OUR MISSION STATEMENT
To provide a sanctuary of peace and to ignite the spiritual fire
within everyone.
HISTORY OF THE CLAREMONT CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING
Our congregation’s very first meeting was as a study
group on Sunday, December 3, 1944. It was conducted by Pearl
Lady Moore, who had just received her Practitioner’s
License from the Institute of Religious Science three months
before. Her message for that inaugural meeting was “You
Tell the World - Don’t Let the World Tell You.”
We received our charter
as the “Pomona Valley Institute
of Religious Science” in May of 1946. The Board of Trustees
called its first meeting in February, 1947. At that first meeting
they voted to pay the soloist and pianist each $3.50 a week.
(Pearl Lady Moore had to wait for the Board’s second
meeting to receive a salary of $100 per month.)
In July of 1949 we were
among the first congregations to join the International Association
of Religious Science Churches
as “the Pomona Valley First Church of Religious Science.” We
count this as our inaugural year as a Church of Religious Science,
and celebrated our 50th Anniversary in 1999.
By 1953 we had 49 active
members. Our numbers didn’t
grow much until 1954 with the arrival of Rev. Kendall Bryson,
a former New York stage actor and radio announcer. In 1955
the Annual Report listed 49 new members - doubling the number
of active members from the year before.
In 1956 the congregation purchased its current property on
College Avenue in Claremont. Construction of the futuristic
Sanctuary was completed in November of 1959. Holmes Hall was
dedicated in November of 1964 to accommodate our membership
of 750. Junior Church attendance increased to 125 that year.
In 1968, the new lending
librarian, Emily Bazzare, began the task of cataloguing all
the books in the Library in accordance
with the Dewey Decimal System. Also tried for the first time
was the idea of “rental books.” According to Emily, “Our
idea was to keep a book in the rental section until it had
paid for itself, and then move it into the lending section.
One book (of the three books) has completely paid for itself,
one has half-paid, and the third was a ‘dud.’”
Dr. Bryson left Claremont for the Beverly Hills Church of
Religious Science in 1968. The next period of growth and expansion
would not occur until the arrival of Rev. Al Alacchi.
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