Every member of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and every member of a Christian Science branch church can heal. Indeed, every individual can heal themselves and others, since in truth, God is the only healer, and the capacity to demonstrate God’s power is inherent in our spiritual makeup as children of God—a capacity just waiting to be discovered and cultivated. The individual and collective healing work of its members constitutes the essence of The Church of Christ, Scientist. Whether in The Mother Church, a branch church, a Christian Science society, or a Christian Science organization at a university, healing is what propels the membership forward.
If healing were understood in the conventional way (for example, changing a bruised or injured foot to a normal-looking, functional foot), then healing any physical problem through prayer might seem daunting. Indeed, we might rip our clothes in distress, as the king of Israel did when he thought that it was he who was expected to be able to cure the Syrian army commander, Naaman, of leprosy (see II Kings 5:1–14). But an important part of Christian Science healing lies in how it conceives of the problem—not as essentially a material condition but as an untrue belief, a flawed perception that God’s creation might not be completely good and harmonious; a notion that discord is not only possible but even inevitable.
Christian Science healing takes place through revealing the allness of God and God’s good creation and the nothingness of anything unlike Him; and therefore the naturalness of harmony in all our experience, including in health.
