Name: First Church of Christ, Scientist, Adelaide

Denomination/religion: Christian Science

Location: 266 North Tce, Adelaide SA

Service times: Wednesday, 7pm

Motto: “Heal the sick – Raise the dead – Cleanse the lepers – Cast out demons”

The best thing: The friendly – if sparse – congregation

The worst thing: Long, long, unexplained Bible readings

Overall rating: ✞ ✞

After the service, I picked up a number of brochures. One, entitled ‘What Makes Christian Science Christian?’ seemed to be asking slightly the wrong question. Another included a FAQ section, of which the first Q&A was:

Q: Is Christian Science related to Scientology? A: Not in any way.

Good to get that out of the way early. The second question, ‘Is Christian Science a cult?’ starts to give the impression – if one was not impressed already – that this is a church with an image problem.

So what is Christian Science? Founded in nineteenth century New England by Mary Baker Eddy, who claimed to be healed of a life-threatening injury whilst reading the Bible, The Church of Christ, Scientist is a Christian denomination that focuses heavily on the healing power of prayer. Its primary text is the Bible, with Eddy’s Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures playing a heavy supporting role. Unlike another American protestant off-shoot, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which considers its founder Joseph Smith as a prophet, Christian Science has not elevated Mrs Eddy (as she was to be respectfully dubbed) in such a way. The woman herself was keen to distance herself from prophet-hood, viewing “self-deification as blasphemous”.

Over the past century, Christian Science has received a lot of bad press for directing followers away from the use of medicine, towards its system of Bible-based healing°. More recently, it has been in Australian news as the last religious loophole (as of last week, a closed loophole) in the Abbott government’s new childhood vaccination policy, which refuses various childcare benefits to those parents who fail to have their children vaccinated.

With all this controversy, how could attending a service not be thrilling? Especially since the service we would be attending was a Testimony Meeting, in which members would be given the opportunity to speak about their Christian Science-related experiences.

Unfortunately, the service was decidedly un-thrilling. We started with a lack-lustre hymn, made more awkward by the lack of voices there to sing. This was followed by a couple of very long Bible readings, which were not accompanied by any explanation. The one saving grace was the use of the King James Bible, which is always a goodly source of ‘thou’s and ‘thee’s. Slightly – but only slightly – more engaging were the excerpts from Science and Health that came up next, in which we were finally given a glimpse into some of Christian Science’s more idiosyncratic teachings. We heard of the claim of “a professor of… a professor from London”, that medicine caused more deaths than “war, pestilence and famine all combined”. This, too, went disappointingly unexplained.

After another hymn, we moved onto the testimonial part of the night. No one had any faith-healing stories to share that week, but we did hear of how God, the ultimate Invisible Hand, helped a lady sell her sewing machine on Gumtree. A part of me envied this woman her deity, one that clearly cared about her quotidian doings; with such a god on my side, maybe I’d finally be able to change the weeks-dead light-bulb in my bedroom.

The service ended with a painful hymn that kept switching from 2/2 to 3/2 time, with notes that jumped all over the stave. One could but do one’s best.

The night might have ended there: flat. But before we had time to take our leave, the lady who welcomed us upon our entry came over to see how we had liked the service. Another couple of members came over, and we were able to ask questions and bask in their welcoming friendliness. They explained how the Bible and Science and Health are their pastors, rather than the man who had been leading the service, who was one of two elected ‘Readers’. This perhaps explained the lack of sermon and explanation – it may be that the two texts are, at least during services, left to speak for themselves.

We were then taken to the Reading Room, an area open on certain days to the public, where you can come to learn more about the Church. The warm hospitality continued, as we were given several old copies of the Christian Science Sentinel, the magazine founded in 1898 by Mary Baker Eddy herself, and offered a lend of Science and Health (or a copy to buy, if we were so inclined). Realising that we might be feeling overwhelmed, one of the men was very sincere in telling us that they did not wish to proselytise, that they were merely here to help us if we felt that Christian Science was right for us.

While my fervent belief in Western medicine¤ – and desire for church services with a little more pizzazz – means that this place of worship will probably never be right for me, if the rest of the members are as welcoming as the ones we met that night, then it must be doing something right.

– Katie O

° To be fair, the Church officially claims that the individual is free to choose whether or not to partake of medicine or the service of doctors… But you’re given a pretty clear indication of the right choice, as can be seen from another pearl in the FAQ section:

Q: What would you do if you broke your leg? A: Some may see a doctor to set the bone, but many others have seen bones set and mended by prayer alone.

¤ Which is not to say that Western medicine has the very last word in health… But it did eradicate smallpox.