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Headline: Church can be “a place of light,” say Christian Scientists at annual meeting

By: Kevin Ness Contact: Kate Johnson

maryland@compub.org

Dateline: June 4, 2017

Boston, MA — For many people today, the phrase “sending thoughts and prayers” has become a meaningless cliché. Christian Scientists’ annual meeting on June 4 offered the view that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Church members gathered at the denomination’s Mother Church in Boston and via live video streaming around the world to hear and share experiences that showed how powerful prayer rooted in love can be in people’s lives — and the progress and healing this can bring in a troubled world.

The meeting’s theme was from the New Testament: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” “We need to not just talk the talk but to walk the walk,” said Scott Preller, a member of the church’s Board of Directors, by “taking responsibility for how we act toward one another, so that we really are going to let Spirit, actual love for one another, animate us.”

The denomination’s five-member Board recently completed 17 regional meetings with church members in the United States and Europe. More meetings are planned in North America and other continents. The Board said they wanted to meet face to face with as many members as possible, to listen and talk.

In reporting back to members, they spoke frankly of difficult issues facing the church, as well as other Christian denominations and society at large. But they noted that they also found a “new vitality, a deepening of engagement with core values,” and what they called a new energy and willingness of members to work together as a church “to be a force for good in the world.”