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