She was born in 1821, the same year that Fayette County was formed. A church in Fayette County, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, owes its existence to her.

She is Mary Baker Eddy, born July 16, 1821 in Bow, New Hampshire. Her childhood and much of her adult life, before 1866, was spent in personal tragedies and poor health.

She was a daughter of devout Congregationalists, and the Bible was central to her religious and educational upbringing. After a serious fall in 1866, unable to find a remedy through conventional methods available at that time, she turned to her Bible.

While reading the account of one of Jesus' healings in the New Testament, Eddy discovered what she came to understand as the science of Christianity. She declared that it made her healed from her afflictions.

In 1875 she wrote and published “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” which is now published in 17 languages and Braille and has sold nine million copies to date.

Four years later she established the Church of Christ, Scientist, and its headquarters in Boston is considered The Mother Church.

By the time of her death in 1910 she had written a number of periodicals and in her 88th year, established a newspaper, “The Christian Science Monitor,” which has won six Pulitzer awards.

It was exactly 100 years after Eddy's healing that the church in Fayetteville was established. It first met in February 1966 in homes, then it met in the Fayetteville Masonic Lodge for several years and in 1969 it purchased land on Ga. Highway 314.

Construction began in December 1972 and in August 1973 the congregation moved in. It currently has about 100 members.

The Church of Christ, Scientist, does not have ministers, per se. It is a lay church in which every member has equal standing with God. With the Bible and “Science and Health” as pastor, Christian Scientists turn to prayer and these two books for counsel and healing.

It has a Christian Science Reading Room that is a combination book store, library and study room, where the public has free access to books and periodicals.

The hours for the local Reading Room are 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Saturdays. It can be reached at 770-461-9306.

Church services are Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. and Sunday School for congregants up to 20 years old is also at 11 a.m. A Wednesday night service is at 7:30 p.m. at which time readings from the Bible and “Science and Health” are held, and testimonies of healing are given.

A web address for The Mother Church can be found at www.tfccs.com.

The local church is at 245 Hwy. 314, Fayetteville.

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