Item of Interest April 11, 1936 Issue

Item of Interest

with contributions from Mary Baker Eddy

Those who read the excerpt from a letter by Mrs. Eddy, which is published in this issue of the Sentinel at the head of the editorial page, will be interested to know that this statement is taken from what appears to be the first official letter written by Mrs. Eddy "to the Church of Christ, Scientist," after its organization. As nearly as can be determined, the date of its issuance was on December 25, 1881, this being the date of the church meeting at which it was read to those present.

The Mother Church has on file one earlier letter, dated April, 1879, from Mrs. Eddy to the "Brethren of the Church," before this Church was organized and while preliminary services were being held. Meetings then convened in Mrs. Eddy's home on Broad Street, Lynn, and she was active Pastor. But, by December, 1881, she was preparing to close her home the following January and go with her husband, Asa G. Eddy, to Washington, D. C., for a time. In the letter from which the excerpt referred to is taken, Mrs. Eddy recommended that the Church meet alternately in Boston and in Charlestown at the homes of her students. Further, she named four of her students to be registered alphabetically, and in that order to take turns in conducting the Sunday services.

A postscript which Mrs. Eddy added to her letter indicates that she herself was then fulfilling the responsibility that later she assigned to the Committees on Publication when she appointed them. In other words, she asked the Church for a copy of its resolutions for printing in "the papers in Lynn, either the Transcript or the Union."

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