The Trustees of the trust under the will of Mary Baker Eddy, Clause 8, frequently evaluate grant requests from Christian Science branch churches and societies around the world. Many of these requests involve funding for repairs of older edifices—sometimes for buildings designed many decades ago that are outsized compared to the current number of members serving in the branch. We see branches prayerfully considering whether their building is truly serving the healing mission of their church, or if it’s distracting from this ministry to their community.
If your branch membership is interested in exploring a different location or building arrangement, there may be Clause 8 funds available to help achieve that goal. Perhaps your branch could benefit from a bridge grant to help during a transition from one space to another. Or perhaps your branch could use funds to help build out a new space or even to hire a consultant to help explore your options. Grants will be considered for rightsizing projects in cases where the transition to a more appropriately scaled church edifice would enhance the branch’s ability to reach, serve, and bring healing to the community, as well as enable ongoing building operations and maintenance to be sustainable for the branch.
In addition to projects related to rightsizing or relocating your edifice, the Trustees Under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy grant program will continue to provide support for a variety of other projects to aid branch efforts in offering welcoming, healing church services, testimony meetings, Sunday Schools, Reading Rooms, and lectures that meet the criteria of promoting and extending the religion of Christian Science as taught by Mary Baker Eddy.
