Services and Healing
Sunday Morning Church Service–our services are now in person and on Zoom.
We hold regular church services every Sunday morning from 11 to noon. We don’t have a personal pastor; rather, two books—the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy—serve as our impersonal Pastor. Services, then, are conducted by two lay readers elected by the membership. The First Reader has charge of the service and reads primarily from Science and Health, while the Second Reader reads from the Holy Bible. Most of the Bible passages read are from the King James Version.
About half of the service consists of the reading of passages from the Bible and from Science and Health. The two Readers alternate, with Bible passages followed by correlative ones from Science and Health, usually for six sections. These readings are chosen to be read by Christian Scientists throughout the world and in many languages every day during the preceding week, so members of the congregation have been pondering and praying with the ideas presented and are well prepared to listen to them on Sunday. We invite newcomers who are interested in doing so to leave with a copy of the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson publication, which outlines the lessons for the quarter.
We believe that mental or emotional as well as physical healing can take place as fear and misconceptions about God and His/Her creation are replaced with spiritual truth. This hour on Sunday morning, then, is a time to feel and express God’s great love and to allow anything unlike God in one’s thought to be replaced with what the Bible calls “the mind of Christ” (I Corinthians 2:16).
Wednesday Evening Testimony Meeting–our meetings are now in person and on Zoom.
Our Wednesday evening testimony meeting is held from 7:00 to 8:00, and provides a midweek uplift to those attending. In addition to singing hymns and praying aloud the Lord’s Prayer together, the congregation listens attentively to about 15 to 20 minutes of readings from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The readings are selected by the First Reader and may address a wide range of topics, with ideas that help heal personal problems, community issues, or global challenges. One week, there may be a simple but profound message about expressing God, divine Love, by loving one’s neighbor as oneself. Another week, we may turn thought to God’s care for His/Her creation, perhaps pondering God as our Shepherd and letting the message of the Twenty-third Psalm give us renewed conviction that our needs will be met. Yet another week we may contemplate the Holy City, New Jerusalem, and see how prophetic vision can help us elevate our thought above the problems often associated with big cities and find prayer-based solutions.
The second half of the meeting is largely filled with inspirational remarks and testimonies from those attending who wish to speak. Testimonies may include physical healings, accounts of God’s guidance in making career or other choices, gratitude for growth in grace, or even an experience of finding a lost article. Our members pray during the week about life’s challenges, and they share their inspiration and results to help others. The meeting concludes with a third and final hymn.
Testimonies
Wednesday meetings are not the only time or way we share healing experiences. Christian Scientists throughout the world write about what they’ve been learning, and these written testimonies may be published in the official organs of our Church, such as the Christian Science Sentinel and The Christian Science Journal. You can find out more about these publications on the Reading Room page. Here are a few testimonies that members of our branch church have had published in the Sentinel or Journal.
Sports injury healed
Published in the June 2016 issue of The Christian Science Journal
Leslie tells how she prayed about a back injury that occurred while she was playing tennis, and of the spiritual thoughts that led to a complete healing.
“In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust”…
Published in the August 8, 1994 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Patti’s prayers led to the disappearance of a growth on her face. Also, with the help of a Christian Science practitioner, her son was healed of illness and the lack of normal mobility.
Twenty years ago, as a new mother, I was frustrated by many…
Published in the July 16, 1979 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Nickie’s experiences decades ago can still serve to inspire us today. She tells of her husband’s healing of kidney stones, and of the solution to an employment problem.
Grief washed away by fuller understanding of God
Published in the March 2000 issue of The Christian Science Journal
Frank tells of his healing of long-standing grief when he started studying Christian Science in earnest and gained a clearer conviction that God is our Life, and that our true identity is eternal.
Kids’ and Teens’ Inspirational Corner
Christian Science Practitioners and Christian Science Nurses
Christian Science practitioners and Christian Science nurses are available to give supportive care while you are praying for healing. Practitioners offer specific prayer, and Christian Science nurses provide caring, practical, non-medical assistance. There is a worldwide directory of these people in each issue of The Christian Science Journal, available at Reading Rooms. You can also access the directory at: