In a message to The Mother Church in 1899 Mary Baker Eddy writes as follows: "Brethren, our annual meeting is a grave guardian. It requires you to report progress, to refresh memory, to rejuvenate the branches and to vivify the buds, to bend upward the tendrils and to incline the vine towards the parent trunk" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 125).
This statement, direct from our Leader, may well be pondered by every member of The Mother Church, as well as by all who belong to its branches. It indicates that the occasion of the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church calls for a deep searching of consciousness, with an appraisal of one's aims and accomplishments as a Christian Scientist.
The first requirement in connection with the Annual Meeting is "to report progress." Can every church member, whether he attends the Annual Meeting, or not, honestly say that he has advanced daily in his understanding and practice of Christian Science during the past year? Has he grown in the expression of kindness, unselfish service, wisdom in home, business, church, and community? Let us all answer these questions honestly and prayerfully, and resolve that at the next Annual Meeting of The Mother Church we shall be ready to report increased gratitude and accomplishment.
