Article September 18, 1948 Issue

More about Procedure and Practices

The order of exercises for the Sunday School and By-Laws for its general conduct are to be found in the Church Manual (p. 127 and Art. XX). According to Sections 1 and 10 of Article XXIII, details of procedure are left to the individual churches. But frequently inquiry is made about practices both in The Mother Church and in branch churches with respect to certain details of the work.

Sometimes the question is asked, Since the Manual (Art. XX, Sect. 1) provides that "none except the officers, teachers, and pupils should attend the Sunday School exercises," do Sunday School librarians, pianists, organists, precentors, and some others who take part in the work remain in the Sunday School room throughout the session? Generally all who take part in the work of conducting the exercises are considered officers of the Sunday School and as such may attend the exercises. Some precentors and accompanists serve also as librarians or secretaries and occasionally as teachers. Those who do not have other duties are not required as a rule to remain in the Sunday School room between the time of the opening and closing hymns.

In The Mother Church all officers of the Sunday School are members of The Mother Church who have passed Sunday School age. Some branches appoint older pupils to such positions as that of secretarry, pianist, and precentor. It is generally thought to be preferable, however, not to assign pupils to duties which would distract their thought from the lessons or from any part of the opening and closing exercises. To illustrate, recently a pupil, after listening intently to the reading of "the scientific statement of being" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 468) quietly remarked to his teacher, "The most wonderful statement that ever was written." If the boy had been expected to do usher service at the close of the exercises, his thought might have been on that work rather than on the passage with which he was so deeply impressed.

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