Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, established the Wednesday testimony meeting as a mid-week gift to the congregation; affording us all the opportunity both to share and hear expressions of gratitude and testimonies of healing. These healings are the result of prayer, spiritual healing demonstrated. The meetings are an oasis to thought and an avenue to share with the community the efficacy of Christian Science healing. Mrs. Eddy wrote, "Testimony in regard to the healing of the sick is highly important. More than a mere rehearsal of blessings, it scales the pinnacle of praise and illustrates the demonstration of Christ,'who healeth all thy diseases' (Psalm 103:3)."

As in Mrs. Eddy's day, the readings are short, sweet and to the point, giving a great preponderance of time for sharing, as this is a "Testimony" meeting. It's a Pure In Heart practice to pass the microphone so everyone shares at least one simple gratitude or blessing received. Expressions of gratitude, joy for God's goodness or the relating of healings through prayer, may be shared by all who attend. This is a giving church and everyone participates during testimony time. The meeting concludes with a hymn after everyone has contributed. The testimony meeting lasts about one hour, although no strict time limit is set as we close with a hymn when the testimonies conclude.

Currently, Pure In Heart has been attending the "Wednesday Evening Meetings" of many of our sister churches in southern california. We have been visiting, as a group, and have found it to be a wonderful outreach to get to know the kindred hearts of our fellow Christian Scientists. We also make it a point to actively testify at these meetings and to remain after the meeting to greet many of the members. This visiting activity has opened up our thought to the unity of our movement and has helped us to understand how each Christian Science church is a unique expression of the Christ in action. It has also given us a perspective of the needs and challenges of our movement and brought our prayers for church more into focus. Many of these sister churches have been open to host Pure In Heart and allow us to conduct "Prayer Meetings" for the community in their ediface. We have also presented our "Bible Story Time" activity in their Sunday Schools. This selfless sharing has been a very special outgrowth of getting to know our sister churches and all have been blessed.

It has been especially precious to get to know members at our neighboring churches. As we visit often, many of these members become friends and we have found this helps us all to support each churchs' outreach activities. It has also begun to open up thought to acceptance of new ideas, like a church called "Pure In Heart" :-).