Observing advancements in art, invention, and manufacture a century ago, Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "This age is reaching out towards the perfect Principle of things...." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 232 Today, as this search continues, Christian Science Reading Rooms are responding by helping those in their communities discover practical spiritual resources found in the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Recently, Reading Room librarians from Alaska, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Texas, and Washington have linked up via telephone conference calls to share their ideas and experiences with one another and with the Offices of the Clerk and of the Publisher of Mrs. Eddy's Writings at The Mother Church. Below is an excerpt from one of these calls, in which the librarian of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Fairbanks, Alaska, told how individuals, as a result of visiting the Reading Room, are learning about God as divine Principle and depending on this Principle to meet their needs.
Our Reading Room is located downtown. The staff, who work to keep it open forty hours a week, have discovered that many of our visitors cannot read. So our primary opportunity for introducing Science and Health has emerged through the avenue of reading it aloud to the customers.
The strong interest from this portion of the population took us a bit by surprise. Although Fairbanks is a pretty well-educated town, within our city neighborhood there are a great number of homeless people as well as those struggling with alcohol addiction. As we were preparing to move to this new location in the center of town, I found myself wondering if any of these individuals would be coming into the Reading Room, and if they did, what I could say to them that would be of help.
