By CAROL SINCLAIR

Thirteenth Church of Christ, Scientist is happy to announce the opening of its relocated reading room in mid-April in a new building near Atrium Square. The address is 12000 15th Ave. NE. This combination bookstore and library is designed for the public. There one may borrow, read or buy the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health: With Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy. Also available are the Bible, the newspaper "The Christian Science Monitor," audiocassettes, and periodicals. Co-librarians Barbara Whittemore and Marjory Scott, along with their staff, invite you to an open house that will be held sometime in April (the exact date has not yet been set).

The reading room has been an outreach activity of the local Christian Science church since 1948. In the early years of World War II, a group of 38 earnest students of Christian Science met to discuss formation of a church. They knew that there were many Christian Scientists who had to travel to the University District in order to attend church and who were without adequate transportation. These students also perceived a great need for a Sunday school for the children of the community. Thus in 1942, the group applied to the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston to be officially recognized. Thus recognized, it held services in the Lake City grade school through 1944. (Today that school is the Lake City Professional Center.) It next rented a room from the Yancey C. Blalock Lodge in the Masonic Hall at 135th and Lake City Way NE for only $15 per meeting.

After purchasing a building site, the group applied again to Boston in 1947 to achieve the full status of a church. That recognition granted, work began on the lot at the intersection of 35th Avenue NE and NE 125th Street, where the church is located today. The congregation has never been marked by economic or social classes. Instead, a spirit of family and of volunteerism was expressed by everyone's pitching in to help build the structure. The members dug ditches and put in a drain tile, cleaned up the property, painted the interior, created a landscaping plan, and then planted all the plants. Mary and Ed Danielson made countless trips in their car to haul all the church effects into the new building. George Whyte kept the pianos tuned. (Mary Danielson and Marian Whyte, George's wife, are charter members still active in the church today.) Margaret Braman bought the first organ, while her husband, Dorm Braman (a nonmember who later became mayor of Seattle) built furniture for the church and reading room. Another member donated space in her house across the street to house the nursery for children too young to attend Sunday school. The membership wrote its own by-laws, elected lay readers, and set up a completely democratic form of government.

What is a family to do when its house is bursting at the seams? In 1955 the church again hired an architect, since Sunday school classes were forced by lack of space to be held in the basement, the board room, the coat room, the reading room, and even in the ladies lounge. By 1958 an adjoining lot was purchased to provide parking, and a final church remodel was done to include a lovely auditorium holding 250 people. Member Dr. Julian Barksdale, a geology professor at the UW, directed other members in laying the stone floor in the foyer. The church held dedicatory services in 1974, which signified that it was totally free of debt. The spirit of love and cooperation that marked the early members' efforts still can be felt in the community today.

The doors of Thirteenth Church of of Christ, Scientist are open to all in the area who would like to attend Sunday and Wednesday services, Sunday School, public talks, and its yearly Christmas hymn sing. Church services and Sunday school are held at 10 a.m. on Sunday, and Wednesday evening testimony meetings are at 7:30 p.m.