Rev. William Hornaday; Religious Science Leader

The Rev. William H.D. Hornaday, who personified the positive-thinking Religious Science movement for the last four decades with upbeat sermons at his 6,000-member Los Angeles church, has died at the age of 81.

Even though a bad back had forced him to preach from a wheelchair since January, Hornaday continued through last Sunday to conduct two weekly services at the Founder’s Church of Religious Science. The congregation is the largest of hundreds of U.S. churches that follow the metaphysical Science of Mind teachings of founder Ernest Holmes.

Hornaday was taken to Glendale Adventist Medical Center on Wednesday because of an asthma attack. He was joking and “making the doctors laugh in the emergency room” before he died later that day, administrative assistant Carol Hatch said.

“He was our standard bearer,” said the Rev. Peggy Bassett, president of the nationwide United Church of Religious Science. Hornaday was president emeritus of the Los Angeles-based denomination.

“His great appeal was his ability to interact with people on a very personal level,” said Bassett, pastor of the 3,000-member Huntington Beach Church of Religious Science. “When you were with him his total attention was with you. And his preaching was aimed at the heart as well as the head.”

Hornaday was born April 26, 1910, in Carson City, Nev. He followed his father into the Methodist Church ministry as a teen-ager and later went to Shanghai as a missionary, but had doubts about whether he could honestly defend Christian doctrine.

In deference to his Quaker mother, he had enrolled at Whittier College. At one point, he was a debating partner of fellow student Richard M. Nixon. Years later Hornaday recalled: “He was sure at that time that I would go into politics, and I was just as sure that he would end up in the Quaker ministry, because of his mother. She was very devout, and he was devoted to her.”

Hornaday, while still unsure of his direction, had started an educational toy company in Los Angeles when he met Holmes, who in 1927 founded what became the Institute of Religious Science.

Though regarding Jesus as a great teacher, the Science of Mind teachings of Holmes do not deify Christ. Unlike Christian Science, which rejects medical treatment, Religious Science says it draws from philosophy, science and other religions for happier, healthier lives. Many so-called New Age beliefs are popular in Religious Science churches.

Holmes sent Hornaday to study with psychoanalyst Carl Jung in Switzerland and with theologian, physician and missionary Albert Schweitzer in Africa.

At Holmes’ behest, Hornaday started a congregation in 1949 to embody the eclectic teachings of Religious Science. He conducted Sunday services in a series of movie theaters.

The congregation opened its own church, with a 1,700-seat sanctuary, on 6th Street near the Wilshire District in 1960. Among notable board members in later years was actor Robert Young.

Hornaday was a board member for 25 years at the Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles, served as board chairman for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Los Angeles and was active in local organizations aiding recovering alcoholics and battered children.

During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Hornaday served on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

A frequent teacher in the denomination’s School of Ministry, he also had a five-day-a-week program, “This Thing Called Life,” carried on radio station KIEV for the last 30 years. The best-known of his six books is “Your Aladdin’s Lamp,” co-authored with Harlan Ware.

In 1987, Hornaday delivered the sermon at the annual Hollywood Bowl Easter sunrise service.

The minister, whose wife, Louise, died in 1989, is survived by a son, William H. D. Hornaday III of Los Angeles, and a sister, Esther Harker of Scotts Valley, Calif.

Church officials said Thursday that a private burial service was pending. A memorial service will be held at Founder’s Church of Religious Science at noon March 28.