c. 2004 Religion News Service
VIENNA, Va. _ Leaders of the New Thought movement used their annual conference as an opportunity to encourage a nontraditional spiritual quest.
At a morning session of the 89th Annual Congress of the International New Thought Alliance, held July 18-23, speakers suggested new ways to approach the metaphysical path on which they walk.
In a speech titled “Thinking With NewER Thought,” the Rev. Noel McInnis of Wilsonville, Ore., supported the congregational singing of a revamped version of “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”
“We just need to make over the old song,” said McInnis, an ordained minister of Religious Science. Instead of “Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me,” he advocated “now there is peace on Earth and it has begun with me.”
Such a change fits into their movement, McInnis argued, gaining applause for his idea.
“New Thought is the art and science of making over perception,” he said.
New Thought dates to the 19th century and includes groups such as Religious Science, Divine Science and the Association of Unity Churches. Some congregations focus on Christian themes while others de-emphasize the Bible and Jesus in favor of more on Asian religion or other influences.
The Rev. Blaine Mays, president of the Mesa, Ariz.-based alliance and a minister with the Unity movement, said the alliance includes about 300 member churches ranging from small congregations to Christ Universal Temple in Chicago, which claims more than 15,000 members.
“We’re very comfortable in saying that all of New Thought incorporates … Christ’s teachings but we do not say that is all there is,” he said.
He said the notion of “NewER Thought” is welcomed by leaders of the movement.
“I thank God we keep hearing it,” he said, “because movement members must never be satisfied with where they are.”
At the meeting, a “prayer team table” decorated with an electric candle offered pink prayer request cards for attendees to fill out. There were spaces to check off “areas of concern” in such categories as health, joy, employment, peace, self-esteem and the environment.
Just beyond the table was a hotel room that had become the meeting’s bookstore, carrying the title “Daily Inspiration for Better Living” as well as books on tai chi, an Eastern meditative exercise.
One book, “Open Your Mind and Be Healed,” by Johnnie Colemon, had a foreword by Della Reese, one of the celebrities in the New Thought movement. Known for her starring role in the “Touched by an Angel” television show, Reese leads the Understanding Principles for Better Living congregation in West Hollywood, Calif.
As a pianist played gently, 50 or so people gathered for the morning session by reciting a principle of the alliance: “I am a spiritual being, living in a spiritual universe, governed by spiritual laws.”
Those attending said the nontraditional aspects of the movement attracted them.
The Rev. Lisa Marks, a Religious Science minister from Richmond, Va., grew up Jewish and opened the EnerPeace Center in February that focuses on spiritual education and healing. The center draws 10 to 15 people for midweek meditative services.
“Traditional religion didn’t speak to me and really when I got to be an adult the Jewish community didn’t hold anything for me,” she said. “I’ve always been of this mind-set and when I found … Religious Science, it was like I had come home.”
Another attendee, retired nurse Hyacinth Burgher from Brooklyn, N.Y., is a licensed teacher’s candidate in the Unity movement.
She was raised Anglican in her native Jamaica but found Unity met her needs when she was “seeking to cope with life’s hard knocks.”
Twenty years later, she said, “it still seems to be the answer … At this conference, it’s definitely challenging me to bring my understanding to still another level, which is a higher level.”
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