The Easter season gives me the opportunity to think more deeply about its meaning and what I hold in thought as important.  For me, without downplaying the crucifixion, the most important aspect of the Easter story is the resurrection. 

We can become so preoccupied with the cruel nature and illegality of Jesus trial and death that we forget that the purpose of the story is to reveal his overcoming of death. He revealed to us his ability to defy the most basic of physical laws by walking on the water, feeding thousands, healing many instantaneously and raising the dead and even himself.

The effect it had on his disciples was electrifying.  For them it was an awakening, and it can be for us too.

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science wrote of them in Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures “Through all the disciples experienced, they became more spiritual and understood better what the Master had taught. His resurrection was also their resurrection. It helped them to raise themselves and others from spiritual dullness and blind belief in God into the perception of infinite possibilities. They needed this quickening, for soon their dear Master would rise again in the spiritual realm of reality, and ascend far above their apprehension. As the reward for his faithfulness, he would disappear to material sense in that change which has since been called the ascension.”

To me, the resurrection and finally, the ascension are possibly the greatest lessons that Christ Jesus gave to humanity. He demonstrated, by example, that life is not ultimately subject to death, nor does death have any life in it!

Now, that’s a wake up call.

I confess to it – I’m a fan of ‘Calvin and Hobbes’.  Calvin, the six year old who knows everything and his stuffed toy tiger, Hobbes, who has the greatest intelligence known to tigers when no one else is around, created by that genius Bill Watterson. 

Meanwhile back to the question.  Is maths a science or a religion?  You must admit Calvin makes a pretty good case for religion.  This brings me to question whether I accept all unexplainable ‘equations’ on faith and therefore as a religion especially when they seem so mysterious, or a science. 

I do when it comes to Christian Science.  This is a religion like no other I know, and a science too.  There’s nothing mysterious about it. What is inexplicable to the human mind like spiritual healing is perfectly logical to the divine mind and therefore is a science.  It’s a perfect example of science and religion coming together.

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, discovered these laws in 1866 when, after reading the account of one of Jesus healings, she was healed of the effects of an accident from which she was not expected to recover.  She wanted to find out what it was that had healed her so that others could benefit from her discovery.  In 1875 she published her findings in Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures.

In this book she wrote “For three years after my discovery, I sought the solution of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scriptures and read little else, kept aloof from society, and devoted time and energies to discovering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration”.

Since that time there have countless healings of every imaginable disease, proving for me that Christian Science is a science and a religion.

To return to the original question – is maths a science or a religion?  If you give Hobbes the last word one would have to say a religion.  What do you think?

To the rescue came an army of volunteers and some generous benefactors and nowadays she is fully restored and plying the waters of the world again, particularly those off the east coast of Australia.  I remember seeing her hull on a Sydney slipway in the early days of restoration. It seemed that little progress, if any, was being made but, little by little, it was gradually restored over a number of years, made seaworthy and her rigging replaced.

Of course this kind of restoration doesn’t just happen.  It requires a deep knowledge of boat building methods of a bygone era, great skill in all the different aspects of the job and all tied together with an abundance of patience.

And what a sight to behold!  The sails filled with wind, the ship cutting through the water at speed and bringing back memories of times long gone, of paintings and old photographs.

She visited Hobart last week as part of the Wooden Boat Festival , an event that has taken place every two years since 1994.  Only wooden boats were on display, taking all the mooring spaces on Hobart’s historic Sullivan’s Cove waterfront docks (pictured on my homepage) and manned by boat builders, sailors and enthusiasts from all over Australia.  The restoration of this beautiful sailing ship reminds me of a situation of our own personal restoration. 

This was a time in the early 1990s when my wife and I had  lost nearly everything.  We had a small amount left over after our house was sold, the bank repaid and all other debts settled. Against all odds we found a house to rent at an affordable price in a beautiful location next to the bush, the owner allowing us keep our four pets there.  All our needs were met during this time and continued to do so until we were able buy, three and a half years later, another nicer house in a location high above the houses behind with bushland beyond.

Like the restoration of the James Craig, it was required of us never to lose patience or our faith in God and that all would be restored to us one day.  In the first chapter of the book of Genesis in the Bible it says that “God made man in his own image”.  The teachings of Christian Science  were so helpful to us in realising that the man referred to here is spiritual man, never separated from God. We realised that God would always look after His idea, His image. 

A citation from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, was particularly helpful at this time “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need”.

Never at any time did we feel we lacked anything we needed and eventually the prophecy from the book of Joel in the Bible was realised “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten”.

This has proved to be the case as we have been recompensed many times over.

  “The King’s Speech” – which officially opens in the UK today – is a marvellous film. It compellingly, and movingly, tells the story of “How one man saved the British monarchy”, to quote its tagline.

The one man in question is not the fascinating King George VI, played brilliantly by Colin Firth, but his speech therapist Lionel Logue, played just as impressively by Geoffrey Rush. Logue was an accomplished but slightly unorthodox Australian without paper qualifications who nevertheless single-handedly helped a Prince who would become King (against his own expectations and wishes!) to speak publicly despite a lifelong stammer.

How did he do it? Relatively little so far seems to be known about his actual technique. However, the movie’s director Tom Hooper had access, just before filming, to archival material uncovered by Logue’s grandson Mark. His film thought-provokingly portrays Logue’s treatment as not primarily focused on the speech defect as a physical deficiency but more as a mental malaise.

Notably in three places in David Seidler’s perfectly paced script the man heralded, in hindsight, as a saviour of the monarchy, addresses the need to lift the burden of fear from the mind of his “pupil”. (That’s what Logue preferred to call his patients, according to Australian biographer Norman Hutchinson, author of Lionel Logue: The King’s Mentor.) At one point in “The King’s Speech” Logue says to the stammering Prince “I’m trying to get you to realise that you can’t be governed by fear.”

These are pointers to a possibility that doesn’t surface in either the movie or in the book on which it is based, Mark Logue and Peter Conradi’s excellent biography of the same name. That possibility is that Lionel Logue was to some extent dipping into a source of ideas associated with a healing practice that was rapidly spreading at the time when Logue was transformed from an actor, public speaker and teacher into a revolutionary speech therapist.

That source of ideas was Christian Science, based on the healing work of Jesus, as articulated by Mary Baker Eddy in her own revolutionary book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It is a spiritual approach to healing that “commences with mental causation” and roots out fear on the basis of an understanding of the nature of God as being “perfect love” as the Bible describes Him in a letter written by John. In 1996 Lionel Logue’s son Valentine wrote a letter* confirming that his father was indeed a Christian Scientist (and a Freemason). Norman Hutchinson’s biography also shares the author’s own childhood memories of Logue being talked about as a Christian Scientist when he was growing up in Perth.

Logue’s approach – as portrayed in the movie – is not Christian Science practice in its purest sense, which is healing based solely on taking into account and addressing spiritual factors. The Christian Science practitioner will not additionally use physical exercises, the psychological probing of a patient’s emotional history, or other such means. While this purely spiritual approach to healing has its critics, it also has its champions, particularly those who are grateful for the spiritual and practical good they have experienced from applying its teaching to their own needs and the needs of others.

Somewhere between the critics and the champions are those who might be understandably cautious about promoting something they do not fully understand.

In a recent ‘Star Chat’ interview with Alison James in Yours magazine, Colin Firth comes out sounding like that, in his comments on how George (or Bertie, as he was known by friends and family) was helped in his public speaking by the character played by Geoffrey Rush. “Logue didn’t ‘cure’ him – we were conscious that this shouldn’t be a film about a miraculous recovery – but his methods certainly helped the king learn how to control and overcome his stammer.”

While it is quite possible that Firth didn’t know about the Christian Science connection – and wasn’t referring to that – this would have been an understandable concern if he did. Christian Science is often mistakenly assumed to be a belief in miracle healing, like the belief in getting a cure from going to Lourdes, or like the faith healing that is practised by many. And clearly, in contrast, it is historically accurate, as depicted in the movie, that Lionel Logue’s work with the Prince and then the King was not a quick cure. It was a progressive loosening of a limitation that never totally left him, although its hold over him was successfully subdued.

The practice of Christian Science can, and often does, deliver quick cures, but that isn’t its driving motive. The main focus of Christian Science practice is to promote spiritual growth individually and in the community – inspiring (not forcing!) a lessening of the grip of materialism in favour of a conscious sense and growing understanding of the goodness of God and of the underlying unity of humanity. When people have healings that don’t come so quickly they often find that the resulting experience of spiritual growth is much greater and more rewarding despite the trial of having to work something out over a period of time. But whether fast or slow, recovery is seen as dependent on proving God’s consistent spiritual laws of impartial good for all, not on harbouring a faith in a God whose will could go either way. Consequently the word “miracle” doesn’t enter into the lexicon of Christian Science except as a term for what a cure that comes from a reasoned trust in the healing power of divine Love, God, is mistakenly assumed to be.

In a video interview recorded by a colleague of mine, Norman Hutchinson gives an example when Lionel Logue is recorded as having turned around a speech defect in just one visit. And both Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age quote Dr Caroline Bowen, a speech and language pathologist who has researched Logue’s practice, saying ”As a Christian Scientist, Logue was passionate about healing, and perhaps this, coupled with his background in elocution, led to his treatment of returned servicemen who had speech disorders attributed to shell shock.” Many other aspects of Logue’s character, as portrayed in the movie, would also resonate with most Christian Scientists as being qualities they feel they have gained from the teachings – a capacity for calm in the midst of commotion, a trust in the ability of good to prevail, and an ability to exceed one’s own limited life script by virtue of that spiritual confidence.

However, it is fair to say that as he is lovingly portrayed in “The King’s Speech” Lionel Logue is not a study of an individual who has completely committed either his life or his therapeutic practice to the God-centred approach of the Christian Science Mary Baker Eddy founded. Also, in the post-World War II years, after his wife’s death – according to Valentine Logue’s 1996 letter – his dad “became interested in spiritualism…and he maintained this interest until he died”. In the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, spiritualism is described as “a theory contrary to” the Christian spirituality advanced in her teachings. (Although the Founder of Christian Science stressed that she entertained “no doubt of the humanity and philanthropy of many Spiritualists, but I cannot coincide with their views.”)

 So a question waits to be more fully investigated and answered. To what degree were the prayerful, metaphysical ideas of Christian Science a part and parcel of Lionel Logue’s uncharted technique for helping the transformation of stammering Prince Albert into a competent King at such a crucial time for royalty’s part in the effort to protect the civilised world from the forces of fascism and the threat of communism?

At one point in the movie, when unsuccessfully struggling to get his words out fluently, Colin Firth’s character – by then crowned as George VI – gets upset with the phrase “God save the King”. Out of frustration he says of that God “apparently no-one is listening!”

But perhaps, after all, He was.

Below is the trailer for the movie, followed by a list of links to other articles that touch on the fact that Lionel Logue was a Christian Scientist.

Of course new years, decades, centuries, millennia begin every day, beginning that day.  Earth rotates on its own axis every twenty-four hours and goes around the sun every year so what’s so special about the first of January?

Well, it’s a sort of starting point, one that is aligned to a particular date.  It’s based on the idea that time is measurable.

But what about eternity?  Eternity is based on there being no time, no beginning and no ending, no past and no future – just the present.

Time, on the other hand, is finite. It can go quickly or slowly according to your need, you can run out of it, it can weigh heavily, it can fly. You can arrive on time and you can be late.  One is supposed to be here only for a certain number of years.

But, we live in the moment.  All that we can claim is ours is the present moment, not five minutes ago nor in five minutes time.  So what is to stop us from improving our lifestyle at any time!

Mary Baker Eddy who discovered Christian Science writes in her book,  Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures “Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity.” She also wrote “Eternity is God’s measurement of Soul filled years.”

So why not resolve to turn over new leaves daily! Lets consider the eternal as a matter of course. 

So, Happy New Year everyone.  Lets do it now!

As I was digging out the Christmas tree and decorations from the cupboard, sorting out the tinsel and testing and replacing the lamps in the Christmas tree lights today I got to thinking about what Christmas means to me. There was a time when we were raising the children that the preparations for Christmas were nearly overwhelming – selecting the presents, putting them on lay-by and paying them off over several months, baking for and attending various Christmas parties and functions, buying presents for the children’s friends and teachers, supporting them in their end of year performances for school, ballet and music, double-checking that everyone in the family had just the right gift bought and lovingly wrapped and placed under the tree, and making preparations for Christmas holidays away at either the beach or with family, or both. The list went on, and on…..

Today, as a grandparent I have much more time for reflection and appreciation of the significance of Christmas. As a Christian Scientist, I place great importance on the life of Christ Jesus. The foretelling of the promised coming of the Messiah, the virgin birth, his ministry of teaching and healing and his later crucifixion, resurrection and ascension are key to Christian Science theology.

But to me personally, Jesus is my mentor and the guy who has shown me the way to health, happiness and harmony. Without his life and example the world would be quite a different place. He gave me a glimpse that:

• there is one, infinite God who is All and all-good, that God is not distant and unknowable, but that He/She is Father-Mother, all-embracing and always present;
• every individual is made in God’s spiritual image, loved by God and cared for by Him; 
• every suggestion of sickness or disease is something I don’t need to accept. If Jesus could heal every possible instance of sickness or disease through prayer and the acknowledgement of God’s goodness and infinite Love for man than we can find solutions through prayer too;
• life is actually eternal and the suggestion of a death process is an illusion.

The book that has explained Jesus teachings and healings as recorded in the Bible and made it clear enough to demonstrate myself is Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Without the wisdom, spiritual understanding and practical science expounded in this book I wouldn’t have such a clear understanding of my relationship to God or know how to demonstrate this understanding, which when applied has such a tangible effect—such as restored relationships, financial well-being, physical healing, character transformation and so on.

For the record, now I’m not so inclined to be caught up in the window-dressing about Christmas. It’s now not so much about presents, Santa and worshipping a dear little baby as about emulating the works of the adult Jesus in my everyday life throughout the year. And that means that I have a choice every day! When I put into practice this Science of Christianity I feel the love and joy usually reserved for Christmas every day.

Read more from Kay’s blog

However, those of us privileged to live in the Southern Hemisphere know a different scenario altogether. With temperatures ranging from a dry 20 degrees to a humid forty depending on how far north you live, Christmas Day is spent by many at the beach, cooling off.

Wherever one lives the message is the same though.  Christmas celebrates the birth of  Jesus, a man who was to change the world.  He demonstrated the Christ in his dominion over matter by walking on the water, feeding thousands with little food, raising the dead and healing, seemingly incurable, diseases instantaneously.

 Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered the Science of the Christ, his healing method  which she denominated Christian Science, wrote in an article entitled  ‘What Christmas means to me’ “I love to observe Christmas in quietude, humility, benevolence, charity, letting good will towards man, eloquent silence, prayer, and praise express my conception of Truth’s appearing”.

It’s important not to lose the real meaning of the real Christmas in the hurly burley of preparations for the festive season. Christmas for me is a time of quiet contemplation.  It’s a time for considering peace, both at home, in the community and between nations. An article entitled ‘Uniting the family of nations in peace’ by Rosalie Dunbar in the Christian Science Monitor is very helpful in this regard.

Here’s wishing all a Joyous, peaceful Christmas.

Page 1 of Hobart Mercury Article
Page 2 of Hobart Mercury Article

I remember a time when the business I was involved in owed a fortune in tax. I negotiated that we would pay an agreed amount of it every second Tuesday for 6 months. There were some weeks when I wondered where on earth was the money going to come from but I had engaged a Christian Science Practitioner to pray for me, to help me see that as I was made in the image and likeness of God (see Genesis 1:26 & 27), He would provide all my needs.  There were times when I wondered how I was going to be able to make the payments but the practitioner would say “Graham, only today is yours, Tuesday is God’s”.

I trusted that God would show me what I needed to do and the funds were always there in time. I found much encouragement from Mary Baker Eddy‘s description of ‘Angels’ in her Miscellaneous Writings, where she says in part “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment”.  In the prescribed six months I did pay off all the tax and penalties and saved the company from being wound up.

I read an inspiring article in the October 25^th issue of the Christian Science Sentinel entitled “Divine abundance revealed” describing how the writer was able to overcome a substantial shortfall in her family’s income while living overseas.  She found ways of economising that hadn’t occurred to her before.

We can always count on God to sustain us in times of hardship.