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.

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.