About Christian Science

“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils:
freely ye have received, freely give.”

Christ Jesus

Our Savior and Way-shower, Christ Jesus, gave the above command to his disciples as he sent them out to preach the gospel and to heal. Later he assured his followers saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. (John 14: 12)

Christian Science is both a religion and a Bible-based system of spiritual healing. It is practiced daily in the lives of its adherents. Mary Baker Eddy defines it “As the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of universal harmony.” (Rudimental and Divine Science. 1:2)

Mrs. Eddy discovered this Science in 1866, after a life-long search as to how Christ Jesus healed. After her discovery, she healed others and began writing down the inspired ideas that came to her through her deep study of the Bible. This resulted in the publishing of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures in 1875.

In 1879, Mrs. Eddy established The First Church of Christ, Scientist designed to “…commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.” (Manual 17:10)

Today our members are demonstrating the Christ through healings of all kinds of problems, including physical, moral, financial and social.  This church provides support for the spiritual growth of its members and the community through its church services, Sunday School, Reading Room, lectures and other outreach activities.

Mary Baker Eddy was born into a deeply religious family and was a member of a Congregational Church. She had a deep love for God and found comfort in the Bible throughout her life. However, she struggled with many physical, emotional and financial hardships. She pursued the medical and homeopathic treatments of her time to find relief, but none of these proved to be permanent. Then in 1866, she suffered a severe fall on the ice. She was attended by caring physicians and friends, but she continued to worsen. It was in this dire condition that she again turned to God in prayer. In her own words:

“On the third day thereafter, I called for my Bible, and opened it at Matthew ix. 2. As I read, the healing Truth dawned upon my sense; and the result was that I rose, dressed myself, and ever after was in better health than I had before enjoyed. That short experience included a glimpse of the great fact that I have since tried to make plain to others, namely, Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of existence.”  (Miscellaneous Writings 24:10-18)

Mrs. Eddy then began a three-year deep search of the Bible to understand more fully this divine revelation of Truth that had healed her. Her spiritual growth and application of the truths that she was learning enabled her to heal others and teach others to heal. Out of her great love for mankind, she wrote these groundbreaking truths in a textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She then devoted the next 44 years of her life to establishing a Church to share this discovery with the world.

She was President and founder of a teaching college, the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, which continues to prepare teachers of Christian Science.  She founded the Christian Science Publishing Society whose products include numerous books and magazines including the weekly “Christian Science Sentinel”, the monthly “Christian Science Journal” and the “Quarterly Bible Lessons”.  In 1908, she established the Pulitzer Prize-winning, international daily newspaper “The Christian Science Monitor”.

Late in her life, “Human Life” magazine described her as “the most famous, interesting and powerful woman in America, if not in the world, today.” In the 21st Century she continues to be recognized and appreciated as Discoverer, Author, Founder, and Leader of a worldwide movement of Christian healers blessing the world.

Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science in 1866 after years of searching the Scriptures to find answers to Christ Jesus’ healing method.  As early as 1862 she began writing down and giving to friends the results of her Scriptural study. These first notes, she explains, ”were crude,-- the first steps of a child in the newly discovered world of Spirit.”  (Science and Health vii: 31-32.)  Her healing from a near fatal fall on the ice revealed to her the ever-present law of God, available to heal today, as in Jesus’ day.

About the year 1969 Mrs. Eddy healed a patient who was pronounced dying of pneumonia.  Mrs. Eddy later recalled:

"Her physician, who stood by her bedside, declared that she could not live. On seeing her immediately restored by me without material aid, he asked earnestly if I had a work describing my system of healing. When answered in the negative, he urged me immediately to write a book which should explain to the world my curative system of metaphysics."  (My 105: 22-28)

The first edition of Science and Health was published in 1875. Mrs. Eddy writes, “The author has not compromised conscience to suit the general drift of thought, but has bluntly and honestly given the text of Truth.” (S&H x:11-13) She continued to revise Science and Health for over 40 years in order to make the Science of Life and Love clearer. Today, one hundred and thirty three years and hundreds of thousands of testimonies of healing later, the reading and studying of this book continues to bring healing to earnest students of this Science. Millions of copies have been sold. The book has been translated into 16 languages and has blessed individuals and families the world over.

Science and Health is available to read, borrow, or purchase at our Christian Science Reading Room.

“Your dual and impersonal pastor, the Bible, and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," is with you; and the Life these give, the Truth they illustrate, the Love they demonstrate, is the great Shepherd that feedeth my flock, and leadeth them "beside the still waters."

Mary Baker Eddy

Readers are elected from the membership to read from our pastor the Bible and Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. On Sunday morning, prior to beginning the Lesson-Sermon the following is read:

Friends:

“The Bible and the Christian Science textbook are our only preachers.
We shall now read Scriptural texts, and their correlative passages from our denominational textbook: these comprise our sermon.

The canonical writings, together with the word of our textbook, corroborating and explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual import and application to all ages, past, present and future, constitute a sermon undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized.”

1. "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our  sufficient guide to eternal Life.
   
   
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness.
   
   
3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the
   spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is
   punished so long as the belief lasts.
   
   
4.  We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
   
   
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
   
   
6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure. "

Mary Baker Eddy

The Weekly Bible lesson is published in  Quarterly publications. The lesson subjects were chosen by the Founder of our church, Mary Baker Eddy.  They repeat twice a year. Students all over the world study the same Bible Lesson. This lesson is then read on Sunday as the sermon for all Christian Science churches, Societies, and informal groups of Christian Scientists.

The purpose of the lesson sermon is to provide a framework to ponder these specific subjects and to elevate thought to spiritual understanding. In daily study, the students of Christian Science learn to apply the truths Jesus taught to their life and experience the healings this understanding brings. 

Mrs. Eddy also provided for the fresh sharing of insight and healing by establishing the Christian Science Publishing Society.This organization publishes “The Christian Science Sentinel”, a weekly publication that provides articles of a topical nature. ”The Christian Science Journal”, a monthly periodical which focuses on a specific subject in more depth and includes a list of all the Christian Science Churches, Reading Rooms, Christian Science Practitioners and Christian Science Nurses worldwide. “The Herald of Christian Science” is a monthly periodical printed in various languages, containing inspirational articles on Christian Science. “The Christian Science Monitor” a Pulitzer Prize winning international daily newspaper is published to “injure no man and to bless all mankind”. You may purchase and read all lesson sermons and periodicals in our Christian Science Reading Rooms.

Throughout the year our church sponsors lectures on Christian Science in the community. The speakers are members of the Christian Science Board of Lectureship and give talks on a variety of subjects. The purpose of these lectures is to explain the application of Christian Science to daily life and to give a true account of the life and works of Mary Baker Eddy. Lectures explore topics of current interest and provide fresh insight and inspiration as to the healing power of the Christ.

Upcoming Lectures in our area

Upcoming Christian Science Lecture throughout the world

Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him,
Who is the health of my countenance and my God. — Psalms 42:11.

And these signs shall follow them that believe:
In my name shall they cast out devils:
they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents;
and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;
they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. — Mark 16:17

Christian Science practitioners are individuals who devote their lives to the full-time practice of Christian healing. Practitioners are available to the public 24 hours a day, year-round. Their work is to support prayerfully, individuals in their spiritual growth, and to heal. Prayer and Christian Science treatment rests upon the spiritual understanding of the words and works of Christ Jesus as illustrated in the Bible and explained in the textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

A directory of Christian Science practitioners is available in the Christian Science Journal. Practitioners may also be found in the Yellow Pages of your local phone book. You may contact a Christian Science practitioner at anytime to discuss Christian Science or for treatment, by phone, fax or email.