Although an usher in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, may seem only to be greeting people, handing out copies of the Christian Science Quarterly or the Christian Science Hymnal, or showing someone to an available seat, the activity actually includes so much more. For example, the usher helps set the tone for the church service by praying in support of the harmony of the service and the prospering of the spiritual ideas included in the sermon.
Couldn't anyone with any kind of thought stand there, greet people, and pass out the needed items? Well . . . yes, but it wouldn't be fulfilling the unique purpose of our Church. In 1879 Mrs. Eddy and her followers voted "To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing." Mary Baker Eddy, Manual of The Mother Church, p. 17. Each one on the usher staff can use this mandate as a goal: to reinstate primitive Christianity.
An usher strives to fulfill this goal by expressing the Christ, Jesus' Godlike nature. Embodying Christlike qualities such as compassion and self-forgetfulness gives an usher the stamina, gentleness, and good humor needed in dedicated work as a church usher.
