When we’ve experienced the life-transforming and healing power of Christian Science ourselves, we naturally desire to ensure that children and young people in our families, congregations, and communities have rich opportunities to learn about it in ways that will serve them throughout their lives. How can we provide the best Sunday School teaching possible?
In the Church Activities Department, we discuss questions like this amongst ourselves and with branch churches and societies throughout the world. We sometimes get requests for a Sunday School curriculum. Guidance for teaching Sunday School is laid out in the Church Manual by Mary Baker Eddy (see pp. 62–63). She did not prepare or, to our knowledge, want prepared a more detailed curriculum. In fact, a reminiscence from Frances T. Hill, whose husband, Calvin, was an early superintendent of The Mother Church Sunday School and consulted closely with Mrs. Eddy on Sunday School issues, includes this memory:
[Calvin Hill] asked Mrs. Eddy whether a book of instructions on Sunday School teaching should be prepared for the teachers. She said: No. There would be so many ideas about how to teach that the Church Manual would be lost sight of. She said: The Church Manual governs the Sunday School, not books concerning Sunday School teaching. (Frances T. Hill reminiscence, “Memorandum to the Christian Science Board of Directors,” p. 4, June 10, 1975; The Mary Baker Eddy Library, © The Mary Baker Eddy Collection)
