From time to time the question is asked. What procedure should be followed with regard to announcing the book, and the name of the author, when quotations are read from the works of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in Christian Science church services?
The By-Law, Article XV, Section 1, of the Manual of The Mother Church provides that when passages from Mrs. Eddy's books or poems are read publicly by members of The Mother Church, her name shall be announced as author. According to Article III, Section 5, of the Manual, such announcement with reference to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" "shall be made but once during the lesson," and the form of this announcement is to be found on pages 120 and 121 of the Church Manual (number 10 of Order of Services, "Reading the Lesson-Sermon").
In The Mother Church, in connection with the reading of the spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer and "the scientific statement of being" (see Manual, pp. 120, 121, 123, 124), the First Reader announces simply that these citations are "from the Christian Science textbook." When reading from other writings by our Leader, however, as in the reading of Article VIII, Section 1 ("A Rule for Motives and Acts") from the Manual, or when the words of one of Mrs. Eddy's poems are used as a hymn or a solo, it is necessary, of course, to mention her name.
