First Church of Christ, Scientist, Dublin, Ireland
It is believed that Christian Science was first heard of in Dublin when a student arrived there who in 1884 had just studied with Mrs. Eddy and was "full of sharing the joy with those who seemed so miserable and despairing." Although some were healed, much opposition was met with; but a great deal of Christian Science literature was given away and a window was secured in one of the best streets, where for a time all the Christian Science literature was displayed. Besides this, days and weeks were spent in sending out the literature,—with Mrs. Eddy's sanction the island was flooded with it; and then the truth was left to do its work,—"to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error" (Science and Health, p. 242).
About 1897 and 1898 several groups of people in Dublin and the south and west of Ireland became interested in Christian Science quite independently of one another. Most of these had first heard of this wonderful truth either in London or from those who came from London. The service was first read, as a service, in a house in Dublin about 1898. Though for a year the numbers continued very small, the healing began to be in evidence, and soon quite a number were attending the services, which were still held in a private house. The little band was greatly encouraged by finding "Dublin" mentioned by Mrs. Eddy as one of the cities where "Christian Science already has a hearing and a following" (Message, 1900, p.1).
After about two years a room was hired in D'Olier street and used as a reading-room and for the healing work. Nineteen members of the congregation formed themselves into an Association of Christ, Scientist, early in 1902, and though no regular organization or rules were adopted, readers were appointed and services held from this time, in this room, twice every Sunday, and testimony meetings also, but not every week. A Sunday school had been started some time before this.
In April, 1903, a formal announcement of the forming of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Dublin, was sent to Boston. Four or five names were signed in the roll-book at once, and within the next two or three months a total of twenty-three charter members had been enrolled; after that members were admitted by election. The name of "First Church of Christ, Scientist, Dublin," appeared in The Christian Science Journal, May, 1903, and it was noticed as a new church among those "formerly advertised as societies now holding regular services." The first Christian Science lecture in Dublin was given in May, 1903, for the newly formed church, and was heard by a large audience. Rooms were taken for the church at 42E Great Brunswick street, and Sunday and Wednesday services were held there for five years and a half, being used on week days as reading-rooms. In 1908 reading-rooms were secured in a more central location at 21 Dawson street, and a small hall (15A Wicklow street) was taken and put in order for the services. In 1912 a very suitable hall was secured, with reading-room adjoining, as well as rooms for Sunday school and business and literature distribution work, only a few doors from the house on Molesworth street where Christian Science literature was shown for the first time in Dublin, and the church is anticipating yet greater usefulness.
Contributions had been sent from time to time to the building fund for the Extension of The Mother Church, and in 1910 a special contribution was voted "as a loving offering to The Christian Science Publishing Society," with a letter to Mrs. Eddy expressing loyalty to her and to the Directors of The Mother Church. An answer, dated July 29, 1910, under Mrs. Eddy's instruction, contained this paragraph:
Such assurances of loyalty and gratitude, attested by works of the Spirit, are refreshing to our Leader, who wishes me to convey her tender love to all the faithful ones of Dublin.
First Church of Christ, Scientist, Pittsburgh, Pa.
The first step toward organization which was made in Pittsburgh, Pa., took place on April 25, 1895, when twelve persons met together to arrange for the holding of Christian Science services; and three days later the first service was held in a studio in the Pittsburgh Academy building, about twenty-five persons being present. On the following Friday evening the first testimonial meeting was held, and on July 19, 1895, First Church of Christ, Scientist, of Pittsburgh was organized.
The next step in advance was when a move was made, on Sept. 13, 1896, to a chapel in the same building, and on April 5, 1897, a reading-room was established in rooms on the second floor of the building at Fifth and Penn avenues. For a little more than three years the church was domiciled in the Academy chapel; then, on account of the increase in attendance a chapel on Fifth avenue, formerly occupied by another denomination, was secured, and the first service held there on Nov. 5, 1899, about two hundred and fifty persons being present; evening services also were held for the first time. In the summer of 1901 the site of the present church on Clyde street, near Fifth avenue, was purchased, the corner-stone being laid June 16, 1904. The opening services were held Jan. 1, 1905, and the church, the first to be erected by Christian Scientists in the Keystone state, was dedicated April 9, 1905, at which time the following letter was received from Mrs. Eddy:
I congratulate you upon erecting the first edifice of our denomination that has gone up in the Keystone state, a state whose metropolis is the "city of brotherly love." so called. May this dear church militant accept my tender counsel in these words of the Scripture, to be engrafted in church and state:
"Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." "By thy words thou shalt be condemned." "Love thy neighbor as thyself."
"Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye [we] should follow his steps... who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." "Consider him that endureth such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."
In the two years following the congregation had so increased that thirty-five members were granted letters of dismissal for the purpose of forming Second Church of Christ, Scientist. In June, 1911, additional seats were placed in First Church, thus providing accommodations for one hundred and fifteen more persons, and in January of the same year the space occupied by the reading-room was more than doubled, the room used by the distribution committee enlarged, and an office opened for the representative of The Christian Science Monitor. Still further proof of the interest aroused through the faithful teaching and demonstration of Christian Science was given when in June, 1912, a. new society was formed at South Hills by members from First and Second churches.
In full keeping with the progress of the church proper, the Sunday school has grown steadily and shown proofs of healing work. During the past five years the attendance has more than doubled, and this year a fund has been established for the enlargement of the accommodations for the Sunday school, the present room being too small. In all its endeavors the church has striven to witness to the verity of its divine commission,— to present to the world "the proof that Life, Truth, and Love heal the sick and the sinning" (Science and Health, p. 54), the proof established by the Master for all time.
First Church of Christ, Scientist, Winnipeg, Manitoba
In time to come the winter of 1894 will mark an important period in the history of Christian Science in Winnipeg. During that year a small group of truth-seekers held private meetings at the home of one of their members, and it was not surprising, therefore, in this favoring environment, that in the spring of 1894 a practitioner came to the city, to be followed by another in the autumn. It was during April of this year, too, that services were first opened to the public. A few months later the little band moved to a hall on Main street, where services were held for a time, after which several moves were made and always to better quarters.
June, 1896, was indeed an eventful month of an eventful year, as a class of students took the primary course in Christian Science in Winnipeg, and First Church of Christ, Scientist, was organized with a membership roll of about twenty-two. Three years of steady upbuilding of the cause followed, and in 1899 fresh impetus was given to the work by the first lecture on Christian Science ever delivered in the city. Meanwhile good healing was establishing the new teaching on a firm foundation, and the constantly growing interest soon enabled the congregation to procure a better meeting-place.
In the mean time a second church had been organized, but in 1907 First and Second churches dissolved to form anew as First Church of Christ, Scientist, the organization being incorporated by a special act of the Legislature. The beneficial effects of union were very soon in evidence. The reading-room was moved to a commodious suite in the Somerset block—one of the best buildings in the city. There was a marked increase in the sale of literature, and the services also were much better attended. In May, 1909, the congregation purchased a beautiful site for a church at the corner of River avenue and Nassau street, in a fine residential district. In March of the following year building operations were commenced, and a year later the first services were held in the Sunday school room of the church edifice. The auditorium proper is not yet finished, but the cost of the edifice, including the real estate, is approximately sixty thousand dollars.
The progress of the cause of Christian Science in Winnipeg has been slow, but the good seed sown in past years is bearing an abundant harvest, and those who have labored early and late for its advancement know there is much cause for gratitude. Excellent healing work is being done; the lectures, of which two are given annually, are well attended; the attractive reading-room has been the channel through which many have received a better understanding of the truth, and from it has been sold a surprising amount of literature; while the cordiality of the press has assisted the cause greatly. Altogether, there is every reason to hope that ere long a completed and dedicated church edifice will testify anew to the healing power of Truth and to Truth's infinite supply, thus affording enlarged opportunities for demonstration of the Master's declaration that "he that is faithful in little, is faithful in much."
First Church of Christ, Scientist, New Orleans, La.
It was in November, 1887, that one who had been an invalid of many years' suffering and doctoring, returned to New Orleans from a summer trip to the North, bringing the message of a marvelous healing through Christian Science treatment, and bringing also the most wonderful book of this age—"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. This textbook was loaned to an earnest seeker after truth, by whom its teaching was eagerly devoured, and thus was sown the first seed of Christian Science in the thought of this one and others with whom the blessing was shared.
In March, 1889, an avowed Christian Scientist from another city advertised a public lecture on Christian Science and taught several classes, and as it was not infrequent in those days for teachers to hold classes in different localities, it was no wonder that the handful of people in New Orleans who had heard of Christian Science should have embraced this opportunity to hear more on the subject. Some time after, however, these people learned that the teacher who had taught in New Orleans had studied with one who had drifted away from Mrs. Eddy's teachings, and during the next few, years, many experiences and the continued study of Science and Health revealed the great gulf between the truth as Mrs. Eddy has presented it and the labyrinth of speculative thought to which any deviation from the Principle and rule of Christian Science is sure to lead. All through these years the seed of Truth planted in the consciousness by the study of Science and Health was the protecting power, and this seed finally bore fruit when in the early part of 1894 the stand was taken to discard all literature except that which had been officially approved by Mrs. Eddy.
March 19, 1895, the Christian Science Association of New Orleans was established on the foundation of Science and Health. This association held its meetings on Sunday mornings and Friday evenings, as was customary at that time, and on April 2, 1895, adopted the then new order of Sunday services, which appeared in the April Journal in a communication from Mrs. Eddy. In October of this same year the association organized as Church of Christ, Scientist, with eighteen charter members, obtaining a state charter which grants to its members the right to practise apostolic healing in the following clause: "Believing in the life and works of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, the members shall, so far as is within their power, practise and be permitted to practise apostolic healing, according to the commands of the Master, as understood and demonstrated by adherents of this church." After the appearing of the by-law in the Manual which requires churches to be named in numerical order, this church legally prefixed the word "First" to its name.
The church held its first services in the parlors of a private house, where a reading-room was also maintained. A move was next made into an office building, where services were held until Oct. 1, 1899, when more commodious quarters were secured, affording a separate assembly-room and reading-room. Services were held there for several years, when the need appeared for a still larger and more suitable place of meeting, and as no hall was available, it was decided, in April, 1906, to purchase the edifice of the Christian church on Coliseum and Melpomene streets. The church was completely paid for in April, 1911, but as the rapidly growing congregation indicated the need of again moving to larger quarters, the Wednesday evening meetings being overcrowded, no steps were taken to dedicate it. The first payment has been made on a beautiful lot in one of the best residential districts of the city, and here in the near future an edifice for a church home will be built.
Daily and hourly, in gratitude for the truth revealed through her inspired writings, this church is endeavoring to demonstrate for itself Mrs. Eddy's declaration that "only by the modesty and distinguishing affection illustrated in Jesus' career, can Christian Scientists aid the establishment of Christ's kingdom on the earth...In this period and the forthcoming centuries, watered by dews of divine Science, this 'tree of life' will blossom into greater freedom, and its leaves will be 'for the healing of the nations'" (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 94).
