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RE: Leasing (or Selling) of the Mother Church

menderfire9 — Mon, 26 May 2008 07:26:40 GMT

Do Go Be Man; Interesting info. you are giving me. Although I had thought that the churches were so old they must have been paid for long ago, I didn't know that the church was so rich as to have all the funds before they built them. I just thought they were in some kind of desperate need to get out from under them, the maintainable and upkeep or just raise some cash for some reason...hey, how can 10 or 20 active local members heat and light and maintain the grounds and parking area and insure their huge local church that seats a couple hundred people. My sis and bro each in a separate town were readers in their church, just imagine standing up there every Sunday reading (in those boring monotone cs voices) to a huge church with only 10 people sitting there half dead. I'm sorry to be so off the subject, but all of these thoughts are rolling around me and I have never had anyone who could relate to my cs experiences. Yes, I did have many fine memories of Sunday School, but still, I was so scared and shy and felt so inferior, probably because I knew I was always sinning at home and at school and could never measure up to the cs stuff about our "perfection". The idea of all the churches being eventually sold is a like finally removing or killing the last bit of cancer out of the body. Another thing about the money, I heard on some website that the monitor was so broke that the various churches had to pump huge funds into it a few years back. How does one get to know all this stuff without spending half her day searching and researching all over the web for info that may or may not be true. People like me and my kids don't have that kind of time and don't even know where to begin. And we've got a couple of cs nieces and nephews who still have one foot in and could use some of these details to help them open their eyes a little further regarding the early history as well as the recent history so that a light bulb can go on in their head and they can see that everything they ever thought (about the church being such a strong solid entity, The mother church and the monitor, sentinel, journal were such powerful images of security for me as a child and a teen ager (when one is the only cs student in the hole school, she needs some sign that the religion she is connected with is something big and solid somewhere in the world, (like all my Catholic friends had the Vatican, and my Jewish friends had Bethlehem.....all I had was the Christian Science Monitor to boast of, and that didn't even mean beans to my classmates so I had to build it up even more in my own mind......in my mind it was a holy shrine of sorts!! And even though I so deeply hate what the practice (mal-practice ) of cs has done to thousands of people and broken up so many families it still is a shock to my system that my shrines were built on such weak foundations and are now falling so completely apart. Maybe my reaction has something to do with the fact that I have been living for 20 years in 3rd world countries and coming back to the US has been such a shock, everything has overwhelmed me; new stuff everywhere, old stuff being turned into something new. Isn't anything stable any more other than the Kingdom of God? The old world order is indeed crumbling. But the new stuff isn't any better. Well, thanks again for letting me post here. I apologize for not staying on topic, but I don't know how to shut-up once I start to write..... it all comes flowing out.

RE: Leasing (or Selling) of the Mother Church

followingHim — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:23:11 GMT

Menderfire9, with sentiments echoed by Do-Go-Be-Man, remarked

[quote]I need to read this stuff, tough as it is on my sentimental side, [/quote]

regarding the decline and demise of branch churches. My memories are neither fond nor bitter, so I take a cerebral tact: anything which augurs or hastens the demise of institutional CS is fine by me. I do feel a tragic pity for "the old CS women" and all others, who have been deluded by this evil heresy.

It's imperative to stay focused on the most important issue of all: the eternal destinies of those we deeply love--and many, many others!-- is in the balance here. Will they be left to in irredeemable pain and anguish, or will they be lead to a Paradise of happiness and perfection that surpasses human understanding?

RE: Leasing (or Selling) of the Mother Church

Do_Go_Be_Man — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:23:18 GMT

Menderfire9,

[quote]I might be naive but I thought they would have been a bit desperate and perhaps sell them cheap just to get out from under them.[/quote]
I was always under the impression that most of the old time CS churches were fully paid for years ago leaving only maintenance as a facility expense. In the recesses of my mind, I seem to recall that full funding was required to build CS churches. Many were built with funds donated by wealthy individuals.

For example, my old church was part of the city plan. The developer donated the land and original building. I've heard rumors, however, that due to shrinking numbers they have retreated into the original edifice rather than use the larger, newer building. They may have sold that building by now to raise operational funding.

Like you, I take no delight in seeing the churches close. For whatever I've come to understand CS to be, I have many happy memories and a sense of heritage about it. I'd especially hate to see the Mother Church and Extension used for inappropriate purposes.

Though an admittedly naive concept, I've prayed that TMC would come to renounce apostasy in the manner that the Worldwide Church of God did after the passing of Herbert Armstrong. I suppose that if I believed that were in God's plan that I would be back at the CS church working to make that happen. Maybe there is a megachurch in the Boston area in need of a place to meet.

Do Go Be Man
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RE: Leasing (or Selling) of the Mother Church

menderfire9 — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:25:19 GMT

Thanks folks, I need to read this stuff, tough as it is on my sentimental side. It would be interesting to have a list of the various C.S. Churches that have already sold and at what price. I might be naive but I thought they would have been a bit desperate and perhaps sell them cheap just to get out from under them. I was told that they sold the Denver church over 10 years ago and the group that bought it wasn't a wealthy group. It is sad in so many ways, because these old C.S. women followers were just raised to believe and not to doubt Mrs Eddy. They probably tried very hard to heal their emotional and mental pains using C.S. and in my view they never even really had a life. How sad. I have treated them in C.S. nursing homes and it is pathetic. All they had,in my view anyway, was the sweet precious sentimentality of it and hope. I remember my first visit to the Mother Church, I was 19, on my own, running away from my mentally ill C.S.family. Touring the Mother Church made me proud and made me weep. Sigh. The Mecca of CS dreamers. Most of us were innocent. But we left when the contradictions gnawed at us. Now the churches are being sold, portions of the Mother Church are being leased. No matter how sick I feel regarding C.S. and the horror it has caused in my family life, and families across the globe (my siblings' children were so badly neglected and abused, and are horribly torn apart to this day). It still is sad to me that the Church that we held so dear will soon be no more. It's like a death of your dearest dream and hope. Dreams die hard. I hope they turn it into a genuine healing center or Department of Peace or something like that..... Just saying....

RE: Leasing (or Selling) of the Mother Church

Linda — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 10:35:25 GMT

The Mother Church is sitll a fairly large organization between the church, its administration, the periodicals, etc., and all this requires staff. I have no idea whether the CSDirectory.com people are contributing to TMC; I wouldn't venture a guess since I have no information on the subject.

I suspect that TMC is being given a lot of money through wills (much of the membership is elderly) and money made available when branch churches close (I've heard of this but am not sure how much money we're talking about). Both of these sources have a finite lifetime as the membership dwindles and the churches close. Time will tell.

I'm going to guess that Christian Science will be around for a long time, although MUCH smaller and with much less influence than in the past.

RE: Leasing (or Selling) of the Mother Church

Gentle Dove — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:02:06 GMT

Interesting article. The church spokesperson mentioned a "40 year plan". I can't even fathom that the Christian Science Church will still be around in 40 years.

RE: Leasing (or Selling) of the Mother Church

Linda — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:23:12 GMT

Here's [url=http://boston.bizjournals.com/boston/stories/2008/04/07/daily49.html?b=1207800000^1618329&surround=etf]another article[/url] talking about the leasing of the CS church's buildings. (see "Christian Science church to lease Back Bay office space," Boston Business Journal, April 10, 2008)

The article comments that the CS church currently employs about 550 people -- down from 800 four years ago. That's quite a drop.

RE: Leasing (or Selling) of the Mother Church

Linda — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:03:11 GMT

The CS Church is definitely in significant decline. It will be interesting to see where it is in 15 years.

[quote]changing bible translations from the King James to modern versions in the quarterly Bible Lesson. [/quote]

Here's a link to the [url=http://www.tfccs.com/newsandinformation/communication_biblelesson.jhtml;jsessionid=MZUKB2HTBEDUXKGL4L2SFEQ]Board of Directors' statement[/url] on this issue.