Hello.
I'm Scott Preller.
I'm serving this year as chair of The Christian Science Board of Directors.
With me today is the newest member of the board, Beth Schaefer.
We're here in the Reading Room of The Mother Church to invite you to come to Annual Meeting this year.
It'll take place here in Boston on Monday, June 2nd.
There will be special events leading up to Annual Meeting.
And to find out about those events, you can go to christianscience.com/annualmeeting
and there will be information posted there as it becomes available.
The theme we've chosen for this year's gathering is, “As you work, the ages win; ... ”
We'll talk about the theme in a moment, but first I'd like to talk about Annual Meeting itself.
Beth, I remember last year
I ran into you at Annual Meeting, and that was before we knew you were going to be on the board.
And I'd love to know what your experience of Annual Meeting felt like.
I mean, why did you want to come all the way from your home in Texas
to be here in Boston for Annual Meeting?
Well, first off, I wanted to come because I wanted to support The Mother Church,
and coming was a tangible way to do that.
I realize that not everyone has the opportunity to come to Annual Meeting,
but for those who can come in person,
it's a wonderful opportunity to join with people across the globe.
And you feel this sense of instant connection to people because you have this one thing in common: Christian Science.
You can feel the hearts burning with what that means to them.
And also you can just feel that they have experienced the power of the Word.
It's so interesting. It reminds me...
I remember when I was a teenager and I came to an Annual Meeting
and then came again once when I was in college.
And I loved the meetings. I loved the talks. They were inspiring.
But what I most took away was that sense of connection,
that sense of feeling the hearts on fire with being together with fellow members.
In fact, now that... I've been here while, working at The Mother Church,
and every year when the Annual Meeting comes around,
I just find myself filled with gratitude for Christian Scientists all over the world
who are endeavoring to demonstrate Christian Science and share it with their communities.
There are times when I run into people on the weekend of Annual Meeting and I'll think,
“These are the people that are writing the articles I'm reading”,
or I'll think, “Okay, the same Bible Lesson I'm studying during the week and trying to put into practice,
they're on the other side of the world doing the same thing.”
And you sort of feel the embrace of The Mother Church and what we're doing to support each other,
but also what we're doing as a church to embrace the world.
And I just find that very moving.
Talk about moving...
I don't know if you were at the Hymn Sing in the Extension of The Mother Church last year,
but it was awesome to have hundreds of people just singing their hearts out.
It was very moving.
I remember too, after the Hymn Sing was over,
we all went outside and there were ice cream stations and we all had ice cream on the lawn of The Mother Church.
And conversations were going on well into the night.
I remember talking to one college student from Africa and a great grandmother from Canada,
and we were all just loving being together.
And I'm sure we're going to have a lot of other conversations like that this year as well.
Let's maybe pivot now and talk about the theme: “As you work, the ages win; ... ”
That statement comes from a letter by Mary Baker Eddy.
It says, “As you work, the ages win; for the majesty of Christian Science teaches the majesty of man.”
This whole letter that Mrs. Eddy wrote to a church in Atlanta, Georgia,
has a lot to tell us about our efforts at church.
We realize that many members are working really hard
and in fact often feel like there aren't enough workers to do everything that needs to be done.
But that's actually why this theme is so important this year,
because it gives us an opportunity to think about not just how much effort we're putting into the work,
but what approach are we taking.
Imagine for a moment that we're birds,
and we're at the base of a mountain and we're told to get to the top of the mountain,
but we're told that you can only get there by hopping.
That would indeed feel pretty discouraging and hard to do.
But if we're told get there by being yourselves, by flying... we’d love it!
In fact, even the wind blowing at us would help lift us higher and we'd enjoy the views all along the way.
And that's the approach we need to be taking as Christian Scientists
when we think about our practice of Christian Science and our church work together.
The discovery of Christian Science shows us that we're meant to soar.
We're not meant to trudge through various challenges.
Yes, and the second part of our theme is just as important.
Mrs. Eddy clearly had high expectations for the impact of our work as Christian Scientists.
We all may be tempted from time to time to feel like, "What difference does my work make?"
Yet Mrs. Eddy was convinced that as we work from the standpoint of Christian Science, “... the ages win.”
We get a hint of what she was talking about,
when we think about the nature of the work that goes on in Christian Science Reading Rooms.
Jesus said, “My father worked hitherto, and I work.”
And being in the Reading Room makes you realize
that Christian Scientists are endeavoring to follow that same example.
There's so much here to work with, to inspire us.
There are articles and testimonies by ordinary people
whose lives have been healed and transformed by the Bible's message of God's law
that's been opened up to them through the study of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,
by Mary Baker Eddy.
And this year marks the 150th year of the publication of that work.
It is remarkable to pause and think about all that's been accomplished in those 150 years.
How many lives have been made whole.
How much has been learned of the actuality of God and of our ability to demonstrate the Christ in our lives
through the study of Science and Health.
We think it'd be wonderful, in fact, for each of us to spend some time thinking about the impact
that our own study of Science and Health has made in our lives,
and to send an account in to the Clerk of The Mother Church for Annual Meeting.
When we gather those together in some form, I think we're going to realize why
the work we're doing in Christian Science
makes such a difference in our lives today and why that work
will make such an impact on the ages to come.
Whether you're able to be here in person with us or whether you're joining us online for Annual Meeting,
we look so forward to being together on June 2nd.
See you then.