Community

Christian Science (the Church of Christ, Scientist)

Movement·Founded 1879 CE·The church does not publish membership figures and is forbidden to by its own Manual, Article VIII, Section 28. Independent estimates for the late twentieth century range from under 100,000 to several hundred thousand and are not reconcilable. What can be counted is public: practitioners and teachers listed in the Christian Science Journal in the United States fell from 4,965 in January 1971 to fewer than a thousand, and branch churches from roughly 1,800 to about 1,000.

Judaism → Christianity → Catholicism → Protestantism → Christian Science (the Church of Christ, Scientist)

who belongs, how you join, how it is organized

The Manual runs the church, and Eddy is still the only one who can amend it. The Manual of The Mother Church, last revised in 1910, contains estoppel clauses requiring Eddy's own written consent for certain actions — which, since her death, no one can obtain. The church is therefore governed by a document that cannot be changed, administered by a self-perpetuating five-member board. Go deeper — context & 1 source →