Final Draft Society Pages Summer 2014.pages

“To every thing there
is season an d a time
for every purpose
un der heaven︙”
Ecclesiastes 3
The Society Pages
Summer 2014
To everything there is a season…. In the spirit of self-­‐examina8on, it has been our prac8ce to pause o=en to review and renew our purpose, established early on when we were an informal group exploring what church is and what it can be, based on Mary Baker Eddy’s defini8on of church. As we have grown over the years, we have kept the goal before us to con8nually take a fresh look at ourselves, asking how might we be the very best we can be as a church family and in our outreach to the greater community. How are we doing in achieving our purpose? !
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Our purpose is to promote unconditional
love, spiritual growth and healing based on the
Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. Our
goal is for everyone who participates in our
activities to witness and experience his embrace. In recent months we have devoted two Open Forum mee8ngs to a thoughKul discussion considering the prospect of becoming a Branch Church of Christ, Scien8st or remaining a Chris8an Science Society. At our next Growing Church Workshop in September this topic will be on the agenda to con8nue the conversa8on. All ac8ve par8cipants in our church family are urged to aPend this mee8ng and share your inspira8on in the spirit of con8nuing rededica8on to our purpose. Mark your calendar for September 8th .
and a 8me for every purpose under heaven; Ecclesiastes ….
Mark your calendar… Growing Church Workshops Monday, September 8th. 7:00 p.m Monday December 8th, 7:00 p.m. Metaphysical Workshops On the 4th Monday of each month at 7:00 p.m. Monday, August 25th Monday, September 22nd Monday, October 27th !
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Topical informa8on is sent out prior to each monthly workshops via email. Note: Our workshops are also available via conference call and the Internet. Detailed instruc8ons available in our newslePers and on our website. Our gra8tude to Brad Rockabrand and Deborah Huebsch for facilita8ng our recent Metaphysical Workshops where we are discovering together how to be bePer healers, currently focusing on world issues calling out for prayer. Special Mee?ngs…. Sunday, October 5th….aFer our church service Petals of Africa…Tim Heinemann and Linda Brown will give an update on progress at Petals of Africa School. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love. Science and Health Introducing four new
! How is life after
Getting to know you….
members who have
retirement? “I enjoy !
recently joined us.…!
my free time !
creating
floral
A warm welcome to Nancy
arrangements
Mastagni …Nancy tells us
occasionally and
she became acquainted
singing. And I would
with our Society when she
love to get more
and husband Mike lived a
involved in pottery
wheel classes.
mile down the road. “I was
Currently Mike and I
drawn to the Society’s
baby sit our 18
loving members and felt it
month old grandson
was a wonderful opportuon a weekly basis
nity to join such a loving
and enjoy being a
- II Cor 6:2
part of his life. We
and supporting family. I
enjoy having our
also wanted to begin to
children, their
“give more” to church. I
spouses and four grand-children
really enjoy all the outreach and forward
nearby and see them fairly often.
thinking that goes on here in San Juan.
We’re looking forward to doing some
traveling soon to some wonderful new
Very refreshing!”!
locations.!
!
Nancy shares that she grew up in
!
“I try to devote a good part of
Whittier where she and her brother attended
my day to the study of Christian
Christian Science Sunday School. After
Science and am enjoying progress in
college she taught school before moving to
all that I am learning”.!
!
Nancy has also volunteered as
Bakersfield where she met and married Mike.
a tutor in our Apoya program and has
Soon after they headed for the East Coast
served as a Sunday Reader. We are
and then Korea when Mike was in the
delighted to welcome you to our little
military. Later they
flock, Nancy!!
returned to
!
!
!
Welcome to Devon Baggs…
Bakersfield where
We’re delighted to welcome Devon,
they raised their
one of our recent Sunday School
two children.
graduates, as a new member. Here’s
Nancy became a
what Devon shares with us: !
floral designer at a
!
“I first became acquainted with
San
Juan
Society when I was about
local florist and after returning to Southern
twelve years old. We went on two trips
California spent several years utilizing her
to build houses in Tijuana, Mexico. It
talents at Rogers Gardens before
was a very humbling experience to
recently retiring.!
Now is the
accepted
time…behold
now is the day
of salvation
One day with the lord is as
a thousand years…
I’ve been rock climbing, kayaking, surfing a bit--I even went spear fishing. I also love helping
others. I hope to combine my love for sports
event planning and giving to possibly planning
events for a non-profit surf or sports
organization.” Recent update for Devon: She
has just returned home from a trip to Australia
with her family where she “checked scuba
diving The Great Barrier Reef of my bucket list.”
have at that age. I enjoyed every
moment from the fundraising to pre-!
senting the family their new house.
Community outreach is what I have
enjoyed the most and I look forward to
becoming more involved in the church
and its neighbors.!
!
I was born into Christian
Science, but I came into it on my own
when I went away to Principia College
three years ago. It was then that I
realized that Christian Science and
going to church was my decision and
not just something my family and I did
every Sunday. I have truly enjoyed my
experience at Principia as I discovered
the religion for myself.!
!
I was born in Virginia but have
lived in California for 19 years. While
attending Dana Hills High School I
worked at the Gift Chateau and Art
Sea. I am going into my senior year at
Principia where I will graduate a
semester early in December. This!
summer I’ve worked as an Event
Planning Intern for Neon Carrot
Events where I mostly plan
weddings. My passion at this point in
my life is adventuring! This summer
Devon is soon headed back to college where
she will add a new adventure to her list in
addition to her academic schedule---an
internship with the St Louis Rams football team.
While many of us already know Devon as a
Sunday School student, please welcome her to
this new adventure called church membership!
Congratulations, Devon!
and a thousand years is
as one day - II Peter 3:8
See the he
a
a s we rais ve n l y
eo
u r h a r ve st
b o u nti fu
vo i c
!
Two more new
e
s
a l l i n o ne a l ly p
members to our church family,
cco ou
are family themselves. First, a very
rd. red
..
...
special welcome to Andrew Shepherd.
Andrew tells us that he has been coming to
our Society for several years and enjoyed
especially attending the 2nd Sundays young
adult group that was active until just recently.
“I felt the love and the newer thought, open
to examining old beliefs and traditions, a
willingness to change things for simply a
right motive. The online services and the
fellowship I experience here has kept me
coming back.”!
!
Andrew also reveals that he enjoys
the experience of serving as a Reader at
Sunday services together with his
mother---“Christian Science being the way
she met my father and they being the reason
I was raised in Christian Science. However it
took some time away and some tutelage
from my mother, the theologian, to be
reminded that Christian Science is actually
the universal Divine Science of being, more
than a church denomination, and that
understanding brought me back to Sunday
School!
where I was embraced for my unique ways
of expressing Christian Science outside of!
the normal jargon.!
! !
!
A
-H
ym
n4
60
!
“I grew up in Chicago in a family of
bohemian artists and educators and was
saturated in the arts, attending music
school as a singer before transferring to
USC Film School. I was introduced to
Christian Science nursing before entering
film school and worked as a nurse
through college. I continued nursing but
in recent years have been balancing
nursing with writing and producing movie
projects. I think my calling has always
been to educate and enlighten through
audio-visual media, and while I still sing,
act, dance a little and write music,
everything I do is intended to bring the
Christ consciousness to the here
and now.”!
!
Andrew adds that he is an
“advocate for reaching out to churches
!
that have a bent for spiritual
healing (not just CS churches), those
like-minded brethren who have the !
same motives as
we do.”!
:23
15
s
rb
! Andrew has
is. - Prove
t
i
d
o
o
participated in our services both
g
w
o
as a Sunday Reader and as a singer
h
on...
s
a
e
s
d
and we are delighted to welcome him
go o
in
“officially” as a new member of our
en
k
o
p
s
d
congregation.!
wor
!
Welcome, too, Rebecca Armstrong School teacher “grounded us in absolute
metaphysics and told us from the
to our church family. (Yes…that would be!
beginning that we could and should be
Andrew’s mother!) !
practitioners, all day every day---youth
!
Rebecca tells us that she was
was no obstacle to insight and revelation.
introduced to our Society while visiting son!
In many ways my spiritual life began at
Andrew who was attending a Second
that point.”!
Sundays gathering one evening. She had
!
Rebecca’s professional life has
recently relocated to San Diego for a new
been in education and her current job is
job opportunity. “When I finally had a
with Ashford University where she is a
chance to attend a Sunday service, the first
Learning Designer…”that is, working with
thing that struck me was the joyous
faculty to reimagine their course content
informality, the speaking, the people, the
for the online environment and design
whole attitude. Then I heard the music and
interactive learning engagements for use
was thrilled with the level of creativity
in the physical classroom. It’s a challengeexpressed, and the freshness of the
ing time for highergeducation
and I’m
approach. After attending my first
sea son... h ow oo d it is. - Prover bs 15:23
word sp o ke n in goo d excited
A
to be a part of this exploration.”!
metaphysical meeting I realized I stepped
!
And when she’s not working? “I’m
into something categorically different from
musician, an amateur painter and still
any other CS church I’d ever visited---the
like to perform as a storyteller and
quality of honest inquiry, willingness to
folksinger which is what I did profes-!
engage---a real dialogue! Not small
sionally for many years”.!
concerns but care for global issues and
!
Rebecca and son Andrew have
been
an
inspired Reading “team” for two
local challenges that were being taken on
of our recent Sunday services and we look
and embraced. And…probably my favorite
forward to more sharing of their many
thing about the Society is how much the!
talents. Recapping her experience in
members actually LIKE each other!” !
joining our Society, Rebecca says, “San
(She adds that in her experience such
Juan Capistrano is blessed to have such a
caring is actually rare…and represents a lot spacious mental arena in which to explore
the meaning of church in the 21st century.
of very careful tending….)!
It’s a hard won blessing and something
!
Raised in the Roman Catholic
greatly to be cherished, protected
Church in Chicago, Rebecca was
and enjoyed!”!
introduced to Christian Science through a
high school friend who had experience an
Mind measures time according
instantaneous healing of drug addiction.
to the good that is unfolded.
She was drawn to visit his Sunday School
-Science and Health
Lo the
ripening
fields we
see…
mighty
shall the
harvest
be.
- Hymn314
Opportunities
for giving, sharing,
growing, praying…
! We know that every season is the season for
giving. There continue to be many teams looking
for participants to support our church services
and outreach activities. Consider adding your
name and commitment to one of these teams
anytime through-out the year. The Host Team
would welcome some new volunteers. Have you
considered serving our
Society as a Reader,
either Sunday or
preparing a Wednesday
evening reading? Our
Audio Visual Team needs
additional members to
learn how to operate our
technical equipment required to include our
congregation beyond our walls. Or perhaps you
could help with our weekly programs. These are
provided online and distributed at our Sunday
services and require some time during the week to
gather all of the information. Think about taking on
a new responsibility in support of our Society.
Love and support await any “first timer”
willing to serve!
!
Reading
Room News…
Our Reading Room is
now subscribed to JSH!
This wonderful resource is available
on the Reading Room computer and is
for use by anyone who wishes to
access articles from past or current
Christian Science periodicals, listen to
podcasts of inspiring chats, video
lectures, etc. A Reading Room
volunteer is currently available before
and after both our Wednesday and
Sunday services to assist with
purchases or make the Reading Room
computer available to anyone wishing
to explore or access JSH Online
(Journal/Sentinel/Herald). Stay tuned
for possible new services available to
us through the Reading Room and
the use of this new study resource. To
those of you who utilize JSH Online
on your own computers, would you be
willing to tutor others on how to
utilize this wonderful resource? If
so, let our Reading Room Team
hear from you.!!
In the
news and on the internet….
Not one, but two inspiring testimonies
of healing by Heather Bauer CS in
recent Sentinels, one including a
testimony from son Robert, both of
whom participate in our services from
their home in Georgia. “Love makes all
burdens light”---an article not to miss by
Deborah Huebsch CSB…..
Remember, if you spot one of our
members in print or on the world wide
web, be sure let us know.
Tithing…
Our tithing recipients in recent months have given us
an opportunity to support a variety of worthwhile
organizations and causes and to offer metaphysical
support in response to specific requests for prayer.
Most recently we have offered our prayers, and ten !
percent of our Sunday collection to :!
!
!
! • The R Star Foundation Project in Nepal !
(rstarfoundation.org), helping to change the !
lives of women and children through !
economic empowerment and education in !
rural Nepal, under the guidance of !
Rosalind Russell, a participant in our Society !
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• Stronghold Schools---successful educational ! !
programs for at-risk youth under the inspired !
direction of Paul White. !
(strongholdschools.com)!
!
!
• Association of Christian Caregivers of Spain—
A dedicated group started by Jose Rodriguez
Pelaez CSB providing Science nursing care
where needed and working to establish a
foundation for Christian Science in Spain.!
!
• Boys and Girls Clubs of Capistrano Valley --(bgccapo.com), providing safe and healthy
activities for the children in our surrounding
community, as well as assistance to families
as needed and gifts during the holidays.!
!
!
• CS Nursing Care Endowment of !
Southern California---Developed for !
the purpose of supporting Christian !
Scientists needing financial assistance for !
nursing care.!
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We’re grateful to each of our members who have !
served as liaisons to each of these groups, !
inviting speakers to educate us about their work !
and for sharing specific needs that can focus our !
prayers---the most important contribution we !
make to monthly tithing. Thank you also, to !
several Wednesday Readers who have prepared !
special focus readings to address the challenges !
of our tithing recipients.
!
“Step by step since time began we
see the steady gain of man….”- Hymn 451
That which hath been is now…and that which is to be hath
already been; and God requireth that which is past. Ecclesiastes 3
Grateful hearts….
Our deepest appreciation for those willing to serve on our Facilitating!
Team. Thank you to Paul Garman and Diane Schnitzer for their year !
of service.!
!
Thanks also to the current team: Mark Palkoner, Joan Marsh, Bonnie
MacDonald, Glenna Lovett, and Diane (elected to serve a second term.)!
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Our gratitude to everyone participating in and supporting our many!
recent outreach activities including: The Day of the Child, our quarterly !
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Soldiers Outreach, and our recent
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lecture by Tom McElroy CS.!
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A big thank you to the !
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Childcare Team and Design Team
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for the magical transformation of our
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new childcare room, now located at
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the end of the Sunday School !
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hallway. Take a peek if you haven’t
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seen it. The little ones love it! The!
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former nursery will now be used as
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an additional Sunday School room or as !
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needed for other purposes.
“In my Father’s house
are many mansions:
if it were not so,
I would have told you.-”
John 14.2
Sunday School
Celebrations…..
Movin’ on up!! Congratulations to
Sunday School students Makenna
Johnson who graduated from high
school in June and is headed for
college…to Kaily Johnson who
graduated from Middle School and
begins high school in the fall…and to
Tate Johnson who is headed to his first
year in Middle School. And, by the way, a
big thank you to the Johnson Family
Singers (including brother Bren) for
sharing“Happiness” with us all at a
recent Sunday service.
The time for thinkers has come. - Science and Health
The Book Report….The Samaritan’s
Dilemma: Should
government help
your neighbor? By
Deborah Stone,
Nation Books
(Perseus Books
Group), 2008!
The Samaritan’s
Dilemma is a
thoughtfully researched
and passionately written political essay.
Deborah Stone convincingly reminds the openminded reader that compassion and altruism
are innate in each of us and can/should be the
foundation and motivation of a demo-cratic
society that is the United States. Beyond
typical partisan political rhetoric, the author
wrote this book to counter the cry of self-interest
and to “reunite politics with doing good.”
Though Stone is an accomplished political
researcher and professor of government, she
makes her case through the stories of every
day folks, the voices of “ordinary people talking
about their everyday lives….measuring what’s
in their hearts.” Among her persuasive
conclusions:“We need leaders who reach
citizens through their hearts and their hopes,
not their hatred and fears. We need leaders
who can show us how government can help us
all by helping us help each other. We need
leaders who connect democracy with the Good
Samaritan back into the public realm.”
!
She firmly believes that “finding altruism
is simply a matter of believing in it and looking
for it. The more you look, the more you see……
Leaders must show citizens the world through
the lens of altruism by telling stories and
celebrating altruism wherever they find it.
In fact, the Good Samaritan parable in
Luke’s gospel is as much about leadership
as about morality. Jesus told the story of
the Samaritan to illustrate a moral principle,
but Luke told the story of the Samaritan to
illustrate how Jesus led---by telling
compelling stories that inspired people to
behave rightly. This kind of leadership is
open to everyone. One of my hopes for this
book is that it awakens readers to the
altruism in their own lives and moves them
to tell their stories.” Simply stated:
“Democracy begins when citizens come
together to make a better life for everyone.”!
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Contributed by: Diane Schnitzer!
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Do you have a book to recommend? One
that has forwarded your spiritual journey in
some significant way? Let us know and
we’ll include it in a future edition of The!
LIBBY SKALA one woman show
I will give you rain in due season and the land shall yield her increase and the trees of the field will yield their fruit. Levi%cus 26:4 Attending our church
without walls…
To join us by conference call…
DIAL 1-805-309-2350…then punch in
this ACCESS CODE: 12111# You my
begin calling in fifteen minutes before
any meeting or join any time after the
service of meeting is in progress. Host
will greet you and answer any
questions, or you’re welcome to just
listen in.
Meeting by Internet….Here is the
new way connect to our services,
meetings and workshops by internet!
Go to our website to find easy-tofollow videos on connecting through
the internet via Flash Phone on
FreeConferenceCallHD.com. Next,
call 559-726-1300…then enter the
ACCESS CODE:332950# when
prompted. There is no charge for the
Internet connection through your
computer, but there is a regular phone
charge if you call into this number by
phone at 559-726-1300 ACCESS
CODE 332950#
Christian Science Society of San
Juan Capistrano
31897 Del Obispo, #130
San Juan Capistrano, CA92677
949-443-2537
The Society Pages Team
Editor: Bonnie MacDonald
Contributing writer, editor proofreader: Alan Hess
Graphic design: Joy Aldrich Photography: Joy Aldrich, Bonnie MacDonald
Press Boss Emeritus: Todd Herzer
Your Facilitating Team….!
!
Our Facilitating Team (formerly Management Team)
serves as the communication hub of our Society while
the entire membership functions as the governing,
decision making body. If you have questions or issues
you wish addressed at our Growing Church Workshops,
please contact any member of this team directly.!
!
Glenna Lovett…………….gblovett127@gmail.com!!
Bonnie MacDonald.bonniemacdonald1@cox.com!!
Joan Marsh……………………jhm1768@gmail.com!!
Website: csinsanjuancapistrano.com
Mark Palkoner………… markpalkoner@gmail.com!!
Email:
admin@csinsanjuancapistrano
Diane Schnitzer………cleverbiscuit@verizon.net!!
Julie Eaton, Administrator………!
admin@csinsanjuancapistrano.com!!