In June of this year, Annu Matthai presided over the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, welcoming church members across the globe with characteristic warmth and grace. And one couldn’t help but notice she was wearing a traditional sari from her native India.
Before Annu returned to Bangalore, where she resides and teaches Christian Science, the Journal had the privilege of speaking with the new President of The Mother Church. The interview resulted in a wide-ranging discussion focusing on Annu’s introduction to Christian Science, as well as subjects that she has prayed deeply about and are close to her heart.
Annu, let me first say, you are truly a citizen of the world!
Well, I think my life experiences have demanded that I develop a more inclusive and global outlook. I grew up in India, mingling with a variety of people whose languages, traditions, and even foods were different from mine. Then my husband’s work not only took our family to live in different countries, but it also gave us the opportunity to interact with people of many nationalities.
I learned to look beyond the human trappings of language, culture, nationality, or tradition to the way God sees each of His children. To recognize each one’s spiritual individuality as the unique expression of God’s nature. I found so many opportunities to put into practice what I was learning about man’s true identity through my study of Christian Science.
And, of course, wherever you went you had your Pastor with you.
Yes, I did! I was so grateful that in every city we lived, there was a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, or Christian Science Society. And in each place, when I attended a service for the first time, I felt so reassured because I was familiar with the Pastor—the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. I knew that same Pastor was the one all Christian Scientists were hearing from in their churches and societies around the world. It didn’t matter that the Bible Lesson-Sermon from that Pastor was in an unfamiliar language. The message was the same.
This Pastor preaches that there is not a God of this religion, or of that religion, or a God of a certain tradition. There is only one all-powerful, all-loving God, a God who is incorporeal, omnipresent Spirit. This God is not confined or defined by human traditions. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health, “The everlasting I AM is not bounded nor compressed within the narrow limits of physical humanity, nor can He be understood aright through mortal concepts” (p. 256).
This true concept of God as infinite Spirit, infinite Love—“confined to no spot, defined by no dogma, appropriated by no sect” (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 150)—is what I learned when I was introduced to Christian Science.
Was this in college?
It was soon after college, after I just started working in Mumbai (then Bombay). A friend invited me to a Wednesday testimony meeting at the church there. She had recently started studying Christian Science, and had had some really wonderful physical healings. I was not looking for healing, for a religion, or for God. I was perfectly happy with my life! But I went to the meeting anyway, and continued going to the church services. It was not until almost a year later that I realized that this teaching had become a part of me, and that I had started to apply what I was learning in different situations. And the result was healing.
Sometimes when I had questions I would call a Christian Science practitioner, who would always encourage me to go directly to our Pastor for answers. I gained a quiet conviction of the effectiveness of prayer. But it took me a while to become a member of the Church, because I was afraid of breaking with tradition and culture.
Meaning the culture and religious tradition you had been raised in?
Yes. Although Christians make up only about 2 percent of the population in India, my family had been very much a part of the Orthodox Christian Church. I loved going to church, enjoyed reading the Bible, and felt a spiritual connection with God. But when I started studying Science and Health, I found that it opened up the Bible for me in a very meaningful way. I learned to look for the spiritual meaning of Bible passages and stories and their relevance to my own experience.
Where did this lead you?
I began to think more about true worship being spiritual, without a need for material methods to enhance it. As part of our religious tradition our family used to fast during Lent, the period before Easter. But when I started studying Christian Science, I began to ask myself, “What is fasting, really?” I found the answer in Jesus’ reply to his disciples when they asked why their prayers were unable to heal a man’s son of epilepsy (see Matthew 17:14–21). Jesus explained to them, “This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” But he did not initiate a fast. Mrs. Eddy writes: “Merely to abstain from eating was not sufficient to meet his demand. The animus of his saying was: Silence appetites, passion, and all that wars against Spirit and spiritual power. The fact that he healed the sick man without the observance of a material fast confirms this conclusion” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 339–340).
I realized that fasting was really abstaining from anger and selfishness and hate, and all of the appetites and passions of the mortal senses. That is what I needed to do, not just on some days, but every day. If I didn’t fast in the traditional sense, it was not a big deal. The big deal was what was I doing every day of my life—was I being unselfish? Forgiving? Was I loving my enemies?
Even so, as Good Friday approached, I did struggle with thoughts of guilt and doubt before I was able to let go of the tradition.
These are questions about Christian practice that all of us could be asking ourselves.
If we are not alert, our spiritual practices can turn into mere ritual; whereas, they should help us grow in our understanding of God. Is our prayer a mindless repetition of words or a time of deep communion with God? The same is true when reading the Christian Science Bible Lesson. Are we really studying our Bible Lesson each day or simply reading through it? Are we listening for the fresh inspiration, each day, that heals?
Annu, at some point you made the decision not just to continue studying Christian Science, but to join The First Church of Christ, Scientist. What motivated this decision?
I felt very sure that I wanted to commit to growing in my understanding of God in the way Christian Science teaches. And membership in The Mother Church would be an important step in this direction. I would of course have to give up my membership in the Orthodox Church, and I was very fearful about taking this step. I thought, “What will my family think? What will they say? Will they be hurt?”
I think being President means watching over Mary Baker Eddy’s Church with prayer.
But I knew that this was a right desire and fear could not stand in my way. In my prayer, I really stayed with this idea in Science and Health: “Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds” (p. 1).
Looking back, I realize that what most needed molding and exalting was the concept of self and family. I had to stop identifying myself through the lens of culture and tradition to learn more about my true identity as a wholly spiritual idea of divine Love. The human sense of family, as mortal personalities whose relationships may or may not be harmonious, had to give way to the spiritual concept of family with God as the divine Parent of all. It was my relationship to God, my Father-Mother, that was of primary importance.
And the desire for church membership was really a commitment to learning more about God. I couldn’t lose anything good by doing this. When we put God first, everything else falls into place.
And it makes sense that every step of spiritual progress has to be a blessing not only to us, but to our families.
Yes. But we need to know this. I think my family recognized what Christian Science had done for me; they knew of some of the healings I’d had. But I kept delaying telling my dad about my decision to join the Church because I thought he would react very badly. The wonderful thing is that when I did tell him, he said, “God bless you.” That has always been a wonderful lesson to me.
I love that statement in Science and Health that speaks to the issue of family harmony and explains that Christian Science promotes affection in families; it doesn’t break them up, or hurt them, or deprive anyone of anything good. It says, “Christian Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore in the community” (pp. 102–103). That’s what Christian Science does—it strips away the evils of discord, opposition, and friction of power and influence with the truth that God is the only Mind, governing His creation harmoniously.
How did you find this to be true when you were raising your own family?
Prior to getting married, I had told my husband that I had started studying Christian Science. But he didn’t really know very much about it. So when he realized that I preferred to pray about physical problems rather than take medicine, he was very upset, as was his family. They became very opposed to Christian Science. I was rather taken aback by their reaction because it had never occurred to me that I was giving up medicine. It was simply that my trust in God’s ability to do all things was growing. And it became more and more natural for me to turn to Him for healing, and there was healing. So there was no need for me to use medicines.
I knew that whatever I said in defense of Christian Science was not going to help. That’s when a thought came very clearly: “You have to let your light shine” (see Matthew 5:16). That angel message turned out to be a very practical solution. I stopped talking to my husband about Christian Science. Instead I focused on studying it and applying what I was learning to any problems that came up in my day-to-day life.
The result was that over the course of several months, my husband became supportive of my practice of Christian Science. In fact, after our children were born, he would even come home early from work so that I could go to church on Wednesday evenings.
It sounds as if “Let your light shine” was just the message you needed to hear.
That’s the wonderful thing about Christian Science. We learn that God is always speaking to us. The Christ, the divine message from God, always has a message that’s tailor-made for us—in the language of Spirit, which everyone can hear and understand.
The interesting thing is, after a while, my husband started asking me to pray for him. The first time he asked me, I said, “Great, I’ll call a Christian Science practitioner.” And he said, “No. If what you say is true, you should be able to pray for me.” That made me think: “Do I really believe prayer is effective in all situations? If so, why could I not pray for my husband?”
That was, I think, the beginning of an understanding that you cannot be a Christian Scientist and not pray for others—for your family, and for the world. Mrs. Eddy says: “The heart that beats mostly for self is seldom alight with love. To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 160).
Of course, this is what Jesus devoted his life to doing—praying for and healing others.
Yes. And we need to follow in the way Jesus mapped out—we must love our enemies and our neighbors, be honest, and seek the kingdom of heaven. But that’s not enough. We must follow all of Jesus’ examples. He healed the sick, the sinners; he calmed a storm; he fed multitudes.
And Jesus did these works by challenging many of the traditions of his day, including traditional beliefs about health and a matter-based approach to curing disease.
But we often accept, without thinking, these health beliefs. For instance, the beliefs associated with the weather, such as that certain kinds of weather can make you sick. We should ask ourselves: “Why should this be so? Is this what God is telling me?”
What are some other traditional views that you see Christian Science effectively challenging and healing?
I would say, the common practice of seeing a world divided by “haves and have-nots.” Accepting a traditional mortal view of a “developed” world and a “developing” world would be to agree that evil in the form of a lack of resources is part of someone’s experience. That would undermine our practice of Christian Science, which is based on the allness of God, good, leaving no place for evil. God’s laws lovingly govern the whole universe and provide for every one of His children. They are fully satisfied, having everything they need from God.
If we want to heal and save the world, which is our aim as Christian Scientists, we have to let go of material viewpoints and be transformed by Spirit. We can’t conform to mortal mind’s ways of thinking, and give in to the beliefs it promotes. One such example is the suggestion that people in some parts of the world can’t afford to buy Science and Health or to subscribe to the Bible Lessons or the Christian Science periodicals. Let’s stop agreeing with this suggestion. Instead, let’s support others by affirming that it is a privilege everyone can afford (see Mary Baker Eddy, Church Manual, p. 44). I’ve seen wonderful results from holding to this right idea of man.
The Apostle Paul talks about the need for a change from a limited, mortal basis of thinking to an unlimited, spiritual basis when he says, “Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:2). Eugene Peterson’s The Message puts it this way: “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.” Fixing our attention on God, listening for Mind’s pure ideas—this renews and transforms thought.
What about traditional views regarding women? Mrs. Eddy certainly challenged them, breaking through the proverbial glass ceiling of her day by founding a church, writing her textbook, Science and Health, as well as establishing this magazine and her other periodicals.
All over the world there is much discussion about the role of women. The traditional view, commonly accepted in some parts of the world, is that women are weaker than men. But Mrs. Eddy’s discovery, Christian Science, gives us the wonderful understanding that each one of us is the compound idea of God and includes masculine qualities such as strength, courage, confidence, as well as feminine qualities such as gentleness, compassion, and grace.
This is such a freeing concept for both men and women, enabling every individual to reach her or his full potential. It also provides a strong basis for marriage as a union of two whole, complete individuals, challenging the traditional view of marriage as two halves making a whole. Science and Health explains that man and woman are “unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle” (p. 588).
Annu, what does it mean to be President of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, founded by Mary Baker Eddy?
It’s a great privilege to be able to serve our Church in this capacity. Contrary to what people may think, the President is not involved in the governance of the Church. That is a function of the Christian Science Board of Directors.
In thinking about the Presidency, it was very helpful to find that preside originates in the Latin præsidēre, meaning “to watch over.” So I think being President means watching over Mary Baker Eddy’s Church with prayer. Yes, presiding at Annual Meeting is a visible part of being President. But more important is daily prayer for The Mother Church, for its officers, for the worldwide Christian Science movement, for the Cause of Christian Science—prayer for the growth and progress of Church safely held under God’s wing so it can fulfill its healing purpose.
I know others, too, are joining in prayer for Church, and I look forward to seeing the results of our collective prayer.
