"Nothing changes here,"(see Readings, Hymn 148). That's how our chairperson started the discussion. "Do we know where the 'here' referred to is?"

Members struggled. There's no change in the reality and facts of being, but there are and should be many changes in appearances and the beliefs underlying them.

"Christian Science is a very efficient way of keeping beliefs and appearances evolving in line with the reality of being. We loosen our grip on the beliefs and appearances to find the spiritual facts. Living these deeply and broadly, the beliefs and appearances unfold harmoniously."

"That's the best case. Why do we sometimes need pain and destruction to make us change?"

"I don't know, but one thing's for sure. It's not God setting it up that way."

"We always have the choice of suffering or Science. But many of us don't know that, or if we do, we cling to beliefs and appearances until our deeper selfhood can't abide it any longer."

"So we have to wake up to what our divinity is saying."

"Yes; and it feels like suffering and pain until and even as we do."

"But we're already infinite, eternal, perfect."

"We are in reality — but we've swathed ourselves in beliefs of being a material person interacting with others of the same type. With that underlying belief system operating, we fill up with personal vanities, suspicions, gripes and so on."

"So we get a 9/11 or an earthquake or AIDS."

"Sure — but I don't want to be censorious. Basically the way I look at is that when we're caught in the delirium of personal sense anything is possible. But the point in Science is that whatever it is, it's a dramatization of our psychic pain. And it can be healed, as we let go of the personal sense and pain."

"Shouldn't we look at problems as constructive — as invitations to deeper healing, to see things we didn't even know we were lacking."

"Well yes of course — even if they seem horrible at the time. I remember a practitioner saying if we could only look on a problem as an opportunity rather than a difficulty, we could really enjoy the healing work and be much better fitted to help ourselves and others out of the pit of duality."

"What about pleasant beliefs and appearances? Don't we need to wake up from these too?"

"Yes — but most of us won't until they go sour. The wise Christian Scientist will constantly see through the veil of duality — including edges and boundaries — and not let his life rest on belief."

Some members recalled what now seems our naive hopefulness over the emerging "New World Order"a few years ago. It now looks like a cruel joke. Did we flow with the general consensus, letting it lie in the realm of belief and not fact? "It's still a new world order, if a negative one. Why don't we see it as a call to spiritual arms, to convert the negative energy into powerful glimpses of the fact of Oneness pressing upon us?"

"Good point — we don't have to have problems along with the progress. Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 224 of Science and Health that "There should be painless progress,"(see the full statement in the Readings).

We discussed some areas of change.

1) Members of our group recently decided to tighten our focus on LGBT community issues to support an evolving "out"presence in the world and in the church. We particularly want to root out our own internalized homophobia.

2) There were significant breakthroughs during 2003 in Gay issues in North America. For instance, the US Supreme Court legalization of Gay sex, Gay marriage in Canada and Massachusetts, the Gay Bishop in New Hampshire and some new Gay TV shows. Concurrently, opinion polls referring to our community and relationships turned negative.

3) The Mother Church seems to be nearing the point of inviting Gay people into the periodicals to tell our stories and share our healings. We reached out prayerfully to understand the basic completeness of being that requires world and church compliance in nurturing the full participation of Gay people.

4) A question came up as to recently discovered, or at least theorized about, homosexual aspects of "our founders" — Jesus, Mrs. Eddy, George Washington, Abe Lincoln. "Well, Black people want a Black Jesus and heterosexuals now have him married to Mary Magdalene. Why shouldn't we have our own preference represented?"It may be deeper than that. The underlying androgyny of our foundation — the man of God's creating — almost requires these founding figures be androgynous — and that's often seen as Gay."

5) A member received during the week an unsolicited e-mail from "Baba,"apparently a Hindu mystic, predicting natural disasters, dirty bombs and suchlike in 2004 "because God is angry with mankind."Initially his reaction was, "How crude — how unscientific!"But he thought he'd better de-fang the message. "It's just a pack of dual beliefs based on the ultimate in dual beliefs — an angry God!"As he thought more, he remembered that both Jesus and Mrs, Eddy uttered apocalyptic visions — see Luke, chapter 21, and Science and Health, pages 96-97 — but did indicate healing escape routes. He prayed with the pages from Science and Health and brought some of the healing thoughts found there to the meeting (see the readings). His hope now is that he remembers to de-fang stories in the New York Times or on National Public Radio — his preferred gurus of wisdom.

6) We ended with a member's statement that our individual work in Science has infinite power to change appearances. We get some hint of this from people like Einstein and Mme. Curie, whose work in the physical sciences shifted the world. "They were dealing with the dualism of matter — Christian Scientists are reflecting the Oneness. There is no limit to the power of this reflection, unless we put it there. In short, we shouldn't be mousy or hold back on living the One-All."

Next week, members of SAGE (Senior Action in a Gay Environment, sageusa.org) will visit us to talk about the new Faith in Action program our group is participating in to provide friendly visits to LGBT elders.

We decided to work on Aging from a Christian Science standpoint.