National Spiritual Science Center

The National Spiritual Science Center was established in Washington, D.C., by Rev. Alice Welstood Tindell, who had been trained by Mother Julia O. Forrest, a medium and the founder of the Spiritual Science Mother Church. For many years after its opening in 1941, the Washington center was an integral part of the mother church. In 1969, while attending a meeting of the Federation of Spiritual Churches and Associations, Tindell had a disabling accident. This occasioned her retirement and she turned the center over to two of her students, Revs. Henry J. Nagorka and Diane S. Nagorka. During the 1970s the Nagorkas reorganized the center independently of the mother church.

The Nagorkas developed a vigorous program at the church. They moved into new enlarged facilities and founded ESPress, Inc., a publishing concern headed by Henry Nagorka. Diane Nagorka founded a School of Spiritual Science and, with her assistant Margaret Moum, developed its curriculum. The school includes classes for training mediums and pastors for Spiritual Science congregations. Henry Nagorka died in 1986, and ESPress ceased operation. Diane Nagorka headed the center and school until her retirement in 1989. She was succeeded by a board of directors, who presently manage the center and its associated congregations.

The center's beliefs were similar to that of the parent body, though many of the specifically Christian elements have been deleted. A nine-point statement affirmed these beliefs: God as the universal Creative Energy; the dynamic growing nature of the universe; the drive of every entity to unite with God; the immortality of the soul; individual free will; wisdom as the latent power of God within; the reality of communication with spirit; soul unfoldment and service as one's purpose in life; and God as a just, accepting, and impersonal force, drawing all to perfection.

Last known address: 409 Butternut St., Ste. 1, Washington, DC 20012.

Sources:

Moum, Margaret R. Guidebook to the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ. Washington, DC: ESPress, 1974.

Nagorka, Diane S. Spirit as Life Force. Washington, DC: ESPress, 1983.