This was a week of momentous international meetings. We looked at some of these after first exploring the dynamics of such gatherings from the perspective of the mini lab of our own weekly get-togethers.

We've done it all. To take the extremes:

• assembling mortals to persuade and influence each other, massaging memories and trading comfortable aphorisms; or
• attracting the desperate to launch scarily into explosive alchemical reactions, turning up perhaps a truth or two.

Well, most meetings are somewhere in the middle, but whatever the content, we found it helpful to see a meeting as a temenos or sacred space where "...the hopes and fears of all the years are met..."(Christian Science Hymnal, Hymn 223:1), where we may our "...highest pleasure find, in Thy great work to stand."(Ibid, Hymn 94:4)

A meeting from God's standpoint is His presence, power, knowledge and action. Error is revealed only to be dissolved.

In French and Spanish the word for meeting is "reunion". This gave us a hint of what a meeting could be — ratification of "...a union predestined from all eternity."(Unity of Good, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 17:9)

As for the momentous international meetings, they could all use some scientific evaluation — and we gave it a try.

The Christian Science Mother Church held its Annual Meeting in Berlin — the first time ever outside Boston. This gave a boost to the idea of Truth's universality. It's not merely American, nor — we'd add — heterosexual, nor even Christian Scientist. It's the Christ, the reality of man, whatever the particular local term for this phenomenon.

President Bush's interactions with European and Middle Eastern leaders could be seen perhaps as the American eagle's gentler than usual side. We found some verses in Deuteronomy to protect us from personalizing this situation. The principle of peace and reformation is transpersonal divine law. "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him."(Deuteronomy 32:11,12)

One member gave us his impressions of "Soldier's Girl"a Showtime TV movie about the real-life love affair between Army Private Barry Winchel and pre-op transsexual, Calpernia Addams. The interesting gender possibilities (affirming much of what Christian Science says on the subject) were cut short by military homophobia, mental illness, drugs, booze and, from all appearances, the spurned homoerotic attraction of one of the murderers for the victim. Our member said of the story that it was "a meeting of disparate elements gone horribly awry."We hope and pray it's the last gasp of sanctioned homophobia in the military and note that the commanding officer at the base where the murder occurred has seen his career stunted.

Most of our current members were involved in the sexual revolution of the 20th century. So there were lots of meetings, whether chance encounters or more organized cruising events. Some ended up in 12-Step programs to overcome the addictive effects of it all. We heard stories of dangerous pick-ups survived, getting it on with celebrities and revelatory dips into emotional intimacy. We won't recite the full litany here — our readers could no doubt match us tit for tat anyway — but it needs to be reported that most still seem stunned, wounded and shut down from these experiences; even as we are glad to have helped out in debunking the unrealistic miscalled Victorian values (Queen Victoria reportedly having been quite a gal in bed). We took comfort, without getting fully clear at the meeting, that our present state is a step towards the Science that will meet our natural desires for closeness, joy and satisfaction. (Our topic for next week, Malpractice, should help out).

One member said he was getting plenty of inspiration in addressing his teenage homophobia wounds by visiting a new web site YoungGayAmerica.com which has many positive stories of present day LGBTQ teenagers surviving and flourishing. "I may just pop out the module of my teenage years — a fantasy anyway in Science — and pop in some of these inspiring stories as my own!"

Here are some individual experiences from this week.

1) One member has thought of himself as dyslexic for years. He has been unable to learn mental or physical disciplines in a class setting with others. This week he was stumbling through a tap dance class, but in his desperation discovered that when he stopped glorifying some classmates and criticizing others, he suddenly became totally proficient.

2) A friend of another member alerted him to "over-functioning based on self-betrayal."Our member has kept this in mind and seen how easily he betrays his true feelings (and mission) and then resorts to manic activity to smother the emotional pain.

3) Another member found himself uncomfortable as colleagues joked about the appearance of cosmetics clients. He exploded that if they could not locate and celebrate the true beauty of the client, they'd hardly be able to make them look good.

4) Another member felt she'd been severely "malpracticed"by a friend and was angry. As she thought about it and prayed she realized she malpracticed all the time on friends and neighbors — gossiping about them and thinking negatively. She quoted this from Jesus: "why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"(Matthew 7:3) She resolved to work on her own malpractice and requested we make it the topic for next week.

Others agreed right away. One said any departure from seeing ourselves and all others as reflection of Spirit, is malpractice.