Over the past eight and a half years, the members of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Newport Beach, California, have had the inspiring opportunity of witnessing God’s plan unfold in ways mere human planning could not foresee or accomplish.
Knowing our church building of seventy years would be sold in December 2012, we began holding “spiritual cultivation” workshops to deepen our understanding of the concept of Church. We began by studying this definition in the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “Church. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.
“The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick” (p. 583).
