Article May 16, 1908 Issue

AMONG THE CHURCHES

The Chronicle

Less than a decade ago, one little church, with a seating capacity of some two hundred and fifty, and a score or so of members, represented all there was of Christian Science in England. To-day that one meeting has grown to eighty, and that handful of members into thousands. Whatever opinion one may hold as to the tenets of the Christian Scientists, one cannot doubt that the sect has become very firmly rooted in England. The latest evidence of this development is to be found in the stately building from which yesterday [April 13] the last traces of scaffolding were removed. It occupies a considerable site in Sloane Terrace, and is known as First Church of Christ, Scientist, London.

The building of it represents in a vivid way the progress of Christian Science on this side of the Atlantic. It was not until 1890 that the earliest of the pioneers from the headquarters in Boston came to London and made a few converts. In those days the name "Christian Science" was not known to a score of people in England, and it was only at the British Museum and a few other libraries that copies of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy were to be found. Four years later regular services were begun in London at Hammersmith, and in 1896 the small hall in the Portman Rooms was engaged and the first Christian Science service in a public building in London was opened to the world. The experiment was eminently successful, and many converts were made. It was felt by those who had made themselves responsible for the work that the time had come for Christian Scientists to provide a church for themselves. After some search a disused synagogue in Bryanston Street, belonging to the Spanish and Portuguese Jews, was discovered, and when it had been remodeled was opened, towards the end of 1897, as the first Christian Science church in Europe.

"To-day," cabled Mrs. Eddy on this auspicious occasion, "a nation is born. Spiritual apprehension unfolds, transfigures, heals. With you be there no more sea, no ebbing faith, no night. Love be thy Light upon the mountain of Israel. God will multiply thee." [The Christian Science Journal, January, 1898.] The church certainly has multiplied. When the congregation at Bryanston Street overflowed the seats and aisles and had begun to sit on the steps of the platform and the stairs down to the hall, another move was made. With abundant courage, backed by hard cash, a freehold site in Chelsea, on which was a disused Wesleyan chapel, was acquired at a cost of nearly forty thousand pounds, in April, 1903. In this building, which accommodated eight hundred people, the services were held while the first half of the new church was being erected on the adjoining land. That half having been completed, it was shut in by a solid brick wall, and the old chapel was pulled down to allow the building of the other half. In August, 1905, services were held in the finished part of the new church; two years later the auditorium was completed, and since October last services have been held there.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

MRS. EDDY TAKES NO PATIENTS