Article December 3, 1990 Issue

Healing our community

Our prayers to solve community problems are not ineffectual—as a church in England found out.

Pauline D. Jenner

If we are genuine Christians, we feel a great deal of concern about the problems in our communities. We cannot ignore the sin and suffering that are going on, and surely we want to do something about them. The churches in our communities often provide effective help. The specific purpose of the Church of Christ, Scientist, is to uplift, heal, redeem, and regenerate, not just ourselves but those around us. Here is one example from a Wednesday evening testimony meeting that shows how prayer in church reaches out into the community and brings healing.

That night the readings from the Bible and from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, addressed the struggle of mankind for freedom. They told how people in Biblical times gained freedom from enslaving and tyrannical situations. For example, the Bible shows how Queen Esther, by her patience, love, courage, wisdom, and obedience, helped deliver her Jewish countrymen from a death threat. Readings from Science and Health identified the sinful elements of mortal thought that produce enslaving and imprisoning situations. These include human will, misconceptions of Deity, mesmerism, despotism, tyranny, and the claims of the material senses. The readings affirmed the spiritual ideas, or truths of God and of man's relationship to Him, which correct and destroy these beliefs.

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