Testimony meetings are held monthly on the first Wednesday at 5:30 PM. Christian Science in Bristol
Submitted by
Mark M. Lawson
First Reader
Introduction. “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings,” writes Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science and Founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. This first sentence and the pages that follow in Eddy’s
primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, explain and describe a close relationship, or unity, of man and God. Understanding this relationship results in the healing of any human problem, including sickness. It is fair to say that most people identify Christian Science with spiritual healing. But Eddy makes plain that “the mission of Christian Science … is not primarily one of physical healing…” She adds that such “signs and wonders … attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world.” Thus, along with other Christian denominations, we share the conviction that Christ can and does save the world from sin, and reconciles man to God. Our Church in Bristol. In 1937, a few Christian Scientists began meeting for services in a small room on the corner of State and Seventh Streets. Two years later, they rented the Cameo Theatre on State Street. In 1939, the group was organized into “Christian Science Society-Bristol, Tennessee.” During the following eleven years, the group moved two more times: services were held in the Masonic Temple at the corner of Cumberland and Piedmont Streets, and in the Caldwell home on Anderson Street. In 1958, services were held in the original YWCA building on the corner of Woodlawn and Anderson Streets. In 1969, the congregation purchased its current property at the corner of Edgefield and King College Roads, but until a building was constructed, services were conducted in the Virginia Intermont College chapel. In 1971, the congregation moved into its current facility, and became known as “First Church of Christ, Scientist-Bristol, Tennessee.” The church was dedicated (debt retired) in 1974. Just as do the followers of any other faith, we have fundamental religious convictions. A common bond between Christian Science and other Christian denominations is found in Science and Health, where Eddy asks and answers:
Question. — Have Christian Scientists any religious creed? Answer. — They have not, if by that term is meant doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian Science: —
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. Eddy’s Discovery. Mary Baker Eddy discovered Christian Science in 1866 when she was healed of the effects of a severe accident. She asked for her Bible and, while reading an account of one of Jesus' healings, she found herself suddenly well. Eventually, she referred to this as the moment she discovered Christian Science. Although Eddy could not explain to others what had happened, she knew it was the result of what she had read in the Bible. Her conviction grew in the coming weeks and months. This led to nine years of intensive scriptural study, healing activity, and teaching. A physician, whose patient was healed of pneumonia by Eddy, encouraged her to write a book describing her method of spiritual healing. Eddy accepted the challenge, and she published Science and Health in 1875. In this book she marked out what she understood to be the "science" behind Jesus' healing method. As she saw it, his works were divinely natural, and repeatable. In 1992, the Women's National Book Association voted Science and Health one of the "75 books by women whose words have changed the world." After more than 125 years, Eddy’s book remains in print, with greater sales each year. It is published in seventeen languages plus English braille. Ours is a Lay Church. In 1895 Eddy published a church manual, establishing guidelines that are followed to this day. It is in this slim volume that she made provisions for a lay ministry in Christian Science churches around the world, with locally elected readers who read a weekly ""Bible Lesson-Sermon" of passages from the Bible and Science and Health. The lesson-sermon, Science and Health, and other articles about Christian Science may be found at www.spirituality.com and the official web site of The First Church of Christ, Scientist (the Mother Church) is www.tfccs.com. Eddy’s Accomplishments. It is of note that Mary Baker Eddy made her discovery of Christian Science mid-way through her long life, at a time when women could not vote and were generally barred from pulpits, seminaries, and the medical profession. She continued her work until her last days. Eddy went on to found The Christian Science Publishing Society in 1898, which became the publishing home for numerous publications launched by her and her followers. It was at age 87, responding to "yellow" journalism (the tabloid news of her day), that she started The Christian Science Monitor, designed "to injure no man, but to bless all mankind." Over the years, the Monitor has received seven Pulitzer prizes. In 1995, Eddy was inducted as one of 18 distinguished American women into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, for "her indelible mark on society, religion and journalism." In 2002, the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity opened in Boston. It houses the largest collection by and about an American woman, including papers, artifacts, historic photographs, and rare books related to Eddy's ideas, life, and achievements. It also houses a collection of approximately 10,000 books, periodicals, and audiovisual materials, as well as historical documents related to the founding and establishment of the Church of Christ, Scientist and The Christian Science Monitor. The library’s web site is www.marybakereddylibrary.org. Common Misconceptions. First, we should be clear that there is no connection between Christian Science and the Church of Scientology. Second, while we certainly honor Mary Baker Eddy as our Leader and for her many accomplishments, the most important of which is her revelation of Christian Science, we do not worship her. In fact, her establishment of a lay church and her ordination of the Bible and Science and Health as its “dual and impersonal pastor” were intended to avoid the worship of person. In her Message to the Mother Church for 1902, Eddy admonishes church members to “Follow your Leader, only so far as she follows Christ.” Finally, our church does not interfere with a member’s decision to rely upon spiritual healing or to choose conventional medicine in times of sickness. The Essence of Christian Science. St. John writes, “God is Love.” The heart and soul of Christian Science is Love. Eddy writes: “Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love, — casting out error and healing the sick.” In another of her books, First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, she provides a fitting description of our faith:
To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science.
