Occasionally, members, churches, societies, and associations contact The Mother Church about requests from people in the Field for financial assistance or donations. These solicitations may come via email, include photos of what is conveyed as a Christian Science church or Reading Room, and request funds to do things such as the following:
In some cases, wonderful work is indeed being done, but over the decades, the Church has issued warnings about illegitimate schemes imposed upon the Field, and the following notice from the June 28, 1958, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel offers sound advice still:
Personal appeals for money or other charitable aid are not always genuine. Every such appeal made to a Christian Scientist should be carefully investigated before responding to it. From time to time we receive reports of disappointing experiences which have occurred through a disregard of this precaution. By carefully verifying appeals of this kind before acting on them, the alert Christian Scientist is safeguarded from the plausible pleas of the impostor and the unworthy and is better able to bestow his charitable gifts with wisdom and discretion. More than this, he is helping to make the activity of the impostor less profitable.
