The following letter from The Christian Science Board of Directors, dated January 20, 2006, was sent to all teachers of Christian Science. In the spirit of this week's issue on Christian Science class instruction, the Sentinel thought readers would enjoy it as an indication of the value and priority the Board places on the work of teaching the truth Mary Baker Eddy discovered.

We feel we cannot wait until our November meeting for all of us to move into action. So, we have been thinking a lot about you, and especially about what your work as a teacher of Christian Science means to the world. Simply, we feel it never, ever can be overestimated. It is one of the principal activities God impelled our Leader to provide for imparting divine Science to the world.

We've also been appreciating that divine Science itself never can be overestimated and never should be underestimated. It is the Second Coming—the Comforter Jesus promised, ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 55 .} the tender message of universal salvation. It is the "final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing." ^{Ibid., p. 107.} It is the leaven of Truth to the world. ^{Ibid., p. 117 .} It literally is changing the entire universe. ^{Ibid., p. 255 .} It uplifts human thought to Christ, and therefore it shapes history rather than being shaped by it.

We know you know this. Please pardon us for repeating it. But the majesty of Christian Science and the opportunity and obligation of teachers of Christian Science to share it, stirs so deeply in our hearts, like the irresistible energy of spring, that we find ourselves repeating this theme at every opportunity.

Dear friends and colleagues, we are convinced we all have much more to do as teachers of Christian Science that absolutely must be done for the defense of the Cause of Christian Science and the advancement of mankind. No others can do it because, according to God's system given in the Manual of The Mother Church, we are called to do it. It is not an overstatement to say that the future of humanity rests in our willingness to let God move our hearts and hands. Why? Because the future of the race is directly connected to its advancing spiritual awakening. This in turn is directly tied to the clarity of mankind's understanding of the theology of Christian Science and its verification in healing, which teachers especially are entrusted to demonstrate and impart. Only a grasp of God's allness nullifies the unconscionable, gravitational attempt of matter to dominate. To put it another way, the forwarding of Mary Baker Eddy's Church and the progress of mankind are inseparably tied to the purity of the theology of Divine Science in the hearts of its authorized teachers and in our fidelity to our calling to share. Truly, the office of teacher of Christian Science is one of the most sacred callings in the history of the world, and it is more basically intertwined with demonstration of the theology of Science and Health, than to any other human activities, no matter how worthwhile.

Much of the work of Christian Science teachers is heroic. We are privileged to know of selfless devotion, of tireless labor, of unheralded kindnesses and remarkable healing by many in our ranks. We feel humbled by many of you.

We also are aware that many of us can do better. And many of you tell us the same thing. All of us yearn to better follow our Master. None of us equals the faithfulness of our Leader. She tells us we are all capable of more. ^{Ibid., p. 89 .} But, how? In her article "Fidelity" she tells us, "... neither the cares of this world nor the so-called pleasures or pains of material sense are adequate to plead for the neglect of spiritual light, that must be tended to keep aglow the flame of devotion whereby to enter into the joy of divine Science demonstrated." ^{Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 341.}

We've been studying that little essay. It reminds us that the world not only demands divine Science, It desperately needs divine Science. Only Science can save the world from sin and its consequences in cataclysm, war, despotism, extreme weather and willfulness, geological disasters, epidemics, materialistic and confused theologies, false healing methods, and mankind's unwisdom and selfishness. It is not an over-statement to say the world is at a point of crisis. ^{Ibid., p. 177 .}

In short, the world cries out for the utterly pure spirituality that is available only through the radical theology our Leader gave the world in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Ironically, humanity needs to awaken to what it already has. And this is the theology we as teachers of Christian Science are authorized and equipped to share with the world through our lives of teaching and healing. Mrs. Eddy asks: "But what of ourselves, and our times and obligations? Are we duly aware of our own great opportunities and responsibilities?" ^{Ibid., p. 176.}

Accordingly, we have two requests to make. They are simple ones, and they are at the core of what we "heard" when you responded to our March 11, 2005, letter asking for guidance about your "field of labor." First, we request that you give specific time each day to pray for the office of teacher—that it find freedom from the world's curse, and blessing from Spirit's love. Second, we ask you to give special thought to the Manual provision, "Church Organizations Ample ... Members of this Church shall not unite with organizations which impede their progress in Christian Science. God requires our whole heart, and He supplies within the wide channels of The Mother Church dutiful and sufficient occupation for all its members." ^{Manual of The Mother Church, p. 44.} This means to us that teachers of Christian Science so devote ourselves to divinely provided activities in the Manual that we prioritize our lives, with that work at its center and circumference. The time to do this is now.

These requests show our deep urgency, and, we feel, our duty, to shelter and honor the office of teacher of Christian Science, and to do all we are empowered to do to help those who hold this office to fulfill its holy purpose for the benefit of one another, for Mrs. Eddy's Church, and for humanity.

Accordingly, we expect these steps to have immediate benefits for the Cause and for mankind—more and better healing, deeper articles for the periodicals, stronger lectures, larger classes, more harmonious and prosperous churches, more Christian Science practitioners and nurses, and better protection from the evil aggressions directed at the health and well-being of teachers and their loved ones.

We are convinced humanity intuitively senses Christian Science is the Truth for which it yearns. "Every man and every woman would desire and demand it, if he and she knew its infinite value and firm basis." ^{Ibid., p. 232.} Accordingly, mankind deeply desires us to have classes full of receptive and eager students who are prepared and eager to heal. Whether it overtly knows it or not, mankind earnestly wants our churches to unify and prosper. It wants confirmation of its intuitive conviction of the rightness of spiritual healing and the nobility of man in God's likeness.

Christian Science is able to provide all this. But the carnal mind is determined to crush it. The evil one wants mindless mortal systems to once again wither human hope with the lie that matter, not Spirit, controls mankind's destiny. We can help meet this aggressive and ignorant attack—"the envy and molestation of other churches, and ... the danger to its members which must always lie in Christian warfare" ^{Retrospection and introspection, p. 44} —if we cherish the office of teacher sufficiently to be even more alert, single-minded, faithful, and meek. Mrs. Eddy said of a mere sixty-five pupils, "We, to-day, in this class-room, are enough to convert the world if we are of one Mind; for then the whole world will feel the influence of this Mind; ..." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 279.}

We do not in the least exclude ourselves from these demands, and we are sure you welcome them. Mrs. Eddy speaks of "journeying on together." ^{Ibid., p. 135.} We are all laborers in the vineyard of human yearnings where suffering seems great and hopelessness sometimes seems even greater. Yet these are not supreme. God is supreme. We are convinced these intense woes are only inverse hints of the infinite promise Christian Science has for the world and for our work as teachers.

We feel Mrs. Eddy speaks to all members of her Church, but especially to her teachers, when she writes,

We love you all. We cherish you as fellow followers of our Master and Leader and as foot-washers of the human race. May we hear from you about our requests?

With warm and enduring affection,

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Thomas Black, Walter Jones, Nathan Talbot, Mary Trammell, Victor Westberg