Raymond Charles Barker, who took the Religious Science movement to New York from Los Angeles, has died at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. He was 76 and had lived in the Southern California desert since retiring in 1979.
A spokeswoman said he died Jan. 26 of complications of a stroke.
Barker was a minister in the Unity Church when encouraged by Ernest Holmes, founder of the Religious Science movement, to start a church in New York City.
Barker was a native of Syracuse and had earlier founded Unity churches in that city and Rochester. After moving into the Religious Science movement he wrote several books and pamphlets while lecturing on New Thought around the world. He also was a past president of the International New Thought Alliance and Religious Science International, the umbrella group for many of the churches.
A memorial service has been scheduled at the Religious Science Church of the Desert in Palm Desert on Friday at 2 p.m.
