On April 12, 1879, at Mary Baker Eddy's home in Lynn, Massachusetts, the Christian Scientist Association of her students met:
On motion of Mrs. M. B. Glover Eddy, it was seconded & unanimously voted, that we organize a church to be called Church of Christ. Minutes of the Christian Scientist Association, Church History department of The Mother Church
It was subsequently discovered that another congregation in the state had already incorporated under that name, so in August, Mrs. Eddy's students obtained a charter for the Church of Christ (Scientist). The purpose of the Church was "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 During that same month, rules and regulations were drawn up to govern the new Church. One of these rules was:
