The Search for Peace in Times of Chaos—Volume one of Mrs Eddy’s loyal students, by a Director, or by a student of the Board of Education, may be admitted to membership with The Mother Church.10 At the age of twenty, the person graduates from Sunday school and may be presented with a copy of Ǥ Marriage Since there are no clergy, there is no specific marriage ceremony Marriage can be performed by anyone of the couples’ choosing Marriage is not a sacrament of the Christian Science church, but marriage does hold a special place in Christian Science as the moral and legal institution within which a man and woman can partner to help one another grow into a fuller demonstration, or lived understanding, of their spiritual completeness as expressions of the father-mother God The church’s bylaws require a legal, religious ceremony for marriage If a Christian Scientist is to be married, the ceremony shall be performed by a clergyman who is legally authorized Death and Afterlife Heaven is then a divine state of consciousness and not a locality, and people will be in the kingdom of heaven when they have within themselves the mind of the Christ—not as places or as part of an afterlife, but as a state of mind Christian Science theology does not include a final judgment day Every day, each individual can make a new choice that determines the path he or she is on—a path away from God or toward Him Christian Science, like Buddhism, believes in the illusory nature of the world of the senses, but unlike Buddhism, it does not believe that aging and death are inevitable Consequently, immortality is possible, and indeed in the long term, it is inevitable The reality of each one of us is believed to be a spiritual idea only and not born of the flesh Therefore, birth and death are il lusions because the material body is considered an illusion ~ ~