The First Church of Christ, Scientist is the administrative headquarters and

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metro ...

of the

Church of Christ, Scientist The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word an ...

, also known as the

Christian Science Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...

church. Christian Science was founded in the 19th century in

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest municipality in Massachusetts and the largest city in Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line at Suffolk Downs, Lynn is part of Greater Boston's urban inner core. Settled by E ...

, by

Mary Baker Eddy Mary Baker Eddy (July 16, 1821 – December 3, 1910) was an American religious leader and author who founded The Church of Christ, Scientist, in New England in 1879. She also founded ''The Christian Science Monitor'', a Pulitzer Prize-winning s ...

with the publication of her book '' Science and Health'' (1875). The First Church of Christ, Scientist, is located in the 13.5-acre Christian Science Plaza in Boston, Massachusetts. The center is owned by the church and contains the Original Mother Church (1894); Mother Church Extension (1906); Christian Science Publishing House (1934), which houses the

Mary Baker Eddy Library The Mary Baker Eddy Library is a research library, museum, and repository for the papers of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science. The library is located on the Christian Science Center, Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts, a ...

; Reflection Hall (1971); Administration Building (1972); and Colonnade Building (1972). There is also a

reflecting pool A reflecting pool, also called a reflection pool, is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and memorial sites. It usually consists of a shallow pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets, for a reflective surface. Design Reflecting pools are ...

and fountain.

History

The Original Mother Church, designed by Franklin I. Welch, was completed in December 1894, eight years after the first Christian Science church,

First Church of Christ, Scientist (Oconto, Wisconsin) First Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as First Christian Science Church Edifice, is a church building located in Oconto, Wisconsin. Built in 1886 of stone, weatherboard and brick in the Gothic Revival style, it was the first purpose-buil ...

, was built by local women who felt they had been helped by the religion. Although fairly large for the time, the original church, a

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

stone structure, is often overlooked because it is dwarfed by the much larger domed Mother Church Extension. Designed to fit on a kite-shaped lot, the former features a 126-foot (38 m) steeple and an octagonal auditorium that seats 900. It is built of granite from

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, Mary Baker Eddy's home state. Added in 1904–1906, the Mother Church Extension was originally designed by

Charles Brigham Charles Brigham (June 21, 1841 – July 1925) was an American architect based in Boston, Massachusetts. Life Brigham was born, raised, and educated in Watertown, Massachusetts schools and graduated at age 15 in 1856 in the first class of Wa ...

, but was substantially modified by S. S. Beman, who took over construction in 1905 as a result of Brigham's illness. In particular, Beman minimized the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

elements, bringing the domed structure in line with the

Neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

that Beman favored as most appropriate for Christian Science churches. It boasts one of the world's largest

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

s, built in 1952 by the Aeolian-Skinner Company of Boston. The sanctuary, located on the second floor, seats around 3,000.

Christian Science Plaza

Designed in the 1960s by the firm I.M. Pei & Partners (

Araldo Cossutta Araldo Cossutta (January 11, 1925 – February 24, 2017) was an architect who worked primarily in the United States. He worked at the firm I. M. Pei & Partners from 1956 to 1973. I. M. Pei has been among the most honored architects in the world. ...

and

I. M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

, design partners), the Christian Science Plaza along

Huntington Avenue Huntington Avenue is a secondary thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning at Copley Square, and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods. Huntington Avenue is signed as Route 9 ...

includes a large administration building, a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

, a

and fountain, and Reflection Hall (the former Sunday School building). The site is one of Boston's most recognizable sites and a popular tourist attraction. The

is housed on the site in an 11-story structure originally built for the

Christian Science Publishing Society The Christian Science Publishing Society was established in 1898 by Mary Baker Eddy and is the publishing arm of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts. Origin and purpose The Christian Science Publishing Society and t ...

. Constructed between 1932 and 1934, the neoclassical-style building with its

Mapparium The Mapparium is a three-story-tall globe made of stained glass that is viewed from a bridge through its interior. As of August 2021, it is part of the "How Do You See the World?" exhibit of the Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Mas ...

, a walk-through inside-out globe of the world in 1934, has become an historic landmark in Boston's Back Bay. Restoration of the library's 81,000-square foot portion of the building began in 1998, and the final renovation and additional construction were completed in 2002.

Branch churches

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as The Mother Church, has branch churches around the world. In accordance with the ''

Manual of The Mother Church The ''Church Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts'' commonly known as the ''Manual of The Mother Church'' is the book that establishes the structure and governance of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, als ...

'', the Mother Church is the only Christian Science church to use the

definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...

("the") in its title. Branch churches are named "First Church of Christ, Scientist", "Second Church of Christ, Scientist", and so on, followed by the name of the city, in the order in which they were built in that city (for example, Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago). Carol Norton, a student of Eddy's, and a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science, described the relationship between the First Church of Christ, Scientist and its branch churches as similar to the relationship between the federal government of the United States and the individual states. In his short booklet entitled ''The Christian Science Movement'', he states that branch churches are "congregational in government, and individual and independent in the conduct of their own affairs, yet all accept the Tenets of the Mother Church."

Gallery

The Christian Science Plaza, Boston (11861328636) (3).jpg, Original Mother Church (1894) The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, 3 July 2014.jpg, Original church with the domed Mother Church Extension (1906) The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, October 1974 (2).jpg, Mother Church Extension, original Mother Church, reflecting pool, and ''(far right)'' the Administration Building (1972) The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, 17 April 2011 (2) crop.jpg, Mother Church Extension

Notes

References

External links

Home Page of The First Church of Christ, Scientist

Historical photos from the Boston Globe

The Mary Baker Eddy Library - Located at The First Church of Christ, Scientist
{{DEFAULTSORT:First Church of Christ, Scientist, The (Boston, Massachusetts) Christian Science churches in Massachusetts Church buildings with domes Churches in Boston Landmarks in Back Bay, Boston Religious organizations based in Boston Brutalist architecture in Massachusetts Religious corporations Churches completed in 1894