Looking back
No form of human communication is more basic than one person speaking—eye to eye, heart to heart—to an audience, of one or many. It predates Socrates and the Socratic dialogue as a means of exchanging ideas. Jesus taught by speaking on Galilean hillsides. Religious innovator Mary Baker Eddy eventually would make public speaking a universal demand in her movement's weekly testimony meetings. But it all began with one woman's desire to take a message of spiritual discovery into the marketplace of ideas.
Three–quarters of the way through the 19th century, Mary Baker Eddy's newly published Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures challenged conventional questions—the nature of materialism; the meaning of human life; God's existence, essence, and accessibility; to name a few.
Science and Health plainly stated that the Comforter promised by Christ Jesus had come. The Science—the laws—of spiritual being had been embedded in the Bible all along. And now, a woman had discovered them.
Women go before the people
During the 19th century, only a relatively few American women spoke publicly on behalf of any cause. Religious historian Ann Braude points to Quaker women preachers who, in addition to their preaching, spoke to college students and at conferences where treaties with Native Americans were made. Evangelical women preachers in increasingly substantial numbers spoke publicly between the 1740s and 1840s. Other women took to platforms to speak for temperance and women's rights and against slavery. How did these women find their public voices? "Nearly all credited direct spiritual inspiration—God's call to speak—with empowering them to overcome millennia of traditional theological teachings, social prejudice, and their own personal doubts," Ann Braude, "Answering God's Call to Speak," The Magazine of The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity, Winter/Spring 2002, p. 18 . Braude says.
Mary Baker Eddy faced her own doubts, but she, too, sensed God's calling See Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. xi . and believed that eventually others would have to explain the discovery and its Discoverer to the public: "Future ages must declare what the pioneer has accomplished." But first, she would have to "cut the rough granite" lbid., p. vii.—hostility and adoration both being stones in the way—and be the first to face the people.
Mary Baker Eddy begins to lecture
Mrs. Eddy's first known speaking engagements occurred during stays in southern Maine in the early 1860s. At that time married to itinerant dentist Daniel Patterson, she spoke on her experience of living in the South, on the North/South divide, and about the "magnetic" or mesmeric treatment methods of Phineas P. Quimby. The Pattersons relocated to Massachusetts, and she continued to develop her oratorical skills by addressing temperance society meetings. A remarkable spiritual healing that she experienced in 1866 led to Mrs. Eddy's discovery of "the divine Principle of the teachings and practice of our Master" [Christ Jesus]. lbid., p. 19. In the late 1860s, she began speaking on what she now called Christian Science, primarily to small groups in what were commonly known as parlor lectures.
In January 1879, Mrs.Eddy wrote to her student Clara Choate: "I have lectured in parlors 14 years, God calls me now to go before the people in a wider sense." Only a year earlier, Mrs. Eddy had begun to speak in Boston's larger halls and churches. In the opening paragraph of the Choate letter, she showed the colorfulness and wit that would make her a formidable public speaker, qualities that she would come to value in other speakers. Apparently she also relished interaction with her audiences, the give and take, even the pointed questions.
A remarkable event
"I wish you could have been at the meeting in the Tabernacle [the Shawmut Baptist Tabernacle in Boston's South End] last Sunday, "Mrs. Eddy continued in her letter to Clara Choate. "My subject was 'Christ's Coming' and I did twist the cords and make a lash for their backs that cut smoothly I assure you, and as soon as I was done three rose for questions. I answered, and beat them every time; one of them said he was satisfied, the others had reason to be for the audience cheered me clapped and stamped and the clergyman told them he should not have that, and commenced saying 'that I was dark as a beetle on some points' and I went to reply to the clergyman but he kept on and the audience called out 'let her speak' etc; then Mr. Williams turned to complimenting me but I knew it was all for policy at that time." L02463, Mary Baker Eddy to Clara E. Choate, January 24, 1879, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection, The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity .
Those early public lectures were given under the organizational tent of the Christian Scientist Association (CSA), formed by Mrs. Eddy and her students in 1876. The Association's January 1880 annual report noted that over a nine–month period ending July 1879, Mrs. Eddy delivered 32 lectures in Boston, "holding good audiences." Clifford P. Smith, Historical Sketches from the Life of Mary Baker Eddy and the History of Christian Science (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1992), p. 164 . Her venues included some of Boston's most popular forums for educational and inspirational public addresses: Parker Memorial Hall, Hawthorne Hall, Chickering Hall, and Odd Fellows Hall. The halls progressed from modest to large as her audiences grew.
Mrs. Eddy also gave Thursday afternoon "Parlor Lectures on Practical Metaphysics" at her Massachusetts Metaphysical College on Columbus Avenue, charging $0.25 for admission. While some may shiver at comparing the apples of metaphysics with the oranges of current Hollywood movies, her admission fee was roughly equal (in inflation–adjusted dollars) to the cost of a movie matinee in Boston today. To call a 19th-century talk "good entertainment" wasn't a putdown—entertain can also mean "to hold in mind" and that's what Mrs. Eddy and other speakers on Christian Science hoped listeners would do with the ideas they voiced.
Talent search
Mary Baker Eddy instinctively offered seekers a system of healing rather than a personal discoverer. Others, she felt, must be able to learn, prove for themselves, and re–present this body of spiritual laws. So Mrs. Eddy searched for students of Science and Health and the Bible who could carry the torch outward from Boston via their own lecture tours.
Given early students' modest understanding of her healing system, Mrs. Eddy may have realized early on that developing a lecture corps would take cultivation, a long–term talent search, and a lot of prayer. "I hope dear one," she wrote Clara Choate, "you will in the far future reach the place of teacher and lecturer. It is a humble solemn, earnest, unselfish, perfectly sincere place that we must arrive at before we can be fit to impart God's direct commands." L02473, Mary Baker Eddy to Clara E. Choate, August 1879, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection . A few years later, a CSA meeting's minutes noted that "Mrs. Eddy urged students to prepare for public speaking, it being quite an important adjunct to the practitioner's ability to heal." Christian Scientist Association minutes, February 14, 1883, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Heal first, then lecture
With this change in mind—to prepare for public speaking—rhetorical skills and stage presence would be necessities in a student's tool kit. The extensive correspondence between Mrs. Eddy and lecturers shows her emphasis on such elements as voice, eloquence, empathy, logic and clear reasoning, brevity, and simplicity. She wanted messages that avoided "confounding abstractions," L08535, Mary Baker Eddy to William G. Ewing, October 16, 1900. The Mary Baker Eddy Collection . that were malice–free and gentle toward other faiths.
What Mrs. Eddy felt best prepared someone for this particular kind of public speaking was experience in spiritual healing. The God who heals, and Christian healing itself, would be glowing abstractions if the speaker had not proved "the divine Principle" was practical. And the poise, perceptivity, and spontaneity required in giving prayer–based treatment would be vital in speakers' abilities to adapt messages to specific audience and moments, and to respond on the spot to listeners' questions.
Writing to Rev. George Tomkins, a former pastor and now a Christian Science lecturer, Mrs. Eddy praised a talk he had recently given as "par excellence"—reading it, she said, "moved me to tears of joy." V01624, Mary Baker Eddy to George Tomkins, December 1898, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection . After further thought, though, she wrote him again, emphasizing the importance of keeping his lectures simple. His daily practice of spiritual healing would be the best teacher in the lecture setting. "Your lecture that I praised showed ability and a knowledge of the Bible that touched me, hence my letter," she wrote. "But this is not what the public mind calls for just now. The people are hungry to know more of Christian Science. And our opposers are as earnest to keep them from enlightenment on this subject. It is simple solid teaching they need and great wisdom on the part of the lecturer not to give meat before the milk of the Word and to be gentle in the administration and ministry thereof. Experience is requisite first as healer then as teacher then lecturer." V01631, Mary Baker Eddy to George Tomkins, January 3, 1899, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Board of Lectureship launched
Seekers for truth ask questions. Mary Baker Eddy, as a public speaker, welcomed questions, valued dialogue as a learning method, delighted in lively exchanges, directly answered skeptics and critics. Multiplying public communication opportunities would come as Christian Scientists welcomed inquiry. In a letter to Rev. Irving Tomlinson, who would give the first lecture by a member of the Church's new board of public speakers, she wrote, "I suggest that you prepare a lecture with a view to giving it to the [newspaper] reporters and so make one answer for several places—Take the questions uppermost in the public mind and answer them systematically in Science." L03643, Mary Baker Eddy to lrving C. Tomlinson, September 12, 1898, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
By sending a new Church Manual By-Law to The Christian Science Board of Directors (see Manual sidebar, below), along with the names of five candidate lecturers, Mrs. Eddy launched The Christian Science Board of Lectureship. The step was announced in the February 1898 issue of the Journal.
"The church is the mouthpiece of Christian Science..." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 247. Mrs. Eddy wrote at another time. And now Christian Science—this system of spiritual healing—had a systematic public voice. The Mother Church would supply speakers, and branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, would sponsor them to benefit their communities. The Christian Science Board of Directors also was authorized to request lectures as needs arose, and later, sponsoring lectures in academic communities was made central to the purpose of Christian Science organizations at universities and colleges.
Lectures for the community
Many branch churches were at first hesitant to respond to the innovation. Sponsoring a lecture did demand going beyond the comfort zones of personal spiritual growth and worshiping together, to respond to a community's deeper needs and sometimes critical questions. Mrs. Eddy and her magazine editors persisted in explaining the value of lectures with a stream of messages, directives, and lecture reprints.
The first five lecturers included three former Protestant ministers—the Reverends George Tomkins and Irving Tomlinson, and a Presbyterian pastor from Canada, William McKenzie. Edward Kimball (a gifted speaker and former businessman from Chicago) and Carol Norton (a young, spiritually energetic New Yorker, and cousin of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) completed the starting lineup. A few months later, the first women lecturers were appointed: Annie Knott (a Scottish-American—see sidebar, p. 19) and Sue Harper Mims (a prominent southerner, from Atlanta). By 1902, the Board had 13 members and featured an additional former pastor, three men who had left medical or dental practices for Christian Science, and two lawyers who held the title of "Judge."
Introducing ...Science and Health
Although her ideas were firmly rooted in the Bible, it was the key to the Scriptures—Science and Health's explanation of the Bible's spiritual meaning and its healing effect in human lives—that Mrs. Eddy wanted to advance via the public speaking mission. Lecturers would be speaking, after all, in a world that was far more Bible-literate than is the case today. In the new Board's first year, she wrote to Tomlinson: "My moves are not mine but His that moveth me. I waited to have the Bible take precedence of your textbook till public thought was more enlightened as to it. This is why I request you[r] lectures to refer briefly but conclusively to this book and its author. These two points are where the enemy fire and direct strongest forces to break them down." L03645, Mary Baker Eddy to lrving C. Tomlinson, October 28, 1898, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
A decade earlier, replying to trusted aide and budding lecturer Alfred Farlow, she had said, "By all means lecture, and do all in your power for the prevention of error and the support of Truth." And in a postscript: "Introduce the book and that will help." L01575, Mary Baker Eddy to Alfred Farlow, July 25, 1887, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Introduce the ideas in Science and Health. Give milk before meat. Make simple, direct reference to Science and Health. But credit the source and author of the system being presented. To one lecturer she wrote, "The extracts from your lecture lack the pith of your proof; they are a Shakespeare without a Hamlet. You quoted from Emerson on a subject that Science and Health completely explains but you made no reference to your text book nor its author...." L08125, Mary Baker Eddy to Clarence Buskirk, June 18, 1904, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection . When she saw, though, that another lecturer had quoted extensively from Science and Health, she asked him to cease quoting a particular full page because it threatened her copyrighted work. "You have infinite Truth at your tongue's end in all your lectures—hence no lack of supply in thoughts and expression thereof." L05305, Mary Baker Eddy to Septimus J. Hanna, February 19, 1905, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
The discovery has a Discoverer
Critics' frequent abuses of Mary Baker Eddy's character and distortions of her ideas were an overt kind of challenge. Equally troubling, though, were the less obvious errors of omission and neglect committed by Christian Scientists. To Mrs. Eddy, there was a bright line between telling the truth about her character, which she urged, and personal glorification, which she tried mightily to stop. On a congratulatory note to Tomlinson after his first lecture, she added in one of her poignant postscripts, "...do not I beg ever again speak so much in my praise." L03640, Mary Baker Eddy to lrving C. Tomlinson, February 21, 1898, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection . And she once asked Kimball to "shorten in any lecture you give your comments on me, make them brief as possible to be eloquent...." L07606, Mary Baker Eddy to Edward A. Kimball, January 19, 1905, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection . At other times she counseled lecturers about over-using the terms Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science in their talks.
"...I see the wisdom of having in every lecture a proper reference to the Leader of our cause," she told Tomlinson. "No mention should be made of abuses [of her by critics] but a clear strong word said of the virtues (if she has them) which belong to the discoverer and founder of Christian Science and are requisite to carry our cause and that have carried it by the help of God out of darkness into light. Did man or did God commission her? Can God mistake? Go and do likewise etc." L03658, Mary Baker Eddy to lrving C. Tomlinson, September 14, 1899, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Laws have discoverers. Just as it would be at least dishonest to separate Newton from the law of gravity or Einstein from relativity theory, Mrs. Eddy saw that separating her name and nature from the laws of spiritual existence she discovered would diminish the system in the public's eyes. Hide the one who received the idea, and society loses a measure of the divine power that gave the idea. Keenly aware of an increasing need to counter distorted views of her character and achievements with facts about her life, Mrs. Eddy wrote to recently appointed lecturer and trusted colleague Septimus Hanna and his wife Camilla: "Keeping the truth of her real character before the public will help the students and do more than all else for our Cause. Christianity in its purity was lost by defaming and killing its early defenders. Do not let this period repeat that mistake. The truth in regard to your Leader heals the sick and saves the sinner. The lie has just the opposite effect and the evil one that leads all evil in this matter knows this more clearly than do the Christian Scientists in general." L05294, Mary Baker Eddy to Septimus J. and Camilla Hanna, October 13, 1902, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Audience: focus on inquirers in the public
Bearing testimony to the facts of Mary Baker Eddy's life was the second of two requirements placed on lecturers (see sidebar, p. 18). The first duty was to include "a true and just reply to public topics condemning Christian Science" Manual of The Mother Church, p. 93.—Christian Science not merely as a denomination, but as reborn Christianity and its healing outcome. And beyond intentional distortion of Christian Science, the form of condemnation that may have concerned Mrs. Eddy most was the public's ignorance of or lack of access to this body of transforming ideas. Addressing "public topics" would mean talking to public audiences, in public places.
A 1903 edition of a brochure about sponsoring lectures, designed for branch church use, covered a wide range of planning issues in single paragraphs. Mrs. Eddy apparently read and edited a copy proof. The paragraph headed "Benefits" originally read: "The lectures are given to reach the general public from the platform and through the local press. Their purpose is to leaven the community with a more correct and kindly thought in regard to Christian Science ..." The words "and kindly" are crossed out in pencil and in the margin is the note, " 'correct' gives the whole meaning and is not asking favors, Eddy."
Public venues
The brochure's section on publicity explained that "lectures are primarily to present Christian Science to the public, and should be given at such places as will best accommodate the people. When given in public auditoriums the event is of more general interest to the community." Ll3067, Christian Science Board of Lectureship, June 29, 1903, copy includes editing by Mary Baker Eddy, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection . An editor's note about lectures in an 1899 issue of the Journal judged that "in some cases nine-tenths of the audience will be composed of those who are either strangers or inquirers." The local church sponsoring a lecture, the article continued, "becomes an instrument for the propagation of the truth regarding Christian Science in the whole community." Journal, March 1899, p. 877 .
The concept was, and remains, an innovation in public communication. The parent church maintains a speaker's bureau; local churches can call for a professional lecturer from that board; and by holding the lecture, the church's surrounding public is in some measure freed from prejudice and misunderstanding about teachings that can help overcome community and personal challenges—that can benefit anyone who applies them.
Speakers without borders
In the Lecture Board's earliest years, lecturers were assigned to regions. Later, that restriction was lifted, though at times in the Board's history, regional approaches have been used. Relatively inexpensive and reliable railroad travel enabled lecturers to visit much of the US and Canada. The first lecture outside North America was held in Great Britain in 1899. A few years later, after lectures had been translated and printed in German, the lecture "Field" broadened to Europe. The first lecture in Africa was given by Dr. Francis Fluno, a former homeopathic physician, in 1909.
Listening and adaptation
No two audiences are the same. No two moments are the same. Effective public speaking, as well as lecture sponsorship, is as much about listening as it is speaking or organizational skills. Mary Baker Eddy instinctively listened for God's message for the moment; yet it was by hard-won experience that she learned to adapt it to an audience.
Accounts of her very first talks in the 1860s show that although hearers found her intellectually cultured, "...she reasoned so high above the ordinary plane upon which we stood that we failed to comprehend her meaning." Unidentified newspaper clipping quoted in Robert Peel, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Discovery (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1966), p. 178 . A decade later she faced often disorderly listeners and sharp queries in her parlor lectures, but she adapted, successfully answering question after question. One of her more celebrated public addresses was extemporaneous, given on short notice and with a few handwritten notes before an overflow crowd of 4,000 at Central Music Hall in Chicago in 1888. See " 'My remarks will be extemporaneous...' " The Magazine of The Mary Baker Eddy Library, Winter/Spring 2002, p. 14. The talk, "Science and the Senses," was published in Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings 1883—1896, pp. 98—106 .
Mrs. Eddy wrote to one student, "Every preacher of Christian Science should speak without notes. 'The heart must overflow / If thou another's heart wouldst reach.' I again admonish you to lay aside written discourses.... let God give you utterance, speak through you and to you and your hearers." L08507, Mary Baker Eddy to Ruth B. Ewing, February 23, 1894, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Speaking forward
The demand to adapt and respond to the public's searching questions would grow dramatically in the next decades. The 20th century's wars, epidemics, and litany of tragedies would cause millions to question the meaning of human life and God's existence. Major institutions, religion included, would lose credibility and support as the spiritual search turned private. Economic prosperity in the West and other regions would help create a cult of comfort.
Yet, in the first years of the 21st century, public demand for logical, practical, healthful spirituality—ultimately, for the Comforter that Jesus promised—has impelled increasingly accessible, flexible, creative, and compassionate response among lecturers. And the astounding revolution in communications has opened new and expansive means of delivering a saving message to those searching for truth.
Looking forward
These lectures are primarily to present Christian Science to the public, and should be given at such places as will accommodate the people. LI3067 .
From a 1903 Board of Lectureship pamphlet
Go with them—as Jesus did—a part of the way, and let them talk and then listen to what they are ready to hear. L03681, Mary Baker Eddy to Irving C. Tomlinson, June 21, 1899, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection .
Mary Baker Eddy
"Today, people are seeking information about spirituality that is useful and relevant to their every day lives. The members of the Board of Lectureship, who are professional speakers and spiritual healers, are answering this call with talks and workshops that introduce the practical ideas in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy."
That is what you will read when you go online to The Mother Church's web page for the Board of Lectureship (www.churchofchristscientist.org/lectureplanning). The statement is a clear indication of how Mary Baker Eddy's provision for communicating about Christian Science directly with the public is still healthy and active, more than 100 years after she first established this Board.
The web page intro continues, "Branch churches and societies can sponsor workshops, panel discussions, Internet events and live interactive talks for their communities." It lists examples of the wide range of venues where this year's roster of 54 speakers meet with people right where they are: at expos, conferences, interfaith forums, classrooms, medical schools and hospitals, prisons, drug and alcohol treatment centers, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes, and AIDS clinics, through interviews on live radio and television programs and live Internet events.
These lecturers also meet with people in African villages (see sidebar, p. 25)
The website itself is a major resource in enabling The Mother Church and its branches to work together in sponsoring a successful event for a specific audience or community. The site includes links to in depth information about the current lecture schedule and speakers. It provides access to Publicly Speaking, the newsletter that the Board of Lectureship issues every month, and a complete lecture planner—everything from how to identify an audience, topic, and format; choose a speaker; promote and publicize the lecture; and follow up after the event; to help from a media consultant and publicity coach.
A lecture is a message
In one place, the website says, "A Christian Science lecture is a message—a message of hope, comfort, and healing. It's a message that shows 'honest seekers for Truth' how to use the ideas Mrs. Eddy presented to them in the pages of Science and Health. As outlined in the Church Manual (page 93), lectures give 'a true and just reply to public topics condemning Christian Science' and tell the truth about the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy."
The Board of Lectureship Office underscores how global, community-specific, and practical this message is. Last year, 1,448 Christian Science lectures were held worldwide, reaching more than 38,000 newcomers who bought or received over 21,000 copies of Science and Health. Each lecture is unique. Topic, venue, audience demographic and size, cost, format—all these factors vary depending on the circumstances and needs of the local community. What meets the need of the public in Uganda may be different from what works in the UK. But whatever the venue, whatever the continent, the message is about Christian Science. And the message has beneficial, practical effects on participants' lives.
Practical effects
After attending a Christian Science lecture in Australia, one young woman confided, "There is something happening in my life right now, and I really needed healing with it. What you shared today has helped me to let go of the fear. I know that I will be healed."
Not far away, in New Zealand, a woman who organizes a cancer support group stood up and thanked the lecturer for the informal workshop she had conducted: "You have inspired us to watch our thinking more. We've slipped up in forgetting that we can take charge of our thinking and well-being. We need to put what we know into practice more. Your workshop has awakened us to be more expectant of wellness in our lives. You've given us hope."
And one young man with shining eyes, who sat beaming the whole way through a lecture workshop in Ireland, said afterward, "I can feel God's love all around me. I have never felt so loved before."
A Christian Science lecture changes people's lives. It transforms their thoughts, and as a consequence, transforms their minds and bodies. The ideas in a Christian Science lecture heal. In Zimbabwe, for example, a man bought a copy of Science and Health after a recent lecture. He phoned the publisher's representative to say, "The moment I got the book, the desire for alcohol left me completely."
Going where the demand is greatest
David Stevens is familiar with the practical effects of a Christian Science lecture. His series of workshops in Redlands, California, last year struck a deep chord.
Mr. Stevens gives the back story: "After a workshop-style lecture I gave on the subject of spiritual identity and teens in Redlands back in 2003, one woman left determined to help those in trouble in her community to know about their spiritual identity. Over the next few months, she spoke several times with her town's police chief and the judge who oversees the county's drug court program—a nationwide tough-love and life-skills program that is an alternative to a prison sentence.
"Although the issue of separation of church and state had to be considered, the program administrators acknowledged the need for addressing the topic of spirituality with their participants. I was brought into the conversation, and they became comfortable with the message I wanted to share of everyone's innate goodness, redeemability, and unseverable connection with God, or 'your higher power,' as the program puts it.
A series of workshops
"They arranged to present ten workshops on 'Spirituality and Self-Esteem' to participants, staff, and a group of parolees. We met in a small classroom and talked together about God, about the meaning of being a child of God, and about identifying ourselves that way. During our honest discussions, in which I shared passages from the Bible and Science and Health—and used real-life examples of lives transformed by God's love—I saw faces softened and hardened hearts melting. By the end of each session, there were sincere thanks, and even hugs and tears."
Of the 180 people in the workshops, says Stevens, about 130 took a copy of Science and Health, paying from 50 cents to $5, which went to the drug court fund. One man came back with his son to pay for the book. He told Stevens, "Now I know I can talk to God and be accepted. It's the same great feeling as the day I got custody of my son!"
Drug court statistics showed a significant reduction of dropouts and a remarkable increase in church attendance following the workshops. Susanne Pas tuchek, a probation officer, notes that "for the first time in seven years I noticed that fewer participants slipped over the Christmas holidays."
The impact was so real that Ms. Pastuchek asked Stevens to conduct another series with the drug court program this fall. Says Stevens, "It's all because of one person's inspiration—her good Samaritan spirit, her on-the-ground actions—to help some members of her community who are too often forgotten."
Public purpose
The goal of lectures from their inception, explains Christine Driessen, Manager of The Board of Lectureship, "isn't to be metaphysical talks for church members. It's to introduce people to the ideas of Christian Science in Science and Health and show them how to get started."
Science and Health is written for everybody, adds Ms. Driessen, including those in the medical profession, which is why the Board of Lectureship is now giving many talks in hospitals and medical schools.
Driessen continues, "Healthcare givers love this book. It shows them how to deal with fear and hopelessness. It gives them another approach to dealing with incurability. And they're looking for that. Some of these people have pointed out to me that matterbased treatment will always have a dual nature. Even though it may help, it will always have negative side effects; whereas the medicine Mary Baker Eddy introduces in Science and Health is the medicine of Mind, and that doesn't come with negative side effects. I'm finding that the medical profession is recognizing that, and wants to know more."
Workshops at expos
Driessen throws light on the power of a workshop to connect with people in concrete terms. "There are a lot of expos—Mind/Body/Spirit and alternative healing expos—that bring speakers in from all over the world and offer a wide variety of workshops for people who are either healers themselves or looking for healing," she says. "Branch churches often have Science and Health tables at these expos and offer a workshop about the book."
"In a workshop at one of these expos," she remembers, "there were about 70 people in the audience. Almost all of them were new to the book. One of the things we do in the workshop is get them started with Science and Health. For example, Mrs. Eddy gives the definition of man in Science and Health— a definition that encompasses everyone. Everybody who comes to a workshop-lecture gets a copy of Science and Health and a highlighter. So when we're talking about our identity, getting a sense of who they really are, we turn to pages 258 and 259. I might suggest, 'Choose one of the paragraphs and substitute your name, or the name of a loved one, or the name of one of your patients. Or maybe even substitute the name of someone you don't like so much. And read that paragraph and see if that doesn't change the way you think about that person.' "
How it applies to me
One of the people, a clinical psychologist, commented afterward: "When you said to substitute the name of one of my patients, I did that with a patient I've been working with for a long time and I've never been to able to help. But this time, when I substituted their name, I suddenly got a whole new view of them. It completely changed the way I looked at them. And I realized what I was doing wrong. I can't wait to get back and try the ideas in the book with my patients." And he bought an extra copy for a colleague.
No strings attached... "Go with them"
In line with Mary Baker Eddy's original vision, local lecture sponsors are shifting from seeing a lecture as "We're trying to get people into the church," to "We're trying to meet the needs of our community." It marks a shift to a focus on this central question: How can this lecture serve the interests of community members by relaying the powerful ideas in Science and Health?
In other words: No strings attached.
A Christian Science lecture is an expression of the good Samaritan spirit, the spirit of good neighborliness that Jesus urged on his followers. This spirit expects nothing in return, but is eager simply to respond to the community and, true to the spirit of Mrs. Eddy's counsel, "Go with them—as Jesus did—a part of the way, and let them talk and then listen to what they are ready to hear." lbid .
Follow-up to the lecture
But "no strings attached" doesn't mean dropping the ball when it comes to planning for follow-up. A lecture is not an isolated event. It's part of an ongoing dialogue and response to the demand for spiritual answers in one's community.
Many people leave a lecture wondering, "What I can do with what I've learned? Where do I go from here?" As more people in a community start to read Science and Health, they naturally want to connect with others who are also exploring its ideas.
New-reader discussion groups in the Reading Room are one way branch churches are doing this. E-mail correspondence with attendees or getting together over a meal can provide thoughtful support. Other forms of post-lecture care include prayers as the first step, together with informing new readers about the church services, the magazines (The Christian Science Journal, the Christian Science Sentinel, and The Herald of Christian Science) they can read and subscribe to, class instruction (where they can take a course on spiritual healing from an authorized teacher of Christian Science), and the 24/7 online community they can plug into at spirituality.com.
Clear the obstacles
A lecture event keeps the seeker's path cleared, says Karyn Mandan, a former manager of the Board of Lectureship who is currently co-managing the Church's communication activities. "I used to think of Mrs. Eddy's provision that lectures must be 'a true and just reply to public topics condemning Christian Science' p. 93. in a rather defensive way," says Ms. Mandan. "But now I realize that it is her selfless way of caring for the seeker—helping to answer their questions, to clear the obstacles in the path of the seeker."
And when this access is created and the misconceptions about Christian Science and its Founder are corrected, the result is sure: An atmosphere that revitalizes and heals, that redirects people's spiritual journeys—as countless Christian Science lecture attendees have experienced for over 100 years.
"The people are hungry"
Clearing obstacles in the spiritual seeker's path was central to Mary Baker Eddy's church design. And the Board of Lectureship is a crucial component in this design.
People are recognizing the potential of Science and Health, as evidenced by the many different groups asking for talks. Sometimes, it's other religions. Sometimes, it's drug and alcohol treatment centers, half-way houses, homes for abused women and children, prisons and juvenile detention centers, corporations and businesses—all of whom are looking for a spiritual approach to dealing with the stress and challenges of life.
Mrs. Eddy envisioned a world "hungry to know more of Christian Science," V01631 .—a world hungry for a correct understanding of Christian Science. Lectures satisfy this hunger. And they also give people a correct understanding of Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science.
In the December issue: The Committee on Publication
Historical images, except those credited otherwise, are courtesy of The Mary Baker Eddy Collection and/or are from the archive of The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity.
Current members of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship, page 14: Photos courtesy of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship.
All the historical documents mentioned in this article are available for viewing and reading in The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. Website: www.marybakereddylibrary.org.
