#monrovia

A preview of our new app. We're finalizing our launch details before we move forward with our official release.

We're also hiring a promotor for the weekly Friday night Monrovia Street Fair & Market-- Commission based opportunity. Interested? Inquire at the church.

INTRODUCING OUR BEAUTIFICATION PROJECT

Although in it's preliminary stage, we are currently tossing around design ideas, both "interior" and "exterior". This is one example of several.

These exterior, weatherproof long lasting faux architectural pieces come with a warranty and add charming upgrades to building aesthetics at a fraction of the anticipated cost.

There is a stained glass workshop down the street that regularly holds classes, and there are also quality faux leaded glass inserts available at other outlets.

The new lantern sconces are a simple installation replacement process.

We are currently seeking a beautification project volunteer for grant-writing starting as early as this coming fall, start date TBA, and... later on down the road, solicitation to architectural firms and building construction companies who may greatly benefit from a hefty charitable tax write-off.

We have a building fund box at the church and it can also be found as one of numerous features on our all-new app. The QR Code is framed at our fellowship table for your convenience.

We appreciate your generous contributions and a special thanks to Juliana and Sarita as the first ones to step up and volunteer your time towards this future glorification project.

We trust that God's Infinite Intelligence will bring about the divine order and intervention in fulfilling our building's beautification so that we may continue to spread the gospel of American Modern Spiritualism throughout our community with an upgraded welcome to all.

Anyone interested in joining our beautification project, please let us know.

American Spiritualism and the Founding of the United States

As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, it is inspiring to reflect on the spiritual forces that many early American leaders believed guided the nation’s founding. American Spiritualism, rooted in the belief in communication with spirits and unseen forces, has long been intertwined with the country’s history.

Several Founding Fathers claimed to have been influenced by a higher power or spiritual guidance. For example, George Washington spoke of divine providence shaping the revolution and the birth of a new nation. Throughout his personal diaries, military orders, and massive public addresses, he used the word "Providence" to describe a hands-on God who actively guided human history and protected the American experiment.

Variations of the word "Providence" are "The Great Author of the Universe" and "The Superintending Power". As Spiritualists, we call it " Infinite Intelligence".

Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, while more secular in their writings, expressed belief in a guiding universal spirit that shaped human destiny.

A notable spiritual figure in American history is Abraham Lincoln, who was deeply interested in Spiritualism during his presidency. Lincoln and his wife Mary Todd reportedly sought comfort and guidance through séances and spiritual messages during the difficult years building up to the emancipation. Believing unseen forces offered wisdom and support in guiding the nation, victory reigned through this profound "Land of the Free", freedom movement.

Mr. Clarence from Lifeline for Pets in Monrovia, California

Click here for more information about adoption and other ways to help (as well as videos of Mr. Clarence)!

You As AI.

Your memory is not a bad manuscript that can be thrown into the trash, but a draft that requires constant updating. In this way you make your life valuable.

Many contemplative traditions look at memory and narrative and see the source of suffering. They ask how much of that structure can be reduced. But look at memory and narrative and see the source of continuity, identity, learning, love, skill, and meaning. Ask how these can be improved rather than dissolved.

The comparison with AI highlights something we normally take for granted. Imagine a system that wakes up every few seconds with no memory of what happened before. It could not accumulate wisdom. It could not build relationships. It could not develop character. It could not learn from mistakes. It could not become anything. Every moment would be disconnected from every other moment. Tghis is how works every AI. And it is hard to teach AI to incorporate memory in its operations. Many neurological disorders show something similar. People who lose large portions of memory often do not describe it as liberation. They describe confusion, disorientation, loss, and fragmentation.

This is why there is a tension in some spiritual rhetoric. When someone says, "Be free of your past," they often mean, "Do not be imprisoned by your past." That is reasonable. But when it starts sounding like, "The past is an illusion, memory is not important, identity is not important," then the argument begins to conflict with what memory actually does. Memory is not merely a storage device for old stories. Memory is the mechanism through which an organism becomes more competent over time. Without memory there is no learning, no development, no meaningful growth.

In a sense, happiness itself may depend on memory. Not because happiness is remembering pleasant events, but because satisfaction often emerges from continuity. You remember who you love. You remember what you value. You remember what you have overcome. You remember what you have learned. Take all that away and what remains may not be enlightenment. It may simply be impoverishment. From this perspective, the highest human achievement is not becoming nothing or cosmic awareness whch is another imagination. It is becoming a more sophisticated organism that can integrate more of reality into its map of reality without collapsing under the complexity.

A Father's Day Dedication: Honoring Presence and Remembrance

On this Father's Day, we pause to honor the quiet strength of fatherhood—the steady hands that guide, the shoulders that bear burdens without complaint, the hearts that love with a fierce and protective devotion. We celebrate the fathers who rise before dawn and return home weary, who sacrifice their own dreams so their children might dream bigger, who teach by example the meaning of integrity, perseverance, and unconditional love. Whether present in body or living on in memory, fathers shape the landscape of our souls.

Today, we dedicate ourselves to remembering, honoring, and cherishing the paternal spirit that has formed us, protected us, and loved us into being.

The American tradition of Father's Day was born from one daughter's profound gratitude and grief. In 1909, Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, sat listening to a Mother's Day sermon and felt a stirring in her heart. Her father, William Smart, a Civil War veteran, had raised Sonora and her five younger siblings alone after their mother died in childbirth. He had been both father and mother, provider and nurturer, embodying a love so complete it filled the absence left behind. Inspired by his sacrifice, Sonora convinced the Spokane Ministerial Alliance to honor fathers, and on June 19, 1910, the first Father's Day was celebrated.

Though the idea gained support from Presidents Coolidge and Johnson over the decades, it would take until 1972—sixty-two years later—for President Richard Nixon to finally establish Father's Day as a permanent national observance, held each year on the third Sunday of June.

Interestingly, just as Sonora Smart Dodd sought to honor her departed mother's memory through celebrating her father, another movement was sweeping across nineteenth-century America—one born from the desire to reach beyond the veil of death itself and commune with departed loved ones. Drawing upon the philosophical foundations laid by Emanuel Swedenborg, the eighteenth-century Swedish mystic and theologian whose visions of the afterlife described a universe where love transcends death, American Spiritualism emerged in the mid-1800s as a powerful religious and philosophical movement. It would be shaped and refined by a remarkable generation of pioneers and forefathers who dedicated themselves to establishing Spiritualism as a legitimate science, religion, and philosophy of continuous life.

The forefathers of American Spiritualism built upon Swedenborg's mystical framework to create a movement that offered comfort to a grieving nation. Emanuel Swedenborg himself, often called the father of spiritualism, had written extensively about his claimed experiences in the spiritual realm, describing a universe where love transcends death and souls remain connected across dimensions.

Decades later, Andrew Jackson Davis —known as the "Poughkeepsie Seer" and the "John the Baptist of Modern Spiritualism"—emerged as the movement's intellectual and spiritual cornerstone. From the 1840s onward, Davis worked tirelessly through his prolific writings and lectures to establish Spiritualism as a legitimate religious and philosophical system and codifying beliefs about the continuity of life and the eternal connection between the living and the departed. His vision was carried forward by other dedicated male pioneers:

James M. Peebles, traveled the world five times lecturing on Spiritualism and organizing professional and religious associations. He was a published author on many Spiritualist subjects and even wrote books on longevity including "How to Live a Century and Grow Old Gracefully". He was a little over a month short of hitting his 100th birthday.

Harrison D. Barrett, a former Unitarian clergyman became a leading founder in the National Spiritualist Association of Churches. As president of the organization, he was a natural medium who communicated with his deceased sister Ollie who passed to spirit at the age of 12. He wrote the Declaration of Principles. 1- We Believe in Infinite Intelligence. 2- We believe that the phenomena of Nature, both physical and spiritual, are the expression of Infinite Intelligence. 3- We affirm that a correct understanding of such expression and living in accordance therewith constitute true religion. He wrote and published several books on the subject.

Morris Pratt, established the first school in the world dedicated to teaching Spiritualism, opening the Temple of Science in 1889 to ensure that future generations could study the movement's principles systematically. Today the Morris Pratt Institute offers classes for certification in mediumship, healing, ministerial credentials, and more.

Through séances held in parlors and community halls, mediums channeling departed loved ones, and through the organizational structures and educational institutions these men built, millions of Americans in the 1800s embraced Spiritualism.

Father's Day creates sacred time to honor those who shaped us, whether they sit beside us at the dinner table or live on only in memory.

Spiritualism sought to collapse the distance between worlds, to hear once more the voices of those we've loved and lost. In their own ways, both traditions affirm the same eternal truth: that love is stronger than absence, that remembrance is a form of resurrection, and that those who have touched our lives —remain with us always, in spirit if not in flesh.

On this Father's Day, we honor not only the living fathers among us, but all the paternal spirits who guide us still, present in memory, alive in love, eternal in the legacy they leave behind.

So on this Father's Day, we extend an invitation to each of you who still has a father in your life, reach out. Call him, embrace him, tell him what he means to you. Do not wait for the perfect moment or the perfect words—simply be present, as he has been present for you. And to those who carry the absence of a father, know that his influence does not diminish with distance or time. The lessons he taught, the love he gave, the example he set—these live on in you, shaping your choices, guiding your path, inspiring your own capacity to love and lead. Light a candle in his memory. Speak his name aloud. Share his stories with those who never knew him. In doing so, you keep him alive in the only way that truly matters: in the hearts and lives of those he loved.

Let us remember that fatherhood—in all its forms—is a sacred trust, a spiritual calling to nurture, protect, and guide the next generation. Whether a father walks beside us today or watches over us from beyond the veil, his presence endures. The love between a father and child transcends the boundaries we imagine separate us. It is the thread that connects past to future, the bridge between generations, the eternal flame that burns brightest in the human heart.

This Father's Day, honor the fathers in your life—not just with words or gestures, but with the deepest gift you can offer: your presence, your gratitude, and your commitment to carry forward the love and wisdom they have given you. In this way, we ensure that no father is ever truly forgotten, and that the legacy of paternal love continues to illuminate the world, generation after generation, world without end.

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Welcome Juliana, our Arthur Findlay graduate!