Pastor Emeritus

In amongst the exchange of letters between the Christian Science Board of Directors and Mrs. Eddy about the church being a testimonial gift to her, along with an invitation to become its permanent pastor, we find the title Pastor Emeritus. This she allows, and this is the title given to her on the title page of her great work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. 

I therefore expected to see the same term on the title page of the Church Manual, and also perhaps on the title page of her Prose Works, but it does not appear there. However, the Concordance to Eddy's Other Works (i.e. everything except Science and Health) contains half a column on the relationship between the church, and Mrs. Eddy, as Pastor Emeritus. 

For instance, in the list of Church Officers which appears in the Manual, Mary Baker Eddy heads up the list under the title Pastor Emeritus. The other officers change, but her place is permanent. There was, however, a period from 1910 until 1924 when the Pastor Emeritus did not appear there at all. It seems that after Mrs. Eddy's passing in 1910, the Christian Science Board of Directors removed her name and office from the listing (Manual p. 21). It wasn't until 1924 that it was reinstated by the then current Board. (See Notices, Christian Science Sentinel, April 19, 1924* - https://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1924/4/26-34/notices for an explanation.)

I like Wikipedia's definition of emeritus: 

Emeritus (/ᵻˈmɛrᵻtəs/), in its current usage, is an adjective used to designate a retired professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, or other person.

In some cases, the term is conferred automatically upon all persons who retire at a given rank, but in others, it remains a mark of distinguished service, awarded to only a few on retirement. It is also used when a person of distinction in a profession retires or hands over the position, enabling their former rank to be retained in their title, e.g., "Professor Emeritus" The term emeritus does not necessarily signify that a person has relinquished all the duties of their former position, and they may continue to exercise some of them.

Mrs Eddy gave the word a different slant. In responding to the Board's proposed gift of the church, and the office of its permanent pastor, she graciously declined both, and wrote: "If it will comfort you in the least, make me your Pastor Emeritus, nominally. Through my book, your textbook, I already speak to you each Sunday."

Thus, while "emeritus" usually refers to one who has retired with honour from a professional career, here she notes that she continues actively to speak to readers through the textbook.

This is a very important point in the history of the Christian Science movement. Some by-laws in the Manual have been challenged in court because the particular business needed the signature of the Pastor Emeritus. The movement survived the challenges, and the Manual was upheld. (It seems to me that Mrs. Eddy said of the Manual that it would be upheld as law by law, but I cannot find the reference.)

*In the April 19 1924 Sentinel, the Board of Directors wrote:

She is our Pastor Emeritus, not merely because she once officiated as pastor and minister of the early church organization, but because, as Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, her discovery will ever minister to the needs of suffering and sinning humanity, healing the sick and comforting the sorrowing through the impersonal Truth which she revealed.

An article by L. Ivimy Gwalter, Our Pastor Emeritus (May 20 Sentinel, 1961), is excellent. Here is an excerpt (some repetition here):

An understanding of the term "Pastor Emeritus" throws a new light on the Manual. Let us see how it came to be adopted. The Original Mother Church was dedicated in January, 1895. In her Dedicatory Sermon, Mrs. Eddy announced that she had ordained the Bible and "Science and Health" as pastor over her Church, yet within three months, in March of 1895, The Christian Science Board of Directors wrote her inviting her to become the permanent pastor. Her reply was significant. In it she says (Pulpit and Press, p. 87): "If it will comfort you in the least, make me your Pastor Emeritus, nominally. Through my book, your textbook, I already speak to you each Sunday." Here she is telling us that she is the permanent pastor of her Church and is speaking to us through the pages of the textbook every time we turn to it. Hence she is "Emeritus" only in name.

Joyce Voysey

Is gender a key factor?

In response to this morning's post from Joyce Voysey, regarding "The New Woman", readers might enjoy reading Ingrid Peschke's piece from The Christian Science Monitor today.

She writes: "The idea that we are all spiritually whole and capable, and that gender is therefore not the determining factor in the good we can accomplish, has been a key factor for me in my career."

Read the whole article, originally published in The Huffington Post (June 30), here on the Monitor's web page:

https://www.csmonitor.com/Daily/2017/20170728/Insights-about-womanhood-after-watching-Wonder-Woman?src=shared

Julie Swannell

The New Woman

[Ed. Pulpit and Press refers to two newspaper reports which refer to "the new woman". The first, from Chicago's The Union Signal, appears on pages 79-80. The writer surmises that "The religious sentiment in women is so strong that the revolt [against materialism] was headed by them...". The article adds that "the name of Christ is nowhere spoken with more reverence than it was during [the dedication] services..."]

The second article, reprinted on pp. 81-84, is from Boston's The New Century, and is entitled, "One Point of View – The New Woman." It is a remarkable testament to Mary Baker Eddy. One is reminded of the virtuous woman of Proverbs (31:10-31) - such a fitting comparison.

Joyce Voysey

The Mother Church: Dedication and description

Pulpit and Press

It is interesting that correspondents speak of the new building as “a massive temple” (page 52); “a great Christian Science church” (page 56); “a handsome edifice” (page 63); and “the magnificent new edifice” (page 77). It seems that the new church building epitomised the promise and beauty of Christian Science - the Science of Christianity.

The cost of the structure was prominent in its newsworthiness. As was the fact that it was dedicated with no cost outstanding. It was entirely paid for by voluntary donations from “thousands of believers” (page 58).

Page 57 of gives the Order of Service for the four services held in dedication of the temple. Here let us look at the Chapter "Glossary" in Science and Health's. The definition of “temple” (p. 595) reads:

"Temple. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of Love; a material superstructure, where mortals congregate for worship."

The long report from the American Art Journal (pp. 57-61) includes description of the services. 

“There was no special sentence or prayer of consecration." 

"The printed program was for some reason not followed..."

"There was singing by a choir and congregation."

"The Pater Noster [The Lord's Prayer] was repeated in the way peculiar to Christian Scientists, the congregation repeating one sentence and the leader responding with its parallel interpretation by Mrs. Eddy.”

"Antiphonal paragraphs were read from the book of Revelation and her work respectively."

"The sermon, prepared by Mrs. Eddy, was...read by a professional elocutionist...Mrs. Henrietta Clark Bemis" (not a student of Christian Science).

"The solo singer, however, was a Scientist, Miss Elsie Lincoln."

Turning over page 59, we find that there was a snowstorm amongst all this activity.

Pages 60-61 gives a detailed description of the magnificent organ, and the chimes are extolled by the Boston Journal pp. 61-62.

Joyce Voysey

The Mother Church and illustrations

On page 84 and 85 of Pulpit and Press, we have an extract from an article from the Christian Science Journal for January, 1895. It is headed “THE MOTHER CHURCH.” The thrilling thing is that one can find the whole article on the JSH Online site (Journal, Sentinel, Herald)! I was only the second one to say they “liked” it. That surprised me. 

[Ed. See https://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1895/1/12-10/the-mother-church]

 The article gives a full description of the building: it is no wonder that other reporters could therefore give descriptions in their newspaper articles.

I was surprised to be reminded that there are reproductions from Mrs. Eddy's Christ and Christmas among the stained glass windows. I was also sort of surprised that that poem was written before the church was built. The stained glass windows (window-pictures) in Christ and Christmas are in the “Mother's Room”, and are the ones representative of Mrs. Eddy searching the Scriptures by the light of the “lone brave star” (the Star of Bethlehem) encircling her; and of the little girl with the book Science and Health in her lap, reading to the aged man. The star shines through the window on the little girl and the book. Is there colour in these windows? Those in the book, Christ and Christmas, are in black and white. 

[Ed. Interested readers can find out more at the Mary Baker Eddy Library web site, in particular https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/knocking-an-illustration-from-christ-and-christmas/]

Joyce Voysey

"Daily Inter-Ocean" Dec 31, 1894

And so, on to the press reports about a momentous event – the building and dedication of the original Mother Church.

The first account is from the Daily Inter-Ocean of Chicago, December 31, 1894 (Pul. p. 23) I feel that I should know the identity of the writer, but haven't gone on a search as yet. What a comprehensive report the writer has presented to the world. I particularly appreciated the detailed description of the edifice outside and in. Having never visited Boston and The Mother Church, I am not familiar with the building, except through photographs, etc. I am particularly delighted with the colour I read about – rose pink, which I understand was a favourite of Mrs. Eddy's; we read of pink marble, pink granite – a restful colour, I would say.

The writer had interviewed Mrs. Eddy, and one section of the report speaks of her impressions of her.

I will list the sub-headings of this lengthy newspaper report:

• The Church Edifice
• The “Mother's Room”
• The Order of Service
• The Church Members
• Mrs. Eddy
• Mrs. Eddy as a Child
• The Principle of Divine Healing
• Mrs. Eddy's Personality
• The First Association

What a fulsome account the correspondent has given us. And Mrs. Eddy added, at the end, a poem by Lilian Whiting, "At the Window" (p. 39-30).

Joyce Voysey

Ed. 

ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE

The report referred to above mentions the "Romanesque tower...circular front...octagonal form, accented by stone porticos and turreted corners". Readers might be interested to know that Romanesque architecture is said to include qualities such as solidity, dignity, and serenity. (See A world history of art by Hugh Honour and John Fleming, 2009, p. 368-9.)

FATIGUE CHANGED TO EXHILARATION AND ENERGY

A favourite part of this report is the correspondent's account of her own change, during her visit with Mary Baker Eddy. See page 36, Pulpit and Press. 

A loving tribute to the author of Science and Health

As we are reading Pulpit and Press this month, the following letter, which mentions those two institutions, will be of interest to book club readers:

"Undoubtedly "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" is the greatest and grandest book ever published; and that by pulpit and press it will be so acknowledged, is only a question of time. Yours has, indeed, been a pioneer work, and will be; and I believe that you, of all the millions, are selected and chosen because of your peculiar fitness for this great work - this grand work of opening the gates and leading the way, that fallen humanity may follow step by step; reach up to Christ, and be made whole! That all this should be systematized and proven with mathematical precision, - that there can be no guesswork or quackery, - is simply astounding. Science and Health has given me a new impetus heavenward.

M. A. Hinkley of Williamsport Pa.
quoted in Mary Baker Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings p. 458:1-4

Pulpit and Press: Dedicatory Sermon - some jottings

Pages 2 - 3
Pages 2 and 3 of our book "Pulpit and Press" give us instructions for defending church. See 2:16 to 3:25. (As I read it, I decided that this is something which I would do well to read often.) It brings to mind one of my favourite hymns,  291: “Quiet, Lord

my froward heart.” The last line of the first verse has, “Pleased with all that pleaseth Thee.” 

The connection you ask? Page 3, line 21 from Pulpit has - “The river of His pleasures is a tributary of divine Love, whose living waters have their source in God, and flow into everlasting Life. We drink of this river when all human desires are quenched, satisfied with what is pleasing to the divine Mind” (my emphasis).

Pages 4-5 - about Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
Isn't it grand that “This book  is the leaven fermenting religion; it is palpably working in the sermons, Sunday Schools, and literature of our and other lands. This spiritual chemicalization is the upheaval produced when truth is neutralizing error and impurities are passing off” (5: 28 - 6:2). It is so important that we recognise and acknowledge these facts.

Page 6
Page 6 has a puzzler phrase for me – “the deified drug.” My College Edition Webster has for deify: “To make a god of; to exalt to the rank of a deity; to treat as an object of supreme regard; to make godlike; to elevate spiritually.” That satisfies.

Page 9
It is so inspiring to read what Peel says about Caroline Bates' prowess at climbing ladders. (Ref. p. 9:11). Her husband was a getter-of-things-done. Peel says:

His wife, Caroline, who worked with him during this time, was of the same mettle. When a labor dispute stopped work on the roofing of the bell tower, she twice climbed to the top by means of a series of twenty-five-foot ladders set up on loose planks inside the tower wall, and on one occasion remained there on her flimsy perch for three hours in a stiff wind until she had settled the dispute.
"Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Authority",  page 71

Joyce Voysey 

Dedicatory Sermon and scintillations

Book Club July, 2017: "Pulpit and Press" 

Mary Baker Eddy so often surprises us. She dedicated “this unique book” to the children who contributed $4,460 to the fund for the building of the original Mother Church building. (See page v, and footnote on page 9.) How important the child thought was to her.

Page vii gives me pause also with the word “scintillations.” It goes to prove that we sometimes think we know the meaning of a word – until we actually check the dictionary. My thought had been that scintillation was a very frivolous idea; perhaps I was confusing it with titillation or titivation – I didn't have any of them exactly right.

I am delighted with its meaning: “flash or sparkle of light; the process or state of emitting flashes of light.” The dictionary speaks of physics and luminescence. Also, that astronomy classifies it as “the twinkling or tremulous effect of the light of the stars.”

And I am delighted that it all reminds me of a favourite hymn (music by Mozart, words by Maria Louise Baum - see hymn 109 in the Christian Science Hymnal). It ends with the: “We in Love's pure likeness shine.”

The opening paragraph satisfies with its elaboration on the theme. To turn to the Dedicatory Sermon prepared “By Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, First Pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass." and, “Delivered January 6, 1895.” I query: "Who delivered it?" I don't think it was Mary Baker Eddy. I tun to my trusty friend Robert Peel, faithful biographer of Mary Baker Eddy. On pp. 73 and 74 in Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority, he gives a sense of the mental atmosphere around this time. He explains that the one who read the prepared sermon was a professional elocutionist, Henrietta Bemis Clark. She was not a Christian Scientist.

Perhaps now is the time to refer to the book by Joseph Armstrong, Building of The Mother Church. It is available from the Christian Science Publishing Society. Part of the blurb about it reads:

Building of The Mother Church tells the triumphant story of the power of prayer in overcoming countless obstacles and resistance.

In the late 1800s, the Directors of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, oversaw the design and construction of a unique church edifice in a matter of months — despite what seemed like insurmountable challenges. Those tasked with the work were confident in the ability of prayer to provide solutions and overcome obstacles. The result? The Mother Church — the church that Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, called "... our prayer in stone ..."

The corner stone of the building was laid May 21, 1884. The building was complete at midnight on December 29, 1884. Sunday Service was held the next morning. What an achievement! Oh! What Love hath done!

Peel's book is also very informative about the enterprise on pages 67 to 72. This, then, is the building we are reading about in Pulpit and Press; the building, the idea, deserving of the Dedicatory Address that begins the book.

Joyce Voysey

Genesis: "Here am I" - and a lovely benediction

In my dash through the rest of Genesis last night, I came across another, “Here I am.” It is Jacob answering God in Gen. 46:2.

I found it of interest that Jacob and Laban parted on a sort of truce. And then there is Esau – what a change came over him. Don't you just love the reconciliation of he and Jacob: “Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept” (Gen. 33:4).

Jacob's sons play a large part in his life. What a drama it was to produce them! We are given Jacob's character valuation in chapter 49, and in Science and Health Mrs. Eddy gives spiritual definitions of many of their names. “Dan” is the one I find most instructive. In Genesis he is characterised thus: “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that its rider shall fall backward” (49:17). And in Science and Health: “ Dan (Jacob's son). Animal magnetism; so-called mortal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out the designs of error; one belief preying upon another.”

How instructive is the image of the apportioning of blame – it all goes back to the serpent, but neither the horse nor the man is at fault.

On my scanning way, it was so good to read Gen. 31:49: “May the Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.” (NKJV has “you and me” but I prefer the KJV as written here.)

So long for now, Genesis.

Joyce Voysey

Service and new beginnings

I am sort of skimming through Genesis (to-day is the last day for Genesis; what will July bring us?) and have noticed a few things to comment on. But first, the thought comes that it would be a good exercise to itemise the elements of human nature which Abraham overcame by living what the Glossary to Science and Health classifies him as, namely,

ABRAHAM. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the eternal Principle of being.

This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of spiritual understanding.

I haven't accomplished that at this time. Perhaps it will become clear at another time. It is always a comfort to know that our questions will be answered some time and some how.

A couple of items from Harper Collins Bible Dictionary:

Abraham's father, Terah, was, according to ancient rabbinic interpreters, a manufacturer and worshipper of idols. (Could this account for Abraham's insisting that his son Isaac not go back to Haran to find a wife, not even to accompany the servant entrusted with that task? Something I had wondered about.)

Abraham was a “Pioneer in faith.”

A testifier at our Wednesday meeting spoke of healings in the Old Testament. She quoted the healing of Sarah of infertility. But there is a small reference to this type of healing before Isaac was born. We recall the story of Abimelech being fascinated with Sarah, who Abraham had claimed was his sister rather than his wife (she was his half-sister). The Bible tells us of an interesting outcome and healing: So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham's wife (Gen. 20:17, 18 N.K.J.V).

That finishes off chapter 20. 

Chapter 21 is triumphant: And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him (verses 1 & 2).

Subsequently, after Sarah's death, Abraham marries again and has six more sons!

We find that Ishmael did indeed have 12 princes (Gen. 25:16).

There is another story of a patriarch claiming that his wife was his sister, this time because he feared for his life when Abimelech as attracted to her. This was the story of Isaac and Rebekah. How about that Abimelech was involved with each of these similar stories!

I love the way people called of God answered, “Here I am.” In Genesis it is Abraham who answers thus when, according to his understanding he was called to sacrifice his son. (See Chapter 22.) What did Abraham have to sacrifice? The belief that he was a personal creator of his son, perhaps.

Then in I Samuel 3:4 Samuel finally answers God's call to service.

And for Isaiah's call to service: “Here am I! Send me.”

I love it.

Joyce Voysey

ED. Maybe we can return to Genesis another time so we can take a good look at Jacob and Joseph's contributions!