I first learned of Christian Science seven years ago in my high school library in Uganda. In a history book that featured great statesmen and women of the world was the name Mary Baker Eddy. The book said that she was the founder of a religion called Christian Science and author of a textbook titled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

What I read about her inspired me to return to the library to read more about her and research where I could find Science and Health and other literature on Christian Science. I was amazed to find that there was a Christian Science Society in the capital city of Kampala, right near me, and I went to a service there the following Sunday morning.

At the service I was introduced to the clerk of the society, who explained to me more about what Christian Science is and why there was no person functioning as pastor at the service. He explained that Christian Science churches and societies do have a pastor but it’s an impersonal one: the Bible and Science and Health, the two books from which the Sunday sermon—comprising passages from these two books—is read. This pastor is an ever-available and infallible guide for us all.