Posted on 03/13/2011 7:36:51 PM PDT by TBP
Golden, CO -- In an era when religious denominations are splitting into smaller and smaller sects, one just reunited after being split since 1954. Science of Mind®, also known as Religious Science, founded in the 1920s by philosopher Ernest Holmes, functioned as two competing organizations for more than 50 years. This week, delegates at their joint annual conference in San Diego approved reunification, called “integration,” with 98% of the vote.
In preparation for their integration, the two organizations, originally called Religious Science International and United Church of Religious Science, changed their names to International Centers for Spiritual Living and United Centers for Spiritual Living, respectively. Now that the merger is official, the new organization will be known simply as Centers for Spiritual Living.
“We are a philosophy that teaches unity, so it is time for us to walk our talk,” says Rev. Dr. Kathy Hearn, Community Spiritual Leader for United Centers for Spiritual Living. “Our founder, Ernest Holmes, always believed the movement would come back together at some point, and the time is now.”
“The time has finally come for our organizations to come back together,” echoes Rev. Dr. Kenn Gordon, President of International Centers for Spiritual Living. “We simply cannot go on teaching unity while remaining split.”
The merger has been in process for eight years, intensifying over the last three years, and using a shared leadership model that included almost 400 volunteers working to create “modules” that reflect the functional departments of the new organization. These modules became the basis for the new corporate documents that were overwhelmingly accepted this week.
Science of Mind is part of the New Thought Movement, started in the mid-1800s by Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and continued into the twentieth century with the teaching of Emmett Fox, Napoleon Hill, Emma Curtis Hopkins, and Holmes. The cornerstone of New Thought is a teaching of unity, yet despite this, two factions of Science of Mind broke apart in the 1950s over organizational differences. “We have the opportunity here to heal the wounds of the past,” says Gordon.
During Ernest Holmes’ life and ministry in Los Angeles, celebrities such as Cary Grant, Peggy Lee, and Doris Day followed his teaching. More recently, Science of Mind has influenced such luminaries in the field of self development as Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Beckwith, and Marianne Williamson. The integrated movement has over 400 spiritual centers in 29 countries, and publishes two inspirational monthly magazines with a combined readership of 100,000.
“We have a big vision for providing spiritual tools and transforming personal lives,” says Hearn. “We realize that our influence is much more powerful now that we’ve integrated than it has been on our own.” Gordon adds, “I know Ernest Holmes would be proud today.”
started by trancendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson.....sounds like the way to heaven to me...wonder why everybody isn’t rushing to their doors....How can anyone put their immortal soul in the hands of a transcendentalist (whatever that is)
It isn’t a religion but a method of thinking which emphasizes non-material concerns. I have read Emerson and Thoreau but have to confess didn’t get much out of them. Emerson was perhaps the first American thinker to have much of an impact in Europe.
I have also read both of them, never thought too much of either. If you are going to be a philosopher, first present credentials to justify the fact that your opinion and positions mean anything....I can expound all kinds of nonsense and it will, indeed, be meaningless....my opinion only...learned... nope....what makes a person a thinker????
>> Bucking the trend. There isn’t much history of organizations split for so long coming back together like this. <<
The ELCA, PCUSA, United Methodist Church, UCC all formed from the reunion of various denominations... and that’s not counting all the first time unions.
Also, the Catholic Church is comprised of 22 distinct churches, about 19 of which reunited with the Catholic after various schisms were healed. In the most incredible case, a Thomistic (founded by St. Thomas) Indian church was reunited with the Catholic Church after having lost contact with the West following the rise of persecution of Christians within the Parthian Empire in the first Century AD. 15 centuries later, apon discovery by Portuguese missionaries, they returned to the Catholic Church.
I think the soundness of your logic is the only valid credential for a philosopher. Take Socrates for example. He had no credentials but the method of dialectic. He was a poor stonecutter with no status at all in society.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.