"Solutions Through Prayer" hangs out there like a promise too good to be true. The sign is being readied for the window of an otherwise nondescript 200 South office building. It is designed to beckon at least a thought from passers-by about whether they believe prayer can heal.
"If only life were that simple," some will likely think as they brush past the building en route to the nearby Gateway. Utah's newest shopping mecca is a getaway destination for many a burdened soul who just needs a way to unload — even if the only "burden" to be lightened comes straight from the wallet.
Yet the simplicity of prayer — and the difficulty of mustering the requisite faith it implies — make the window sign something of a challenge. Can something as quiet and personal as prayer really be an avenue for change and healing from major life challenges such as debt, disease, divorce or death of a loved one?
The women housed behind the sign believe the answer is "yes" — and say so many people share their belief that Salt Lake City is ripe for a center offering healing prayer to all who seek it out. Organized late last year after the success of similar centers in Boston and Boise, the place is no bigger than a small office, and set up to look like one with a desk, computer, printer and side chairs. The only clue that you've walked into a prayer center is the sign in the window.
But that's part of the simplicity that goes with the "call" to be a Christian Science healer, the women agree — no special attire or accoutrements required.
"We believe there is a great need in the community for prayer, and there really is a spiritual solution for any problem," but some people are afraid to ask — or unsure about whether they can get an answer, says Sabrina Stillwell, a full-time Christian Science practitioner from Ogden who rotates shifts with four other Christian Scientists to staff the new healing center at 342 W. 200 South.
The women say they chose the name "Solutions Through Prayer" because it connotes their belief that appealing to the divine works for anyone —- not just those whose faith tradition matches their own.
Particularly when it comes to physical health, Stillwell says, "there's such a need for looking beyond the old medical model on how healing comes about." A few insurance companies evidently agree, and pay for visits to a Christian Science practitioner just as they do for a medical professional.
"There is a professional relationship between a practitioner and a patient, no less than that between a medical physician and a patient," says Marie Longpre-Adams, who spends part of her time as a practitioner when she can break away from the business she owns with her husband. As one who sought out Christian Science prayer as her prenatal care when she was pregnant, Longpre-Adams said her insurance policy covered the visits.
That's not to say people aren't skeptical.
Nancy Ferguson, a part-time practitioner, believes many people are initially reluctant to talk about spiritual healing "because they would be thought to be kind of weird. When they see someone who actually practices and is open about it, they admit they agree with it." One barrier is actually getting people to walk through the door, with it being so new and relatively unknown in the area. Yet clients do come, and as word gets around, the three expect their office to become increasingly busy.
Longpre-Adams says while she has helped people in other settings, she seeks out the solitude and reflective quiet that come between appointments at the office as a time to elevate her own consciousness to help her clients. She gets up early to study the teachings of Christian Science founder Mary Baker Eddy, putting herself in a mindset that allows her to "be open to the solutions and not the problems." Otherwise, she couldn't be effective in her healing practice.
"Einstein said you can't solve a problem on the same level it came about," says Stillwell. "You have to be at a different level of consciousness to understand a solution."
And solutions come through prayer because that's what brings people into a true "alignment with God," they say. "It's ignorance of God that produces the problem, and an understanding of God that produces health and harmony," Ferguson says. She believes that every problem "comes as an opportunity to reverse it and see what God is really doing."
Thus, practitioners see problems as a way to manifest God's power and love, rather than placing blame on someone or something. Their prayers "deny whatever (malady) the patient seems to be experiencing and affirm what is actually going on in God's realm in the actual reality of things," Ferguson says.
Christian Science healing is not without its skeptics, despite the fact that Christian Science magazines, "The Sentinel," and the "Christian Science Journal" are regularly filled with personal testimonials of how illnesses ranging from arthritis to total body paralysis have been healed by spiritual power. Attempts have been made in some states in the past few years to mandate medical treatment for sick children whose parents have opted for religiously based healing alone.
Of course, practitioners say it always helps if clients actually believe that God has the power to heal them through prayer. But it's not a requirement, Ferguson adds. "We always get questions like 'can I be healed if I don't have faith yet?' In that case, the practitioner would become a bolster to their faith by reassuring them that God is able to solve their problem."
In that respect, Stillwell says, practitioners simply facilitate the prayer and faith process, but because healing is about "going to God, we try to get ourselves out of the way and really focus on God. It's God's power of healing" that makes people whole.
That healing power comes in a variety of ways, Stillwell says, but she wants people to understand that clients who come in and ask for help are simply prayed for vocally. There is no "laying on of hands" — in fact "we don't touch the person at all" as some evangelists do during dramatic healing services.
It is only when clients actually ask for prayer that practitioners oblige. Up to that point, discussions with them are considered preliminary — and no charges apply. Stillwell says she has people come often who simply ask if they can talk about a problem, and she discusses a spiritual solution with them. "If after that they want prayer treatment, it is agreed upon between the practitioner and the patient." One fee is charged for the day.
Even when they do charge a fee, the three maintain they don't serve clients as a money-making venture but as a way to fill what they believe is a "calling" from God to use their gifts in helping others. And that makes it difficult for Stillwell to offer other types of prayers. "I have a hard time even giving grace at dinner. Prayer to me is such a quiet mental experience."
Yet she can't deny the power that she says has come through prayer in healing people with maladies that include everything from the common cold to a heart attack. Her son even persuaded her once to pray over a stillborn kitten, against her prolonged protestations that sometimes kittens just don't make it.
Because she had taught her son that God is the source of all life, he was convinced she could bring the kitten back. After extended, fervent prayer, the kitten began moving and the mother cat started to pay attention to it after ignoring it early on. "It ended up being this white, long-haired Persian cat" that affirmed the child's belief, she says.
"That's the faith of a child. He wasn't going to let me off the hook."
E-MAIL: carrie@desnews.com