A towering brick structure rising spectacularly over the surrounding neighborhood. A cozy one-story in a quiet section of the city. The building may not make the church, but it's also true that it's tough not to grow attached to a place that feels a little like . . . home. So what's the answer when a church edifice has become too expensive or hard to maintain? The following is part one of a two-part story about two churches of Christ, Scientist, one in Boston, Massachusetts, and one in Phoenix, Arizona, and what happened when they were faced with a difficult, and in some ways, defining question: what to do with a beloved but increasingly problematic church edifice.
LOCATED in the Roxbury neighborhood of the city, Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, has seen some dramatic community shifts since its inception in 1898. During its heyday the services and the Sunday School were full.
But, almost inevitably, people left—moving to the suburbs and surrounding areas. And slowly but surely, the face of the neighborhood changed. "The sense of pride in Roxbury has never disappeared," relates Ricardo Saldivar, a member of Second Church, "but the demographics have shifted tremendously."
