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