As promised, our meeting included two guests who have given much prayerful thought to the evolution of The Mother Church. Discussion was rich and broad. Here's a summary:

1) Christian Science can be presented in many different ways and we need to be careful not to question the surface presentation so intently that we fail to listen deeply for what is really being said. A member read from a letter sent by John Doorly to Arthur Corey (see the latter's book, Christian Science Class Instruction, page 96) which includes this: "There is no ultimate to the revelation and translation of infinity."

2) The Christian Science Board of Directors has absolute control of The Mother Church, as established by the Manual and in the courts. Mary Baker Eddy set it up this way to discourage politics and encourage prayer. Faced with seeming totalitarianism, what resort has a Scientist but God? Is this a loss or a gain?

3) The origin of Emergence and the Christian Science Group was the Board's intransigence with regard to Gay people in Christian Science. This and other conservative positions are based on a fearful assessment of the economic prospects of teachers and practitioners should any new flowering of human experience be brought to scientific thought. While we are all sad to see this, no one was surprised in light of similar outcomes in the industrial and commercial realms where collapses and slow sags happen all the time and managements cling desperately to outmoded ways. Everyone in the room was glad we had our group and its free format evolving to meet the needs of the day. One member remarked that a good mother pushes her chicks out of the nest — maybe The Mother Church had, after all, done her duty for us!

4) Getting a bit more metaphysical, The Mother Church is a power and presence to be understood and lived individually. If it is viewed as a material concept, the temptation will be to manipulate it and react to the results, which will fluctuate between good and evil. The Christian Science Group is The Mother Church in local action as is each one of us. The corollary question is: Am I matter or Mind? This is important, because a person can be just as foolish and judgmental as any institutionalized group.. One member asked, "How am I living Truth, Love and Principle in my life right now?" Then he said, "My answers to that question constitute my Mother Church membership."

5) Twelve-step programs have autonomous meetings but do have so-called "intergroups" overseeing the publication of meeting schedules and literature. Could not the Christian Science Movement have something as impersonal and light at the top? Perhaps, but in one sense the term Mother in relation to the headquarters or head office has the benefit of raking up a lot of psychic material surrounding our mother complex, which might otherwise remain totally unconscious. This requires work and involves not only the personal mother stuff but also the deeper archetypal material. One member wondered what he might be projecting unto The Mother Church, since his mother was a quite erratic manic depressive. Some work to do.

On the archetypal level, the Mother is unconditional love, coddling, nurturing and so forth; but as with all material concepts, there's another side — the witch, the beckoner back to the womb and forward to the tomb, the promoter of sexlessness, non-differentiation and ennui. If we can watch for these deathly feelings arising around our relationship to Boston or to any large scale enterprise and discharge them with Science, The Mother Church will have been a great boon to growth.

6) Christian Science has its own language for promoting and describing healing and human life in general. As Christian Scientists we need to respect other languages describing the same phenomena and find ways of relating our understanding in these — whether in the fields of religion, medicine or the sciences. Again such an undertaking would be living The Mother Church in everyday life.

7) In this regard, one member assessed two very sacred Roman Catholic doctrines in light of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy did something like this in reconciling Judaism and Christianity on page 360, starting at line 32 of the textbook. The two doctrines are the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin and her bodily Assumption into Heaven. They were only recently discerned, in 1854 and 1950 respectively but had for many years before that seized the popular imagination and been rendered in art. From a Christian Science standpoint, Mary represents every man, the thought turned to God to receive the divine idea. This corresponds with the older Catholic doctrine of Mary as good mother and mediatrix of divine energies. Although we're on very high ground here, we're still in the Genesis II unfoldment. The brilliance of Christian Science and these doctrinal discernments is that they take us to Revelation, Chapter 21 where man is completely divine, without antecedents in matter. From the standpoint of God, man's body is divine — in Heaven. Furthermore, the placement of Mary in the bridal chamber, while scandalous to some scholars, is indicative of the male-femaleness of God and man — fully supported in Science.

Two healings were reported:

1) A member was concerned about a Christian Science friend living in the flooded areas of North Carolina. He delayed calling until he had prayed fully. He got her on the phone and found her well. Her house had not been damaged although many of those in the neighborhood had been. She had worked throughout the storm for the safety of everyone and no one was hurt in her vicinity. She felt one reason her house sustained no damage was that she wanted to be free to help others rather than get bogged down in personal troubles. We had some discussion of whether a Scientist could expect to receive special healing not available to others. We saw quickly that such a belief was against what we had seen of church and worked to know that everyone is equal in the sight of God, the only healer.

2) A member's laser printer suddenly shut down and nothing he could do would restore it. He turned the whole problem over to God, realizing infinite intelligence as knowing all and being completely in charge. He did something else for an hour, practically forgetting the situation. When he returned to his computer, he went right to the correct switch to get the printer functioning again.

Next week The New York Times and the Lesbian and Gay Center will host a seminar on Gay Fathers. Since it will occur at the same time as our meeting, we decided to work on the Father from the standpoint of Christian Science. It also follows nicely our exploration of the Mother in conjunction with this week's topic.