First Church of Christ, Scientist, held its opening services in its new church edifice, on Twenty-third Street, Sunday, July I, and there were members of this denomination from other fields in the city to share in the event. While the Church of Christ, Scientist, has organizations in most of the cities of Oregon, Washington, and California, this church building is the first owned by the denomination on the Pacific Coast.
The building has been unused for a number of years and received a thorough overhauling at the hands of its new owners, which makes it now a credit to the beautiful neighborhood in which it stands.
Services were held at 11 A.M. and at 3 P.M., and at the two services the congregations numbered about four hundred. The services were unique in their simplicity and impressiveness, one of the features of the Christian Science service being the absence of personal preaching, the sermon for the day being composed of passages from the Bible and correlative sections from the denominational text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker G. Eddy, which references are read alternately by two Readers, a man and woman, appointed by the church.
