A heart for the community

By Susan J. Boyd

I was raised in a Christian Science home, where we had many healings through prayer.

I also observed my parents' participation in church activities. To me as a child, it seemed very time-consuming, and sometimes stressful. I remember one time my mom coming home from a church meeting in tears. Though I eagerly, and of my own accord, became a member of The Mother Church—The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston—when I was a teenager, I was not so enthusiastic about becoming a member of one of its branches.

In my 20s, I took Christian Science class instruction, shortly before getting married, and this instruction prompted me to rethink branch church membership. I began to see it as an activity that would support my growth in Christian Science. And I joyfully chose to become a member of my husband's branch church in Berkeley, California.

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