18

Enlightenment Journal | 35

th

 Anniversary Issue | Fall/Winter 2016–2017

A Ministry Unfolding: 

Celebrating 35 Years of Service

In the deserts of the heart, let the healing fountains start.

 

—W.H. Auden

How awesome it is to stand in this 
moment in time,

 look back thirty-five years 

at the dynamic, graceful unfolding of the 

divine idea of this ministry, peer into the foggy 

future and see the light beam of hope and 

faith directing us onward. This year our 35

th

 

Anniversary Celebration commemorates the 

launching of our ministry services thirty-five 

years ago in October 1981. We began offering 

worship services in a rented space at the Odd 

Fellow’s Hall on Emory Street, only a few blocks 

from what is now our headquarters in the Rose 

Garden area of San Jose. Today our ministry 

reaches around the globe and touches thou-

sands of lives.

The beginnings of the ministry were humble; a few people came to services in 

the musty hall and on occasion, none. There were times when giving up on the 

idea of a radically new ministry seemed the sane choice. Yet, the divine idea of a 

ministry with a vision of individual and planetary awakening based on the teach-

ings of Self- and God-realization that embraces people of all faith backgrounds, 

offers a time-tested method for spiritual awakening, and a path for participating 

in the conscious evolution of our world, carried with it, as divine ideas do, the 

grace-filled power to fulfill itself. Roy Eugene Davis, my spiritual teacher and 

beloved guide through these years of the ministry unfolding, told me early on 

that a ministry is not an organization, or a building, a place, or even the work 

itself. He said, a ministry is God flowing to meet needs and when real needs are 

met, the ministry will prosper.

35

YEARS

of service

CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL 

ENLIGHTENMENT