ITEMS OF INTEREST February 2, 2009 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Michael Paulson

THE LEADERSHIP of the Christian Science Church, acknowledging declining membership and a series of unsuccessful ventures in recent years, is trying to calm and stabilize the small denomination and reemphasize its belief in spiritual healing.

Over the past four years, the five-member board of directors, which is the top body of the Church of Christ, Scientist, has taken 191 trips around the world to meet with members of the 1,800 Christian Science congregations in an ongoing effort to field questions and soothe feelings after years of concern about how the Boston-based denomination has been managing its assets and planning for the future.

"There was a lot of fussing going on in the Christian Science movement, and I think it was actually having an adverse impact on what we have always felt was our primary mission, which was to heal, to be good healers," said Nathan Talbot, one of the directors. Another director, Margaret Rogers, said, "There was this feeling that we had gone into a marketing phase and that we kind of lost our sense of the purity of our healing mission."

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