taken the night off. Others rallied however and came up with solid demonstrations. One remembered stunning a mouse with the beam of a flashlight and crying out to him, "Hold it right there. You are in my home uninvited; I don't want you here, so please leave." He felt great love for the poor shaking animal but was sure it could do better elsewhere. It did not return.

This brought up what to do with the belief in invasion by nation states, armies running amok (Kosovo), or diseases. One member endorsed the clear-cut "this far and no further" approach while another liked to view such crises as mortal mind's dualistic reading of the fact in Science that infinite, interpenetrative, harmonious divine ideas alone are present . These seemingly different ways of assessing a situation recall Mrs. Eddy's description of the angels Michael and Gabriel (see Science and Health, p. 566:25-13). Here is a part of what she says, "[Michael] leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering Love."

One of our members traveling abroad e-mailed a testimony. A few minutes before the plane was due to take off for a long flight to Asia, he realized he did not have his glasses. He immediately called his Teacher for metaphysical help and was able to get through — most of the time he has to leave a message on the machine. She said, "You have everything you need." He was then led to call the limo company he had used to get to the airport and they said they would signal their driver. As the minutes passed and the boarding announcements continued, our member concentrated on the harmony of being in Science. At the last possible moment before the door was shut the driver ran up with the glasses and our friend was off to Bangkok. In passing we marveled at all the telecommunications links in this chain — cell phones, pagers, laptops, and our friend in Thailand will soon see this testimony flashed across continents on to his computer as he reclines in a sunny roof-top garden. All of it "moving in the harmony of Science" is the proper evaluation of the circumstance if we feel ourselves impressed by the mere mechanism of it.

Some members commented on the new movie "The Matrix" as having elements of Science in it. There is an emphasis on the power of thought and the characters weave in and out of mortal and immortal consciousness. Furthermore, a resurrection occurs, as seems seasonally appropriate.

One member felt it was our duty as a spiritually oriented group to seek and find and live the Truth that underlies all the dangerous dichotomies today. This is the absolute jewel of Christian Science. Certainly we need to do this with hetero- and homosexual desire — it is Love, i.e., God, alone that governs and constitutes it. But we also need to do this very broadly, with race, nationality and religion. Can we see/be the one God that is the basis for the Serbian Orthodox and the Albanian Moslems? At base, whatever the surface may say, we are all derived from the same divine elements and are therefor in harmony.

We'll look at Emotions next week. Some of our members feel this is a particularly difficult area for Christian Scientists, if not all spiritually directed people.