Q. I read with interest the article in the December issue of the Journal, “Our Turn to Go to NCC Headquarters.” Can you please explain why these visits are taking place? Is it because the Church of Christ, Scientist, would like to join the National Council of Churches, and if so, why?
—A reader in Idaho, US
Shirley Paulson, author of the article, “Our Turn to Go to NCC Headquarters,” replies:
A. As a Christian Scientist, I think often of Mary Baker Eddy’s love for Christianity and its promise for humanity. She was always a Christian, including after she discovered the Science of Christianity. She said she always loved the Church and never left it (see Message to The Mother Church for 1902, pp. 2–3). From remarks such as these, I understand that Christian Science has a profound relationship with the whole of Christianity.
Christian Scientists cannot fulfill the mission of Christian Science in isolation from the rest of the Christian world. There are numerous biblical references to the wholeness of the church that ask all those who consider themselves followers of Christ to break down the walls of division among us. For example, the New Revised Standard Version translation of Ephesians 2:14 reads, “For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”
The main reason we are getting to know each other, then, is to explore more specifically how Christian Science can participate more actively within the Christian community at large. We need to bear in mind that the other Christians within NCC are extremely different from each other, too. There are not two types of Christians: adherents of Christian Science and all the rest. Those who have already been engaged in ecumenical dialogue are working at finding the places to truly share in oneness with Christ, and how to discern and respect differences.
If Christian Science can be better perceived as a contributor to the Christian blessing for humanity, then it is good for everyone that we get to know each other better. There is no foregone conclusion about membership in NCC, either for or against it. The fact is that Christian Scientists are invited to serve on NCC Commissions without requiring membership in NCC, so at this time we are learning more about each other through this activity. NCC members are learning more about Christian Science in this conversation, and of course, as Christian Scientists we are learning how to remove ourselves from isolation.
