Seattle Churches On The Move -- Church Of Religious Science Among Them

About the church

The Seattle Church of Religious Science is at 5801 Sand Point Way N.E.

Sunday services are at 9:45 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

For more information, call 527-8801. ---------------------------------------------------------------

Religion is on the move in the Puget Sound area. Just witness the packing crates in the Rev. Kathianne Lewis' makeshift office in Seattle's Cascade neighborhood.

Surrounded by clutter, Lewis is ecstatic. Soon the boxes and the interim administrative quarters in the two-story office building near Interstate 5 will be history.

This week Lewis and the Seattle Church of Religious Science are completing their move to a permanent home: the former Fifteenth Church of Christ-Scientist complex on Sand Point Way Northeast.

Throughout the Puget Sound region, churches are moving into new spaces, expanding old ones and, in some instances, doubling up with other congregations in shared quarters.

Moving and sharing

The reasons vary, from congregational growth to loss of older buildings due to upkeep costs. But the results add up to some noticeable changes.

At the Wedgwood Presbyterian Church in North Seattle, for example, a sign recently went up heralding that the Korean Peace Presbyterian Church of Seattle was now sharing use of the sanctuary. The Korean church is renting space during off hours until it can finish a new church on the site of its old building.

On the Eastside, the Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Church is planning to move in September from its temporary meeting space in the Hollywood Schoolhouse to office-retail space behind the 175th Street Station Office Park.

The fast-growing church, chartered in October, has 135 adult members and 110 children in its Sunday school program.

The Rev. Bob Moorhead, pastor of Overlake Christian Church in Kirkland, said renting space in business parks may be a coming trend.

Though his own church, with 6,500 members, wants to build in Redmond, Moorhead noted that two churches Overlake established - the Northshore Christian Church in Everett and the Evergreen Christian Fellowship in Issaquah - are renting space in business parks.

Moorhead said churches like his are more interested in function than "gingerbread."

The right price

Lewis, the Church of Religious Science minister, said her church abandoned plans to build a new facility because the estimated cost was escalating. But purchasing the former Christian Science church on Sand Point Way when it became available was within reach.

The sale was actually the end of a three-way shift that reflects some of the ebb and flow of church life in the area.

The Seattle Church of Religious Science, which Lewis describes as a "New Thought" church, began 30 years ago in a small church building in Ballard.

The church outgrew its location and in recent years had been meeting in a one-story building northwest of the Northgate shopping mall.

Building of its own

Members of the Peace of Christ Korean Catholic Community Church, meanwhile, had been worshiping the past 12 years at St. George Catholic Church in Georgetown.

The Korean group wanted a building of its own, according to Kay Lagreid, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle.

With the Church of Religious Science looking to move to a new facility for its expanding membership, the archdiocese made an offer on the Northgate property last year. The offer was accepted and the Peace of Christ Korean Community Church moved in last month.

The final piece of the puzzle fell into place when the members of the 15th Church of Christ-Scientist decided to dissolve their congregation.

Cliff Armstrong, spokesman for the Christian Science Church in Washington state, said the congregation's size had been declining. Most of the members would be joining other Christian Science churches in the area, he said.

Lewis said her church, with 635 adult members, purchased the 4.11-acre former 15th Church of Christ-Scientist property for $1.5 million last month. They began their first services at the beginning of this month.

Seven rows of folding chairs have been added to the plush, theater-style seats already in the sanctuary.

"We've been packing them in," said Lewis, adding the church drew 500 people to its services the past couple of Sundays.

Volunteers have painted the sanctuary light peach and worshipers can look out on gardens on either side of the sanctuary.

The church is something of a neighborhood landmark, with its needle-sharp copper green spire and lush, wooded grounds.

"It's wonderful to be in a neighborhood where people actually care to know who their neighbors are," said Lewis. On the first Sunday of June, she said, "A lot of people came to see what it was like."

The Church of Religious Science's first service, at 9:45 a.m., is meditative and serene, said Lewis.

The second, at 10:30 a.m., is more exuberant, with group singing and about a 30-minute talk by Lewis.

Lewis eschews the label "New Age," which has been applied to the Church of Religious Science in some popular writings.

"We don't practice channeling, we don't practice psychic phenomena, we don't practice rebirthing and all sorts of other things that have cropped up lately," said Lewis.

She said the church sees Jesus as a "way shower" rather than a "savior." It emphasizes healing through prayer.

Direct relationship

And it believes people can have a direct relationship with God; thus the church doesn't have much of a hierarchy, she said.

"Ernest Holmes, the founder of Religious Science, tried to look at all religions and see what the common thread was. We view ourselves as a religion that can be universal and teach principles that could be applicable to anybody's background.

"I'd say we were practicing the teachings of Jesus."

Lewis said she has gotten a number of inquiries from neighbors about the Church of Religious Science.

To help the public find out more about the church, Lewis said the Seattle church is planning a neighborhood open house from 2 to 4 p.m. July 26.