New Sunday School at The Mother Church

April 22, 2012, opened a new era for children within The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.  Their Sunday School has been relocated within the main edifice. This adaptation of earlier uses of the space took many months. Construction openings were covered, but tantalizing sounds seeped out. Drawings in the escalator lobby showed glimpses of what was coming.

After the morning service, the congregation was invited to see for themselves, look over the new rooms, meet the teachers, officers, and pupils, and enjoy refreshments.


The formerly echoing, vaulted escalator lobby was now alive with children, teens, parents, and other church members. 

View of the new Sunday School entrance, replacing
some of the former coat rooms. There are still coat
rooms open on either side.

Overview as seen by the superintendent during opening exercises.
Note God's names written on the backs of the smallest chairs.

A happy swarm of families prevented a good shot
of the nursery area, but this seems to be a class
for the next step up.

Here's the furniture layout for an older class.
Note the library and portable white boards.

A quiet corner for a young adult class.

Reference/research section, near the front door.

Our photos show just some aspects of the colorful scene.


One is reminded of Mary Baker Eddy's statement that the value of The Mother Church would be largely determined by its treatment of the children entrusted to the care of its families and Sunday School:


"Hitherto, I have observed that in proportion as this church has smiled on His 'little ones,' He has blessed her,"
                            from her collected prose works, MY 17: 29-31


and:


"It is a joy to know that they who are faithful over foundational trusts, such as the Christian education of the dear children, will reap the reward of rightness, rise in the scale of being, and realize at last their Master's promise, 'And they shall be all taught of God.' "
                             from her collected prose works, MY 230:22

The Sunday School's time-line of the evolution of Christianity
includes Mary Baker Eddy, the early 20th century theologian,
Christian healer, preacher, writer, and Bible interpreter
who founded the Christian Science church.




(Photos by Sara and Roy Barnacle)

Cooking Like New

"They" tell me that, globally, I'm in the notorious 1%, the privileged millions. Nevertheless, it's been at least 15 years since I've had a reliable cook stove.  


A new range was nearing the top of the renovations list in the Waldoboro, Maine, house when suddenly and sadly there was no more handy husband Tom to complete the beautiful, new kitchen. 


Now, years later, new handy husband Roy and I are fixing up his Wayland, Massachusetts, house anew, just for ourselves.
To that end we bought a gas range from a national retailer. Actually, we bought two.


If you want to know something of the trauma of that transaction, see Roy Barnacle's FB post on the topic. I'll just say that after 4 visits from the installers the first new stove was declared a lemon. Then, after one of the most tense and unpleasant re-shopping experiences I've ever endured, the replacement is in place, as of yesterday -- and it WORKS, very well. 

First act, peanut butter cookies.

There's something satisfying about a
reliable oven. . . not to mention its products!

Roy followed suit with a dutch apple pie. You can see what has happened to that.

Do you need cheering up?

I thought today you'd like to see some spring flowers.

It's been a tough day, with our soldier going on a killing binge in Afghanistan -- and apparently he's not the first. And their fighters just killed six young British soldiers. (Which event came first?) Assad of Syria still pursues his killing binge, a very coldly and politically calculated one. American politics still writhes with its foot caught in the trap of dirty name-calling, a trap set by big money and sprung by bigotry (remember, bigotry is not determined by which beliefs one holds but by the utterly tenacious way one holds those opinions). 


So, it was great to see on the news Queen Elizabeth making her rounds with the fledgling princess under her wing. So, it was good to take a walk and see the spring bulb flowers sticking a first green shoot or two out to test the sun and air. And it was some relief that the flares from our sun, which were expected to be disruptive, weren't. Just beautiful, from what I've heard on the news. 


The flowers pictured above were among the iris I imported from my daughter Leah's home on the Principia College campus in Elsah, Illinois, during the years her family lived there. Planted by my front door in Waldoboro, Maine, they were sheltered and came up early. 


Here is a picture that hints at how those iris, paired with
my own-planted white lilacs, fed me my spring tonic each year.
May they do the same for you.