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.”
