The Office of the Clerk has received calls and letters from Christian Scientists requesting advice and support for special meetings planned by individuals in the Field such as inspirational meetings, youth meetings, and practitioner workshops. We deeply appreciate the love for our Cause that motivates these requests, and have given careful consideration to them.
Looking to the writings of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, for guidance, we find that she points to the source of real progress and to the pitfalls of relying on extraneous meetings for inspiration: "Science is absolute, and best understood through the study of my works and the daily Christian demonstration thereof. . . . Assembling themselves together, and listening to each other amicably, or contentiously, is no aid to students in acquiring solid Christian Science" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 156).
Article XXIII, Section 1, of the Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy also provides helpful guidance: "No conference of churches shall be held, unless it be when our churches, located in the same State, convene to confer on a statute of said State, or to confer harmoniously on individual unity and action of the churches in said State."
