Care, orderliness and system

Reading Christian Science Wartime Activities (WWI) at this time has been a sobering experience in light of current world focus on the situation in Ukraine.

For a while, I puzzled over the naming of the committees which undertook to provide needed garments (and other items) to soldiers, i.e.: 

·       the War Relief Committee 

and

·       the Comforts Forwarding Committee

I now appreciate the aptness of the names. Who wouldn't want relief in a war situation? And Christian Science stands for comfort and forwarding, humanly and spiritually. 

A conversation between the head of an organization (non-Christian Science) receiving some goods and their assistant (p. 273) illustrates this aptness:

           Comforts Forwarding Committee – what a symbolic name!

           Who are they?

           The Christian Scientists; and their garments are so well made, so carefully pressed and so exactly folded and packed, they are a comfort to the first person who handles them, and the comfort is forwarded.

           Well, I shall never again allow anyone in my presence to say a single word against them.

As a rule, no-one but military personnel were allowed in camp. This was especially so during the outbreak of epidemic. However, in at least one instance, the Christian Scientists were excepted. Having received a “shipment of knitted garments, consisting of a sweater, helmet, pair of wristers and two pairs of socks for every man in the camp” the Commander insisted that he had “never seen such a splendid array of knitted goods” (p. 281) and required that the Christian Scientists be there when the garments were distributed. The paragraph ends by saying: “To the men in the service here Christian Science has come to stand for that which helps and brings joy and comfort.” The War Relief Workers stressed that the “boys now knew that we were there to help them and not to preach to them” (ibid)

It seems that those who made the garments could include a note with the warm clothing. One such note mentioned Psalm 91. The service-man who received this parcel wrote (p. 284):

           …although I’ve had lots of spare time in which to investigate the benefits which she claimed were to be derived from reading it, I have not done so until today, much to my regret. There was in it a message of calm confidence and trust in a Being whom I had known but little in my childhood, and in whose existence I have not had the slightest faith as I grew older. But war is a great school, and I am considerably wiser today….

           I wish to thank that kind lady most cordially for a good tip.

Finally, I love this (p. 288):

           The same care, orderliness and system which characterized the packing, were exercised in the distribution of the clothing…

Mary Baker Eddy reminds us: Christian Science demands order and truth.

(Miscellaneous Writings 215:12–13)

Julie Swannell