Spring 2013 Newsletter

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Second Church of Christ, Scientist Phoenix's Spring 2013 Newsletter.

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GOOD TIDINGS
“…for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people”. Luke 2:10

Spring 2013
Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Phoenix, AZ 250 W. Bethany Home Rd.

April Speaker and Panel Will Focus on Spiritual Solutions
Next month our church will be co-sponsoring two inspirational events in the community with the goal of helping people find spiritual, healing, solutions to their challenges. And you can help. The first event will be a talk on “How Relying on God Brings Healing” by Brian D. Talcott, a former Protestant Chaplain in the U.S. Air Force and now a public practitioner and teacher of Christian Science. Mr. Talcott’s 40year experience in these successive roles has made him a witness to spiritual healings of all kinds--–physical, mental, situational--and given him the conviction of God’s love and care for each of His children. Talcott will share some of these examples and proofs with his audience. This free public talk will be on Saturday, April 6th, 3 p.m., at Glendale Community College. Details about a specific location on campus will be announced. All are welcome. Our church is co-sponsoring this talk with First Church of Christ, Scientist, Glendale. The speaker, Mr. Talcott, is a member of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship. The second inspirational event reflects appreciation for our military veterans and their families. Our church is co-sponsoring a multi-faith panel discussion about “Prayer Based Solutions for Veterans’ Issues” on Sunday, April 7th at 2 p.m. On the panel will be Rabbi Martin Scharf; Chaplain and Episcopalian Priest Laura Adelia; and Christian Science practitioner and former Air Force Chaplain, Brian Talcott. The panel is expected to discuss spiritual approaches to the many challenges facing military veterans today— such as re-emergence into society, finding employment, re-establishing relationships, health issues, loss of

friends, leaving the battlefield behind and homelessness. Our focus for attendance at this event is veterans, their families, those who work directly with veterans and others who have contact with them. All interested in a prayerful approach to veterans issues are welcome. It will be held at the Jewish Historical Society at 12 Culver Street, next to the Burton Barr Library. You can help people find spiritual solutions by bringing a friend to Talcott’s talk on Saturday, April 6th; by referring, or bringing a veteran to the panel discussion on Sunday, April 7th; and by supporting both the talk and the panel discussion with prayer.

Prep Meeting and Workshop to Precede Lecture
Monday, March 11 at 6:30 pm Lecture Prep Meeting in the West Wing—a conversation with lecturer Brian Talcott on speaker phone; Friday, April 5 at 6 pm Workshop in the West Wing— pizza and workshop with Brian Talcott in person. The purpose of the in-person meeting with Talcott is to discuss two important questions behind the Lecture Committee’s decision to focus on a community need. The questions are: “Why should we be involved in community issues?” and “How should we be involved?” They get to the purpose of church and how church can be effective in addressing community problems—not only as it pertains to our April events but for our future focus and activities.

What Led to a Focus on Military Veterans? See the article on page 3 “MORE ABOUT VETERANS”

A Case of Mutual Blessing
We are privileged to have a loving, gracious and skilled pianist for our Wednesday night testimony meetings in the person of Gloria Brown. Her calming preludes ready us for the message and her postludes reflect a joyous expectancy of good, often through classical compositions that call upon her high degree of musicianship. Although Gloria is a faithful member of another church, she said, “I have been enriched by being at your Wednesday night meetings. You all live your faith decidedly and can speak about it freely. Members go home refreshed spiritually, and it’s the same for me. I’m more likely to see the hand of God in so many things.” Gloria acknowledges the hand of God in a healing she had a few years ago—a story worth telling about, briefly. There was a sudden onset of symptoms. “I couldn’t even button my blouse,” she said, “and sometimes I felt like the headless horseman carrying his head.” She worried that she would not be able to finger the keyboard properly but persisted in playing for us on Wednesday nights, even though she needed someone to assist her in walking from her car to the building and back. A medical diagnosis told Gloria that she had a progressive, incurable neuromuscular disease. There was no medication for it. Gloria did not sink into resignation. “I asked God to heal me and, thank God, He enabled me to climb out of it.” Two weeks later, a neurologist looked at the case data and told her. “You don’t have that disease because you didn’t get worse. You got better. I don’t know why.” Gloria suggested, “Maybe God had something to do with it,” which was met with skepticism, but Gloria knew it was true. There was a journey back to normalcy, but Gloria feels that coming through that experience successfully is one example of the influence that her contact with Christian Science has had on her.
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Gloria has had a rich and varied career, mostly in music. She grew up in Springfield, Illinois, taught by two excellent piano teachers during her schoolgirl years, and received a scholarship to Sophie Newcomb Liberal Arts College in New Orleans, adjacent to Tulane University. For her final college year, she moved back to Illinois and got her degree from Barat College in Lake Forest, with a major in voice and a minor in piano. After graduation, she changed her lifestyle and spent 18 years in a monastery where there was no piano. Taking a new direction in 1970, Gloria entered a master’s degree program at the University of Nevada in Reno to get her degree in English because she was told there were “eight English teaching jobs to every one in music.” She moved to Phoenix in 1973 and began teaching English in grades four to six. But she did not find it satisfying. In 1976, Gloria went back to her first love, music, by teaching piano and voice in her home. “The students who came wanted to accomplish something. It was much more rewarding. When you can have a kid smile, that’s fun for me. And I love teaching adults. Their minds leap ahead, thinking, “If that is so, then this must be so.” “I can never thank my parents enough for giving me piano lessons as a child, because the most wonderful thing—my greatest joy—is to teach students, and myself, to sing and play beautiful music.”

Through the years, Gloria also sang in the original Phoenix Bach and Madrigal group, then sang and accompanied for 20 years in the St. Bernadette’s Choir in Scottsdale that included three trips to Europe for performances. She has also been an active member of the Arizona State Music Teachers Association for about 35 years.

(Mutual Blessing cont. from previous page) “Teaching is my favorite thing, although it is more limited right now,” Gloria said, referring to the smaller population of children and the recent economic turndown. She also composes music on her computer program, serves her church, takes care of a house, two big dogs and seven cats, and collects Bibles in many languages. Gloria wanted to tell one more example of how being at our church on Wednesday nights has impacted her life. “I had a little accident yesterday. I was walking the dog when I fell flat on the sidewalk. As I got up, my hand was hurting. I thought, ‘I could have broken a bone. Maybe I should get an x -ray.’ But then I remembered what some testifiers on Wednesday night said when they described how they handled a problem. They said, ‘I’m not going to look at it.’ So I didn’t. I thought, ‘I’m going to let God take care of it.’ And today my hand is fine!” Way to go, Gloria!

More About Veterans
What led the Lecture Committee to veterans as a community to support in both a practical and spiritual way? One of our church members was acquainted with MANA [Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force] House in central Phoenix that is a transitional housing facility for homeless veterans working towards independence and self-sufficiency. Here they find a quality, stable environment providing services to assist with benefits, education, employment and permanent housing. Veterans can stay up to two years if they are actively searching for work or filing VA and/or Social Security forms. MANA House is a project of the Madison Street Veterans Association (MSVA), an organization of veterans helping veterans.. MSVA is a peer group of homeless and formerly homeless veterans whose mission is to offer personal, individualized, service, basic resources, community, and advocacy for all veterans. Their vision is: “There is a way to heal, the nightmares end, no one is alone. There is a way to end veteran homelessness. ”You can learn more about MSVA and its projects by going to the website at http://madisonstreetveterans.org. Providing a residence and clothing for over 50 men and women and dinner for about 70 needs a lot of support from the community, churches, and other not -for-profit organizations. Our Lecture Committee members have visited MANA House, brought some supplies, and our Clerk has prepared a list of needed items for their kitchen (large sizes) and clothing that you can take down there as an individual to MANA House at 755 E. Willetta in Phoenix. Sometime in the near future, our church will announce a food and clothing drive for them and arrange to get the donated items down there. Also to benefit MANA House, Principia Club will host a Walkathon for Vets on Sat., March 23. For more info contact [email protected]

A Little Humor
from various church sources)

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be, “What is Hell?” Come early and listen to the choir practice. God doesn’t necessarily call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Forbidden fruits create many jams! Be ye fishers of men. You catch’em. God’ll clean them. True prayer: don’t give God instructions. Just report for duty.

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Discovery Bound Says “Thank You”
The local chapter of Discovery Bound sent an email to our church and others saying, “Thanks to everyone who helped make our fundraiser last week a big success! We appreciate everyone who supported this event by attending, baking goodies, setting up, cleaning up, taking care of children, donating money, and praying. A special thanks to Deb Offenhauser for donating her time and amazing talent to this event.” The event was February 23rd’s Piano Pizzazz! -- here in our West Wing. A much sought-after piano/keyboard professional, Debbie entertained us with joyous music, humorous anecdotes and a rendition of “Dizzy Fingers” that had the audience clapping as she ratcheted up to digital speed. In case you’re not familiar with Discovery Bound (DB), it is an organization that provides inspirational and recreational activities for young Christian Scientists, their families and friends on a local and regional basis. Ticket sale proceeds from the concert (over $1000) went to the local Discovery Bound chapter. The funds will be used to assist C.S. Sunday School students Valley wide to go to camps for Christian Scientists and to attend DB regional activities. [One of our Sunday School students attended a DB Music Focus Regional last year in Seattle and came home inspired to be our Sunday School pianist.] For more info, write [email protected] or [email protected]. As for local DB activities, the chapter had a wonderful family hike in January and will be joining the Principia Club in a community service project, the Walkathon for Vets on Saturday, March 23, to benefit MANA House, a facility for homeless veterans. All are invited to participate. For more info on the walk, e -mail Joy at [email protected] or call 602-695-7064.

*Get Your Application In*
Discovery Bound asks that anyone requesting a DB campership for this summer (financial help with camp fees) do so by the end of March. To request a campership, you must fill out a form and forward it to Debbie Whitler ([email protected]) or David Tinsley ([email protected]). They will mail you the form upon request.

OP P O R T U N I T I E S
FOR CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS
TMC EAST COAST YOUTH SUMMIT – AGES 12-35 Spiritual Activism in a Modern Life March 22-24, 2013 Philadelphia, Pa $100 for 2 nights lodging, meals, activities For info, registration, financial aid, go to— time4thinkers.com/summit-eventseastcoast-spiritual-activist-summit-2013 TMC Youth is The Mother Church’s Youth Community. Time4thinkers.com is the online expression of TMC Youth. Summits – explore the big questions on your mind with people your own age who care about the same things you do. DISCOVERY BOUND TEEN WEEKEND AGES 7TH - 12TH GRADE APRIL 19 – 21, 2013 LA - Hollywood , CA Inspirational, Warner Bros. tour, Mini-bus night on the town, Sunday School hike, beach: surfing lessons, volleyball, etc. Cost: $115 pp. Financial aid available—see online registration form OR local DB [email protected] Reservations: Online at www.regonline.com/LA2013. RSVP deadline April 7th! Transportation [email protected] DISCOVERY BOUND YOUNG ADULT WEEKEND GETAWAYS AGES 21-35 April 12-14, 2013 Central Coast, CA

At Lakes Nacimiento and Antonio Cycling (bring equip.), kayaking, (bring wetsuit) boating , hiking, fishing, ping pong, grilling, inspiration, chatting, etc. Registration $130-150. [email protected] Financial aid: local DB [email protected] or your church. 4

Searching for Gems
Aren’t there times when you’d like to pull up a favorite writer from the Journal, Sentinel or Herald publications—or maybe something a friend, or church member wrote? Nowadays it’s not as simple as when all we had to research were the print issues. Take, for instance, the contributions of our friend and fellow member, Hank Richter. He mentioned that he’d had seven submissions published in recent memory. Seven! And I had missed most of them. Hank wasn’t sure of all the dates, and some were online versions, or had appeared in Church Alive columns, and two were testimonies. How to find them all! I still had the May 14, 2012 print Sentinel, so it was easy to find Hank’s “Pecan Tree” article on my bookshelf; but when I went online to ChristianScience.com and searched for some of the other items--titles and key words notwithstanding --I struck out. Probably my lack of experience. It was clearly time for the aid of JSH -online. I plunked down my credit card number for a subscription and soon was back to a search engine where I had an idea to just put in the author’s name. And viola! There popped up a list of everything Hank had written over the last dozen years with a link to the source under each title. I could click right to Hank’s October 8, 2012 Sentinel “web original” of “Patience and Persistence - Healing by Healing” which was worth all my struggle and more. It showed Hank’s “God is in the Art” from the July 2011 Journal; “Church Attendance: Obligation or Opportunity” from the Church Alive web page of November 7th last year; testimonies from 2000 and 2001, and more. Now, when I go to JSH -Online, I see a vast array of blessings so neatly organized. It still requires a learning curve; but, for me, it’s worth the extra $12 a month with the option to cancel anytime.
The Editor

Dates To Remember
Mar. 11 6:30 pm Lecture Prep Mtg. with lecturer Brian Talcott on speaker phone in West Wing 9:30 am Walkathon for Vets Principia Club community project for MANA House. Start at Granada Park 6:00 pm Pizza/Workshop with Lecturer Brian Talcott Apr. 6 3:00 pm Lecturer Brian Talcott How Relying on God Brings Healing at Glendale Community College Apr. 6 3:30 pm Lecturer Jon Benson Step Out of Your Story and Into Healing At Kiwanis Park, Tempe Apr. 7 2:00 pm Multi-faith Panel Discussion Prayer Based Solutions for Veterans’ Issues At Jewish Historical Society Apr. 13 10:30 am Lecturer Jill Grimes Healing Love—Never Out of Reach Gainey Ranch Golf Club, Scottsdale June 3 1:00 pm EDT TMC Online Annual Mtg. Small Seeds, Vital Growth At christianscience.com/memberresources/news-and-events/ annualmeeting

Mar. 23

Apr. 5

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