Do you expect to experience healing at Christian Science church services? An early writer for the Christian Science Sentinel tells us, “Mrs. Eddy once said to a student that she longed for the day to come when no one could enter a Christian Science church, no matter how sick or how sorrowing that one might be, without being healed, and that this day can come only when every member of the church studies and demonstrates the truth contained in the Lesson-Sermon, and takes with him to the service the consciousness thus prepared” (Florence C. Boyd, “Healing the Multitudes,” July 1, 1916). Following the example of Christ Jesus, who healed those who gathered around him wherever he preached, Mrs. Eddy herself demonstrated the power of the Word to heal (see Yvonne Caché von Fettweis and Robert Townsend Warneck, Mary Baker Eddy: Christian Healer, Amplified Edition, pp. 119–122 and 149–151, for example).
Some years ago, as a newly elected First Reader, whose job it would be to conduct Sunday services and Wednesday testimony meetings in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I eagerly prepared readings prior to the beginning of my term. The goal was to have healing services as Mrs. Eddy had expected. Interestingly, shortly after the election, the clerk of that branch church sent a letter to members asking them to pray for, and expect, healing at both the Sunday services and the Wednesday testimony meetings.
The congregation witnessed this woman arriving in considerable discomfort and leaving with complete freedom an hour later.
My term began, and I read with plenty of joy and enthusiasm. But after six months there had not been, to my knowledge, a healing at any service. Reaching out to God, divine Love, in prayer for an answer, I realized that although my motive was a sincere one, I was trying to make healing services happen myself. Immediately, I resolved to give up this self-centered approach and listen to God. Doing this, I began to hear God, divine Mind, speaking to me with key words to build the Wednesday evening readings around. This resulted in more logical and focused readings at our midweek meetings, where congregants share testimonies of healing.
On one particular Wednesday, just as the meeting was about to begin, the devoted clerk of that church arrived and slowly, in apparent great discomfort, made her way down the aisle, leaning on each pew for support until she found an empty one. She did not stand to sing the first hymn.
However, the meeting continued with readings from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, and when the second hymn began, this woman jumped up and sang! And when the service was opened up for the sharing of testimonies of healing, she stood up immediately.
The clerk recounted how she had been hurrying into her house to get ready for church, and had smashed her foot against a solid object in the garage—possibly a cinder block. This had caused great pain in one foot, so much so that she had debated whether she should attend the meeting. She’d felt impelled to go, however, and had made the twenty-minute drive. While listening to the readings, she’d experienced a change of thought—that is, she’d glimpsed something of Truth, God, from the spiritual ideas being shared—and had been healed. Interestingly, the topic of the readings that evening was on what feet represent spiritually. The congregation had witnessed this woman arriving in considerable discomfort, and saw her leaving with complete freedom an hour later.
The same Christ-power, the same healing Truth, that Jesus embodied and Mrs. Eddy discovered to be ever present is also here with us today.
On another Wednesday evening, a woman arrived at the meeting sheltering one arm. Her husband lovingly held a hymnal for her. After the readings were over and the testimony portion of the meeting began, she was the first person to stand. She, too, testified that listening to the readings had brought about a shift in her thinking, and the lame arm was no longer lame. She demonstrated her newly regained mobility by enthusiastically moving the arm around in many directions. This, too, was seen by all those present. Other healings at services in that branch church followed, and some congregants said that this made them feel supported in working out various issues through Christian Science.
Why are healings like these taking place in Christian Science churches today as they were among the early Christians and in Mrs. Eddy’s day? Because the same Christ-power, the same healing Truth, that Jesus embodied and Mrs. Eddy discovered to be ever present and ever active, is also here with us today. The Bible says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Let’s attend Sunday services and Wednesday testimony meetings with the expectation that we and others will be healed! Not only is it possible; it is happening worldwide, as testimonies in the Christian Science periodicals attest.
