Return to: Home Meetings introduction
METAPHYSICAL MEETING, September 21, 2009
Contents
Topic
To improve our ability, individually and collectively, to revitalize our Christian Science Reading Room.
Call to the meeting
Why support our Christian Science Reading Room? It's never open when I can go. I already own everything published by the Publishing Society. I subscribe to all the periodicals.
What's the purpose of a Christian Science Reading Room? How does it spread the Word? Our next metaphysical workshop, Monday, September 21, at 7:30, will focus on “improving our ability, individually and collectively, to revitalize our Christian Science Reading Room.” As you consider this topic, you may want to review Article XXI in the Church Manual (Man. 63:12-9) and think about how you participate on the reading room team, even if you aren’t serving in the reading room at this time. There are no particular questions for this metaphysical workshop, but rather we rely on individual inspiration and study. You'll find a wealth of articles about reading rooms in the Bound Volumes in our reading room.
We look forward to your participation in this workshop. If you cannot attend in person, please send your contribution to somebody who will share it for you.
Opening readings
There were no opening readings. Everyone was prepared, and we went straight into the individual member contributions, in order around the room. (The contributions below are only those submitted for posting on the web site.)
Member contribution A
While growing up our sons knew Mom had a regular date at our local church’s Christian Science Reading Room. They also knew that the RR on the calendar each week didn’t stand for RailRoad, which might be a bit more exciting in their eyes. Each son had the opportunity to come to our Reading Room and enjoy some activity of listening to the tapes, reading the lesson from our prepared study books or just enjoy the many children’s books in the lending library. Even our dogs have visited for a day because of some unusual circumstances at home.
I loved giving the boys the chance to feel all the spiritual Truth that surrounded them with our leader’s substantial writings. They thought it was cool to see all the monthly Journals and weekly Sentinels bound into a single yearly copy and see how long the periodicals had been in print. They loved looking for Mrs. Eddy’s own articles in these early periodicals, thus giving her a place in time in our movement. That was especially neat to them to see that our Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science was active in every action of her church, not just the author of our text book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
Having the boys at the Reading Room was an opportunity for me to encourage them to ask questions about our religion and about Mary Baker Eddy, questions or thoughts that they might not think to raise during Sunday School. I’m grateful I had these occasions to share with my sons.
Now that they are grown and miles away, I still include them in my prayers and thoughts each day and email them articles or send copies of articles out of the Sentinels or Journals that I feel are pertinent to each one of them or to our grandchildren.
So what do I think is the purpose of the Christian Science Reading Room? Well, it’s a cool spot out from under the hot sun in California. It is a peaceful and restful place. It is a lovely spot to study Mrs. Eddy’s works, ponder articles on subjects one has been working on in the bound volumes, or just enjoy all the resources we have to offer about the Holy Bible. We offer opportunities to lift the thought from the material base to the Spiritual Love of God, to see the Christ Truth right with each individual entering our book store and study rooms.
I guess like the Scouts we need always to “Be Prepared” and ready with open thought with lots of love for our community to hope to improve our ability to revitalize our Reading Rooms. When I read the Bible Lesson before I arrive for my day of volunteering at the Reading Room, I try to pick out a few ideas to work with all day long. I pray that our part in this community is a whole, complete, and vital part of La Cañada Flintridge, only adding good, safety, freedom, peace, and spiritual uplifting thought…healing.
I pray that each individual who enters in will be blessed and set free from any yoke of bondage. I pray for their peace and that the love and healing thought will be found and experience and their healing be complete.
I’m always thrilled when anyone enters in: the mailman, Mr. Brown the FedEx person, the Community Services people, someone looking for directions, a purchaser, an individual who comes to study. They all are opportunities for me to pray and share my love of the Christ through Christian Science and see it as a privilege to open the doors and unlock the Truth for all as I serve the Christ.
Member contribution B
We need to revitalize our reading rooms with the life-giving qualities of Mind, Spirit. “The life-giving quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter.” (S&H 517:7-8)
Are reading rooms no longer useful? Science and Health and all the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the publications of the Christian Science Publishing Society can be purchased on-line without leaving one's home. Subscriptions to the periodicals and the purchase of books is within the financial means of most people. Then why have reading rooms?
In most denominations the pastor lives in a parsonage. Our parsonage is our reading room. That's where the public can find our pastor. So in effect our reading rooms are also our missionaries — our outreach to the world — the place where anyone can come and commune with our pastor — where they can find the Comforter and be comforted — where they can come and find healing for whatever their human problems may seem to be.
So, it is not the time to hold the memorial service for reading rooms. They have not outlived their usefulness. They are not out-of-date. Perhaps they only need a metaphysical facelift.
At the end of each Sentinel radio program is a plug for reading rooms. They state that a copy of Science and Health can be purchased at any Christian Science Reading Room. Testimonies in the periodicals often mention that the person spent time in a reading room in their quest for healing. And who among us has not found healing and comfort from a reading room visit?
So as Mrs. Eddy says, Mind, Spirit is life-giving and we don't need to look to matter to revitalize our reading rooms. Let's look to Mind, the inexhaustible source of ideas. “We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being.” (S&H 264:10)
Addendum:
“If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods the world will make a beaten path to his door.” This quote is attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) and reported by Sarah Yule as having been used by Emerson in an address. It has been misquoted and shortened, but the meaning is clear.
Who has written a better book than Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures? And where can this book be purchased or read? Of course you all know that the answer is: Christian Science Reading Rooms. So, the world should be making a beaten path to our doors.
Member contribution C
Our Reading Room – from a variety of views (a small drama with several voices)
The Reading Room —
I’m a Manual directed activity, so I have the protection and guidance of our Leader’s church, the undivided garment, with all the power and love behind it. I am complete, useful, effective and healing. I cannot be outside or separate from any church activity. I am here for my community to help spread the Word.
The Passer-by —
Reading Room? What’s that? Oh, I see – it’s a book store too. One of these days I’ll go in and see what it’s all about. Maybe they have the latest self-help best seller. Oh – Christian Science. I better check on what that is. Aren’t those the people who don’t salute the flag? No, wait – those guys are Jehovah’s Witnesses. Oh yea – this is the Tom Cruse group, the Scientologists. No – gosh I really better go in and see what’s going on. Guess I need some accurate information. Maybe they could even help me with my problems.
The attendant —
Gee, it’s really quiet here, except for the sirens going by on the boulevard. Well, I’m here so I need to be praying for church, for the Reading Room, and for the community, for every fire engine, for every emergency vehicle. This is my practice right now. Let’s enfold everyone in God’s infinite love, in Spirit’s embrace, in Soul’s uplift. No part of church can ever be left out or useless. We are each and all part of the whole of divine design. As I go about my tasks here, I can spiritualize every activity. Opening the doors, putting out the flag, turning on the lights signifies activity and readiness. Marking books assists honest seekers in their study of the Bible Lesson. My receptive thought, turning to divine Mind for guidance, can listen and answer questions thoughtfully. Look --- here comes that passer-by, the one who has been looking into the window for such a long time now. Thanks, God. I’ll be a good listener to whatever you guide me to say.
The honest seeker —
You know, I have lots of questions about who you are. Can you help me? I have more problems than anyone should have. You can? You have a book I can read? And it heals? Wow!
Like the various witnesses in the old Japanese movie Rashamon, we each have our perspective on people, places and events. Let’s be sure we each value our Reading Room for its outreach into our community, and let’s each be welcoming to all. We are not just a business that is a member of the La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce. Like Jesus at 12, we are about our Father’s business: sharing, loving, teaching, preaching, and healing.
Member contribution D
We love our Reading Room and want it to be the absolute best. Here are some suggestions for practical steps that will grow naturally out of our love of church:
Our Reading Room needs to present an accurate image of Christian Science in the community and therefore should be accessible to the community and express the ideas of our church. In other words, we have to be out front in the community and people need to be aware that we are here for them.
We need to express clearly to others our definition of Christian Science as a healing loving organization.
In order to attract the honest seeker, we need a presence where people can find us easily. And we ought to have a sharp, current, pleasing atmosphere that is representative of Christian Science, both interior and exterior. The visual attraction is very important to make people feel comfortable and welcome. We need to express upbeat and non-stodgy thinking. We should be selling to the public, not be just a bookstore for the members. We need to be out there. We need to ask whether the hours we are open are the best for everyone, both members and community. What are the work patterns in the community? When do people go to work or school or lunch or the movies? Jesus went out among the people and he was there whenever and wherever they were.
Location is a major factor to have the outreach and be the focal point of interest in the public’s search for their spiritual home. Our physical location is a manifestation of the center of our thought.
So – and we have to ask ourselves: how do we do this spiritually first?
- We need to be out in the community.
- We need an up-to-date physical appearance (how long has it been since we refurbished last? 15 years?); we are alive, not tired.
- We need to utilize technology better, both day and night (window?)
- We need to be open when our community needs us, when it best suits the community.
- We need to present Christian Science 24/7 (see CSJ, October 09, article on SDJMRR and ask ourselves what kind of praying we need to be doing to “do and do likewise.”)
Member contribution E
Here is a summary of the remarks I made at tonight's metaphysical meeting:
In 1st Corinthians, Chapter12, Paul likens the members of the church to the body. Each part of the body is essential to its whole and complete functioning and likewise each part of the church is essential to the completeness and health of the church. Along those same lines, I found an article on spirituality.com where the writer talked about the reading room as the arm of the church—reaching out to the public. I realized then that the Reading Room is vital to the complete idea of church and that it has a unique and essential function to reach out to the community.
Since the spiritual is what is really substantial, the function of the Reading Room is not a physical place but exists in consciousness. It is operating all the time and everywhere. I therefore can express ‘reading room’ every moment. I translate ‘expressing reading room’ as active, healing and transformative living moment by moment. As I move about my day, I can be reaching out and spiritualizing my view. I love that one of the main missions of this church is unconditional love and as I practice reading out like the reading room I can only do that through unconditional love.
I also told a brief experience I had when I saw that one of the library janitors where I work was visibly upset. He explained in that his teenage nephew was in a lot of trouble and was acting very strange. He was not in his right mind. The family situation was also very troubled. I offered to pray for him and he appreciated that very much. Of course I did pray right away. A few weeks later I saw him again and the first thing he said was that prayer works! His nephew was much improved and the whole family was in counseling and was working out their problems. He was very happy.
Member contribution F
How can we best bring members of the community into our reading room?
Mary Baker Eddy states that “…erring, finite, human mind has an absolute need of something beyond itself for its redemption and healing.” (S&H 151) All mankind must come to the recognition of the need of divine help, not born of a desire for an adjunct, crazed spiritualism, but from the enlightened state of repentance and aspiration for present spirituality.
Is it our task to make this happen? Yes, but not in the conventional sense of religious conversion. Mrs. Eddy asks, “Do we expect to change perfection?” (S&H 2) Our task is to acknowledge and increasingly behold man’s perfection and to trust God and the Christ to change hearts. Reasoning out from spiritual causation, we can understand man’s true status as image which precludes the myth of another kind of man as the originator and caretaker of his own conscious existence, trapped in the illusion of body with it’s perceived and imagined physical wants and needs. The one man, the expressed entity, represented by each and every individual in our community and world, is inextricably linked to Soul; man is the actual and perpetual outcome of infinite Intelligence and Love. As expression, this man is whole and satisfied now, “…needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.” (S&H 527)
This man does not need psychology to cope with emotional turmoil, the worship of personalities, the clutter of possessions, or the maintenance of medical technology and hygiene. The Christ, operating in consciousness is awakening all of us constantly to the fact that these things offer no permanent peace. This dispeller of illusions is stripping away the layers of false thinking moment by moment and revealing man as the powerful and dynamic expression of innocence, integrity, wisdom, vitality, virtue, purity, and affection. As we “put on the new man,” as described by Paul, we are seeking the bread of heaven to feed and nourish our tender roots, to validate our faint glimpses and yearning for Spirit, to reveal the depth of divine being and the pathway home to God. Our church and Reading Room are designed to point out this pathway.
What signs and mileposts are we placing as beacons to weary searchers? Is spiritual searching and rejuvenation a priority in our own thought? Are we accessible, approachable and available? Are we radiant with mercy and goodness? Are we convinced that we are stewards of mankind’s only means of salvation? Is our presentation distinct, inviting, fresh, clean, and relevant?
Here is a short example of a turnaround in R.R. activity: “A Reading Room went from Unnoticed to Invaluable” by Nicole Primm: Journal. 1998, p. 54, Vol. 116.
Other references:
- “The Open Door – It’s You!” by Jon Benson: Journal. Sept. 2009, p. 55.
- “What in the World and Christian Science Reading Rooms?” Interview with Ethel Baker: Journal. Aug. 2008, p. 45, Vol. 126.
- “The Christian Science Reading Room – a Place of Discovery” by Joan Pedersen: Journal. Sept. 1998, p. 54, Vol. 116.
- “The Christian Science Reading Room – a Place to Come Home To” by Mary Metzner Trammel: Sentinel. Issue 23 1995, p. 27, Vol 97.
- “Why is there a Christian Science Reading Room in Community?” by Barbara W. Vining: Sentinel. Issue 5 1994, p. 30, Vol. 96.
- “Watch Your Reading Room Bloom and Bear Fruit” by Cora Slaughter: Journal. 1986, p. 274, Vol. 104.
- “Enlarging Our Concept of the Reading Room” by Marquerita Coleman: Journal. 1963, p. 65, Vol. 81.
Member contribution G
In recent months I have attended two meetings at Caltech, and each was held in a “Reading Room” belonging to an individual department on the campus. These were indeed literally reading rooms, where literature from the respective academic area could be read. But for most people they are little more than meeting rooms with a fancy name. Caltech goes back a long way, with plenty of history, so who knows what is the origin of the term “reading room” at that place.
Today the term reading room would most generally be associated with a library of some kind, — do an internet search on Google for the term “reading room” and you’ll find plenty of instances of that..
All of this reminds me that the term “reading room” had a specific meaning in Mrs Eddy’s day, applicable as I understand it to a place where a publisher’s output is made available to the public. Those were in days before electronic media, and before the rapid distribution of books that we have today from book distributors..
I am reminded that in the Church Manual, Mrs Eddy states in Article XXI Section 3:
“The literature sold or exhibited in the Reading Rooms of Christian Science Churches shall consist only of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and other Writings by this author, also the literature published or sold by The Christian Science Publishing Society.”
When I read this well-known bylaw today, two aspects of it jumped out at me:
1) Mrs Eddy expected that Reading Rooms were expressly for the purpose of promoting official Christian Science publications, in particular Science and Health. (Science and Health is one of the major distinctions between our church and other denominations.)
2) Reading Rooms in Mrs Eddy’s day were typically associated with a publishing house, and she was in fact not only keeping up with good practice of her day, but stretching beyond it, going an additional mile, in establishing a network potentially far more extensive that was typical of reading rooms at that time. What other publisher of her day had branches in multiple countries, with potential to circle the globe? Certainly some did, but Mrs Eddy was right at the forefront of publishing practice in her day.
Times have changed. The mission of the Chris and of Christian Science has not changed. Human communication and distribution of goods certainly has. Mrs Eddy would expect us to keep in tune with that forefront for which she herself set the example. What does that mean today? Probably more than we realize. My purpose here is not to specify a human direction, but to emphasize that there is a spiritual momentum started by Mrs Eddy, which we have inherited. It would be stifled if we merely did business the same way it was done in the 1890s. It is the purpose of the Christ to supply all right ideas, providing the receptive thinker with whatever is appropriate for moving ahead in making divine Science more accessible to modern comminutes and individuals.
Above all, we work with Christly ideas, and it is that that I would like to spend a few minutes discussing. Two of the key jargon words used frequently my Mrs Eddy are “ideas” and “beliefs”. She writes in Science and Health:
“Ideas are emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, proceeding from the brain or from matter, are offshoots of mortal mind, they are mortal material beliefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs proceed from the so-called material senses.” (88: 10-17)
“Ideas are tangible and real to immortal consciousness, and they have the advantage of being eternal. . . . In proportion as the belief disappears that life and intelligence are in or of matter, the immortal facts of being are seen, and their only idea or intelligence is in God.” (279:11-19)
We are dealing here with the concepts of Spirit versus matter. Spirit is evidenced by spiritual ideas, divine Life, Truth, and Love.. Matter is evidenced by beliefs, incomplete, unattainable, unbalanced, ripe for defeat. Divine Science is an idea, not a belief; therefore, it is unstoppable, irresistible, a divinely natural way of thinking and acting.
The advance of Christian Science, seen through the dissemination of Science and Health and other publications, is a divine idea. It is a spiritual activity, and as a Christly idea, is evidence of the activity of God, the indisputable facts of Truth, the all-knowing outpouring of Mind, the all-embracing caring of Love, the never-dormant pursuit of Life, the constant satisfaction of Soul, the undiminishable strength of Principle.
These characteristics apply to God, to his divinely scientific ideas. Likewise, they apply to His expression, man. And so in our human experience, the promotion of divine Science through the ideas of the Christ is also evidence of God’s activity. Our reading Room is a divine idea. It is really God’s reading room, it is God’s nature to promote His own work, His/Her own ideas. That’s what our reading Room represents.
Our responsibility is to be alert to the ideas of the Christ in furthering this activity. Divine Science can never be ignored, it can never lack a response, it can only go forward. It is patronized by the infinite presence of Soul, the renewing activity of Life.
There are ways that these ideas can be revealed to us as inspiration for what we do next, where we go from here, what might or might not be new. We can be confident that as we realize how definitely we are God’s expression, that the activity in the first place is His, then we will be guided to do whatever is most appropriate to further the science of the Christ in our times.
What a great adventure this is. And how confidently we advance forward. It is God’s work that we express. We need to be alert to dismiss material beliefs that stifle activity, and to cherish His ideas as they emerge. Then we have Reading Room in action.
Member contribution H
With this topic, more than the others, it’s been hard for me to stay on the metaphysical level and not jump directly to actions regarding reading room location, activities, stock, staffing, usage — all of the physical details that seem to cry for attention in the operation of our Christian Science Reading Room. However, unless the physical establishment is the result of a strong understanding of the spiritual concept of “reading room”, it is an idea built on the sand. (See Matt. 7:24-27.)
I started by researching what Mrs. Eddy says about Christian Science Reading Rooms. Not much, it turns out. I’d love to know the background of her 1907 “Nota Bene” in Miscellany, regarding the name “Christian Science Reading Room.” She writes:
Merely this appellative seals the question of unity, and opens wide on the amplitude of liberty and love a far-reaching motive and success, of which we can say, the more the better. (My. 236:17)
So, the name “Christian Science Reading Room” 1) seals the question of unity and 2) opens wide...a far-reaching motive and success.
But how? The August 2009 issue of The Christian Science Journal notes that there are 1,500 reading rooms worldwide, 1,200 of them being in the U.S. This makes a worldwide web of reading rooms that covers pretty much the entire globe, except the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and part of Asia. I didn’t check the hours of reading rooms around the world, but in the land areas, there would be a reading room open pretty much all the time. Think of the web of prayer that all those reading room workers are providing. Think of the purpose of the reading room - to be a publisher’s agent. Science and Health is pretty much available 24 hours a day around the globe, not counting online access. This is a unifying idea. It is presenting the world at all times with a unified message of healing and salvation.
Next, Mrs. Eddy mentions “a far-reaching motive” being opened wide on an amplitude of liberty and love. What is our motive in providing a Christian Science Reading Room to the community? It seems to me that our motive could be two-fold: 1) to love God and keep His commandments and 2) to be obedient to our Leader. Part of keeping His commandments is to love our neighbor. A Christian Science Reading Room is an example of God’s tender mercies being expressed to His creation. Being obedient to our Leader includes obedience to the Manual bylaws regarding reading rooms. In fact, she says:
Of this I am sure, that each Rule and By-law in this Manual will increase the spirituality of him who obeys it, invigorate his capacity to heal the sick, to comfort such as mourn, and to awaken the sinner. (My. 230:10)
This says to me that as we obey each Manual bylaw, including those regarding reading rooms, our individual ability to heal and bring salvation will increase. And, of course, a Christian Science Reading Room is necessary for the complete expression of “church” in our community, which is a pretty good motive.
The quote regarding the name “Christian Science Reading Room” also talks about success and says “the more the better,” with respect not only to success but also to motives and unity. Mrs. Eddy expected success! How do we measure it in our Christian Science Reading Room? How do we achieve it? Is it numbers or is there something higher? Could it have to do with our membership unity? Could it have to do with our own progress spiritually? As we progress in our spiritual understanding and ability to heal, we see spirituality and progress in others. Others see our progress and are drawn to us. As Christ Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32). As our spiritual consciousness as a unified branch church is raised, others will be attracted to our ministry and experience the salvation that we preach. This uplifted consciousness will invigorate our Christian Science Reading Room.
