Items of Interest July 21, 1934 Issue

Items of Interest

Something has been said in these columns heretofore about the names which are suitable for various enterprises that Christian Scientists have organized, enterprises which are not connected with the Christian Science movement. The Christian Science Board of Directors has ruled that the inclusion of the words "Christian Science" in any such name should be reserved for the official activities of the Christian Science movement. Thus we have The Christian Science Benevolent Association and The Christian Science Pleasant View Home, naming activities of the movement.

"Christian Science Home" is not a suitable name for a home or sanatorium that is not an adjunct of the Church. In England and Wales, under the Nursing Homes Registration Act, nursing homes operated by individuals on their own responsibility, being certified by the Committee on Christian Science Houses, are necessarily denominated Christian Science Houses. Elsewhere, nursing homes maintained by Christian Scientists are given a suitable name which could not be mistaken as designating an official enterprise. "Christian Science School" is not a proper term to be used by a school giving secular education and sponsored by Christian Scientists and their friends. Rather, the enterprise should be described as a school for Christian Scientists or for the children of Christian Scientists; or it should be given a specific or local name. Likewise, a club should not be called a "Christian Science Club" or a "Christian Science Monitor Club," since it is not a part of the Christian Science Church activities. Instead, a club formed by young Christian Scientists for social purposes would best have a particular name, even though its activities are directed, as is sometimes the case, to the study in a helpful and intensive way of The Christian Science Monitor.

Clubs of young Christian Scientists, and their friends, formed in some of the larger cities, exist, and, according to reports, have met a need when they have been governed democratically in a simple and helpful manner, and thus have sufficiently flexible rules to accord with changing conditions; and when earnest, active Christian Scientists among them uphold the ideals of Christian Science in the social, athletic, or educational activities which are part of the programs. The Christian Science Board of Directors has decided that a national organization or an organization having branches or clubs attached to it is not a necessity nor a help; that indeed it takes away from the development of purely democratic functions in each single group, and that it is to be avoided. Thus Christian Scientists in any locality who have time and inclination to form themselves into a club, whether it be for the study of the Monitor or for other purposes, whether the members of the group are juniors or adults, are free to do so; but they are counseled to do so on their own initiative and according to their own volition and procedures, and not by a set, predetermined plan which would take away their own opportunities to demonstrate, even in simple affairs, divine guidance.

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