For More Information

First Church of Christ, Scientist

• 1700 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
• (415) 673-3544
• https://firstchurchsf.com/
• firstchurchofcs@sbcglobal.net
• Sunday church services, Sunday school, Wednesday testimony meeting via Zoom, call for details

Christian Science Reading Room

• 1643 Polk Street, San Francisco CA 94109
• (415) 673-0532
• rrfirstchurchsf@sbcglobal.net
• Call for details on open hours

If you’d like information about future workshops given by Dr. Joan Bernard Bradley, please visit her website: www.joanbernardbradley.com

About this Workshop:

• The workshop delves into the history of the mid-week meeting and how it evolved over an 18 year period — from its earliest format of parlor lectures, into the current order of service for Wednesday meetings.
• Discover how Mary Baker Eddy repeatedly encouraged the early workers to share testimonies of healing with the public.
• Dr. Joan Bernard Bradley has presented this workshop in England, Canada, and throughout the United States, and it is always enthusiastically received. Her research was done at the Mary Baker Eddy Library and Longyear Museum.

About Dr. Bradley

When Joan was introduced to Christian Science, the testimonies she heard at the Wednesday Evening Meetings inspired her to become a serious student. Her son was subsequently healed of asthma, a condition that had gone on for years.

Joan is a former school principal and professor of education. Her doctorate is in educational leadership and administration. She has contributed a number of articles to the Christian Science periodicals.

Watch the replay on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI19lvc2Wvw

This is a recording of a live webinar captured on May 4, 2020, titled “Defusing Teen Stress: Navigating Tough Times and Finding Healing” — addressing the topic of stress, depression, suicide, and other major challenges faced by the youth of today.

Helpful additional resources

• Crisis and Suicide Hotlines:
  • In Contra Costa County:
    • Call 211
    • Or call 1-800-833-2900
    • Text HOPE to 20121
• National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
• National Crisis Text Line: send text to 741741
• Practitioners of Christian Science, ready to help:
  • Brian Talcott, CSB (510) 301-8400   btalcott@comcast.net
  • Pamela deBolt, CSB (707) 321-9800  dbltp@aol.com
• Find a Christian Science Practitioner near you:
  • https://www.christianscience.com/find-us/find-a-christian-science-practitioner
• Articles for youth from The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston:
  • Teen Connect: Out of the depths of depression
  • Teen Connect: Thinking about suicide?
  • Additional resources for teens
• Get in touch with our panelists:
  • Graham Wiseman  (925) 209-6685 graham@beingwellca.org
  • Scott Chavez ScottC@crisis-center.org
  • Melanie Wahlberg, CS (818) 300-1793 melaniewahlbergcs@gmail.com

This event is sponsored by First Church of Christ, Scientist, Pleasant Hill, CA, and First Church of Christ, Scientist, Orinda, CA

About the Speakers

Graham Wiseman
Co-Founder & CEO, BeingwellCA

Graham spent 25 years in the corporate world working with clients such as: University of California, SF Giants and Centers for Medicare / Medicaid, New York. As a trusted advisor to five San Francisco Police Chiefs, he built a reputation for tackling complex issues and delivering simple, thorough solutions. After a tragic loss in his life, Graham left corporate sales and devoted his career to providing students, parents and education professionals with strategies and solutions to address the increasing mental health issues in our communities.

Scott Chavez, M.Div
Outreach and Training Lead at the Contra Costa Crisis Center

Scott Chavez began serving as a crisis line volunteer on the Crisis Center’s 24-hour crisis & suicide hotlines in 2010. He joined the agency’s staff in 2013 and continues to provide crisis counseling, support, & resource information to people in crisis, including those at risk of suicide. In addition, Scott provides trainings in suicide prevention and suicide intervention skills for the agency’s staff and volunteers and throughout Contra Costa County.

Melanie Wahlberg, CS
Christian Science Practitioner & Lecturer

Melanie Wahlberg originally pursued a career as a college mathematics professor, achieving a doctorate in mathematics. She is now a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship and travels frequently from her home in Southern California, speaking to audiences about prayer, Christian Science healing, and solving challenges by applying a spiritual perspective. As the mother of three teens, she speaks from practical experience.

YouTube URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsafjgyAdoE

Listen to the song “If Wrapped in Kindness” mentioned at the start of Fujiko’s talk:

“Love without limit, Life without fear”
by Fujiko Signs, CSB — from Tokyo, Japan

Around the world people are looking for healing and peace in their lives and communities.  International speaker Fujiko Signs, a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science healing, will present a talk that invites a different perspective in achieving this peace, abolishing limits and fear.  Come explore the power of prayer and how it strengthens hope, faith, and healing in our lives.

Speaker’s Contact Information

Phone: (814) 777-4466
Email: fujiko.signs@gmail.com

Follow-up Ideas

“My assignment would be to explore the ideas in this textbook, Science and Health, to find practical and original ways to do your business, have relationship, live with to share your childlike qualities.”

The Holy Bible

• Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 18: 3
• Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. — Matthew 5: 48
• Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity — Habakkuk 1:13
• The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. — Matthew 6: 22

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures

• Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea.  323-323
• Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. 476-477
• As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being. 361
• Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. 392
• Consciousness constructs a better body when faith in matter has been conquered. 425
• A patient’s belief is more or less moulded and formed by his doctor’s belief in the case, even though the doctor says nothing to support his theory. His thoughts and his patient’s commingle, and the stronger thoughts rule the weaker. Hence the importance that doctors be Christian Scientists. – 198

“Experiencing heaven now”
by Mary Bothwell, CSB — from Pasadena, California

In spite of the hyper-connectedness of social media and technology, we live in an era in which many are feeling a disconnect. We all yearn to find meaningful relationships, or a more lasting connection with peace, contentment, even health. In my lecture, I’ll discuss how anyone can become genuinely aware of God’s presence and experience heaven–harmony, health, and happiness–here and now.

Speaker’s Contact Information

Phone: (626) 222-4197
Email: mary@marybothwell.com

For further reflection

Study the first chapter, “Prayer,” in Science and Health

• Pay particular attention to the descriptions of what prayer is
• Think about how to pray with the Lord’s Prayer to gain closeness to God (being in the Kingdom) and be better in touch with your own spirituality

Consider a specific situation in your life that needs to be healed or cured — health or emotional issues; relationship, school, or job-related challenges; any of the world’s problems

• Apply something you learned from your study of “Prayer” and your deeper understanding of the Lord’s Prayer.
• Keep up daily prayer about the issue until you feel the spiritual shift which indicates healing

Some useful articles  on the topic of gun violence:

• Brooke Engel, “My school was in lockdown: How I prayed,” Christian Science Sentinel, March 10, 2014
• Carolyn R. Keith, “Our mighty weapons,” The Christian Science Journal, August, 2017
• Brian Kissock, “Peace in the face of terrorism,” The Christian Science Journal, March, 2016
• Kim Crooks Korinek, “‘What is Truth?’,” The Christian Science Journal, July, 2017
• Candace Mann, “Protected at gunpoint,” Christian Science Sentinel, December 1, 2010
• Josh Niles, “Prayer — a game-changer in times of conflict,” Christian Science Sentinel, November 14, 2011
• Jenny Sawyer, “School shootings: What can we do?,” Christian Science Sentinel, February 23, 2018

YouTube URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylcx_udQIy0

“Conflict resolution: A spiritual approach”
by John Tyler, CSB — from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

This talk examines several specific conflicts from marital to nation-building. It identifies some practical ways of resolving them. It explores two of these — forgiveness and learning to love — and shows how they lead to healing national conflicts and even physical bodies.

Speaker’s Contact Information

Phone: (412) 683-6145
Email: jmtyler1@verizon.net

Follow-up ideas:

• Careful study of Eddy’s essay “Love your enemies”, Miscellaneous Writings pp 8-13.
• Take a concrete case of someone, or some group whom you could define as an “enemy”.  Then “look upon the object of your own conception”, and work with your own thinking to the point where you are able to see that “that which defiles, defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should reflect” is the real enemy.
• The goal here is to reach the (mental) point where you are able to see—using your spiritual sense—to see though both the facade of a physical body, and the facade of a being or group which has a nefarious history—see through those facades to the creation of God, the image and likeness of God.  Thus you will, mentally, be looking at God…something you can’t help but love.

It would be great to feel confident about whatever we face, instead of feeling stuck or alone. In this talk, I discuss what I’ve found helpful in connecting with God, the infinite Mind, who provides the ideas that reveal the solutions we need, that wipe away that stuck feeling, and that help us see that we’re never alone. These ideas from God don’t just comfort us, they do something! Unlike ordinary thoughts, they change our lives and our health for the better and even enable us to help transform the lives of others.

Watch the replay

Further Exploration

• Finding a Soulmate (podcast)

At a time when many people are thinking about how to make change in the world for the better, genuine spirituality has a valuable and unique contribution to make. It’s not about joining a club, or blind faith, but discovering new perspectives of universal Truth and Love, God, that embrace everyone, and bring to light reliable healing solutions even where it might seem like there are none.

Watch the replay

Follow-up Idea:

Read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Read it to discover something. That is, read it as you would explore some new area where you were adventuring – not with the idea that you are going to use it for your purpose, but rather to simply see what it has to offer, and to consider its implications for your life, and for all life. Let the ideas in the speak to you, uplift you, educate you; let yourself be on the receiving end of whatever living truth is contained in the pages of the book.

Josh will talk about how harmony is actually a constant and consistent law of God and how Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery of these divine laws, which have been in operation throughout all time, can be brought to bear in any circumstance through holy inspired prayer.  Christ Jesus mapped the way for all mankind to better understand God and feel His undiminished love which leads to harmony and healing.  Josh will share examples of healing through Christian Science from his own life to help illustrate that everyone can experience the kind of harmony and healing that Jesus pointed to in his ministry.

Watch the Replay

Further Thoughts

SH 209:31-32
“Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God.”

– Take some time to really cherish your spiritual sense…your consistent capacity to understand and reflect good.

– Take some specific time to cherish the spiritual sense that is endowed in every child, women and man that your thought reaches out to…wether that’s watching the news, at school or at the grocery store.

John 8:12
“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

SH 293:28
“Christian Science brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal harmony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness of evil.”

– Allow the light of Truth to reveal your spiritual substance…the spiritual qualities that God shines through you.

Mis. 224:11-25 (to ,)
“We should remember that the world is wide; that there are a thousand million different human wills, opinions, ambitions, tastes, and loves; that each person has a different history, constitution, culture, character, from all the rest; that human life is the work, the play, the ceaseless action and reaction upon each other of these different atoms. Then, we should go forth into life with the smallest expectations, but with the largest patience; with a keen relish for and appreciation of everything beautiful, great, and good, but with a temper so genial that the friction of the world shall not wear upon our sensibilities; with an equanimity so settled that no passing breath nor accidental disturbance shall agitate or ruffle it; with a charity broad enough to cover the whole world’s evil, and sweet enough to neutralize what is bitter in it…”

Watch the replay

Follow-up Resources

View another Christian Science lecture on Mary Baker Eddy – “Aha Moments That Heal” by Chet Manchester

By today’s lecturer, in Medium, Tony Lobl – “7 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Mary Baker Eddy”

Biography by feminist scholar, Dr Gillian Gill – This is strong on the social context in which Mary Baker Eddy lived. – https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Baker-Eddy-Radcliffe-Biography/dp/0738202274

Biography by church scholars. Yvonne Fetweiss and Rob Warneck – This is strong on Mary Baker Eddy’s experiences as a healer – https://www.amazon.com/Mary-Baker-Eddy-Christian-Amplified/dp/0875104797

Other biographies on Mary Baker Eddy – https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/timeline-for-biographies-of-mary-baker-eddy/

For more information visit the website of  The Mary Baker Eddy Library – https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org

About this talk

Higher education can be a life-changing experience for many. It was for me. I loved the adventure of my student days. Yet as my University experience drew to a close an entirely new and unsought adventure came my way when I was introduced to Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. This was “higher education” of another kind — a deep dive into the “the things of Spirit” and their practical applicability to every facet of life. The book also led me to read and love the Bible.

Led by an intuition not to pursue a conventional career, I wove voluntary work and various freelance roles into periods of time spent quietly studying the “textbooks of Christian Science” (Science and Health and the Bible). I quickly saw the potential of this completely spiritual system of healing when I was healed of recurring sinusitis without drugs and freed from a gambling addiction without counseling or peer group support. My passion became to share this powerful “divine Science” I benefited from with anyone seeking solutions to unmet needs.

I may not be an architect, but I know the value of a strong foundation. My life improved when I began building on new views of myself and my identity, which sprang from a better concept of God than I’d had before. This better concept of God brought healing changes to my life in a way that was deep and lasting.

I invite you to join me in discovering how you can establish your own strong foundation and experience the life-changing effects of building on this solid basis for yourself and the world.

Watch the replay

Follow-up assignment

How to make change for the better: a little follow-up
Janet Hegarty, C.S.B., Member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship

Here are a few of many connections between the four big ideas presented in the lecture found in the Holy Bible and Science and Health with key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.  The links will take you to those passages in the books so you can see them in context.

Big idea #1 God is all good and is the only power.

In the Bible:

• Genesis 1:1–31
• Micah 6:8
• 2 Cor 9:8

In Science and Health:          

• 583:20
• 293:28
• 275:10-12

Big idea #2 We have an unshakeable connection with God.

In the Bible:

• John 5:30
• John 15:1-9
• John 10:23-30

In Science and Health:

• xi:9
• 2:15
• 146:23

Big idea #3 We are 100% spiritual.

In the Bible:

• Job 32:8
• John 4:24
• 1 Cor 2:9-13

In Science and Health:

• 468:8-15
• 125:12
• 496:5-8

Big idea #4 Evil is powerless and we can prove it.

In the Bible:

• Ex 3:1-14
• Jer 23:23-24
• Ps. 91:9, 10
• Rom. 13:1

In Science and Health:

• 102:30-11
• 130:26
• 207:8-10

About this talk

What I love about Christian Science is the way it answers pressing questions that come to all of us. Questions like Who am I? Why am I here? How can I find health and happiness? These questions were uppermost in my thought as I entered college. As an undergraduate, I studied music composition at Washington University in St. Louis. Then, I moved to Chicago, where I earned a master’s degree in music. At about the same time, I was introduced to Christian Science and began finding the answers to my questions about identity, purpose, and health. This has made a huge difference in my life.

Location Details

Christian Science Organization at U.C. Berkeley
2601 Durant Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704

“So, what is your heart beating for?” was a question I faced in my late twenties. I was a struggling filmmaker in Los Angeles, experiencing some problems with my heart after a failed marriage and an unsuccessful business venture. On my mental knees in prayer, I opened to a passage in Mary Baker Eddy’s writings that instantly got my attention: “The heart that beats mostly for self is seldom alight with love.” I realized that the function of the heart is to beat for God; it’s a reflection of divine Love itself. This glimpse of the Christ—the pure love of God embracing humanity—transformed my life and my health. From that day to this, I’ve been doing everything I can to share the healing message of Christian Science with the world.

Watch the Replay of Chet’s talk

Related biographical video about Mary Baker Eddy: “Soul of A Woman – The Life and Times of Mary Baker Eddy”

Christie’s motivation in her healing ministry and lecturing is the “aha moment” that comes as we catch even a glimpse of God’s great power.  “I love the undeniable feeling of security, health, and peace that comes when I listen for guidance from God,” Christie explains, “and my greatest joy is sharing this with others.”

Watch the Replay

Further Reading

• • THE ACTIVITY OF THE CHRIST

Discover a stillness that brings rest and healing to our everyday lives. This talk focuses on finding a deep-settled calm within ourselves that cannot be disrupted by fear or any outward disturbance. It will give examples of how the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy have brought lasting peace and complete healing to individual lives.

Watch the replay

After the talk

• Lari’s follow-up resources for this talk (notes, further details and videos)

Here’s the short video Lari referred to in her Q&A of a bicyclist hit by a car, and what happened afterwards, illustrating that deep-settled calm that cannot be disrupted by fear or any outward disturbance.

Watch the replay

Time is Not a Factor in Your Life
David Hohle, CSB – from Chicago, Illinois

This talk explores how we can begin to gain spiritual freedom from limitation associated with time and age.  Time is a constant in physics, but totally disappears in metaphysics.  Time measures matter, but divine Mind or spiritual consciousness is immeasurable and infinite.  This talk distinguishes between time and timelessness, age and agelessness, and encourages freedom from mortal limitations associated with time by understanding more about the spiritual nature of life. This understanding leads to more freedom, more productivity, and more harmony.

After the talk

• Download David’s reading list of useful articles and quotes relating to his talk