This was our sixth meeting spent on one of the synonyms for God and one of the seven deadly sins. Nurses from High Ridge House, a Christian Science care facility in Riverdale NY, were among the evening's membership.

Discussion started with the interesting point that Mary Baker Eddy often refers to "Christ, Truth"in her writings. While Truth is a synonym for God, Christ is not generally said to be so. However, Christ appears to have all the qualities of Deity and the full backing thereof. Can we say it's God? It's certainly the "God part"of Christ Jesus and the "divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."(Science and Health, p. 583: 10-11)

Truth being so intimately associated with Christ and thus Jesus has a particularly immediate application to the tangible and visible based on a demonstration of Christian Science. It's analogous to the sixth day of creation (see Science and Health, pp. 518-519) where "The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and expresses all, and all must therefore be as perfect as the divine Principle is perfect."

Anger now came into the discussion. The so-called "anger of the Lord" — addressed by Mrs. Eddy in our readings (see Science and Health, pg. 293: 24-31) — we felt was a fairly antique notion. But we had to wonder when some admittedly nutty religious leaders (with huge followings!) claimed 9-11 as an example of the Lord's anger with America or when many of those reading the Christian Science Sentinel issue on AIDS (July 22, 2002) bombarded the editorial staff with scorn when they mildly suggested that disease is not from God.

Some members felt there might be a place for an expression of anger as shown in Jesus' rebuke of the moneychangers, echoed by Mrs. Eddy in some of our readings. (See the quotes from Miscellaneous Writings, p. 224 and The Manual of The Mother Church, p. 40). But were Jesus' actions and Mrs. Eddy's words really indicative of anger? Some members felt we must be careful not to rebuke error while in a state of anger. We may well feel deep revulsion at someone's "sin"but must then check out our own unconscious drives and trace the problem in all ramifications before launching into what should be a healing exchange with another.

"Anger in the name of the Lord"seemed to us quite a dangerous concept. Most of the international, racial and other interpersonal problems can be traced to this sort of thing. All the preposterous positions taken by the various sides in the Israel/Palestine, India/Pakistan, Balkan, Northern Irish, etc., conflicts need to have the religious layer peeled away to reveal the simple human desires underneath for respect and safety resulting in mutual well-being. Even seeming economic and political scraps — like the US/Iraq animosity — have the ring of religious fervor.

We next discussed how to deal with anger on an individual basis. This is tricky in a society which basically suppresses it. We may not know that we and others are angry until something awful breaks loose. Even then we may ascribe the problem to something else.

Anger may show up in a disguise, such as inordinate praise (Freud's so-called reaction formation), illness, addiction, or depression (because the anger is turned against one's self). The first step in dealing with it is to make the anger conscious and feel it. Then as both Mrs. Eddy (see the Readings from Science and Health, p. 462) and the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book (pp. 63-71) recommend, the problems producing the anger must be traced to their roots.

Once we clearly discern the anger that we and others are suffering from, we can dispel it with Christian Science. Several strategies were brought up. One member mentioned the experience of the three Hebrew boys in the furnace (see Daniel, Chapter 3). "Nothing in their thought, centered on God, could be ignited."They emerged without even the smell of smoke on their clothing.

Another member saw the struggle to recover from either one's own or another's anger as dependent on how well we see that we do not in reality dwell in the second chapter of Genesis, with its many dualities, but rather in the first chapter thereof where the oneness and allness of Deity are all there is to man. He reminded us of the time he and another member of the group avoided a Gay bashing, apparently driven by much noisy homophobic rage, when they told their attackers that everyone there was a child of God, living in the Kingdom of God and therefore perfect.

Another member recommended the use of the wondrous Christian Science technique of immortal Mind reading. This is explained in the readings, on page 83 of Science and Health. She illustrated it by telling us of a healing of resentment with her landlord after he withdrew certain privileges he had promised her. She worked with a Christian Science practitioner to remove the resentment from her thought by reading the case entirely from the spiritual standpoint. As this new standpoint took hold, other more appropriate activities showed up to take the place of those withdrawn.

One member who had attended a workshop during the week presenting some clinical applications of a Polynesian legend about "Rona long-teeth"wanted to give us a rundown on it, particularly since it helps make conscious narcissistic rage which might otherwise remain unconscious and therefore unhealed. We were running short of time however and wanted to hear from our guests about High Ridge House. Perhaps our member will say something more of Rona in the future or pull together some comments for our articles page or that of Emergence International.

Our guests explained High Ridge House's mission and operations in support of Christian Science healing. Services are available either at their facility in Riverdale N.Y. or on an outpatient basis. They have rooms available for rest and study. There do not appear to be restrictions on admittance of LGBT patients and the staff are said to be supportive. (There is always the possibility that other patients or even staff might have personal axes to grind — but we're all used to that in our daily lives and healing is possible here as in other areas). Here's their website for further information: http://www.christiansciencenys.com/highridgehouse.htm.

For next week we'll observe our annual tradition of reading aloud the Thanksgiving Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly and sharing testimonies of gratitude. The following week we'll finish up our handling of the synonyms and seven deadly sins.