Editorial April 22, 1922 Issue

Association Meetings

The Christian Science Board of Directors

Our Leader has thoughtfully provided means whereby students whose teacher is no longer with them may have their association meetings conducted by one "who is ready for this high calling" (Manual, Art. XXVII, Sect. 2). The selection of such persons in every instance rests with the association to be served, and is never made by this Board. Some of those who are eligible for this service have been asked at times to conduct more than one association meeting within a year. The opinion of the Board having been sought on this point, they have recommended that no person conduct more than one such meeting annually, thereby adhering closely to our Leader's manifest intention.

The privilege which the Manual extends to teacher, of inviting students of other teachers into their association meetings, has been conservatively exercised with good results. In response to various inquiries, it is well to state the conditions under which both teacher and pupil may profitably avail themselves of this loving provision of our Leader.

Experience has shown that wise discrimination should be exercised by the teacher who invites. An unsympathetic or hypercritical visitor, or one whose instruction has been at variance with that of the inviting teacher, may prove a discordant intrusion in what otherwise would be a harmonious and beneficial meeting. Such a possibility cannot always be foreseen, and to safeguard their meetings many teachers confine their gatherings exclusively to their own pupils. Others draw the lines very closely, restricting outside attendance to a very few, who are well known to the teacher.

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