Christian Scientists around the world receive the sermon for the Sunday church service ahead of time—a full week in advance! Why is this? To my knowledge, this arrangement is unique among churches. Why did Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, provide for this? Why not listen to the sermon for the first time on Sunday? Or why not have a Bible Lesson followed by a related sermon with fresh texts?
A study of the Church Manual can help us understand this. The Manual of The Mother Church designates the weekly Bible Lesson published in the Christian Science Quarterly as the sermon to be read during Sunday services in branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, around the world (see p. 58). It also states, “The Readers of The Mother Church and of all its branch churches must devote a suitable portion of their time to preparation for the reading of the Sunday lesson,—a lesson on which the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends” (p. 31).
This could naturally apply not only to the Readers in churches but also to anyone reading the Lesson-Sermon. In other words, we too are participants in this!
