Q) In the Church Manual by Mary Baker Eddy under “Discipline” is the By-Law, “The prayers in Christian Science churches shall be offered for the congregations collectively and exclusively” (p. 42). What are “the congregations collectively and exclusively”? Should I be praying only for those people who are congregating in the same edifice as I am? Or for congregations everywhere? How can I better understand what Mrs. Eddy had in mind when she wrote this? —A Reader in Massachusetts, US
A) This question is such a welcome one to me because it reveals a desire to understandingly comply with a By-Law promulgating Mary Baker Eddy’s intention for us to treat in-church time as “we time” and not “me time,” congregating in oneness of thought, purpose, and prayer. She called this powerful affection “the unity of good and bond of perfectness” (Retrospection and Introspection, p. 76).
Prayerful study of this By-Law can be done on a basis that’s proven invaluable for me: the language itself and its context.
The By-Law is between two others that address prayer. Preceding it is one calling for a “Daily Prayer” that includes an individual appeal to the Father for divinely empowered self-government, as well as the spiritual and moral progress of “all mankind.” The one following it directs members to “defend” themselves daily from aggressive mental suggestion. This energetic form of prayer consciously places one’s well-being in God’s hands and clears thought of mental cobwebs that dull our spiritual alertness and foster disobedience to good. So, in tandem, we have a By-Law urging our tender communion with God, good, for ourselves and our fellows; one that exhorts us to “feed the sheep” (which never excludes us), the beautiful and indispensable “we” of Christian worship; and another requiring our dutiful stand against all suggestions of un-good. All bases covered! Then, “exclusively” seems to call up the spirit of “one hour” of selfless prayer Jesus longed for his disciples to bring to Gethsemane in support of his holy struggle there. Awesome.
I love thinking of those uniting with any congregation through technology, like dial-in or the Internet, as taking steps to be with a specific group at a specific time, and so constituting a valid part of that assembly, or congregation. I was healed instantaneously of cold symptoms during a Wednesday evening testimony meeting I attended by speaker phone during a snow-in. I was “there!”
So, aren’t both the broader sense of congregations (plural, sharing mental and spiritual unity) and the near, even more objective sense of congregation (singular, sharing literal presence as well) embraced in this By-Law? Full obedience to it would bring a Pentecostal accord, lighting up our assemblies, and ensuring our churches’ advancement toward the day of the great congregation, when one righteous prayer, touching all receptive human hearts, “shall encircle and cement the human race” (Mary Baker Eddy, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 189).
Richmond, Virginia, US
