ARTICLE III, Section 6, of the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy specifies that all Readers in branch churches must be members of The Mother Church. The rules for the recognition of a Christian Science Society include a similar provision; so when Christian Scientists apply for the recognition of The Mother Church and for a card in The Christian Science Journal as a branch church or as a society, they should have for Readers members in good standing in The Mother Church. Substitute or temporary Readers, as well as the regular Readers, must likewise be members of The Mother Church.
Applicants for admission to membership in The Mother Church who have not been notified of acceptance are not yet eligible to be Readers and must be admitted to membership before they shall have fulfilled the qualifications. This also applies to those who desire admission on one year's probation.
In some few cases a society has felt that it must withdraw its card from the Church directory in the Journal because its eligible members had each served it or other branch organizations a three-year term as Readers. While Mrs. Eddy's article "Words for the Wise" on page 250 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," clearly indicates her wish that one who has served three years in any branch as a Reader shall retire from that work, it would be preferable under extraordinary conditions to take advantage of the latitude given by Mrs. Eddy in her article "Afterglow" (ibid.), and to re-elect Readers rather than to cease to be a branch of The Mother Church.
