Does anyone know if the baptism used at the Universal Mind Science Church is valid?
We have a catechumen/candidate who was baptized in the UMS. I contacted them and they use the Trinitarian formula, but they did not give me enough information to tell what they actually mean when they say Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Any information will be helpful.
Sounds kinda New Age like to me. I’d question the validity of it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_Science
I just checked out their website, and I would not consider their baptism valid. They talk about being a “metaphysical” church, and they have a “psychic fair”.
Since I am the lay director of RCIA at our parish, the best I could recommend is that a conditional baptism be done. Although, I firmly believe that a regular baptism would be the way to go.
I have never heard of them, and I really like to learn about other religions (even the really out-there ones). On their website it says their “creed” is the prayer attributed to St. Francis (the one that starts with ‘Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…’) 
It is hard to tell what they believe because there isn’t very much information on their website, but it apparently involves metaphysics.
I have a good friend who is a member of Religious Science, we had dinner last night in fact. Anyway, from what he indicates Religious Science and Church of Christ Unity are very similar…so similar in fact that when he lived in a city where there was no Religious Science Church, he attended the Church of Christ Unity.
While Unity shares much with Religous Science, they both share much with Christian Science…all three have “practitioners” who do “treatments” for the physical and mental health benfit of the respective members…Religious Science and Unity do not deny the “reality” of the physical world as as being “illusion” or “error” as does Christian Science
I seriously doubt that Catholics would accept any baptisms that occured in the Religious Science church because of their belief system…especially if Catholics deny the validity of Mormon or Jehovah’s Witness baptisms…Religious Science baptisms would most likely share a similar status.
Oh, is this Religious Science? I knew the names were similar but I wasn’t sure… Religious Science has almost nothing to do with Christianity. A religious science minister that I know told me the “God of the Old Testament” was actually aliens :o… (I’m sure that only a minority actually believe that, but I just want to give you an example of what they are allowed to believe). They don’t believe in hell, the devil or evil, they have a pantheistic view of God. I can’t see why or how they would believe in a trinity.
Their beliefs vary so perhaps this particular church isn’t exactly like that, but this is what I know about Religious Science.
Well…to tell you the truth, I am not sure if they are the same. Religious Science is also called “Science of Mind”. Perhaps the UMSC is an 'offshoot" or an independent congregation of Religous Science…I may have muddied the waters…but I would suspect if they are teaching “Science of Mind”…they still would not practice a “valid” baptism according to Catholicism.
contact the bishops office, or diocesan office of liturgy, as they likely have information on denominations active in your diocese especially those that are not mainstream.