On the corner of 14th and Williams in Capitol Hill, one of Denver’s loveliest old neighborhoods, stands an architectural gem: the Althea Center for Engaged Spirituality (ACES). The neo-classical building with the angled, semi-circular portico has been a spiritual home since 1922, with roots reaching back to 1886 in Pueblo, Colorado. According to its website, three sisters, Nona, Alethea and Fannie Brooks, founded the First Divine Science Church of Denver in 1887, renamed the Althea Center about four years ago.
The Brooks trio based their church on New Thought teachings, an American spiritual movement begun in the mid-1800s and embraced by wild west Denver in the early 1900s. The philosophy incorporated metaphysics, positive thinking, affirmative prayer, creative visualization, and personal power. Together they declared Infinite Intelligence, Spirit, or God, is everywhere. Without exception, everyone is a divine manifestation of this Intelligence.
The foundation of New Thought was not new, drawing upon ancient wisdom, mystical and global, that had been buried for millennia by controlling religions. It stripped dogma and superstition. It gave enlightenment back to the individual. It was revolutionary, a radical re-thinking of traditional Christianity. When everyone has a divine connection to the Divine, who needs a priest, an imam, or rabbi? Questioning religious power bases unleashed the revolution, a reawakening of restricted spiritual knowledge.
The Althea Center is preparing for the next revolution, a natural evolution.
“Divine Science is our foundation and the history of our community,” Executive Director Jonathan Ellerby said. “But our community — our world — is ready for the next step.”
That step is to embody religious pluralism, an ecumenical belief that no religion is an exclusive source of spiritual truths. Variations are universal and can coexist as alternative paths to discovery. During an Althea service, you are more likely to hear texts from Sufi mystics, Ralph Waldo Emerson, or Zen Buddhism than the Bible.
Althea means wholesome, from a Greek verb meaning to heal. Personal illnesses compelled the Brooks sisters and many other New Thought ministers to find successful alternatives to ineffective medical practices. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby (1802-1866), credited with founding the New Thought movement, suffered from tuberculosis. He discovered that he felt better when he directed his mind toward feeling better.
Quimby taught his healing methods to others: Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science), who taught Emma Curtis Hopkins, whose teachings led to Divine Science, which led to the Unity Church founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, and Religious Science founded by Ernest Holmes, an ordained Divine Science minister. (Holmes’ legacy may be witnessed at the Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, where yours truly became a practitioner in 2000, embracing Holmes’ “philosophy, faith and way of life.”)
The word science in the above branches links New Thought to the Industrial Age, the nineteenth century explosion of science and technology. Believers applied scientific discipline to spiritual principle, for example, praying with a consistent repetition of steps to yield consistent provable results. Today’s science — quantum physics, Integral Theory, Higgs boson, or The God Particle — will be quoted comfortably alongside “Behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:21)” Semantics aside, science and spirituality are beginning to prove each other’s concepts.
“We are no longer a traditional New Thought church,” Ellerby said. “We have become a place for all paths. We cater to the spiritual, not the religious.”
Ellerby, with his long Woodstock locks, compassion, and sense of humor, has energized the Althea Center. He draws upon vast experience: his teenage quest for purpose, Jewish upbringing, work in healthcare and the business world, his deep connection to a Lakota tribe, a doctoral degree in Comparative Religion. Ellerby delivers heartfelt messages, urging us to let go of our attachments, experience inner freedom, and face whatever life delivers with love and compassion.
At the Althea Center, attendees can participate however they want. Many churches claim inclusivity as long as you believe as they do. Ellerby extends the definition.
“We are a place where you come as you are, not to be like us,” he said. “Be with us. Our responsibility is to meet people where they’re at, not where we want them to be.” No doubt the Brooks sisters — astonishing revolutionaries at a time when women could not vote — would agree.
While New Thought can be a purely intellectual pursuit, real-life demonstrations depend on embodying its tenets from the heart through disciplined practice. Nona, Alethea, and Fannie would be happy: 100 years later in the heart of Capitol Hill, the evidence of their beliefs continues to welcome the hearts of a growing community.
As Ellerby said in one his sermons, “It’s not about me. It’s about we.”
