Case No. 07e0072

DAVID E. ROBINSON, et al, pro se______________________
Plaintiff
v.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, et al______
Defendants

1. While the Great Litigation of 1919-1921 was under way, the Christian Science Board of Directors by a resolution, established a Committee of seven prominent, supposedly impartial, Christian Scientists to be called the Committee on General Welfare, to report to the members of .the Mother Church. on the general welfare of the Church.

It is hereby resolved by the Christian Science Board of Directors, under Article 1, Section 8, of our Church Manual, which provides for the formation of Syndicates, that a Syndicate shall be formed to be called the Committee on General Welfare, to be composed of seven members of The Mother Church, and to continue its duties until the next annual Meeting of the Church. For this Committee, the Readers of the branch churches in each of the following named cities shall meet and elect one member, and the seven members thus chosen shall constitute the Committee on General Welfare.

"...The Committee on General Welfare shall have power to make such inquiries into the affairs of
The Mother Church as the Committee may decide."

"...all members of The Mother Church may communicate with the Committee freely."

2. Mindful of the grave responsibilities intrusted to its care, and grateful for the exceptional opportunity to render service to the Cause, the Committee on General Welfare presented the following statements - among others - of its findings to the members of the Mother Church.

3. Nearly ten years before Mrs. Eddy passed on, she had provided for her successor...when she said in Miscellany (My. p.347), "What remains to lead on the centuries and reveal my successor, is man in the image and likeness of the Father-Mother God, man, the generic term for mankind.....wherein and whereby man governed by his creator is self-governed." (Misc. p.254).

4. ...each member of the church is intended to be self-governed, and is subject to discipline only so far as he "shall depart from the Tenets and be found having the name without the life of a Christian Scientist." (Man. Art. 11, Sec. 1).

5. The legal right of The Mother Church, through its Directors, to exercise supervisory control of the Christian Science periodicals is a question to be decided by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts." [This is not true; it should read, "to remove a trustee of the Christian Science Publishing Society for cause."]

6. There is a sentiment in the Christian Science Field that the passing of Mrs. Eddy did not automatically vest all of the authority of the government of the church in the Christian Science Board of Directors, but that those reservations of authority retained by Mrs. Eddy for herself, passed legitimately to her successor as named in her statement of page 347 of Miscellany where she refers to "man in the image and likeness of the Father-Mother God, man, the generic term for mankind. as her successor."

7. ...the government of the Church, to be sure, must, as our Leader has declared, be administered by the common consent of the governed. (Misc. 254).

8. The Mother Church is the most democratic organization on earth, and cannot be
said to be administered in any other way than by the consent of the governed.

9. To the Committee on General Welfare, the present recognition of Mrs. Eddy's successor
is of paramount importance because it supplies that potential authority without which neither
the spiritual nor the business affairs of the Church can be properly administered.

10. ...the spiritualizing influence exerted by Mrs. Eddy's teachings upon the general
human consciousness constitutes an immeasurable moral force springing from the individual demonstration
of that true nature of man[kind] which is in fact Mrs. Eddy's successor, and which is
entitled to recognition as the great impersonal Leader of the Christian Science movement.

11. ...under Mrs. Eddy's personal leadership the Church government was administered
by a board of five directors, each of whom was the director of a particular branch or department
of the Church's vital affairs.

12. One member, for example, directed in person the editorial policy of all the Christian
Science periodicals, including the Monitor; another director the publication and circulation of
Mrs. Eddy's works; still another directed the treasury and was responsible for all funds, while
another directed the correspondence of the Church and kept all records and important documents.
The remaining member [director] directed the affairs of the local reading rooms and was individually
responsible for other special duties connected with the Church.

13. These five directors when duly assembled in meeting, subject to Mrs. Eddy's
leadership, were then both in name and in fact the Christian Science Board of Directors of The
Mother Church.

14. The Report of the impartial Committee on General Welfare included several revealing letters
of contention between the Committee on General Welfare and the Trustees of the Publishing Society, resulting
from the Committee.s request to have the trustees furnish it...

"...with a complete list of all the departments and activities of the Publishing Society; the names
of persons in charge or at the head of same; their functions and salaries, together with the number
of employees under them. The Committee also requests a complete statement of the assets, liabilities
and finances of your society."

15. In a letter to the trustees, their counsel, Sherman Whipple, advised them that the Committee is...

"...doubtless aware that there is now pending in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts a
proceeding which has for its object to determine and define the status of the Publishing Society in
the great Christian Science movement and the relation of the Society to the officers of The Mother
Church.

.This committee has been made up, I am informed, at the instance of the Board of Directors of
The Mother Church, since the date when your proceeding against the directors were instituted.
.This act itself on the part of the Board of Directors might well be considered as reflecting a
purpose to supercede the investigation of the court by a body selected at their own suggestion from
persons who are subject to their influence, and whose salaries and other expenses are to be paid, if
at all, by the directors from the funds of The Mother Church.

.Such a proceeding by the directors in a sense is in and of itself a denial and refutation of the
claim of the trustees of the Publishing Society which they have asked the courts to adjudicate.
.This request of a committee acting at the instance of the directors is another step in the same
direction. An investigation by this committee of the Publishing Society, and a report by them upon
its affairs, and involving its relations to The Mother Church, might well be considered as supersed4
ing or possibly attempting to refute the report of the tribunal which has this whole matter under
consideration.

.Of course you will readily recognize that proper respect for the court requires that no such
thing should happen..

.They assume that the affairs of the Publishing Society are a departmental .activity of The
Mother Church,. which is the very point to be decided in the pending litigation....
.I advise that you inform the committee of this view of the situation..

16. In the trustees final letter to the Committee on General Welfare, Herbert W. Eustance, Secretary of
the Publishing Society, simply stated that:
.The rightful appreciation of the proper regard for the dignity of the Supreme Judicial Court of
Massachusetts, before whom the respective irresponsibilities of the Board of Directors and the
Board of Trustees are being now adjudicated, demands that there shall be no attempt, either directly
or indirectly, in the slightest degree to pre-judge the decisions of that court..

17. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts did not give The Mother Church, through its Directors,
the legal right to exercise supervisory control of the Christian Science periodicals. The court simply decided
that the Board of Directors of The Mother Church could remove a trustee of the Christian Science Publishing
Society, as a disciplinary action, for cause.

18. The court did not give the Directors the right to control the Christian Science periodicals . the
court simply dismissed the trustees. suit