![]() I mean God who is One in the sense of wholeness or completeness, or, let’s say, an unfragmented sense of God’s reality. To the extent that I’ve been able to have a sense of God, who is One-and by that, I mean something a little more than just one God instead of many gods. So my model has more to do with, well, actually, I start with God. But I’m not convinced that’s necessarily unity. But I’m not sure that that’s the real essence of unity, because you could force people into an artificial agreement or a willingness to sort of nod their heads, and all think or say the same thing. Nate: I think it’s something a little different, at least the model I use is a little different, from simply seeing or trying to help a group of mortals agree on everything. When you’re talking about unity in a church, what is the model that you envision? There are always going to be disagreements and, sort of, opposing opinions. host: Now, that being said, what we’re talking about-the idea of unity-just as you said, there are always going to be disagreements within, whether it’s a church, whether it’s a relationship, whether it’s a business. Everything’s perfectly harmonious.” Not that that can’t happen from time to time, but I think there are those other times, too, where you have to work things out. I think it’s still going on today … in fact, I’d be interested in talking to any minister or any individual in any church that can say, “Gosh, our church has no problems, no disagreements. Paul, trying to help churches work through some of the real difficult, frankly, arguments they were having. And you’ll look at Paul in the Bible, St. For those who find disagreements within church, or for that matter within their families or communities, you can go clear back to the early days, for example, of the Christian movement. I do think that the whole idea of unity is an issue that people that love Church have struggled with from day one. It’s something more than just people that try to get together and have some kind of traditional service. And when you start looking a little beyond just the formal definitions of Church, I think all of us can start to feel that maybe Church is important enough to pursue a bit, to better understand. I think Church has implications that relate to ideas, relate to stability in society. I think of Church as more than just the bricks and mortar that people see with a steeple sometimes. Nate: Well, Church has always been an important part of my life, and my guess is that it’s been at least a part of most people’s lives, whether they realize it or not. And just to expound upon that a little further, as far as Church itself, tell us a little bit about what role, or the importance you see for the role of Church in your life, or as a movement. So I see a lot of value in understanding and grappling with a sense of the nature of unity. Maybe biggest of all, it could even bless the body for people that are struggling with physical problems. In fact, really, I don’t underestimate the power of a right sense of unity as being a blessing internationally. I think that it has implications for dealing with issues in a community. But one reason is the fact that I think if we get a good handle on what unity really means and how to make it a true part of our lives, we’re going to solve a lot more problems that just what people might think of as problems in church. Nate: Well, I think there are a lot of reasons. ![]() So tell me, why are we talking today specifically about unity? ![]() host: So this is a topic very close to you heart and your work. Today we are talking about “Questions and answers on unity in Church.” Now Nate, not only are you a Christian Science practitioner and teacher, but you currently serve on The Christian Science Board of Directors as the Clerk of The Mother Church. I will be your host for the next hour as we talk with Christian Science practitioner and teacher, Nathan Talbot. ![]() host: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another live question and answer audio event. ![]()
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