Q: I’ve been thinking about entering the healing practice, but we already have a dedicated practitioner in our church. So it doesn’t really seem like we need any more practitioners right now, and if I went into the practice, wouldn’t it also tend to deprive our current practitioner of her livelihood?
A: Whenever I think about the Church of Christ, Scientist, I think first of a church full of healers—full of practitioners of Christian Science. I don’t really think of a church where the people are divided into two groups: those who are “just” members in one category, and then a smaller group of those who are the “healers” in another category. For me, it all goes back to the founding purpose as reported in the Church Manual, when in 1879 a motion was passed: “To organize a church designed to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing” (p. 17).
That was it, from the beginning—a church designed to heal! And then, as you investigate it a bit further, you find that in the Manual whenever it speaks of the requirements, responsibilities, and privileges of church membership, Mrs. Eddy uses the word unite rather than join when referring to prospective members. That’s a significant distinction. To unite with a purpose and a movement is something fundamentally deeper than simply joining up with an organization. To unite essentially means “to become one or as if one”; and “to act in concert.”
How do members “act in concert”? Wouldn’t that surely include the practice of Christian healing—all of us seeing ourselves as healers, responding to the world’s need, bringing compassion and love to those who are struggling to find their way and get free of sickness, pain, and sin?
I’ve always been struck by a provision in the Manual, headed “No Monopoly.” It indicates how widespread Mrs. Eddy hoped the healing ministry would find its expression: “A Scientist shall not endeavor to monopolize the healing work in any church or locality, to the exclusion of others, but all who understand the teachings of Christian Science are privileged to enter into this holy work, and ‘by their fruits ye shall know them’ ” (p. 49). It doesn’t seem here that there was any sense that the more healers there might be in a church, the more limited would be the opportunities for healing.
Rather, wouldn’t a particular church be strengthened as each member united in its healing purpose? Wouldn’t that church—and its individual members—grow, progress, and prosper? The church would certainly become stronger, more vigorous, more vital to its community. And if that church previously had one of its devoted members advertising in the Journal as a full-time practitioner, could the healing work of other members possibly curtail that first one’s practice? Again, wouldn’t the converse be true? The more members who were engaged in the healing ministry, the more healing would be taking place—blessing all as it blesses one.
No one can possibly be deprived by a broader consecration to the healing work. And Mrs. Eddy reminds us of that very point: “God requires our whole heart, and He supplies within the wide channels of The Mother Church dutiful and sufficient occupation for all its members” (Church Manual, pp. 44-45).
It’s also helpful to remember that the healing practice is a ministry to all mankind. It was never intended solely for fellow church members. In every community, there are so many people who are seeking healing and comfort. The world is large, the need is large; and when our hearts are large, we will see that there is indeed “sufficient occupation” for each of us to see ourselves as healers.
And this is true no matter what else we might currently be engaged in. Whether we might be a schoolteacher, a farmer, a manager of the local grocery store, a homemaker, a flight attendant, a state senator—think of what it would mean to our world if every Christian Scientist in every walk of life considered himself or herself already engaged in the healing ministry of our church?
West Tisbury, Massachusetts, US
