Church Alive April 18, 2011 Issue

The following was written in support of Church Alive, a focus of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, that explores the meaning and possibilities of awakening to the spiritual basis and impact of Church. 

No back seats

By Chris Shoaf

One of the Church Manual requirements for organizing a branch church is that the membership include “. . . at least one active practitioner whose card is published in the list of practitioners in The Christian Science Journal” (Mary Baker Eddy, Manual of The Mother Church, p. 73).

Recognizing ourselves as practitioners of Christian Science is certainly something we should all be addressing in our own thoughts and prayers.

To me, then, the inescapable conclusion is that the practice of Christian Science is required to establish the institution (church) that elevates the race. This is not merely a human requirement that the founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, decided was a good idea to include in the Manual By-Laws. It’s the recognition of the fact that elevating the race requires “elevators,” actual practitioners of the highest and most active mode of thought known to human consciousness—Christian Science. And not only that but the recognition that the elevating (the church) and the elevators (practicing Christian Scientists) are already working together as one in divine Mind.