Is it ethical for Christian Science practitioner, or teacher, to share the healings from their practice with the public and with other Christian Scientists (at a church testimony meeting, for example), if the patient's name remains anonymous? Mary Baker Eddy stated in her Church Manual, "Members of this Church shall hold in sacred confidence all private communications made to them by their patients; also such information as may come to them by reason of their relation of practitioner to patient" (p. 46).—A READER IN FLORIDA, US
A1 Simply leaving off an individual's name but describing their healing in a public setting wouldn't appear to capture either the spirit or letter of holding "in sacred confidence all private communications" between patient and practitioner. At the same time, it would be a mistake to think that this high standard unfairly limits such sharing.
These private, holy communications between two people are best kept that way because it honors the purpose for which the practitioner and patient came together in the first place: to glorify God—not person—by bearing witness to the Truth. Such discretion helps keep egotism, as well as speculation, judgment, and rumor at bay, leaving the healing, when it is shared, to come through with the same purity as the patient-practitioner communion that gave rise to it.
