In 1986 the Desert Church of the Learning Light was founded in Tucson, AZ by Rev. P. Joanna Rogers. She moved to Ohio in 2002 and continued her ministry virtually (online). In 2019 she retired completely, and passed on her work to her grandson-in-law Rev. Gemperline, her granddaughter Sheena Gemperline, and daughter Annemarie Halfpap.
Rev. Rogers made her transition on April 15, 2020. This section of the website was her ministry. So we are leaving it intact in memory of her.
WHAT WE ARE ALL ABOUT
The Desert Church of the Learning Light is a teaching ministry, incorporated as a not-for-profit church, with the right to license Practitioners and ordain Ministers.
It is our desire that you find here a means to increase a conscious awareness of your God, and the abundant joy of living in that Presence that is your inheritance.
This ministry primarily teaches Emma Curtis Hopkins’ works. Because she is considered by some challenging to understand, especially her semantics, a combination of Seminar Notes, questions, and study aids are available on our "Book Shelf".
Students of the Desert Church have taken the teachings of Emma Curtis Hopkins out into the world, where there is now so much more on the internet than when we started printing Emma’s works almost 20 years ago. From just around fifty entries there are now over 95,000. Unfortunately many of them have erroneous information which we, by extensive research, especially of census and travel records by our research team, have pieced together many of the missing pieces of Emma’s life. To read more see our Research page on Emma.
Emma Curtis Hopkins taught from the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, also these are the teachings in The Gospel According to Thomas which are his sayings only. This Gospel is also covered as Seminar and class material by Rev. Rogers.
The Secrets of the Hidden Bible are another new approach to the Old Testament, focusing on Genesis and the meaning of the Patriarch’s lives and their relevancy to our lives today.
Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls has added another dimension to the beginning of Christianity and therefore confirmed the emphasis of both Warren Felt Evans and Emma Curtis Hopkins on the Primitive Christianity as it was before the Nicean Convention of 325 AD changed the original teaching records to a more politically correct version.
The content of the class on Roots of Religion from 150,000 BC to 500 AD are being constantly reaffirmed by the discoveries of anthropologists and archeologists.
The information on Roots of New Thought also is receiving updates, especially from the research on Emma Curtis Hopkins and her role in the beginnings of New Thought. A recent re-discovery of a book of articles by some of the early writers and ministers has also shed light on its formation during the 1940’s. (Now available from INTA as Mind Remakes Your World)
