#churchshop

[sergioodca]

#церковнаялавка #churchshop #tiendareligiosa #moscow #moscu #москва #россия #rusia #russia #atardecer #tarde #afternoon #послеполудня #улицуа #street #calle

[churchshopping]

We Went to a Church of Christian Science

Sunday morning. 11 am. We slept in and it was great.

Half an hour is too long to puzzle over what to wear to church. It seems simple, but it’s not. All the pictures on the Church’s website were of older women. None of them were wearing jeans or anything remotely casual. As it turns out, our worry was for naught.

As we arrived at the church building, we walked past many other churches and many other people going to those churches. But no one seemed to be going to the church we were going to. 

The green double doors said ‘welcome’, but we didn’t see anyone going inside, and there were several other doors. What if we opened one and interrupted something? We waited until a kind, eclectic looking older lady approached us. She stepped out of a red convertible, with a full length coat, and cat eye sunglasses. She was cool.  

The lady led us inside to the foyer, and told us her name was Dorothy. Five other older ladies greeted us and eventually opened another set of double doors, where sat two columns of pews. Someone played piano on the small, closed off sanctuary area that we guessed would house the Readers. On the wall in the very back were two quotes, one from Jesus Christ and the other from Mary Baker Eddy. It read “Divine love has met and always will meet every human need.” 

Dorothy brought us to the second row from the front, which is a rather intimidating view. We started regretting out decision. However, she and another woman kept up a light chatter to soothe us and explain what was going to happen. Dorothy took off her jacket and I blinked. She was wearing a t-shirt that boasted her Shakespeare theater troop. I felt more comfortable about my clothing choice. Eventually, two men and a woman entered the sanctuary.

They were well dressed, and they led us in a hymn from a hymn book that was about as old-style hymnal as you can get. The second man in the suit had a voice like an opera singer. After one song, we sat and the First Reader explained why the Church of Christian Science doesn’t have pastors, and listed out all of their services, including a Wednesday night testimonial and a Sunday school service for ages 0-20. We couldn’t help but feel it was for our benefit. We were the only young people in the room. 

Afterwards, the man read from the Bible, and the woman read from Mary Baker Eddy’s work, which is called “Health and Science” and nicknamed “the textbook.” Then we sung another hymn, and a lady slipped us her lesson book, which later, the Readers read from as the main ‘sermon’, although to call it a sermon wouldn’t quite be the proper term. 

(This is an abridged version of the lesson book, the lady let us borrow hers for the service)

The service was largely a back and forth reading between he Bible and the textbook, readings already prepared in the lesson book. Every now and then we stopped to sing another hymn. At the end, we heard a poem sung by the opera man and written by Mary Baker Eddy. 

When the service ended, Dorothy and the other lady each tried to talk to us, Dorothy inviting us to go see the Reading Room and the other lady giving a testimony and answering some questions. When Dorothy finally got us to the Reading Room, she pointed out a Noah’s Ark mural with some surprisingly tiny brontosauruses and gave us many pamphlets and free booklets. 

We felt a little bad about all the free booklets, because they seemed to excited to have us there and so generous and we don’t plan on coming back. However, it was overall a great experience. Check out next post for some more info about Christian Science itself!

[textualist-conservative]

Hey NYC Catholics, what's a good church (and maybe service time) for a young, single girl in FiDi? Preferably one with a choir...

[fritzcox]

Ein Geschenk, dass Kinderaugen leuchten lässt 🤩 #derkleineprinz #churchshop #christliches #buchhandlung #klosterladen #mitliebe #abbeyshop #geschenkidee #vonherzen #fürdich #dirgehörtmeinherz #fritzcox #engel #myguardianangel https://www.instagram.com/fritzcox/p/BrF_D_cF1jx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=936o0v8s8wdn

[chincrank]

Churchshopping

Off to my first church in my new state tomorrow.  Why the frick-frack would a church have its only service be at NINE AM???  Urgh.

[churchshopping]

An Adventure in Faith

Hello! We are two roommates raised in Protestant Christianity who realized that now is the best time for us to figure out what we want in a church and are eager to explore and grow our own faith. This is about pushing ourselves to get out of our comfort zones and participate in worship, service, and fellowship styles that we have never been a part of before. We’re coming into this with curious minds and open hearts. Join us as we travel across Virginia and meet wonderful people and learn about all the amazing groups and denominations within the Christian community.

[churchshopping]

What did we learn? Christian Science

As per our prior research, Christian Science and Scientology are NOT the same thing. Not even close.

We were a bit worried when someone at the Church asked us what we were studying in college, because one of us is majoring in Kinesiology, the study of human health and movement. Christian Scientists place a lot of emphasis on the power of prayer to heal, and the Wikipedia page for Christian Science notes that the Christian Science founder believed “that sickness is an illusion that can be corrected by prayer alone”. Would they be put off by Kinesiology? They weren’t! In fact, one of them is a nurse. We were relieved.

In the lesson we read, some of the things Mary Baker Eddy’s writing conveyed were fairly progressive. She mentioned the equality of the sexes, and how the supposed superiority of men was not Truth. She argued for inalienable rights, and claimed that they were given by God, one of which was the right to self-government. We noticed a strong American influence in her writing. That as a woman, in the early 1900s, in the face of yellow journalism, Mary Baker Eddy held strong to her beliefs and founded her own church is pretty impressive.

“Truth” itself was a key concept in the lesson, and had many definitions. We still aren’t quite sure what the “Truth” was, as sometimes it was defined as God and other times as Christian Science. The opposite of Truth was defined as not lies, but Error, and evil was nothingness. People’s error was where pain and suffering came from. It was an interesting lesson.

Some of the things that surprised us included a claim that all -ologies were false. We as humans are spiritual beings. Therefore, the things of the material world, such as cliques, government, hygiene, and physical health are all unreal. As much as I like this idea for cliques, I like it a lot less when it comes to personal hygiene. 

The last thing the Church of Christian Science really made us re-examine was our own own prayer lives and how all Christians are on a spectrum when it comes to prayer. On one end of the spectrum are those who see prayer as being purely mental; talking to God is good for one’s soul but don’t expect outcomes that are physical. Then there are those on the other end of the spectrum who believe in the mysterious, miraculous power of prayer to heal the sick and to cast out demons in our daily lives. The Church of Christian Science believes in the immediate, restorative power of prayer; in discussing Christian Science healing Dorothy told us of a man who began reading the textbook and by the last 100 pages was immediately cured. While this could have made us jump to conclusions about Christian Scientists and their beliefs, we recognize that with all things, including Christian Scientists, there is a spectrum. 

All in all, we found kind and good-hearted people who were eager to help us in our exploration of the Church of Christian Science. 

[fritzcox]

Nicht mehr lange, dann gibts den neuen Katalog 📖 #Katalog #newone #fritzcox #welcome2019 #naendlich #wirfreuenuns #churchshop #abbeyshop #kerzenladen #christlichegeschenke https://www.instagram.com/p/Bog24-FD9vm/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=t2wf6mmlq5om

[churchshopping]

1. First Church of Christ, Science

This Sunday, we’ll be attending our first, out-of-comfort-zone church! We’ve chosen one that makes us curious, which is a church of Christian Science. Christian Science, according to the church’s website, was founded by Mary Baker Eddy who published a book on her findings in 1875. Subsequently, the Church of Christian Science was established.

One thing that really stands out about this church is it has a Reading Room. In fact, the Reading Room is its own separate building next to church. Reading seems to have significance in this branch of Christian Science, and Mary Baker Eddy’s book is featured alongside the Bible in their Reading Room. 

Here is a list of the tenets of the church, courtesy of their user-friendly website:

1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost, or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.

3. We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.

4.  We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man’s unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.

5.  We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.

6.  And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

Tenet 3 is where things get a little confusing for us. Perhaps the wording, or just the concept as a whole, is a bit unclear. It is unlike the tenets we have been taught. The name “Way-Shower” is also something we have never heard. But these things exactly what we’re going to find out! 

Stay tuned for a full report on Sunday!