Article July 13, 2009 Issue

our hearts opened

BY LESLEY PITTS

JUST OVER four years ago, my church, First Church of Christ, Scientist, Plymouth, Massachusetts, asked two other branch churches in the area to join us in support of our Reading Room, established in 1998 on Plymouth's Main Street. Funding had become difficult, and rather than give up the storefront space, already attracting visitors, members from all three churches agreed to share expenses and duties. The Reading Room has been jointly maintained ever since by branch churches in the towns of Plymouth, Duxbury, and Marshfield.

Then last year, Plymouth members sold their church building, also on Main Street, to the owner of the motel next door, which had always been an exceptional neighbor. And for those members sad at leaving the New England style church, built in 1895, it was a bonus that the new owner opened it as a nondenominational chapel for weddings and other events.

At that time—with the approval of those churches helping us maintain the Reading Room—a member of the Plymouth church redesigned the Reading Room space to accommodate our Sunday and Wednesday services, while retaining its storefront appeal. There is no separate room for a Sunday School, so at the Sunday service, after the first hymn, the children walk to a nearby café to have their lessons. (And yes—drinks and donuts are a small part of the class, before they return to sing the final hymn.)