Suffolk Probate and Family Court, 24 New Chardon Street, Boston Massachusetts
02114
Case No. 07e0072
DAVID E. ROBINSON, et al, pro se______________________ Plaintiff v. CHRISTIAN
SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, et al______ Defendants
Exhibit XXX Nutshell Overview
1. The governing consideration of the Manual is that after Mrs. Eddy's demise
in 1910 no appointment involving Mrs. Eddy's approval or consent could be carried
out in accordance with the Manual, consequently the world-wide Mother Church ceased
to exist, and The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, continued
under its 1892 Deed of Trust.
2. The chief duty of its four Directors under
the Deed of Trust is to "maintain public worship in accordance with the doctrines
of Christian Science in said church" (para. 3, Man. 131) for which purpose "they
(only) are fully empowered to make any and all necessary rules and regulations."
3.
Presumably the Clerk and Treasurer would be members of the Board of Trustees itself,
as was the case in Mrs. Eddy's time, and two Readers and the offices and teachers
of the Sunday School should be all that would be necessary for that purpose.
4.
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston Massachusetts is to be a voluntary
association without members; for the congregation which shall worship in said church
shall be styled "The First Church of Christ, Scientist".
5. What's
more, The First Church of Christ, Scientist was not expected to continue indefinitely.
6.
Mrs. Eddy foreshadowed the time when it would be "inexpedient to maintain preaching,
reading, and speaking in said church in accordance with the terms of this [1892]
deed," after which the land and building were to be reconveyed to Mrs. Eddy's
assigns who would be the four directing Trustees that were to oversee her residuary
estate under her Will.
7. The four member Christian Science Board of Directors
were to outlive The First Church of Christ, Scientist itself, to administer Mrs.
Eddy's residuary estate.
8. No further Lecturers would be appointed. (Art.
31, Sect. 1). No further Teachers would be appointed. (Art. 28, Sect. 2). The Board
of Education would be closed (Art. 28, Sect. 4) and since the signature of the President
of the Board of Education is required on all certificates issued (Art. 30, Sect.
3), no certificates could be issued.
9. Once her supervision was removed,
Mrs. Eddy arranged for the cessation of all personal exposition of her teachings
under any official sanction of a headquarters, including that of the Christian Science
Publishing Society, which would be monitored by all Christian Scientists.
10.
"My published works are teachers and healers" (My 218); "You can well
afford to give me up, since you have my last revised edition of Science and Health
as you teacher and guide." (Misc. 136).
11. Christian Scientist should
turn to Mrs. Eddy's works alone for right instruction as to what Christian Science
really teaches.
12. "The practitioner...should teach his students..."
(My.364).
13. "The student who heals by teaching and teaches by healing,
will graduate under divine honors, which are the only appropriate seals of Christian
Science." (Misc. 315).
14. Every practitioner should teach, though not
necessarily in regular formal classes.
15. Mrs. Eddy allows "Christian
Scientists all over the world, who are letterly fit and specially spiritually fitted
for teachers, to teach three classes annually." (Misc. 315).
16. The
inference here is that Mrs. Eddy saw the need for personal instruction diminishing,
and it is possible that she might have eventually stopped personal instruction if
she had continued with us.
17. The disappearance of the Mother Church would
involve the disappearance of the Committee on Publication for the Mother Church.
The Committed on Publication is quite outside of the sphere of the duties assigned
to the four Directors by the 1892 Deed of Trust.
18. There could no longer
be a President of the Mother Church, and the annual meetings of the Mother Church
would cease.
19. "The editors and the manager of The Christian Science
Publishing Society" (Art. 1, Sect. 3) could not be elected by the Directors
under the Manual, for "the consent of the Pastor Emeritus given in her own handwriting"
is required for said election, nor under the 1892 Deed of Trust; they would therefore
be appointed by the Trustees of the Christian Science Publishing Society under para.
6 of the Publishing Society's 1898 Deed of Trust.
20. Trusteeships and Syndicates
can no longer be formed subject to the approval of the Pastor Emeritus. (Art. 1,
Sect. 8).
21. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
will maintain "a reading room." (Art. 21, Sect. 2). Although the maintaining
of a Reading Room is not included among the duties of the Directors in para. 3 of
their 1892 Deed of Trust, still the instruction in the Manual that "Each church
of the Christian Science denomination shall have a Reading Room. would authorize
this step, and justify the Directors in appointing a Librarian without obtaining
Mrs. Eddy's approval (Art. 21, Sect. 2).
To sum up the statements above.
22.
The Mother Church ceased to exist, and the membership and the five-member Christian
Science Board of Directors ceased to exist with it.
23. However the four-member
Christian Science Board of Directors continued to exist as Trustees under the 1892
Deed of Trust of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts.
24.
As such they would keep services going in the Extension of the original edifice of
the Mother Church, for which purpose they would elect a Clerk and a Treasurer from
their own number, and two Readers, and Officers and Teachers for the Sunday School,
from outside the Board; they would also appoint a Librarian for the local Reading
Room.
25. They could no longer appoint Lecturers or Teachers or a President
for annual meetings, which would cease to exist along with the world-wide material
Mother Church.
26. They would be the hosting body of the .congregation. that
is "styled" The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts,
only.
CSCourtCase.info, 96 Maine Street #108, Brunswick, Maine 04011