World Monitor: A Television Presentation of The Christian Science Monitor aired a program, "The Year in Review," that looked back at the amazing events of 1990. It was a moving tribute to the resiliency of the human spirit. It showed a world of diverse peoples who weave the rich tapestry of life through flux and change, and become part of history. This is a world that clearly needs our love.

Here are a few of the stories that the program covered:

•The "pothole" men in Moscow showed the failure of a Communist dictatorship to suppress the spirit of man. The workers of STROITEL, a private cooperative formed by Vadim Tumanov—many "graduates" of the Siberian labor camps—worked night and day to repair a section of the outer ring road of Moscow. They were given a year to complete the job, and they got it done in twenty-eight days!

•There are millions of children in the world who have no settled home. One man did something about it. Joe Walijewsky, from Wisconsin, has spent thirty-five years in the slums of South America, helping such children. He has now opened a house in Lima, Peru, for fifty-eight children and hopes to extend it to accommodate many more.

•In orphanage No. 5 in Bucharest, abandoned children between two and three years old, who look and act like one-year-olds, are being taught how to walk, speak, and play by volunteers from other countries.

The poignant stories of mankind's struggles and progress that World Monitor presents nightly, and others that are covered in The Christian Science Monitor daily, prompt us to take mankind's achievements seriously and to seek practical solutions for the world's urgent problems.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, always took a keen interest in public affairs, and she was well informed on world events. Her purpose in launching an international newspaper in 1908 went far beyond just establishing another newspaper.

In a biography, Mary Baker Eddy: The Years of Authority, the author, Robert Peel, explains: "To Mrs. Eddy ... the paper was a good deal more than this. It was the final link between her church and the whole, great, various, unredeemed world, with its splendor, its wretchedness, its ideal potential. The church was designed to be built on 'the understanding and demonstration of divine Truth, Life, and Love,' which would heal and save 'the world'—not merely the individual—from sin and death."

In a brief editorial for the first issue of The Christian Science Monitor, Mrs. Eddy wrote, "The object of The Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind." She also spoke of its purpose, "to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent." Monitor radio and television programming has inherited these demanding ideals.

The first chapter of the Bible describes man as created by God in His image and likeness. Christian Science works from this perspective through its demonstration of the reality that man is spiritual. As Spirit's reflection, man expresses the freedom, intelligence, and dominion that have their source in God, Spirit. The Monitor with its worldwide coverage of events reminds us daily that our prayers are needed to confront and overcome the evil in the world and to help people reach their full potential as sons and daughters of God.

As Christ Jesus demonstrated in his healing ministry, a Christianly scientific perspective, brought to bear on even the most intransigent human condition of hatred, bigotry, and sin, brings to light practical solutions that bless and heal. Christ, the divine idea of God, which Jesus lived in full measure, is here today bringing a message of comfort and hope to all who turn humbly to their Father in prayer and rely on Him fully for the ideas they need to carry out their work.

John's Gospel tells us, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

God's great love for all His creation assures us that the good we pray for is already at hand. God does not need to change or be more benevolent. Our all-loving Father has already given abundant good to His children. To experience this spiritual good in our lives, our only need is to open our hearts and minds to it, and willingly conform our lives to God's commandments. Through our daily prayer for ourselves and for others, we become more responsive to divine Love's presence and find new ways of sharing this love with others.

In May, The Monitor Channel, a new cable television service of The Christian Science Monitor, will extend the Church's outreach to humanity with an imaginative variety of programs. These will include news and commentary, as well as features, art, and educational programs, reaching a larger audience than ever before (see pages 24–26 for more details). Christian Scientists everywhere can support this programming by consecrating themselves anew to the concrete prayer for the world that we find so practical in our own lives.

By participating in this way we will not merely be watching a panorama of daily events from the sidelines; we will be contributing significantly to the welfare and redemption of mankind. And we will be playing a vital role in shaping the course of history for the twenty-first century.

Ann Kenrick