Senior Minister First Woman to Head Church

The Rev. Peggy Bassett, senior minister of the burgeoning Church of Religious Science in Huntington Beach, has been elected president of the United Church of Religious Science.

Bassett, 65, will replace Fred Vogt of Denver as ecclesiastical head of the 60,000-member church. She is the first woman to lead the metaphysical church, founded in 1927. The president serves as ministerial head with no administrative or legal authority.

“We’re very proud of her. She’s a lady of a lot of vision,” said Mark Shaw, chief executive officer of the Los Angeles-based church. “The church is beginning to reach out now to a greater public. The church is taking a stand for world peace and issues that are facing mankind today. These are issues of particular interest to Peggy. She is simply the most qualified to head the church ecclesiastically.”

Under her leadership, the Huntington Beach church--which meets in a store front--has grown from 40 members in 1974 to nearly 3,000 now, Bassett said. It is the organization’s third-largest congregation behind Los Angeles and Denver, she added.

Based on Ernest S. Holmes’ 1926 book “The Science of Mind,” the church espouses a “New Thought” philosophy that utilizes positive-thinking approaches to living that are found in most established religions, Bassett said.

Bassett, an ordained minister and graduate of the Ernest Holmes College School of Religious Science in Los Angeles, said she is “a little nervous” about her new position.

“The thing I think we can do most is arrive at a common goal for the future,” she said. Instead of “helping people,” she said, the church should ask “How can we empower people to get what they want in their own church?”.