DECATUR - The typical downtown storefront that is the Christian Science Reading Room at 120 E. Prairie Ave. is like a thousand others found in cities and suburbs across the country.

Christian Science reading rooms are mostly found along streets that have heavy foot traffic for passersby to stop in. The purpose behind the reading room, however, is to offer a place of solitude to read, get resource materials and introduce people to the beliefs of the Church of Christ, Scientist.

The librarian of Decatur's Christian Science Reading Room, Ann Williams, calls the combination bookstore and library an outreach of the church.

"You don't have to be a Christian Scientist to come in here. We get businessmen who come in all the time just to sit and read the Christian Science Monitor," she said.

The Monitor, a respected national newspaper published Monday through Friday, along with the weekly Christian Science Sentinel and the monthly magazine Christian Science Journal, are the first things seen on top of the glass cabinet after walking into the reading room.

It's also impossible to miss the display of "Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures," the textbook for Christian Scientists written by the founder, Mary Baker Eddy.

The reading room sells an array of religious tapes and CDs, ranging from music to parenting advice. And healing Versions of the Bible in French, Russian, German and Spanish also can be purchased, as well as children's books and other merchandise.

Comfortable leather-bound chairs and a couch, a computer and walls of shelves filled with books are in the back of the reading room.

One wall contains bound volumes of the Sentinel and Journal dating back to 1898.

Jean Lane often goes to the Christian Science Reading Room to get information. She is on the board of the Church of Christ, Scientist, 510 W. William St.

"I come to get information for the church board meeting and putting our agenda together. I also like to read ahead for the lesson on Sunday," said Lane, who has been a member of the church since 1968.

Lane said she was raised in the church, and her grandmother was a Christian Scientist.

Some of the first Christian Scientists settled in Decatur in 1886, said Peggy Rothe, a member of the local church, and the first Christian Science Reading Room was at Main and North streets.

"Back in the early days, a lot of secular publishers had reading rooms for people who couldn't afford to go out and buy books. Mrs. Eddy opened up reading rooms that were along the standards of others. Now, you see places like Borders and Barnes and Noble that have reading areas, where you can drink coffee and read. It's interesting how they evolved again," Rothe said.

About 65 Christian Science churches exist in Illinois.

Roger Gates of Chicago is the state contact for the denomination. He said Christian Scientists believe in the teachings of Jesus. That is the major difference between Christian Science and Scientology, two religions people often confuse.

"We are not opposed to doctors or medications; we choose to use spiritual means," Gates said. "Jesus demonstrated healing. So a Christian Scientist would turn to prayer for healing, whether for personal relations, financial issues, a job and health matters. We call on the divine authority to be healthy."

Many members of the church train to become practitioners and heal others through prayer.

Rothe refers to the story in the Bible where Moses held up his arms during the battle against the Amalekites. When he grew tired, people came to help him hold up his arms until the Israelites won the battle.

"To me, that is what a Christian Scientist practitioner does. It's having someone specific praying for you about your situation," she said.

As far as Sunday worship, there are no religious symbols inside the church and no clergy - only people reading aloud the Bible and passages from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures."

On Wednesdays, members gather to share testimonies of healing and how the practice of Christian Science has been applied to their lives.

Back in 2003, Bob Abernethy, television anchor for the PBS Religion & Ethics television program, reported that the Church of Christ, Scientist, was suffering from controversy.

A guest on the program, Stephen Simurda, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, said the church was in crisis and its leadership was trying to market and appeal to those with more New Age beliefs.

Gates does not dispute there has been criticism of the church over the years and a decline of membership.

"They just did a recent piece on the Religion & Ethics PBS TV show that said Christian Science is hanging on because of healing," Gates said.

"We are getting refocused on the way we were founded originally. The practical use of Christian Science is the healing of sickness and sin ¦ not just a cultural thing."

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Christian Science

* The church was founded in 1879 by Mary Baker Eddy.

* Christian Science teaches the all-powerful existence of God and authority of the Bible.

* A basic tenet is that sin, sickness and death do not exist; we only think they do. Heaven and hell are states of mind.

* Christian Scientists refer to God as "Father-Mother" rather than the traditional "Father."

* Mary Baker Eddy rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, saying it suggests polytheism. She did accept the threefold nature of God and defined Trinity as "Life, Truth and Love" or "God the Father-Mother." Christ is the spiritual idea of sonship, the divine Science or Holy Comforter.

Source: www.religionfacts.com

Mary Baker Eddy

The history of Christian Science goes back to Mary Baker Eddy, who was born in New Hampshire in 1821.

After having a number of illnesses, Eddy, who was 22 at the time, visited a man by the name of Phineas Quimby. He taught a method of healing and believed that the mind had the power to heal the body.

In 1866, Eddy had fallen and wasn't expected to recover from her injuries. She read Matthew 9:2 (King James Version): "Behold, they brought to him a man sick of palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy: Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee."

She then experienced a miraculous cure.

Eddy turned her belief in the power of healing into a book and published "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" in 1875. She organized the First Church of Christ (Scientist) in Boston in 1879.

Mary Baker Eddy died in 1910 at the age of 89.

Source: www.religionfacts.com