Over the past several years, The Mother Church has renewed a focus on its relationship to Christian Science churches and societies in African countries. The goal of this work is to better understand how to most appropriately support efforts on the ground, particularly in the areas of sub-Saharan Africa that are seeing the most growth: Angola, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria. Spending time with members in their own communities greatly helps to build an understanding of the local context and a closer relationship to these fields.
To this end, I traveled to each of these seven countries last year and met with churches, societies, informal groups, and individual members. On a recent trip to Cameroon and the Republic of Congo, I was joined by Bethany Boyer-Rechlin, the International Christian Science Group Coordinator for The Mother Church. Together we traveled throughout both countries meeing with members in their cities, churches, villages, and homes, engaging in dialogue with them about their experiences of church, and listening to their suggestions as to how The Mother Church could best support their local efforts to live and share Christian Science.
Below are some of the many stories that were shared with us about church in our travels, in the members' own words.
