Article December 1, 1973 Issue

What Is a Christian Science Reader?

Elizabeth Bliss Selover

Have you ever been to a service in a Christian Science church? On Thanksgiving Day with your parents or on Wednesday evening for the testimony meeting? Or on Sunday?

Who was in charge of the service? Was it a minister or a pastor? A preacher preaching a sermon? A priest or a rabbi? Or was it a Reader?

For a short time when they began, almost 100 years ago, Christian Science churches did have preachers giving sermons. But the woman who discovered Christian Science saw that her Church must forever have the clear Word of God—not depend upon a human preacher's personal ability or skill. In 1895, in her book Manual of The Mother Church, she wrote, "I, Mary Baker Eddy, ordain the BIBLE, and SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES, Pastor over The Mother Church,—The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass.,—and they will continue to preach for this Church and the world."^{Man., Art. XIV, Sect. 1;}