In the Manual of The Mother Church, under the heading "Church Services," Mary Baker Eddy devotes an Article to "Welcoming strangers." see Manual. Art. XVI. I have long been inspired by the gracious sentiment of unconditional Christian love expressed in this By-Law. It has helped me to be more alert in actively welcoming the stranger to our church. But the practical provision in this Article—requiring a local member of The Mother Church to give up his or her seat, if necessary, to a stranger—never seemed very applicable to me in relation to our branch church activity. After all, our church always seemed to have at least a few empty seats at every service.
Then one Sunday morning I was ushering, and was delighted to see so many visitors attending. Without my realizing it, however, after the service started my welcoming thought was put into neutral. Returning to "my" seat after helping to take the collection, I was startled to see a newcomer sitting there—and it showed! The visitor had just come in, thinking that the service began an hour later than it actually did. Now she was slowly realizing that the "prelude" she was listening to was the offertory! Happily, the head usher was alert and saw my predicament. He quickly moved over, freeing a seat for me. I quietly sat down, vowing that I would try never to be caught off guard again from my duty and privilege of welcoming the stranger to our church.
After the service I apologized to the visitor for the less than friendly initial encounter. And I realized that I needed to understand both the spirit and the letter of Article XVI much more clearly. In pondering this Manual provision since then, the following questions have come to the fore:
