Love is essential to the prosperity of a Christian Science church community. In fact, without love there can be no church. According to the rules of the Church of Christ, Scientist, members are required to live in kindly relationship with all other members. Mrs. Eddy writes in the Manual of The Mother Church, "Any member who shall unjustly aggrieve or vilify the Pastor Emeritus or another member, or who does not live in Christian fellowship with members who are in good and regular standing with this Church, shall either withdraw from the Church or be excommunicated."Man., Art. XI, Sect. 3;
This is not an arbitrary directive imposed by an autocratic hierarchy. In fact, withdrawal or excommunication from the Church can be considered natural and automatic—the consequence of a member's failure to demonstrate his unity with divine Love and so to express the greatest human love toward his fellow members.
Unity with Church involves a spiritual commitment of the heart rather than a human contract, though one who loves God and is grateful to Him will naturally desire to be identified with the highest human manifestation of His idea, Church, through which the healing Christ, Truth, reaches mankind. He will probably wish to apply to have his name on a church membership roll, but it is his love, not his signature, that is the cement which unites him with the church and its members. Withdraw the cement—the love—and he is mentally no longer associated with it. And when the love-link is dissolved, in effect he is withdrawing himself from membership.
