Editorial January 16, 1978 Issue

Individual responsibility in church government

NAOMI PRICE

Twice a year, the week before the Annual Meeting in June and early in November, a meeting of The Christian Science Board of Directors is held for the purpose of electing applicants to membership with The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. Qualifications for membership are that one shall be at least twelve years of age, a believer in the teachings of Christian Science, and free from other denominational affiliation.

Some of the candidates on each list for election are sure to be already members of a branch church or society of The Mother Church. Some will not yet have taken the step of joining. But eventually the majority of these sincere Christian Scientists will aim, wherever possible, to be active members of both The Mother Church and one of its branches in whatever part of the world they may live. In doing this they will win the satisfaction of identifying to the fullest extent with the vital activity of the worldwide organization of which its Founder, Mary Baker Eddy, writes, "From first to last The Mother Church seemed type and shadow of the warfare between the flesh and Spirit, even that shadow whose substance is the divine Spirit, imperatively propelling the greatest moral, physical, civil, and religious reform ever known on earth."^{Pulpit and Press, p. 20;}

All members have their important role in this worldwide redemptive mission of The Mother Church. Wherever he may be located, each member can also know himself to have individual responsibility for the activity of the Church and for its government. He fulfills this responsibility by praying daily for the well-being and progressive usefulness of The Mother Church as well as of his branch church, and he can be confident that his prayers are effective, uniting with those of all other members throughout the world.

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