“There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is all-in-all. Spirit is immortal truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore, man is not material; he is spiritual.”

The Scientific Statement of Being, of the Christian Science faith, is recited at the end of their weekly service. It encompasses the beliefs of the faith and its followers in the words of the religion’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy, from her book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.”

Spiritual healing

Among them is East Lansing resident Jeanne Troutman, who stands in her usual spot at the back of the church with her husband, facing the front of the room with the words of Christ Jesus and Eddy before her.

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” reads the quote from Christ Jesus on the left.

“Divine love always has met and always will meet every human need,” are the words of Eddy.

Troutman, a lifelong student of the Christian Science faith, is a member of the congregation of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, 709 E. Grand River Ave., and a Christian Science visiting nurse. She serves a vital role in the practicing of spiritual healing, which, she said, maintains the ideas of the first creation and the perfect God and the perfect man.

The religion of Christian Science was founded in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy, a Congregationalist who rejected the Christian ideas of predestination.

Suffering from a chronic illness herself, Eddy turned to the stories of healings in the New Testament of the Bible when she was near death, reporting a miraculous recovery.

Eddy went on to research Christian healing and is said to have performed several healings herself. “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” first published in 1875, remains the principle text in addition to the King James Version of the Bible.

However, other versions of the Bible are studied.

The main ideas of Eddy’s book include the role of God as divine love, Father-Mother and as supreme, the spiritual role of man as child of God and the power of healing through God. The book has since been published in 17 languages and English Braille and is sold in 80 countries.

The mother church was built in Boston in 1894 and remains there to this day as the world headquarters for the religion.

“She wanted her ideas to be embraced in a collective church organization,” Troutman said.

Nurses are men or women who visit the homes of individuals who have chosen nonmedical treatment for their ailments. They also work in Christian Science facilities that provide more intensive care. Patients do not have to be members of the church.

Raised in the Upper Peninsula as a student of Christian Science, Troutman, a mother of two, attended Principia College in Illinois and has been working as a full-time nurse since 1983. Her salary and travel expenses, along with a Saturn Ion for transportation, are paid for by the church.

“When someone calls and my phone goes off, I go,” she said.

Troutman is not a registered nurse. She attended training in New Jersey for three and a half years, along with an intensive two-week program called class instruction.

The needs of patients will vary, and while some visits are quiet, involving Bible study and prayer, others include cleaning and bandaging wounds, helping with bathing and taking 2 a.m. phone calls.

“(I) assess what is the human need and I love to think that the patient then comes up with ideas,” Troutman said. “We see health as a natural. Our medicine is, we think it, we don’t drink it. Your experience is the expression of your thoughts.”

While Christian Science students traditionally do not visit doctors or receive medical treatment, it is not an order or rule of the faith. The decision to seek the service of a doctor or use medication is left to the individual, Troutman said.

“I always feel so close to God, so loved during these times, and it continues to transform my life,” she said.

The criticism often comes when a life, especially that of a child, is lost. Troutman said all they can do is to not be defensive — only sorry for the loss and continue to learn.

“Every child’s passing is a tragedy,” Troutman said.

She continues to follow her calling 24 hours a day, working five days a week.

“I love to witness the facts that God’s care for his/her children is unconditional, it’s impartial and it’s dependable,” she said. “It’s a safe way to take care of yourself.”

A continuing education

Followers of the religion, or students, gather every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. to study one of 26 topics or lessons covered in the “Christian Science Quarterly.”

However, those up to age 20 attend Sunday school instead. Beyond Sunday School, students wishing to continue their education in Christian Science formally can move on to become teachers as well.

One of the Sunday school teachers is Sara Lincoln, the reading room librarian and bookstore manager of five years. Lincoln, who was raised a Presbyterian, was first introduced to the faith during her sophomore year at Northwestern University.

“What appealed to me about Christian Science was how deep it went into the big questions: ‘Who or what is God?’ ‘Who or what is man?’” she said.

Lincoln said the first Christian Science services were held in Lansing in 1897. The current church, which merged with the original in Lansing, was built in the 1950s. The front of the church is not centered by an altar but rather a lectern-like structure, called a desk, with two microphones. Elected readers share the week’s lesson from this desk. The chosen hymns are displayed in black numbers on the walls.

There are no ordained priests or leaders of the church, so readers are elected to three-year terms.

The church is one of five to be featured in The History of Religion event on Sunday in East Lansing.

Throughout the service, readings are presented from the Bible along with the Christian Science text.

Before her death on Dec. 10, 1910, Eddy taught students at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College she established in Boston from 1883 to 89. She also founded several publications, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper Christian Science Monitor.

As for symbols, Lincoln said there are no distinct representations of the church. The communion service, during which many faiths consume bread and wine as a representation of the body and blood of Jesus, is held once a year — but without the actual consumption.

Holidays, like Easter Sunday, are acknowledged, examining the importance of the events they represent, but no special services are held.

Members seeking to be married often turn to other churches, such as Presbyterian or Baptist, Lincoln said, because without any ordained individual at the church no ceremony can be performed.

Today, Lincoln said the Christian Science beliefs about the human body raise the most questions from people outside the faith.

“The Christian Science view of matter and the Christian Science view of the human body is misunderstood. The common belief about the body is that it is material,” she said. “In Christian Science, we educate and discipline ourselves to understand that the human body, that life, is a manifestation of God, of divine life, and is not material.”

Lincoln, who grew up seeing doctors regularly, said leaving behind the habits of a previous religion can be challenging, but experiencing spiritual healing can make all the difference.

Growing in faith

Next year, Nancy Heath, a staff member of the reading room and member of the East Lansing church for five years, will celebrate 50 years as a student of Christian Science, joining when she was 17 years old.

“We are all very loving and kind and sweet with each other,” she said of the congregation. ‘We live what we believe.”

Having experienced healings herself, Heath recalls when she was bitten by her daughter’s dog. She called her son, who practices healings.

“Within five minutes the pain was gone,” she said. “I don’t waste my time with fear. I go right to the absolute truth and the absolute is what heals.”

She recalls her faith helping her throughout her life — from college exams to her healing from severe burns as a result of being scalded with boiling water.

“It heals — I don’t know how people live without it,” she said. “It’s just who I am.”

Heath also is a practitioner in the church and has been taking calls for five years. People call on practitioners to pray for them and for their healing.

“It’s wonderful when they call back to say all is well,” she said. “It is a wonderful thing to be able to bring freedom to people.”

However, the prayer is not begging, according to Heath. It’s more to strengthen the patients’ relationship with God and the understanding that pain is not from God.

“When you get a touch of it, there’s no turning back because you know it’s the truth,” she said. “I don’t have to wait for Tylenol to work.”

In the faith, Heath said, there is no pain in truth and no truth in pain.

All are welcome in the new reading room, which serves as a quiet study place for those interested in the religion, as well as a book store for the works of Eddy and related materials. The structure is round with large windows facing out to the corner of Grand River Avenue and Collingwood Drive. Heath said the public is always welcome to come in with questions.

“If you are a Christian Scientist, that’s fine, if you’re not, that’s even better,” she said.