A branch Church of Christ, Scientist, in a large southern California city reports progress in ministering to the inner city. This church sits on the border of a multiracial area encompassing most of the city's minority groups. Although the adjacent area has recently been disrupted by freeway construction forcing three Protestant churches to close, the Christian Science church remains, looking for ways to serve and to bring about increased unity and harmony between the races, both in their church and in the community.
"Happily, [our city] has thus far been free from any major strife, but the same problems exist here as elsewhere," the Assistant Committee on Publication stated. When his church saw the logic of extending its healing influence to the people geographically closest to it, its members began working to make their church more "visible" to the Afro-American community. One step was to build a viable relationship with the editor of the neighborhood newspaper. An advertisement for a Christian Science lecture was placed, and this lecture and others since have received excellent news coverage. The paper's editorials now quote from The Christian Science Monitor.
Moreover, a "Family of the Week" feature spotlighting the Reading Room librarian and her family who are Afro-Americans underscored their work for the branch church. "Without doubt, the image of [our church] as a 'white' church was changed in the eyes of many readers," he explained, adding that it was "the necessary giant step forward before we can expect to attract this community to church services or our Sunday School."
