The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
I grew up in Zimbabwe, and when I was 10 years old started boarding school. I found moving between the boarding hostel and home unsettling, and for many years struggled with the concept of home. Wherever I lived, I wanted to (or thought I should) be living somewhere else. I lived in Zimbabwe, South Africa, England and Australia and spent time travelling in other countries, but never felt settled and this really bothered me.
In 1985 I moved to Australia and in 1992 was posted by the Australian Government to Zimbabwe. At the end of my posting, I was strongly drawn to living in South Africa where I had strong family ties and had studied and worked for a few years.
When I moved to South Africa, I thought I had found my place. But, after about ten years when things weren’t working out because it was difficult to find employment, the restless feelings that I should be living somewhere else returned. I started praying to know that home is not a material location or physical structure, but a state of mind in which we are at one with God – at home and in our right place all the time wherever we are. As Paul says, “For in him, we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17: 28).
Browsing in my local Christian Science Reading Room one day, I came across a pamphlet called PLACE. It has four lovely articles from past Christian Science Sentinels and Journals around being in our right place, home and employment – drawing from the Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and her other writings. They were all really helpful.
Then one evening while out walking my dogs, the idea came clearly that I should apply for jobs outside South Africa. Over the next few weeks I applied for jobs in Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand and Australia. I was offered three interviews, and then positions in the Middle East and Australia. I prayed to know which to accept, and it came to me clearly to accept the job in Australia. As with all these kinds of decisions – when it is right, there is an incredible and indescribable feeling of peace.
A few months later when I landed back in Australia, I felt I had returned home. That feeling of being at HOME and in my right place has never left me since then. I have had no feelings of restlessness or that I should be living somewhere else.
I am very grateful for being led through Christian Science to an improved understanding of HOME and for the lovely way this has been manifested in my experience.
This recording is of readings on the topic: God is Love – Can We Ask for More?
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God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. (The Bible – I John 5: 16)
“God is Love”. More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go. (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p6: 17-18)
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (The Bible – I John 4: 11)
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Every Wednesday at 6.15pm a Testimony Meeting is held at the Christian Science church in Canberra (corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton). At these meetings short readings on a particular topic are followed by time for members of the congregation to share how they have been helped and healed through prayer.
In Canberra the lengthy COVID restrictions are now being eased. Thank goodness! As we approach re-opening and a more normal way of living and interacting, it’s important that we make sure all we’ve been through in the last 18 months has not been in vain.
We can think of these months of social isolation in two ways – as an awful time that was so hard, so lonely and often scary, or, as a unique opportunity. Could anything else have given us the opportunity to stop the busyness of everyday life, be still, and re-evaluate how we’ve been living in this world and treating one another? That initial decision as to how we’re going to think about this time, is immensely important because it dictates the failure or success of our experience ahead.
The repercussions of the initial decisions we make was brought home to me in a very dramatic way. My husband and I and our two young girls were holidaying, staying in a country motel. It was the very darkest time of night, we were all deep asleep when the oldest girl, who normally slept very soundly, for no discernible reason, suddenly woke up. As we were settling her back down, we smelled smoke. My husband looked out and saw the bushes beside the building on fire. Being ex-army he jumped into action and began hosing down the flames, but then realised the underside of the building was also alight. That’s when he found the whole of the underneath of the motel, which was fully occupied, was also on fire, and the rooms were starting to fill with smoke. We roused everyone and soon the fire was being put out. When the police arrived, they said it was an act of deliberate arson and five minutes more the floors would have collapsed into the flames.
Fear was starting to govern everyone’s thinking as they realised that through the evil actions of others, they had all nearly been killed in their sleep. It was at that point I realised we had a decision to make. There was another way of looking at the situation. It was that, even in the middle of the night when we were all sleeping the most soundly, even then we were alerted, saved and kept unharmed, that even in that extreme situation evil could not win. It was that option that we voiced to the group, and when we did, the atmosphere tangibly changed. Feelings of fear and vulnerability were replaced with a deep sense of safety and protection. Too, instead of my daughter feeling frightened, she felt the exact opposite, she felt like a hero.
Afterwards when I was thinking about what had taken place, I realised that in the weeks leading up to that holiday, I had been doing a lot of praying. Praying to me is not a pleading to a far-off God for benevolence, but a deep, conscientious recognition of the divine goodness ever-present in our lives. Tuning our thought to all that is right and good and loving is a bit like practising our maths calculations – we get better at it and see more right results appear. To me that’s what God is, the Principle that makes life work right and brings out those good results.
As we now move forward into this new way of living, recognising the good we’ve all had the time to focus on and practice, can help us feel assured that good results lie ahead for us. Through this period, haven’t we all been diligently and selflessly caring for one another in being isolated and law-abiding? Haven’t we had the time to rethink how we value our families and community? Haven’t we all been re-evaluating how we can better care for our planet? The basis of this thinking is love, and the Bible defines God as Love. Thinking rightly and acting lovingly is like doing our maths correctly, it assures us of good outcomes. It gives us the assurance that our futures will work out rightly.
This way of thinking about God, life and ourselves is Christianly scientific. If you’d like to look into this powerful healing way of thinking then visit the beautiful official website christianscience.com.
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
This article was originally published in the December 2011 issue of the Christian Science Journal. In it the writer, a member of the Canberra Christian Science community, shares how she overcame loneliness and cultural differences when she moved to a remote area of Indonesia to teach English.
She writes: My first two weeks in Singkawang, West Kalimantan, were traumatic. …
It took two weeks, but finally I turned to prayer. And then I felt I had something familiar to lean on. I loved the idea of setting aside time for God every day at sunset, which most people around me did. The local mosque sat just across the road, and I decided to mentally join in the melodious call to evening prayer. My room faced a vividly green rice paddy, and I would sit on the balcony to read and pray, looking down at the men praying in the mosque, and watching sparrows flitting in the rice paddies, waiting for the enormous, jungled mountains to fade into darkness.
Finally, I felt the peace I was searching for. I glimpsed that God, Truth, is relevant in every nation, culture, and situation. I prayed to recognize those around me as my brothers and sisters, our differences dissolved by the understanding that we all shared the same Father-Mother God. As I continued to pray, my perspective gradually changed, and my loneliness and frustration melted into love and fascination.
Click here to read the full article where the author explains the spiritual reasoning that led to this being a happy and rewarding experience, and one where she grew in her appreciation of the true brotherhood of man.
In this 3 minute podcast Christopher talks about how hearing a woman tell her dog that he was ‘So good’ reminded him of God’s love for us and the promise that we are made in God’s image.
This recording is of readings on the topic: Looking to Spirit for Cause and Effect
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During twenty years prior to my discovery I had been trying to trace all physical effects to a mental cause; and in the latter part of 1866 I gained the scientific certainty that all causation was Mind, and every effect a mental phenomenon.
Every Wednesday at 6.15pm a Testimony Meeting is held at the Christian Science church in Canberra (corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton). At these meetings short readings on a particular topic are followed by time for members of the congregation to share how they have been helped and healed through prayer.
The members of the Christian Science community in Canberra share their experiences and thoughts on Christian Science:
Yesterday I had a lovely example of the practicality of prayer as practised in Christian Science.
Ours seemed to be a rather grumpy household last night.
I had spent some hours searching for one piece of information that I needed to send to our accountant for our annual tax return. I couldn’t find it and had finally contacted the investment company that issued the original document, asking if a new copy could be sent. This communication was sent by email and I received a reply, also by email, that they couldn’t send me the document by email because my email address was not officially on their records – such irony! But even a sense of the ridiculous nature of this response did not ease the sense of frustration I felt as I went around in seemingly never-ending circles.
Then my husband came home, and he had just heard the news that the Canberra lockdown had been extended for another month. As the owner of a small business that depends on customers coming to his premises, he could see no way forward to stay financially viable.
However, after he tramped off to bed, I sat still – something I should have done much earlier – and thought of the verse from the Bible ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Ps 46).
What I see this as saying is: ‘Just stop running around in circles and thinking you have all the answers, that you have a mortal mind of your own that can actually solve anything. The universe is God’s – God is the only Mind and keeps all the wheels running smoothly if we get out of His way. Ask God what He/She knows about the situation and listenfor the answer.’ And I did.
In a very short time, I remembered that I probably hadreceived the document I needed and had put it in a special place, ready for the tax return. And there it was. I was able to scan it and send it to the accountant right then and there.
And I found, by checking on guidelines from the ACT Government about the lockdown, that a way forward was possible for my husband’s business.
God really does have the answers – we just need to ask – and I’m very grateful.
