c. 1999 Religion News Service

BOSTON _ One hundred and one years ago, a relatively unknown, fiercely devout Christian woman founded a magazine whose purpose was to communicate her beliefs to the world.

The woman: Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. The magazine: Christian Science Sentinel, one of several publications the denomination publishes. Then, the Sentinel was a word-heavy newsprint publication. Today, the magazine is colorful, glossy and fresh, thanks to a recent redesign.

The magazine’s rebirth reflects changes throughout the international headquarters of Christian Science, nestled in the beautiful Back Bay neighborhood of Boston.

The result is a spiritual renewal for the denomination, which is reaching back to its founding principles to re-energize its mission for the current day.

The changes span the publication field, a renewed interest in the life and times of Eddy herself, a $55.4 million physical refurbishment of the headquarters’ facilities and original”Mother Church”and new outreach programs for youth.”The church is responding to the public as never before,”said Gary A. Jones, manager of the Christian Science Committee on Publication.”It really goes back to a rediscovery of our roots, a rediscovery of the foundation of our church.” Jones said the church’s uniqueness lies in its ability _ and responsibility _ to reach out to a public that has in recent years grown increasingly interested in the intersection of spirituality and health, the central teaching of Christian Science.”The church is designed to communicate with the public in many different ways,”Jones said.”The essential message is God’s healing power.” Most of the numerous publications the church puts out have undergone redesigns in the past year or so, with the goal of reaching a larger and more diverse reading audience.”It’s a duty to keep abreast of the times,”said William E. Moody, editor of the four major religious Christian Science publications, including the Sentinel.”We see it as a spiritual and moral demand.” Moody and others involved with the religious publications perceive a”spiritual hunger”in the American public, and they say the redesigned magazines are one way to satisfy that hunger. “It’s there,”said Moody.”We’re not going to create this spiritual hunger. How do we respond to it? When people are hungry, what do you feed them? When people are thirsty, what do you give them to drink?” Since the redesign, the Sentinel’s subscription rate is up 3 percent, after at least 25 years of steady decline, church officials said. The number of readers who express interest in the Sentinel’s radio edition, which is carried on 180 stations nationwide, has risen 250 percent in the last year.

There are also indications of growing interest in the denomination itself, although Christian Science bylaws stipulate that the church may not make public any membership numbers.

It does, however, report that there are 2,200 congregations in 74 countries around the world, and last year new members joined from 48 countries and 45 states.

Editors for the religious publications say the increase in subscriptions and general interest is partially the result of an expansion of the audience beyond the membership of the church.”I think the increase is a recognition on the part of the members that this is not just for us,”said Margaret Rogers, associate editor of the Christian Science Journal.

In addition to the religious publications, The Christian Science Monitor, an 80,000 circulation daily newspaper that Eddy founded two years before her death, has undergone redesign and expanded onto the Internet.

Practicality and usefulness are central tenets of Christian Science, meant not only for the theology of spiritual healing, but also for the accessibility of the church’s teachings and information.”The Monitor, like everything we do here, is aimed to be useful,”said its editor, David T. Cook.

With that goal in mind, the Monitor has revamped the newspaper to include weekly pull-out sections on topics ranging from arts and leisure to finances. The paper’s Internet site serves more than 390,000 visitors per month.”The site allows us to take the information to our readers at the point where you most need the answers,”said Karla Vallance, managing editor of the Monitor’s electronic publishing.

When war broke out in Kosovo, for example, the Monitor’s Web site could respond immediately with background stories from back issues about the crisis and its history.

Monitor editors are considering a morning delivery for the newspaper, according to managing publisher Stephen T. Gray,”so the unique Monitor view can shape their view for the entire day.”The editors are also considering a weekly community insert to summarize each week’s news.

While the Monitor is read by many non-Christian Scientists as well as members, the newspaper sees itself as in line with Christian Science theology, even as it reports on controversial science and health matters such as abortion.”Christian Science, in contrast with many faiths, does not tend to take official church positions on these things,”said Gray.”The individual in a sense works out his own salvation based on the principles it sets forth. As a result, the Monitor plays a role in trying to provide as big a picture as possible.” Publication is not the only aspect of the church that is growing and re-examining itself.

A September 1998 conference in Boston on”the spiritual millennium”attracted more than 1,500 university students. Lectures sponsored by the church have also been on the rise in large chain bookstores around the nation. In one year, the number rose from around a dozen to more than a hundred.”Why is that?”asked Karyn Mandan, manager of the Board of Lectureship for the denomination.”I think it reflects society’s increasing interest in spiritual seekers. And it reflects that Mary Baker Eddy’s ideas are incredibly relevant today.” Eddy, who lived from 1821 to 1910, has recently come back into the public eye, with her work being re-examined by feminists, religious figures and journalists.

At the age of 45, adherents say, Eddy”discovered”Christian Science after almost dying from complications from a severe fall. She devoted the rest of her life to teaching the principles of Christian healing, resulting in the mission of today’s church”to commemorate the word and works of our Master, which should reinstate primitive Christianity and its lost element of healing.” Her major work,”Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,”is read alongside the Bible each week by Christian Scientists worldwide. To date, it has sold more than 9 million copies. A substantial scholarly biography was recently written for the Radcliffe College Biography Series, and a Web site, http://www.marybakereddy.org, was created for her.

Eddy’s accomplishments in journalism have also been recognized. This year she was awarded the National Foundation for Women Legislators’ Media Award for the 1908 founding of The Christian Science Monitor.

Her influence on American religion has also been noted. In 1998 the Public Broadcasting Service program “Religion and Ethics Newsweekly” named Eddy one of the 25 figures who have most influenced Americans in the 20th century.

Jones, of the Christian Science Committee on Publication, says the renewed interest in Eddy reflects the larger phenomenon of society’s taking a fresh look at the denomination she founded.”It’s not as if we now offer something to the public that is a new and improved version of Christian Science. What we have to offer has been there since the discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy,”he said.

DEA END LEBOWITZ