In the Manual of The Mother Church, Article XXIII, Section 7, Mary Baker Eddy states the requirements for organizing branch churches: "A branch church of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass., shall not be organized with less than sixteen loyal Christian Scientists, four of whom are members of The Mother Church. This membership shall include at least one active practitioner whose card is published in the list of practitioners in The Christian Science Journal."
The practice support committee of our church felt that someone should give specific thought to this Manual requirement and present these thoughts to our membership. The job fell to me. Journal readers may be interested in a few of these thoughts.
I started by noticing the ratios in that By-Law: 16 loyal Christian Scientists, 4 members of The Mother Church, 1 practitioner. This implies many more "loyal Christian Scientists" than Mother Church members. Perhaps these could be additions to the local congregation who are loyal to the teachings of Christian Science but have not yet joined The Mother Church.
