HARLOW, ESSEX, ENGLAND (Society)

Harlow Citizen
October 4, 1968

Christian Science Society, Harlow, dedicated its church building at Ward Hatch, Mowbray Road, on Sunday. Both the 11 a.m. and 3.30 p.m. services were very well attended. The afternoon congregation filled every available seat in the church and overflowed into the entrance foyer.

Interest in Christian Science in the Harlow area began in September, 1926, when a Christian Science practitioner, with her husband who was a schoolmaster, came to live in Old Harlow. They moved away in 1941 but not before they had instituted the reading of the weekly Lesson-Sermon, drawn from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, on Sundays in their own home, with any who came, at that time mostly war-time evacuees.

Other students of Christian Science came into the district and continued the practice of holding services in their homes. Many of the denomination's 3,300 churches have sprung from such modest beginnings.

In 1950, a special meeting drew together several students of Christian Science from the Harlow area, who undertook to organize services.... These Sunday services were held at first only at monthly intervals, in the Labour Hall, Bishop's Stortford, from January, 1951. Sunday School was held on all Sunday mornings when there was no service, at first only with one pupil.

Further progress saw the beginning in April, 1951, of Wednesday evening testimony meetings at which, as always, testimonies of Christian Science healing are given....

From the beginning of 1953, services were transferred to the more centrally convenient Victoria Hall, Harlow, and held more frequently.

In March, 1955, recognition as a branch of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, was granted.... and the informal group became Christian Science Society, Harlow.

As the next few years passed, Sunday evening services and more frequent Wednesday testimony meetings were added, and in 1960 the Oddfellows Hall in Harlow was rented for all activities. It was here that a Reading Room, providing a quiet place for study and information about Christian Science for inquirers, was opened.

A site in Mowbray Road was purchased from the Harlow Development Corporation in 1959. The society's present building was specially constructed to meet its growing needs and includes a Reading Room open to the public.

Because Christian Science churches are dedicated only when free of debt, this special day marked a considerable achievement for the members of the society.

WILKINSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA (First Church)

The Gazette December 5, 1968

Two dedication services will be held Sunday, Dec. 8, at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Graham Boulevard and Gaywood Drive, one at 11 a.m. and the other at 3.15 p.m. The public is invited to join in the service.

It is the custom for Christian Scientists that their church edifices be free of debt before being dedicated and the Wilkinsburg church has recently met this requirement, although the cornerstone for the building was laid in March, 1951, and first services were held there in March, 1952.

The local branch of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, was organized on Jan. 21, 1914, after a group of Christian Scientists, recognizing the need for a church in Wilkinsburg, withdrew membership from First Church of Christ, Scientist, Pittsburgh. Their first service was held the following Sunday in the Pennwood Club on Ross Avenue.

A year later, when larger accommodations became necessary, they began to meet in the Caldwell Building on Penn Avenue, which served as church for about three years.

As the congregation grew, more ample quarters were needed and in May, 1917, the members procured the auditorium of the Masonic Temple, South Avenue, where services were conducted for the next six years.

In September, 1922, the membership voted unanimously to purchase a large vacant lot on Wallace Avenue near Wood Street for their church home. Construction started in August, 1923, and first services were held there on Sunday, Sept. 28, 1924, about 10 years after the organization of the church.

Eventually, a large building was required and in September, 1949, the membership decided to sell the Wallace Avenue church.... Property was then purchased at the corner of Graham Boulevard and Gaywood Drive, where construction of the present edifice began in the Spring of 1951.

Sunday services are held at 11 a.m. and Sunday School convenes at the same time. Testimonial meetings are held Wednesday at 8 p.m. The church maintains a Reading Room at 1025 Wood Street, Wilkinsburg, which is open to the public daily except Sunday.