Madonna Ministry

The Madonna Ministry is a New Thought metaphysical ministry founded by Bishop Arnold Michael, formerly a minister with the United Church of Religious Science. As a young man, in 1947 he had written a book, Blessed Among Women, on the life of the Virgin Mary published in 1948. The writing of the book became a life-altering event and Michael left his job managing a restaurant and studied for the Religious Science ministry. He served Religious Science churches for the next 35 years. In 1980, he returned to his consideration of the Virgin Mary and began writing a series of newsletters under the title Madonna Ministry that explored Mary's role as a consciousness of unconditioned love who represents the feminine-mothering aspect of God.

In the mid-1980s he retired from the Religious Science ministry and accepted consecration as a bishop by Archbishop Warren Watters of the Independent Church of Antioch, a church that combines a Gnostic theosophical approach to Christianity with an apostolic lineage through the non-Chalcedonian churches in the Middle East. Michael founded the Church of the Talking Pines before he died in 1987. Two years later he was succeeded by Bishop Charles Sommers, who had also been consecrated by Archbishop Watters. In 1990, the Church of the Talking Pines changed its name to Madonna Ministry.

The church continues a major focus on spiritual healing, as does Religious Science, but includes a wide diversity of healers who represent the broad spectrum of holistic health practices. The healing emphasis led it into a relationship with the World Federation of Healing and the Creative Health Network as cosponsors of the annual international Healing Summit. The first summit was held in 1997 in Monterey, California; subsequent summits included meetings at Glastonbury (1999) and Australia (2000).

The Madonna Ministry is headquartered at 237 W. Ave. Alessandro, San Clemente, CA 92672-4334. It maintains two Internet sites, http://www.madonnaministry.org/, and http://www.paradigm-sys.com/madionnanews/.

Sources:

Madonna Ministry. http://www.madonnaministry.org/. April 4, 2000.