An account of healing, only seven paragraphs long, provides a vivid but not untypical picture of what being a lifelong Christian Scientist can mean. This particular account, similar to the several testimonies of healing that appear in every issue of the Sentinel, is in this issue.

In it, a Christian Scientist tells about childhood healings, the healing of her father of a stomach ailment and of the cigarette habit, various healings with her own children as they were growing up; she tells of how she coped with grief when after many years of marriage she found herself single again. It's an inspiring but modest chronicle of one who has seen the power of God throughout her life and the lives of loved ones.

While seven paragraphs can hardly do justice to a lifetime's experience and all its ups and downs, it's not difficult to understand why such a person would have strong and realistic confidence in spiritual healing.

There was a time in this woman's experience, however, when healing didn't come in a day or two. She became bedridden and was unable to move without severe pain. She says in a few words, filled with unspoken significance, "... three fellow Christian Scientists, working in shifts around the clock, lovingly attended to my physical needs." She asked a Christian Science practitioner to pray with her, and in a few weeks she was completely well and able to resume her regular responsibilities.

Such Christian caring and compassion get to the heart of what Christian Science treatment and care are aimed at accomplishing: full and complete recovery through an understanding of man as God's spiritual child.

To those who turn to Christian Science for healing, what is being turned to is a wholehearted desire to draw near to God, to understand what God is, and to realize more of man's true spiritual nature as God-derived, reflecting the goodness and perfection of God. And the greatest skill that a Christian Scientist can develop is the Christly compassion that silently and steadfastly supports another's prayer and desire to know God.

There are many models and methods of care for human ills in the world. However, those who have chosen in Christian Science to rely wholly on God, Spirit, have discovered that the Bible promise is real when it speaks of God as one "who healeth all thy diseases."

The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, recognized the positive role that a Christian Science nurse could play in some cases when a person seeks Christian healing. Her wisdom and compassion extended to every circumstance. She wisely understood that the reinstatement of scientific Christian healing is far more than a faith cure or course in unpredictable miracles. She writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demonstrated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is the coming anew of the gospel of 'on earth peace, good-will toward men.'"

Mrs. Eddy goes on to speak of scientific Christian healing as a "permanent dispensation," and she set a standard for Christian Science nursing in the Manual of The Mother Church as an ever-available aid, when needed, in upholding and supporting a person's reliance on God for healing. In sanctioning the work of Christian Science nurses, the Manual provision gives the most Christian and practical attention to the high standards of such a role: "A member of The Mother Church who represents himself or herself as a Christian Science nurse shall be one who has a demonstrable knowledge of Christian Science practice, who thoroughly understands the practical wisdom necessary in a sick room, and who can take proper care of the sick."

Over the past several years, a careful study has been undertaken to reconsider how Christian Science nursing can most effectively accord with the Christian and scientific ethics of Christian Science and with the requirements of the Church Manual.

Meetings have been held throughout the Field, conferences and discussions have taken place with many people involved in providing care for Christian Scientists, including governing boards of nursing facilities and visiting nurse services. One of the results is the revised Accreditation Standards for Christian Science nursing activities that have been developed and shared with nursing facilities.

The purpose of these standards is really quite simple: to uphold the effective practice of Christian Science healing where nursing is involved and to allow nothing to intrude upon such practice that would impede wholehearted reliance upon spiritual means for healing.

While Mrs. Eddy provided a standard for those who represent themselves as Christian Science nurses, she didn't provide for a vast institutionalization of nursing care, as has become common in medical practice. In fact, to believe that an institution is essential to achieve Christian healing can in itself become an obstacle to healing if this belief obscures the fundamental truth that recourse to God for healing is spiritual, immediate, and always practical.

The role of the Christian Science nurse, consistent with the spiritual and Christian theology of Science, is "To be a witness to the Christ, already present in human consciousness." This was a significant point in the statement from The Christian Science Board of Directors entitled "The Foundation for Christian Science Nursing," issued in late 1987 (see The Christian Science Journal, May 1988, for a condensed version of the statement). In the deepest and most practical sense, the Christian Science nurse actively acknowledges that God cares for man, and nothing is more immediate and healing than the spiritual understanding that recognizes man's God-given, native intelligence, spiritual well-being, and oneness with divine Life and Love.

Christian Science nursing is a spiritual calling—a ministry. It can be one of the highest ways to serve one's fellowman. It requires nursing based on the Christ-example and an underlying conviction that God cares for mankind. This lifts Christian Science nursing above even good human intention.

The Accreditation Standards refer to the role of such ministry: "Christian Science nursing care is intended to nurse the whole man—not just provide bodily care. The Christian Science nurse's role should be from the basis of being a spiritual witness and providing aid and assistance in helping the individual to maintain a sense of normalcy ...."

This is a purpose that will never be outmoded, no matter how many changes take place in human technology or institutions.

Michael D. Rissler