March-April 2009 - Christian Science Society San Juan Capistrano

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2 Following our recent Recommitment Meeting, we gathered some current thoughts on the role of music in our church services: • “Our music is truly a gift of Love from Above and it elevates my thought for the oncoming lesson. We are blessed with magnificently talented performers…the Love expressed to us during the music paves the way for Love to be reflected back…joy magnified many times over.” • “When I hear a bird sing, my heart sings with it. When I hear my brother birds sing, it’s the same. The human voice is an expression of God’s voice so it is God being glorified.” • “The music in every service is a blessing! So often I go home from church singing or humming a beautiful solo or hymn we have sung and treasure its message throughout the day.” • “Our music lifts me up and reminds me of God’s ever-present love.” • “While praying about our church supply, I was comforted, awed and grateful for the Soul-filled expression of Life I felt while listening to the music of Mindy Jostyn…the purity of her voice, her message. Hearing the lyrics ‘God is Love’, ‘we are all the children of Love’, ‘the Comforter is here!’…..I realized the way I can apply these truths to our Society…to thank divine Love for supplying us ‘with the joy that finds one’s own in another’s good.’” (Misc Writings p.127) • “ ‘Surely the Lord is present in this place….’ ‘In this very room there’s quite enough Love….’ These lyrics and their accompanying beautiful melodies brought instantaneous physical healing on two separate Sunday mornings I will always cherish. When music is spiritually inspired, I believe it speaks the language of Love….and, as the song goes, ‘Love changes everything’….Love heals!” “Harmony in man is as beautiful as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal.” (S&H) Mark your calendar… Metaphysical Workshops… Monday, April 13 th 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 11 th 7:30 p.m. Growing Church Workshops… Monday, April 27 th 7:30 p.m. Tithing Information Session Wednesday, April 29 th , 6:30 p.m., Conference Call meeting with Pamela Hawley, founder and CEO of Universal Giving, one of our future tithing recipients. Management Team Meetings….if you have agenda items, suggestions, questions, or anything else to bring to the attention of our Management Team, they meet at least monthly and welcome your contributions to the harmonious functioning of our church family. Contact any MT member with your input. Second Sundays…Twenty-Somethings are welcome to join our monthly discussion forum held on the second Sunday evening of each month at 7:00 p.m. Join fellow students of Christian Science in this active group that includes participants from throughout southern California. Getting to Know You…… Many of you have already met Patti Holditch on her visits to San Juan Capistrano or heard her on the conference call from her home in Colorado participating in our services. This is her “official” welcome as a member of our church family. Patti tells us she was raised attending a Christian Science Sunday School in Garden Grove (northern Orange County.) Her college training was at UC San Diego and Cal State Fullerton and her career has been primarily in the computer field, including programming, design, installation and training. After college, Patti lived briefly in California, then moved to Idaho, and a few years later to Colorado, where she has lived ever since. Her previous church membership, Patti shares, has been in Idaho and Colorado. “Twenty three years ago the C.S. Society I was a member of here in Colorado was
3 considering its options for a meeting place. It seemed so clear to me and several other members that a storefront location was the answer---that we needed to be reaching out to the community, to be in the midst of the community, not hiding away in a residential area. But a number of others felt the traditional church building owned by the church, along with a separate Reading Room in a shopping center, were the answer.” Patti continues that she “so longed for the outreach into the community, of being right in the marketplace. Several years later friends of mine in the Pacific Northwest started a society in a storefront after considering what church really is. Once again I yearned to be a part of this, but was too far away. I had heard occasionally about the San Juan Society but never thought I could be part of that either because of my geographical location. For over 21 years my job has entailed a significant percentage of travel time across North America and had kept me from as active involvement in church as I would have liked and certainly from a sense of continuity in attendance and service. “When I found out I could attend church here by phone and by Skype, I discovered the answer to all these yearnings about serving/attending/working for church, and reaching out to the community, locally and more globally. I can attend and serve from wherever I am! No separation, no distance, no limitation. I am so grateful. And I especially love having the opportunity to pray for community needs in the county where I grew up. I’m also grateful that my computer skills are being put to good use in working on a number of projects for our church, including non-hymnal hymns, posting Wednesday readings, and website team projects.” Patti also notes “the church I grew up attending, in Garden Grove, was where the original Willows location was, and a lot of the members of that church lived at the Willows. I find it special that I’m once again associated with a church where many of our members and attendees are living at the Willows (in its new location).” And equally special is having Patti as an active member of our church family! Getting to know our congregation beyond walls… Ask Florence Pedi to make music! She’ll haul out her harmonica and play “If I Loved You” from Carousel or Elvis Presley’s “Are you Lonesome Tonight?”—or maybe Mary Baker Eddy’s “O, Gentle Presence.” This self-taught musician makes sounds sweet enough to woo her parakeets—Jackie (now in heaven) and Chipper (Jackie’s successor), who cock their heads and listen intently. Jackie used to perch on his guardian’s harmonica-holding hand as she played. When Florence first began calling in to our services a couple of years ago from the Hackensack, NJ, retirement home she lives in, she was looking for a way to attend church after her branch church closed down. “This meets my needs and I enjoy every minute of it,” she proclaims. Florence has had an interesting life. While her husband Joseph plied his trade as a commercial artist, she made dresses in a factory, then became a dress samplemaker, taking her patterns to New York City to have them approved, and teaching other seamstresses how to make those dresses. Today she looks forward to outings with her daughter Joy and son Ricky. She also enjoys cooking on a grand scale in the senior center’s kitchen on holidays, when she invites neighbors to sit down for fellowship and a feast---and of course gratitude to God. (contributed by Susan Clay) Jo Doyle used to belong to the same New Jersey church that Florence attended before it shut its doors. And, like her friend, Flo, Jo has a love for music. But that’s getting ahead of her story. Jo found Christian Science 39 years ago when she was at her wit’s end, health-wise and marital-wise. While vacationing with her husband, she saw a coverless pamphlet in the hotel library, picked it up and began reading the testimonies of healing in the back. Shortly thereafter, she found out that a member of the Ginger Snaps---an all-female barbershop quarter for whom Jo was lead singer---was a Christian Scientist. She told Jo to look for a Christian Science practitioner in the phone book. She phoned all but the last one, then gave up when none of them answered. Joe then determinedly located a Reading Room in the Yellow Pages, called, and was given the name of the one lone practitioner whom she had not called. She asked a friend, also ill, to go with her to the practitioner’s office where they were both healed. Jo began applying Christian Science to her three healthchallenged children, who went on to have 23 physical healings (yes, Jo counted them). Later, she became a bookkeeper and then a nurse at the Princeton-based Christian Science care facility, Tenacre.
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March-April 2009 - Christian Science Society San Juan Capistrano

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