Mary Baker Eddy and The Mother Church Extension

April 28, 2026

Image description: Black-and-white photograph of The Mother Church, at an wide angle that shows both the original edifice and the larger Extension next to it. Groups of people can be seen entering and exiting the two buildings.

The Mother Church on the dedication day of its Extension, June 10, 1906. Thomas E. Marr. P08254.

We have received questions from time to time about Mary Baker Eddy’s involvement in the conception, planning, and construction of the Extension of The Mother Church in Boston (The First Church of Christ, Scientist). Some inquirers have heard that she might have criticized this 1906 edifice as representing “too much matter.”

Eddy did not characterize the Extension in that way. However, what could have given rise to this misstatement appears in a reminiscence in our collection, written by Hermann Hering. He was an early Christian Science practitioner and teacher who lectured for over 30 years and served as The Mother Church’s First Reader from 1902 to 1905. His account concerned First Church of Christ, Scientist, in New York City:

Once when I went to Pleasant View for an interview with Mrs. Eddy, always at her request, she was looking over a newspaper, which contained a view of the interior and exterior of First Church, New York, and an elaborate account of the dedication service. I believe it was the dedication, or it might have been the opening service. Mrs. Eddy was not very happy, for she was not at all pleased with the elaborateness, the ornateness, of the interior of that church. There was a description of every kind of wood and every kind of marble that was used. She shook her head and said, “Too much matter, too much matter.” This made quite an impression upon me, as well as the following remarks: “Christian Scientists do not handle matter sufficiently. They are too glamored of it.” A moment later she said, “Christian Scientists should handle matter as matter,” which I took to mean that they were to handle the claim of matter itself, as being the fundamental belief of all this materiality.¹

The New York church building referred to here was dedicated in November 1903. The building is no longer used as a Christian Science branch church, but First Church of Christ, Scientist, and other branches remain in that city.

For more on this topic, see the Library’s article “Did Eddy ever visit The Mother Church Extension?”

Hermann S. Hering, “Memoirs of Professor Hermann S. Hering, C.S.B.,” 1940, Volume II, 32–33.

Mary Baker Eddy and The Mother Church Extension

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