Article April 14, 2014 ISSUE

Notice to all church members and friends

The Clerk of The Mother Church

Occasionally, members, churches, societies, and associations contact The Mother Church about requests from people in the Field for financial assistance or donations. These solicitations may come via e-mail, include photos of what is conveyed as a Christian Science church or Reading Room, and request funds to do things such as the following:  

  • operate what is portrayed to be a Christian Science Reading Room
  • translate Christian Science publications and Bible Lessons*
  • build or repair churches and/or Sunday Schools
  • purchase electronics, food, visas, plane tickets, office or household goods
  • assist with class instruction, association, or schooling expenses
  • operate a school for children in a developing country
  • provide a substantial number of Christian Science periodical subscriptions or books, especially to prison inmates
  • support some type of charitable work or disaster relief
  • obtain free Christian Science practitioner or nursing care

In some cases, wonderful work is indeed being done, but over the decades, the church has issued warnings about illegitimate schemes imposed upon the Field, and the following notice from the June 28, 1958, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel offers sound advice still:

Personal appeals for money or other charitable aid are not always genuine. Every such appeal made to a Christian Scientist should be carefully investigated before responding to it. From time to time we receive reports of disappointing experiences which have occurred through a disregard of this precaution. By carefully verifying appeals of this kind before acting on them, the alert Christian Scientist is safeguarded from the plausible pleas of the impostor and the unworthy and is better able to bestow his charitable gifts with wisdom and discretion. More than this, he is helping to make the activity of the impostor less profitable.

If you wish to help others in the Field directly, then please exercise due diligence before committing funds. The staff in the Branch Activities Department (tmcbranch@csps.com) and Treasurer’s Office will be happy to answer your questions. You may be interested to know that The Mother Church offers limited grant funding to Journal-listed churches and societies. It also manages a program for literature assistance in less-developed countries to support Journal-listed Reading Rooms, churches, and societies, as well as informal groups meeting regularly to study Christian Science. You may want to direct those soliciting assistance to these resources.

Of course, the most effective way to support the Field is through prayer and recognizing that individuals and churches can make their own demonstrations. Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, said it best in the preface to Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896: “A certain apothegm of a Talmudical philosopher suits my sense of doing good. It reads thus: ‘The noblest charity is to prevent a man from accepting charity; and the best alms are to show and to enable a man to dispense with alms’ ” (p. ix ).  

Thank you very much,
Lyle Young
Clerk of The Mother Church 

* Translations must be licensed by The Mother Church.

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