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FRONT PAGE ARTICLE FROM BURLINGTON TIMES-NEWS   

 WED. MAY 16, 2007

Religious center welcomes all views
    By Mike Wilder
    Times-News
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    The Rev. Sandra Swift said the Center for Spiritual Living in Graham is meant for people whose beliefs don't match what is usually taught in traditional churches or other houses of worship.
    Swift, the center's spiritual director, said people there believe that followers of different religions worship the same God.
    "We believe Jesus spoke the word of God, but we don't believe he was the only way to God," Swift said.
    She described God as the creative, loving force and energy behind everything in the universe. The church believes God is in everyone and everything.
    Swift said the church doesn't believe in hell or that God punishes people. Instead, it believes humans create suffering through their own actions.
    "What I really believe is there are a lot of people on the lookout for something like this who don't know where to find it," Swift said.
    The church emphasizes that it is inclusive: "Buddhist or Catholic, rich or poor, black or white, gay or straight … you are welcome here," its Web site says.
    The Web site is www.cslgraham.org
    Swift has been a minister for 15 years. Her most recent church, in Oregon, grew from 50 members to about 250 during the 10 years she was there.
    In August 2006, she moved to Gibsonville to be closer to her daughter and her family.
    The Graham church is small, with about 30 active members. She began guest speaking there in October 2006 and became minister in March.
    While people on the West Coast may tend to be more diverse in their spiritual be liefs, Swift said she's encountered no hostility after moving to Alamance County.
    She's pleasant to people who don't share her beliefs and people have treated her the same way, Swift said.
    Swift said she grew up at tending Epis copalian and Pres byterian churches and stopped going to church in her 20s.
    She became attracted to the New Thought church movement, of which the Graham church is a part, in her mid-30s. But she never initially thought she'd become a minister.
    Swift is a former business executive who was marketing manager for a major homebuilder in California.
    THE CENTER for Spiritual Life celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this year. It began as a Unity Church and later became part of the Church of Religious Science.
    Though the church changed its name from the Unity Church of Religious Science to the Center for Spiritual Living, it is still part of the Religious Sci ence movement.
    "Most people do not understand what Religious Science is," Swift said. "They confuse it with Scientology."
    The New Thought Movement, Swift said, got its start in the 1800s with authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
    More specifically, Swift said, the foundation for the Church of Religious Science is a 1927 book by Ernest Holmes called "The Science of the Mind." The book says certain truths are present in all the world's faiths and that religion and science complement each other.
    The ideas have entered the mainstream of current popular culture through people such as Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra, Swift said.
    Swift said one of her goals is to begin holding a monthly interfaith service that would bring together people from different religious traditions.
    Her church in Oregon held that type of service and had a good response, Swift said. The services involved people sharing something from their faiths without trying to convert people who believed differently.
    She's hoping to hear from people of all different faiths and worship traditions, including people in the Jewish, Muslim and Hindu faiths, and Native Americans.
    "I think some of the more liberal Protestant churches might (participate)," she said. "If it builds enough positive energy, who knows who might come and share."