The healing purpose of the Church of Christ, Scientist, calls for fidelity to the spiritual design given by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in the Church Manual. The Manual establishes the individual branch as the primary organizational unit for carrying on the healing mission of the church in the Field, and in the Manual Mrs. Eddy outlines specific church activities for fulfilling that mission.
The Manual also specifies just two occasions for branches to work together in an activity: they may unite in having Reading Rooms and in giving lectures.1 In this spirit, other joint activities have been formed, which achieve their effectiveness and legitimacy only when they are organized and directed by the branches themselves.
At this time, we would like to call upon the Field to join us in a review that will clarify the place of joint activity in our movement. In order to be productive, this spiritual appraisal must grow out of a genuine appreciation of the good accomplished, as well as out of gratitude for the devotion to joint activity on the part of many committed Christian Scientists.
