One of the chief offices of spiritual mind
healing is to relieve the mind of fear,
to compose the thought and permit it to reflect the deep
inner feeling that comes from conscious union with the Spirit.

Science and religion should walk hand in
hand in the accomplishment of this purpose.

— Ernest Holmes, Living the Science of Mind, page 253

COVID-19 Vaccination Update from CSL Executive Team

CSL Spiritual Leader Dr. Edward Viljoen, Field Leader Rev. Sunday Cote and Leadership Council Chair Dr. David Alexander emailed an updated statement in response to questions regarding Centers for Spiritual Living ’s stance on COVID-19 vaccinations. The statement reads, in part:

We begin our statement with great love and compassion for the diversity of thought that exists among our members. We acknowledge that as spiritual beings, we are self-determining and have personal freedom and choice. We acknowledge that this individuality expresses itself as a continuum of opinions related to vaccinations.

Because vaccination decisions are often influenced by religion or sincerely held spiritual beliefs, we are compelled to confirm that there are no precepts or strictures against vaccinations or receiving medical treatment of any kind within Centers for Spiritual Living. Indeed, Ernest Holmes cautioned us not to say everything is all right when it is all wrong. …

We do not deny the existence of illness, nor do we deny the need for hygiene or medical assistance. We unite with these modalities, are grateful for their assistance and cooperate with their efforts in every way. Though we may explore why sickness exists when the original Cause is harmonious and perfect, we will neither deny nor minimize the extraordinary work being done in the field of medical science.

Nevertheless, we can add something important to the care and healing of our physical bodies: the understanding that we are primarily spiritual beings with a mind and a body, and we have the tool of spiritual mind treatment to augment and enhance medical science, but it does not replace it. Indeed, we give thanks for and celebrate public health achievements that have saved lives worldwide.

Taking this perspective into consideration, we ask members to apply their freedoms for the greater good and to consider how public health might be an expression of oneness. And most importantly, we urge our members to think about how to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable among us, who cannot be vaccinated, when we choose whether to vaccinate.

Although vaccination is a personal matter, as is the interpretation of Science of Mind, this Executive Team, using our founder ’s words as a guide, cannot in good conscience endorse religious exemptions against vaccines under the authority of Centers for Spiritual Living.

In addition to following public safety protocols, it is important that our clergy, teachers, study-group leaders, practitioners and other leaders who interact with our members be transparent about their vaccination, test and exposure statuses so the people they interact with may make decisions for themselves about safety, masking and physical distance.

“We do not deny the body, nor do we deny the mind. What we do is affirm the Spirit. We believe the body should be properly cared for — that is the office of the physician.”

— Ernest Holmes, Living the Science of Mind, page 527

Guides for Morning Meditation

In the October 2021 issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine, Rev. Dr. Petra Weldes offers quotations to contemplate as you consider how you make a difference in the world.

• A single arrow is easily broken, but not 10 in a bundle. — Japanese Proverb
• A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality. — Yoko Ono
• We, the people, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what is in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense. — Barack Obama
• But if we can bind ourselves together reverently, in love and compassion, in mutual tolerance and understanding, under the cohesive powers of the universal law of good and the beneficence of a divine and universal presence, then shall we be able to use the liberty without license, to untangle unity from uniformity and to lead the world down the pathway of a new enlightenment. — Ernest Holmes