The most important meetings that can ever be held in and by a Church of Christ, Scientist, are the Sunday services, Wednesday testimony meetings, Sunday School, and Christian Science lectures. These gatherings are all provided for in the Manual of The Mother Church by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, and they supply our movement with the means for worship, healing, spiritual education, and growth.
There are also other essential meetings. These include those required to carry on the work of branch church committees, the branch's executive board, and membership meetings needed to govern the affairs of the branch in the democratic fashion required by our Leader. And there are certain programs of The Mother Church designed to assist branches in carrying on their Manual-designated activities that require meetings from time to time.
However, in recent years there has been a proliferation of special meetings, many of them featuring outside speakers, and in some instances tending to focus on subjects that are peripheral to the basic activities Mrs. Eddy established as essential to the spiritual vitality and progress of our Cause. Often these have been joint meetings. While it may be occasionally appropriate to hold a special meeting in support of a Manual activity, such meetings should not be so frequent as virtually to become regular church activities in themselves. Surely we need to take stock when, as has sometimes been the case, a meeting in support of a branch church activity draws more attendants than the activity it should support.
