As announced in the explanatory note...

I have been puzzling over the Church Manual's direction to Readers to "make the following announcement" : 

           As announced in the explanatory note, I shall now read correlative passages from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy". (See pp. 120-121.) 

This is required to be read by the First Reader after the Second Reader has read the Bible references of the first Section of the Bible Lesson. See Church Manual Appendix "Present Order of Services..." pp. 121, 125-6).

Why is this important, I asked myself.

Of course, we do need to know the name and author of the book from which the Reader is reading. But if that were the only reason for this statement, then the Reader could simply announce the name of the book and its author without referring to the explanatory note at all.

Let's examine the afore-mentioned explanatory note. It is found on the first leaf of the Christian Science Quarterly. (This periodical contains the citations for each week's Bible Lesson and Sunday sermon.) The explanatory note is profoundly important in establishing the credentials of our Pastor: the Bible and the Christian Science textbook. It explains to the listener that the sermon they are about to hear will comprise "Scriptural texts" (that is, passages from the Bible) "and their correlative passages from our denominational textbook" (that is, related or corresponding passages from the textbook of Christian Science).

The explanatory note then amplifies the import of this sermon. It explains that the biblical passages will be from "the canonical writings". The dictionary defines canonical as "accepted as being accurate and authoritative; included in the list of sacred books officially accepted as genuine", i.e. not apocryphal. 

Mrs. Eddy mentions the word canonical once in her writings, i.e. 

           Have we misread the evangelical precepts and the canonical writings of the Fathers or must we have a new Bible and a new system of Christianity, originating not in God, but a creation of the schools - a material religion, proscriptive, intolerant, wantonly bereft of the Word of God. (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mary Baker Eddy. p. 34: 10)

The explanatory note then proceeds to inform us that "the word of our textbook" will be "corroborating" (confirming, giving support) and "explaining" (making clear by describing in more details or revealing relevant facts) the Bible texts (read by the Second Reader). Furthermore, these passages together carry a "spiritual import" (spiritual significance) and "application to all ages, past, present, and future" (practical use or relevance in every age). And they "constitute" (combine to form) a sermon that is "undivorced from truth" (not separated from truth), "uncontaminated" (pure) and "unfettered" (not confined or restricted) by "human hypotheses" * and "divinely authorised" (official permission).

*Eddy refers frequently to "human hypotheses" in her writings. For instance, in Retrospection and Introspection (p. 35: 14-15) she writes:

           Human hypotheses have darkened the glow and grandeur of evangelical religion.

And in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 p. 5: 14-16:

            The ever-recurring human question and wonder, What is God? can never be answered satisfactorily by human hypotheses or philosophy.

Might it be then, that the requirement to read "As announced in the explanatory note..." will not only provide helpful continuity for the congregation but will also reiterate and be a reminder of the solemn import of the explanatory note.

One writer gratefully acknowledged the impact of the explanatory note on her first visit to a Christian Science church service:

           After dropping the girls off at the Sunday School, I decided to attend the church service. Soon after I sat down, I heard the words, "The canonical writings, together with the word of our textbook, corroborating and explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual import and application to all ages, past, present, and future, constitute a sermon undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized. (See Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lessons, p. 2).

            I thought I would faint from relief. Having been exposed to nothing but human hypotheses my entire life, from pontificating relatives, teachers, and ministers - and being fed up with all of it - the words struck such a strong chord I eagerly waited for what was to follow. Just hearing those words - what I later discovered was part of the Explanatory Note preceding each Bible Lesson-Sermon - was enough to make me feel I had been given a new lease on life! (See The Christian Science Journal June 2010 "A revolutionary communication" by Milika Nevarez).

What an extraordinary way to introduce our Lesson Sermons to expectant listeners.

Julie Swannell

A "turnabout"

In an article from the August 1982 issue of The Christian Science Journal titled “The Structure of The Mother Church”*, authoritative Christian Science historian Robert Peel gives details of the times when the authority of the Manual of The Mother Church has been challenged.

Here’s some background on one of those instances.

A member of the Board of Directors had been dismissed by the Board and that person went to court. Folk interested in this difficult time for The Mother Church would find it enlightening. The man was John V. Dittemore. The court case was Dittemore v. Dickey. Dittemore lost his case.

In Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority, Peel tells us of Dittemore’s "final turnabout" over the matter in 1937, giving the text of his letter to The Christian Science Board of Directors:

As the result of experience over a period of years and a great deal of serious study devoted to the science of government, I have come to the humble conclusion that I made a great mistake in allowing personal differences of opinion and the feelings that developed therefrom to influence me to the extent which they evidently did after Mrs. Eddy passed on.

We were all greatly affected by her demise and held divergent views regarding the policies to be pursued when she was no longer here to direct us. And while I acted upon convictions which I regarded as right at the time, I have since been led to see, and am anxious to go on record as admitting it, that I was wrong in letting personal opinion and matters of policy induce me to depart from Principle.

God’s law does not divide and separate men, it unites them, enabling them to work together and perpetuates this unity. Personal differences that appear irreconcilable disappear as we grow in the understanding of His law and the ability to demonstrate it. Man is properly self-governed only as he enthrones this mighty law in his heart and mind. It annihilates everything unlike itself and I find it has destroyed all sense of personal animosity, all desire to justify self, and brought instead the sincere desire to acknowledge my mistake in organizing what was apparently regarded as an opposition movement, opposed to the Cause of Christian Science, to Mrs. Eddy and her teachings.

I recognise and revere her as having restored to humanity primitive Christian healing and acknowledge The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., as the first church in history to stand for the spiritual and scientific significance of the life of Christ.

I am happy to forward you this letter to us as you may see fit and to sincerely announce as my fervent desire that the Cause which you represent may continue to grow and prosper under your direction.

Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority. 509-510

In the above-mentioned Journal article, Peel wrote:

The Manual By-Laws are laws of limitation only to such qualities as self-will, rivalry, duplicity, sloth, pride, personal sense, and the self-deluded complacency that assumes it has already reached Christ Jesus' pinnacle of demonstrated spirituality.

Joyce Voysey

*Ed. Anyone wishing to read the Peel article is welcome to call their local Christian Science Reading Room. Subscribers to JSH-Online should be able to click the link. Anyone in Australia who would like a gift subscription should contact the Librarian at Christian Science Society Redcliffe.

Copies of Peel’s book Mary Baker Eddy: Years of Authority are available for purchase or borrowing from Christian Science Reading Rooms.

Discipline and healing

Article VIII in the Church Manual is titled Discipline. One might agree that every successful endeavour – in business, the arts, sport, relationships – has required some portion of discipline to reach its goal. It often requires self-sacrifice. Gosh!

According to the Oxford dictionary, discipline denotes self-control, self-government, orderliness, obedience, method, regulated activity, routine, regimen, training by exercise, instruction. It is closely related to the word disciple - student, follower, adherent, pupil. Jesus is recorded as saying "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord" (Matthew 10: 25).

The Readers Digest Word Finder explains that both disciple and discipline go back to the Latin discipulus, learner, from discere, to learn.

Thirty-one sections comprise Article VIII, which is sub-titled GUIDANCE FOR MEMBERS. The section titles are:

1.               A Rule for Motives and Acts
2.               To be Read in Church
3.               Christ Jesus the Ensample
4.               Daily Prayer
5.               Prayer in Church
6.               Alertness to Duty
7.               One Christ
8.               No Malpractice
9.               Formulas Forbidden
10.               No Adulterating Christian Science
11.               No Incorrect Literature
12.               Obnoxious Books
13.               Per Capita Tax
14.               Church Periodicals
15.               Church Organizations Ample
16.               Joining Another Society
17.               Forbidden Membership
18.               Officious Members
19.               Legal Titles
20.               Illegal Adoption
21.               Use of Initials “C.S.”
22.               Practitioners and Patients
23.               Duty to Patients
24.               Testimonials
25.               Charity to All
26.               Uncharitable Publications
27.               The Golden Rule
28.               Numbering the People
29.               Our Church Edifices
30.               No Monopoly
31.               Christian Science Nurse

It’s so interesting to see the by-law about the Christian Science Nurse in this Article. In the June 28, 1958 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, Myrtis Holmes Selover’s article “The Nurse’s Important Work” is helpful. She writes

The nurse has the duty of lovingly caring for the patient, feeding and looking after the body, keeping it clean and comfortable. But she has also the more important duty of watching over human consciousness, feeding it with the Christ, Truth.

Ms. Selover offers the biblical story of Naaman and the prophet Elisha as an example.  See II Kings chapter 5. In this case, Naaman’s servants took on the role of the Christian Science nurse in encouraging him to yield to Elisha’s gentle request to wash in the river Jordan.

Further on, Myrtis writes:

Often one acts as his own nurse as well as his own practitioner. The qualities described by Mrs. Eddy as necessary in a nurse, particularly that of receptivity, expressed by the one seeking healing, help to bring it about… One must watch that ill-temper, deceitfulness, and a complaining attitude … find no place in one’s thinking. Human consciousness should be watched over, tended, and constantly nourished by the Christ, Truth, that the errors detected there may be cast out and destroyed.

Now I see why this section was included in the article on Discipline! Christian Science nursing is about the discipline of watching consciousness. This work is for every student of Christian Science to take up with joy and vigour. I’m resolving to start right now.

Julie Swannell