Some years ago I wrote a series of posts on other churches I was visiting -- it was a blend of curiosity, and fellowship / ecumenism, and a quest for my next home-congregation that (even then) I understood was becoming necessary. I had not planned on continuing that series -- until last weekend when I was traveling. At a graduation party for my son and some of his friends, I heard a couple of the parents discussing church services in the morning. I mentioned I was interested in joining -- why should I miss Sunday celebration and worship merely because I was in a different city? After all the arrangements had been made, they mentioned: it was a Christian Scientist service. I knew nothing directly about them except by reputation, and had no idea if their reputation was fair. And so I followed through with the plans to see what there was to see.
The worship space
The worship space was pews and piano and organ, and a space for the readers. It gave an impression that was pleasant but unremarkable.
The readings
The readings were extensive and substituted for the sermon, lasting around the same amount of time as a typical sermon. There was an introduction that made it seem that extensive readings were the norm, an intentional practice to keep doctrinal purity as they saw it, that the readings / sermon at each congregation should be distributed from a central location, with each location reading the same readings as the sermon. The majority of the readings were taken from a denomination-specific book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by their founder Mary Baker Eddy. In format, the readings were broken into a number of sections: each section began with a few short Biblical verses or portions of verses and continued with longer quotations from Science and Health which interpreted and expanded on various topics. For my part, I found the readings from the Bible to be so short as to lack their own context, and the readings from Science and Health to be difficult to reconcile with Scripture.
The leadership
The leadership was mostly a pair of readers -- one man and one woman -- and most of the service consisted of listening to them read, alternately.
The congregation
It was a small congregation -- the smallest I have ever joined for the main weekly worship service. I wasn't sure how much was due to being in a smaller city, or a smaller denomination. I could easily count on my fingers the number of people under thirty. (Those over thirty probably outnumbered them two- or three-to-one -- to give an idea of the modest size of the congregation.) The people were friendly without being pushy, and did a great job of welcoming and including me without crowding me.
The Christian Scientist particulars
The Christian Scientist particulars do seem very particular. While they did not hand me a theology book, there were consistent ways of wording things that made me wonder if we had compatible views on the identity of Jesus, or the goodness of creation, or even the reality of creation. There was a recurring undercurrent suggesting the physical is illusory, and a clearly recurring theme that if God is spirit, and the image of God is spirit, then man is truly spirit. At several points I had to shush the little voice in my head saying, "Wow, they're Gnostics!"
The worship space, reprise
After noticing the direction in which many readings slanted during the service, I took a second look around the worship space and did not find a baptismal font, or communion rail, or altar.
Lingering thoughts
If I were to speak about God to someone from the Church of Christ, I might start with the goodness of creation, that we taste and see that the Lord is good, and that the created world declares the glory of God. They seem to understand the love of God -- that God is good. That might be common ground on which to build.
