Rev. Dennis Swartz

I was born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and grew up on a small country farm at the foot of Masanutten Mountain in Rockingham County. Around the age of twelve I moved to Harrisonburg, Virginia where I remained until my graduation from high school. I moved to the Washington DC area in 1980 where I've lived since.

I've been a licensed Religious Scientist Practitioner since July 1999. However, I've been a practicing Religious Scientist since 1985, when I walked into The National Science of Mind Center (now the Celebration Center of Religious Science in Falls Church, Virginia) just outside Washington DC. I was home. However, as I had sworn off all churches and "religious" organizations by then, it took a few years before I would become a member. I began by reading many of the books by Ernest Holmes, eventually, signing up for classes. I knew I had found a philosophy that made sense and I was hooked.

After a couple of years of study I decided I needed to put into practice the new principals I had learned. This led to a five-year hiatus that I often refer to as my chop-wood, carry-water period. My goal was to prove these principles in a practical and meaningful way of life and they would either work or they wouldn't. I had many successes and eventually returned to The Celebration Center determined to learn more and began taking entry-level classes once again. Feeling the urge to take my studies to another level I started Practitioner training and after two years of intense study became a licensed Science of Mind Practitioner.

One morning in June 2003 I awoke to a feeling of wellbeing and the sounds of birds singing while a gentle breeze blew through my bedroom window. As I lay there, I heard a voice in my head say, "Now it's time to go to ministerial school." I had always had the calling but it never felt urgent. Life always seemed to get in the way of my plans for ministerial school but this day I felt those words to the very core of my being and I knew in my heart it was time. During all my years of studying and practicing Science of Mind I also began studying many different religious and spiritual traditions. As a consequence, I began to feel equally at home in a synagogue as in a mosque a Buddhist Temple as a Sheik Temple. I was able to look and see beyond the dogma (the subjective side of religion) to see the common thread of truth woven within the many major religious traditions. Eventually I found myself comparing the different religions with the philosophy of Science of Mind, finding them to be in accord with each other in many ways.

Ernest Holmes was also a student of different religious and spiritual paths and used this knowledge to create Science of Mind, making it in my opinion one of the first Interfaith churches in the world.

Eventually my search for a seminary brought me to The New Seminary in New York City where I studied along with many students from diverse racial, religious and spiritual paths taught by many of the top religious thinkers and educators in the country. (Check out their awsome video on YouTube!) My studies lead to my Ordination as an Interfaith Minister on June 12, 2005. Thus began my life as an Interfaith Minister and Licensed Religious Science Practitioner.

I currently live on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, and I am employed by a Higher Education Association. As well as being the director of Sacred Spirit Ministries and a Licensed Science of Mind Practitioner I am also an associate minister with EvenSong West Ministries. I'm available for Spiritual Counseling by phone, e-mail, or Skype. I am also available for many other services which you will find links to at the top of this page.