Church Alive

I've often laughingly said that a number of years ago God caused me to be a Christian Science nurse, so I’d be a better branch church member! At one time, I was such a hotheaded church member that I walked out fairly often on Wednesday evening testimony meetings. Not because I heard objectionable testimonies—noooo.

Our church is located just off the main street of Camden, Maine, a small coastal town. Our Christian Science Reading Room is on the street level of the church building, with large plate-glass windows perfect for eyecatching displays.

Would you like to be part of a church that is flexible, inclusive, approving, happy, and trying new things? Then try this: Take possession of your church experience—more consciously be the church you’d like to be part of. You’re probably used to the responsibility and practice of taking possession of your thoughts and your body.

“Church Alive” is the perfect description of the branch church my husband and I belong to in St. Louis, Missouri.

Upon reading the articles on Church in the October 2010 issue of the Journal, I was so moved that I felt impelled to share an experience that showed the power of the spiritual understanding of Church in my own life. Years ago, while I was teaching the youngest Sunday School class, there had been some difficulties concerning child behavior.

I often like to think about a requirement found in the Manual of The Mother Church: “It shall be the duty of the members of The Mother Church and of its branches to promote peace on earth and good will toward men; .

I’d like to comment  on church growth/decline, as someone who is very active in a Christian Science branch church with a small congregation. I think the signs of growth are everywhere, if we look in the right places.

Mary Baker Eddy directed her secretary Irving Tomlinson to work with local jails and prisons in New Hampshire, but he was by no means the only Christian Scientist to do so. Letters poured in from all over the country informing Eddy of the healing work being done in reform institutions.

Irving Tomlinson recorded in his reminiscence that soon after he arrived in Concord to serve as a secretary to Mary Baker Eddy, she spoke to him about the need to reach prison inmates with the message of Christian Science. Tomlinson, at Eddy’s request, began meeting with Sheriff Edgerly, who was at that time warden of the Merrimack County Jail.

For decades, ever since Mary Baker Eddy asked her secretary to begin holding Christian Science services at a local jail in Concord, New Hampshire, Christian Science chaplains and others on institutional committees around the world (approximately 517 today in the United States alone) have been volunteering countless hours in local jails, prisons, and mental health facilities. They are the unsung heroes among church workers—those whose unselfish care for their neighbor often goes unnoticed or under-appreciated among other “church work.