Clad in the panoply of Love human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.
Mary Baker Eddy
Science and Health 571:18
CHICAGO SAYS, “IT GETS BETTER.”
In this It Gets Better tribute, prominent members of Chicago’s LGBT community come together to share stories and hope. Presented Tribeca Flashpoint Academy,…
Welcome to Embrace, the new support/discussion group for Christian Scientists from a Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Transgender (LGBT) perspective. It is open to all LGBT Christian Scientists, their families, friends and supporters who live in the greater Chicago area.
Almost from the earliest days of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy foresaw the importance and potential for Chicago in her soon-to-be-international movement. At one time she seriously considered having the Windy City serve as world headquarters for her Church.
The early Chicago Church grew rapidly, all the while producing some of the most well-known and dedicated workers in the annals of Christian Science.
In one of her few journeys outside her native New England, Mrs. Eddy traveled to Chicago in 1884 and again in 1888. Her 1888 trip was the first ever national gathering of Christian Scientists.
Ninety-five years following Mrs. Eddy’s second Chicago visit, LGBT Christian Scientists held it first National Conference which was also in the Windy City in 1983. The then new organization has come to be called “Emergence International.” From that time on, LGBT Christian Scientists have held annual conferences around the United States. (This year’s Conference will be held in the Seattle area October 5 to 7.)
It is with the same dedication to Mrs. Eddy’s teachings of the early Chicago workers that Embrace endeavors to emulate. Equally important, we wish to provide a safe-haven for Christian Scientists with an LGBT orientation that is free from the odious inflictions of homophobia, and judgment. We believe that Christian Science, as revealed by Mrs. Eddy, neither condones nor renders judgment when it comes to who we love in our human experience. We wish to remind the Church of Mrs. Eddy’s admonition for its members to pray daily, “to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.” (Church Manual, page 40).