City of Joy
October 21, 1999
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Our topic for the past two weeks is taken from the focus title of the Emergence Conference held in Philadelphia, Oct. 14-17. Those who attended the conference summarized the proceedings for those who did not.
The City of Joy is the consciousness of God — the only consciousness of man and the universe. This is where we reside, as the conference clearly brought out. This residency pervaded the work in and around the conference.
This year's meeting marked a kind of rite of passage for Emergence. The Mother Church had silenced teachers and practitioners from speaking to groups outside the formal church structure; we were on our own to grow and develop presentations within the ranks. We rose to the occasion. There was a new level of adventurousness and relevance unavailable from those drilled in organizationally sanctioned aphorisms.
A panel of "old-timers" kicked off the sessions, giving those present a flavor of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Science initiatives dating back into the early 70's. Several people talked of the first international conference in Chicago in 1983. Hilarious impressions of interviews with editors of the periodicals and Board members leveled residues of fear.
The keynote presentation on "City of Joy" deconstructed Revelation 21 and Mrs. Eddy's comments thereon (see Science and Health, pp. 572-578) bringing out new and healing insights.
Two talks the next day presented in dramatic, non traditional formats the truths of Christian Science — one using mythological language and the other the imagery of gardening. Both showed clearly the difference between mortal mind and divine Mind — a most essential distinction in Science.
The above presentations will be available in Emergence's magazine Emerge in coming months.
On both Friday and Saturday, attendees participated in small workshops do discuss and work on topics important to Christian Scientists and to the Lesbian and Gay community — for instance, putting prayer into action, speaking with authority, reversing a mortal legacy and how to conquer fatigue. Some of the material developed here will be included in coming editions of Emerge and/or In Between Times.
In open sessions, some attendants described sad circumstances of abuse and dismissal from branch churches for being Gay. They appear to be recovering and have found other branches to attend or denominations to embrace.
Two testimonies at our Sunday morning service reported healings of tension with branches. One man who was stripped of his clerk duties and driven out has recently secured an apology from the offending branch's board. A Lesbian couple has been invited to join a branch, after considerable prayerful work. There was also a wonderfully on-target testimony of the disappearance of a tumor once the testifier had accepted his homosexuality as the highest human corporeal concept of divine Love in his life.
The business meeting pointed to the need for articles and testimonies for the publications, particularly Emerge. An editorial board was formed to assist the Executive Secretary with this magazine. Money is needed to keep alive the 1-800 number and extensive mailings and to give the ExSec his agreed-upon stipend.
There were quite a number of new people at the conference giving it a special sense of renewal and dedication.
Our topic for next week was requested by members of Emergence who are currently working on it in Science. We want to deal with the issues facing young Lesbians and Gay Men whether it's called being different, coming out, threats of abuse and violence or perhaps the special gift they have to give to mankind. Those not currently seeing themselves as young may wish to feel back into their own youthful period to discover the issues afresh.
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
NEW JERUSALEM. Divine Science; the spiritual facts and harmony of the universe; the kingdom of heaven, or reign of harmony.
CHILDREN. The spiritual thoughts and representatives of Life, Truth, and Love.
Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously.
The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see,—that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness.
There was no temple,—that is, no material structure in which to worship God, for He must be worshipped in spirit and in love.
This human sense of Deity yields to the divine sense, even as the material sense of personality yields to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite Principle and infinite idea,—as one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love.
Man's individual being must reflect the supreme individual Being, to be His image and likeness; and this individuality never originated in molecule, corpuscle, materiality, or mortality. God holds man in the eternal bonds of Science,—in the immutable harmony of divine law. Man is a celestial; and in the spiritual universe he is forever individual and forever harmonious.