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Lyman F. Brackett (1852-1937) was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, and
died in Roslindale, Massachusetts. He worked as a professional organist, choir director,
piano teacher, performer, composer, and hymnal editor for the Church of Christ,
Scientist. He married Alma C. Norton, a fellow musician, in Somerville, Massachusetts,
in 1892. Brackett had a music studio in Chickering Hall, in Boston, Massachusetts, where
Christian Science services were held from 1885 to 1894, and this may be where he first
met Mary Baker Eddy. In the mid-1880s, Brackett participated in various musical events
to help raise funds for the construction of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in
Boston. He set poems written by Eddy to music, including "Feed My Sheep," "Christ My
Refuge," and "Communion Hymn." There is no record of Brackett studying with Eddy;
however, in 1887, Eddy recommended him to be made an honorary member of the Christian
Scientist Association. That same year, Brackett was listed as President of the Students'
Christian Scientist Association No. 15, Cambridge, Massachusetts, a branch association
of the National Christian Scientist Organization. In 1890, he was appointed as chairman
and music editor of the seven-person committee authorized to compile the first official
Christian Science Hymnal, which was completed and published
in 1892. Although Brackett declined Eddy's invitation to serve as the first organist for
the newly-erected First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston in 1895, he continued to
serve the church as music editor of the first revision to the
Christian
Science Hymnal in 1898.
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