Origin
The Church of Christ, Scientist, was founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879 with the objective of reinstating primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing based on the understanding of divine Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by Christ Jesus. The denomination consists of the Mother Church in Boston (The First Church of Christ, Scientist) and about 2,000 branch churches worldwide. The branch church here in Ottawa was established in 1899 and the present church edifice located at 288 Metcalfe Street was built in 1913. Each branch church maintains a Christian Science Reading Room to serve as a community centre for spiritual discovery and exploration. Ours is located at 141C Laurier Avenue West in the Gillin Building. A wide variety of books, magazines and audio products on spirituality and healing is available, as well as the Christian Science Monitor daily newspaper and access to the christianscience.com website.
Scripture
Our textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was first published in 1875 – 132 years ago – and for students of Christian Science it is a reference book for life. The author, Mary Baker Eddy, devoted more than four decades to communicating a message of hope, healing, comfort, and spiritual strength to the world. Her primary sourcebook was the King James version of the Bible. She had intended Science and Health to be a guidebook on practical spirituality for anyone, regardless of circumstances, religion, culture, occupation, education or age. It explains universal spiritual laws that, when understood and applied, bring comfort, transformation and healing. It is available in full on christianscience.com.
Beliefs
Christian Scientists do not have an organizational creed. However, the following is a brief exposition of the important points, or tenets, of the religion as outlined on page 497 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:
As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal life.
We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.
We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.
We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man’s unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.
Seeking and finding God is central to the practice of Christian Science. God is understood as the all-loving, omnipotent Father-Mother, and Christ Jesus as His Son. Jesus’ human life characterized the kind of sonship that Christian Scientists believe is provable for all as the children of God. He is seen as the Exemplar, the Way-shower. The divine nature he expressed is the Christ, and the Christ – God’s expression of Himself – is eternal and ever-present. Understanding man’s pure, indestructible relationship with God is what results in regeneration and healing.
Practice
Church worship services are held every Sunday morning, and testimony meetings are held every Wednesday evening. The Sunday Lesson-Sermon consists of readings from the King James version of the Bible and correlative passages from our textbook. These are read by two un-ordained readers elected from the congregation. The Lesson-Sermons address a series of 26 titles, repeated every six months but with different citations. They are prepared by a committee assembled in Boston, and are studied by Christian Scientists daily during the week preceding the Sunday service. The Mother Church also publishes the daily newspaper, The Christian Science Monitor, and a variety of magazines, and supports web sites to engage the public in a global dialogue about spirituality and its relation to health and well being.
Contact
First Church of Christ, Scientist
280 Gilmour Street
Ottawa, ON, K2P 0P8
Canada
Phone: 613-233-1427
Website: www.christianscienceottawa.ca