1. Another important revision made in the Church Manual was the tacit change that was confirmed or instigated in 1953. The August issues of the Christian Science Journal listed specific requirements for Christian Science Societies.

2. According to the Board of Directors of the dissolved Mother Church, "there should be at least 10 to 12 members in a society, four of them to be members of the Mother Church. All connections with other denominations must be severed. There should be simple bylaws, regular services at a public location following the order of services given in the Church Manual, and the Readers must be members of the Mother Church. Wednesday meetings, a Sunday School, and a Reading Room are desirable, though not mandatory."

3. The Manual sets strict limits around the formation of a Christian Science Branch Church as we know it today, however it sets no restraints at all around the formation of a Christian Science Society. Any group of Christian Scientists, loyal to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and the Bible, who wish to form themselves into some sort of corporate body, may form a Christian Science Society free from all external restrictions.

4. An illuminating passage in Science and Health helps to confirm this. In answer to Jesus. question, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" (Mat. 16:13), Simon Bar-jona, or Simon son of Jonah, impetuously "replied for his brethren" thusly, "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Mat. 16:16).

5. Jesus commends him, and gives him a spiritual name in these words, "Thou art Peter; and upon this rock (petros) I will build my church..." (Mat. 16:18).

6. "In other words, [writes Mary Baker Eddy] Jesus purposed founding his society, not on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God power which lay behind Peter's confession of the true Messiah." (S&H 138).

7. In the Bible text, it is "I will build my church." In Science and Health, it is "Jesus purposed founding his society..." In Science and Health, the bible term "church" becomes the scientific term "society."