Church Alive June 18, 2012 Issue

The following was written in support of Church Alive, a focus of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, that explores the meaning and possibilities of awakening to the spiritual basis and impact of Church.

Build each day on 'Truth and Love'

Bruce Jamerson

Some years ago, my family and I moved from a large city on the West coast to a small town in South Dakota. The nearest Christian Science branch church was two and a half hours away, too far away to attend. This was before Mother Church services were available on the Internet.

I decided to pray daily to bring church into my life. I did this by taking the definition of Church in the Glossary of Science and Health and applying each statement to myself (see p. 583). I prayed to see that I am “the structure of Truth and Love.” To me, that meant building each day on Truth and Love, actively expressing those qualities of God. For me, to “rest[s] upon and proceed[s] from divine Principle” meant that I must begin every activity based on Principle, not personal sense. And so I took each part of the definition and applied it to myself.

We began having church services in our home. Later, we met in a building on the local college campus.