Who We Are
We are a spiritual community expressing and celebrating the
divinity in all.
The New Thought movement,
of which Religious Science is a part, began in the 19th century. Ernest
Holmes, the founder of Religious Science, was one of the
New Thought movement's leaders, establishing the Institute
of Religious Science and Science
of Mind magazine in 1927.
Dr. Holmes continued to publish and lecture until he finished
his life on earth in 1961. Books by Dr. Holmes are currently
available at our bookstore on Sunday mornings and most well-known bookstores.
Tithes
We believe in the Law of Giving and Receiving.
It is our practice to tithe into the community based on the donations
we receive at our services and from mailed contributions. Recent
tithes have been to Food Finders, an organization that receives
donations of food and distributes them to the hungry and For
the Child, an organization that offers support to children following
their removal from an abusive situation. Others are Women’s
Shelter of Long Beach, Long Beach Rescue Million and SPIN, a
non-profit organization which assists men in crisis.
“All words are symbols, and when we use the
words First Cause, Absolute Intelligence, God, Spirit, or Reality
they are but vehicles conveying the meaning back of the words,
and in this instance the meaning is that there must be, and is,
a Universal Creative Intelligence which was never born, which
never came into being, but which always existed."
—From the Science of Mind
Our Church History
The Seal Beach Church of Religious Science started as a study
group in Leisure World in 1961
Dodie Dyrenforth took over when founder, Elsie Pomeroy retired.
Dodie was a licentiate minister at this point. She trained
under Craig Carter. Seal Beach CRS established a Dial-A-Prayer,
a Metaphysical Bookstore, and the first accredited Science
of Mind classes which, in October of 1964, drew 48 students,
In 1970 Dodie developed a personal growth workshop technique
which was later translated into printed syllabus with the aid
of Peggy Bassett so it could be shared with other churches.
In 1973, Seal Beach CRS opened a Book Store and Thrift Shop
on Main St. which attracted new members to church on Sundays.
The group moved into Seal Beach so they could have a Sunday
School for chil dren. First stop was Seal Beach Marina
Center. As we outgrew this, we moved to Masonic Hall on Main
St., then a movie theater in Rossmoor Center (Now a Farmers & Merchants
bank), then the Seal Beach Theater. In 1975, one young intern
- Roger Teele - now the minister in Denver became more and
more convinced that there was a place for us in Seal Beach.
We had been looking everywhere until then - even made an offer
on a property on Lamson in Garden Grove, but he knew we belonged
in Seal Beach and it was Roger who saw the possibilities in
the Bernstein Salad Dressing Plant where we now sit.
After a year of financial planning and remodeling, we held
our first service here on December 26, 1976 amidst the scaffolding
and concrete floors (the carpet came later) but it was home!
Incidentally, the December 26th service included a Christmas
pageant directed by Orvetta Rankin and Janet Taylor was a shepherd.
Dodie passed away in May of 1982 and was succeeded by Rev,
Betty Mendizza who had been serving her internship as assistant
minister. In 1988, Rev. Betty married a member of the congregation
and they moved to Northern California.
Seal Beach CRS has trained many ministerial students to become
ministers. Serving in Seal Beach were such leaders as Don McArt,
Roger Teele, Martha Ann Stewart, Peggy Bassett, Ernest and
Florence Phillips, Wes McPherson, Dawn Kelton. Betty Mendizza
was her last assistant and when Dodie became ill Betty took
over as the regular minister. Dodie died in 1982.
Betty served from 1982- 1989. She was succeeded by Duane and DeVona Cox who served until 1990.
During their tenure at Seal Beach a new ministerial graduate arrived on the scene-Rev. Margie Clark - and she soon became a loving fixture every Sunday morning. So much so that when Duane and Devona answered a call to Headquarters she took over the services and served until Rev. Lee Hite was hired in October 1994. Rev. Margie once again became the spiritual leader of the church until her retirement in 2003.
Rev. Patricia King served as Senior Minister from April of 2003 through March of 2006.
The current Senior Minister is Rev. Peggy Price, who was formerly Senior Minister of the Huntington Beach Church of Religious Science.
