About Us

By Linda Mihalic

The Via Christa is the natural outgrowth of the effect of the life, work and teachings of Dr. Edna Lister (1884 to 1971) on certain of her students in the United States. She taught that the Kingdom of Heaven is open to all believers, stressing the necessity of personal responsibility and accountability for one’s own spiritual growth and ascension of consciousness.

“The Father wants all His children home,” she said, but insisted that it is up to us to do the climbing, without expecting to hitch a ride into the kingdom, free of charge on Jesus’ coat tails. To her, life’s glass is always more than half full. She taught us to speak the Word for miracles — “This is good. Let there be Light”—and to stand steadfastly and know that all good will come to pass, according to our faith.


It’s up to us to climb in ascension without expecting
to hitch a free ride into the Kingdom on Jesus’ coattails


Edna Lister believed that everyone could walk with Jesus on the Way of the Christ. She founded the prayer and study groups that now form the Society of the Universal Living Christ. By studying spiritual law and choosing daily to apply it to your self and to your life, you can ascend in consciousness.

In 1940, Edna Lister asked Edna and Ruth Bender, of Buffalo, New York, to compile the spiritual laws and principles she was teaching them into a textbook of laws. They created hundreds of hand-written and typed file cards. Seventy-plus years later, we began fulfilling her desires, although in electronic rather than printed form.

As participants in Edna Lister’s Society of the Universal Living Christ, we are part of her legacy, her life, and her teachings. We are people who have each submitted our self to the spiritual and self disciplines she prescribed as an optimal way to walk the Via Christa, the Path of Ascension of consciousness from earth to the Source of All Light.

We have experienced such positive results using the methods Edna Lister taught that we have spent decades, transcribing her outlines, personal and group letters and messages, and students’ notes to make available a record of her life’s work. Those who chose to journey with her tended to remain her companions on the way for life. We have also.

The scope of Edna Lister’s life work is wide-ranging, including books, pamphlets, speeches, articles, essays, sermons, lectures, and group and personal meetings with students in many cities in the Unites States, Europe, Great Britain, and Africa. Her personal correspondence was voluminous, and students in several cities saved her letters and their notes from sermons, lectures and private meetings, and graciously bequeathed them to us. We especially appreciate the efforts of Margaret Pratt Doan of the Cleveland, Ohio group, which met reguarly during Edna Lister’s absence, to merge their lecture, sermon and private clinical notes into an integrated whole.

We have used the personal papers of some of her followers to create the content of this site: Edna Lister, Kay Wilder Abstein, Dorothy Allen, Elizabeth Barnes, Edna Bender, Joan Bender, Susan Bender, Ferne Carter Chapman, Ruth Bender Collord, Victor Stoms Collord, Jessica Reese Davis, Margaret Pratt Doan, Helen Effinger, Florence Garrett, Alfhild Graham, Theresa Grosscurth, Ruth H. Johnson, Lillian V. Kondash, Lotus Judson Landis, Ellsworth G. Layer, Linda Hildebrand Mihalic, Lorraine Moffat, Eunice Morrison, Edward C. Pembroke, Dorothy Rowe, Alice Schier, Darcea Schiesl, Florence Waldorf, Clarissa A. Watkins, Irene White, Ross Whitehead, Virginia Whitehead, and May Clark Wilder.

Our physical archive, which spans 1925 to 1971, is considerable. The collection would have remained unusable without the efforts of our transcription team, using typewriters and carbon copies at first and computers later. Those tireless workers include Kay Wilder Abstein, Molly Doan Bellamy, L. Burnet, Mariann Cade, Margaret Pratt Doan, Helen Effinger, Lois Gillett, Sherry Abstein Gordon, Sandra Gustavson, Stephanie James, Connie Lawrence, Rebecca MacKenzie, Barbara Martien, Linda Hildebrand Mihalic, Mary Ann Otonichar, Marge Pauls, Mona Rainwater, and Ross and Virginia Whitehead.

Great credit goes to our Webmistress Roberta L. Parsons, who created the smooth elegance of the Via Christa site design. She intuitively grasped our vision and goals, translating them into the page designs you find here. She also showed endless patience and fortitude in helping to make the site viable. Further, we could not have accomplished this work half so well without the expertise, suggestions and work of Sherry Abstein Gordon, Barbara I. Martien, David P. Mihalic, Mona Rainwater, and M. C. Whyman. Finally, many thanks to all of you who have diligently proofread pages and informed us of errors. Any remaining mistakes remain our responsibility to amend.

The Via Christa is wholly owned and operated by the Society of the Universal Living Christ, a Schedule 501 (c) 3 nonprofit religious organization.

Linda Hildebrand Mihalic is the Via Christa site editor, and Chairman, The Society of the Universal Living Christ.





Edna Miriam Lister
1884 — 1971
The original Christian Pioneering Mystic,
Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.

Edna Lister


Related Topics

See Articles of Faith

See What We Believe


How to Support the Via Christa

If you wish to send a donation to help support viachrista.org, please use our contact page to request information on how to make a tax deductible donation to The Society of the Universal Living Christ, our 501(c)(3) organization.

Please do not use any Amazon link to support the Via Christa.