Article July 1, 1933 Issue

Church Membership and Citizenship

UNA B. WILLARD

A HELP toward developing good citizenship is active membership in a Christian Science branch church. Such membership necessitates study of and obedience to the Manual of The Mother Church, which is based upon God's government and which contains rules for right conduct of the individual and the group.

In writing of the Magna Charta of Christian Science, in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 247), our Leader says: "It stands for the inalienable, universal rights of men. Essentially democratic, its government is administered by the common consent of the governed, wherein and whereby man governed by his creator is self-governed."

The consent of the governed involves some knowledge on the part of each member of the problems to be settled and of the progressive steps to be taken by the church. One should understand a proposition before consenting to it; therefore, taking an active interest in church affairs is the duty as well as the joy of every member. It is important that all the questions to be considered in the church business meetings be set before the members in a concise, clear, and impersonal manner, so that no doubt can remain as to the proposition to be voted upon.

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