March 05, 2011   Center for Spiritual Living , Howard Thurman , Integration , Kathy Hearn , Poetry

Dr. Kathy Hearn's Message Post Integration

Hello Friends and Colleagues,           I am back home in San Diego after a most wonderful and life-changing week at the Integration ...

Hello Friends and Colleagues,

          I am back home in San Diego after a most wonderful and life-changing week at the Integration Conference.  I just want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for this beautiful evolution in the life of Religious Science, whether you, at any time…

-      thought integration between ICSL and UCSL was a good idea, or

-      held the coming together of our two organizations in your heart, or

-      prayed for this result, or

-      said affirmative words out loud about it, or

-      served on a committee regarding integration, or

-      attended regional meetings and/or teleconferences, or

-      served on module teams, or

-      attended the Integration Conference, or

-      served at the Integration Conference, or

-      did anything else or any combination of the above, or

-      you questioned the whole thing, or

-      you still question the whole thing.

We have each had our place, our role, and our contribution to this new beginning.  Thank you!

The next year will be another powerful and important one. The three documents that were so overwhelmingly passed describe the “What”  of our new organization.  Now we work on the
“How” through the development of Policies and Procedures. We have the wonderful opportunity of crafting the functioning of our new organization in alignment with the vision, values, guiding principles and intentions that were just accepted in the Organizational Design Model.

  As the energy, magic, jubilation and sense of infinite possibilities generated by the Integration Conference settle into deep feelings of appreciation and forward looking, I am reminded of Howard Thurman’s famous poem:

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among brothers,

To make music in the heart.

In a way, we have just had our own special holiday, and very soon will turn our collective attention to the work that is at hand and the work we have been called to do.  I am very grateful that we have completed yet again a very old conversation  -- this one about whether or not our two organizations would ever come back together.  Never again will a student in a New Member class have to ask, and a minister answer, “Why are there two Religious Science

organizations?”  There is soon upon us a wonderful release of energy that now can be turned toward doing the real work of our spiritual movement – extending the principles and practices we love more fully in the world and touching and transforming 100 million lives and more.

I honor you and feel very grateful that I may serve this unfolding idea for another year.  I invite you to take a few conscious moments to bask in the joy of our collective and collaborative attainment of something long desired and now made real.

In Love and Peace,

Dr. Kathy Hearn

Community Spiritual Leader