Church of Christ Scientist--Aug 2022

August 7, 2022

This small, well-kept building has no parking lot, but it wasn’t a problem. Only one car was out front when I pulled up two minutes late. Three people sat in the pews, and a couple were on the stage. At the organ sat a young Asian woman. A foot-high quote on the side wall announced “Divine love always has met and always will meet every human need.”

Around retirement age, the pastor welcomed everyone, clearly staying on his script as if there were a church full of people. He read a resource list of twenty or so items. We sang from a hymnal which did not have titles of the songs on the pages anywhere, but only an assigned number. Today’s hymn numbers were posted in a wooden display box on the wall. A sweet part of the singing was the senior couple in front of me sharing a song book and holding hands.

 “The inspirational Lesson-Sermon read at this service consists of passages from the King James Version of the Bible along with related citations found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.” This is what the yellowed welcome brochure has to say about the Sunday Service. And indeed, the “sermon” contained nothing of what the pastor himself might have had to say, but only these readings, alternating back and forth. The pastor read the Eddy passages and the woman on the stage read from the Bible, giving names of the Bible books but not chapter and verse. Those readings were our message for today.

Here are some notes I made while listening. Scriptures are full of mind over matter. The wrath of God is unreal, temporal. Proofs by power of spirit—destruction of sickness. All causation is mind. Let us feel the divine energy of spirit. Let’s rid self of belief that man is separated from God.

I don’t remember if there was a closing hymn. The service was over in less than an hour with no emotional appeal at the end. All the fellow listeners said hello afterwards and the pastor gave me a brief greeting as I went out.