Our spiritual community began in San Francisco on Easter Sunday 1983 at the Theatre on the Square as the Community One Church of Religious Science and attracted hundreds in the city before relocating to Marin County a couple of years later.
Our founding minister, the Rev. Dr. Lloyd George Tupper, continues to be an active and inspiring long-distance participant from his home on Cape Cod.
Over the years Golden Gate Center for Spiritual Living has had four name changes and five senior ministers. Following Rev. Dr. Lloyd were Rev. Dr. Jim Munson, Rev. Dr. Marcia Sutton, Rev. Karyl Huntley-Sadler, and Rev. Mary Murray Shelton.
Rev. Karyl Huntley-Sadler, our minister emeritus, led the community for 23 years–by far the longest-serving senior minister here–before retiring, remarrying and moving to England.
Rev. Mary Murray Shelton was welcomed as our Community Spiritual Leader in late summer 2018.
Our Center is affiliated with Centers for Spiritual Living, Golden Colorado. The organization was founded by Rev. Dr. Ernest Holmes, author of The Science of Mind, in California in the 1920s.
We have three main core teachings from Ernest Holmes. We believe:
1. That there is a Higher Power, by whatever name it is called, that surrounds, permeates, and manifests all physical form. Everything and everyone is part of this infinite whole. No exceptions.
2. That our personal and collective experience of life arises from our deeply held beliefs. When we change these, our life experiences also change, and so do we.
3. That affirmative prayer is a powerful spiritual practice that supports changing beliefs that no longer serve us in living healthy, peaceful lives.