In November 1989, Christian Science church services were held in Leipzig, Erfurt, and Karl Marx Stadt in the German Democratic Republic.
This simple statement might not appear remarkable, were it not for the fact that Christian Science services had been banned in East Germany for nearly four decades.
A straightforward, two-sentence decree, issued by the East German Secretary for Religious Affairs, stating that the "religious denomination" of Christian Science "is herewith recognized by the State," officially ended a thirty-eight-year ban. And it scarcely began to tell the story of decades of patient, persistent prayer by Christian Scientists in Germany and elsewhere.
