About the Foundation and its people

• Foundation board members

  Learn about the people working to bring Christian Science to the Russian-speaking world:

• Dr. Hildegard Arnesen CSB
• Marie Helm, CSB
• Genadi Shcherbanev
  

Meet the Board of The Spiritual Resource Foundation

People working to bring Christian Science to the Russian speaking world

Dr. Hildegard Arnesen CSB
Dr. Arnesen, born and raised in Salzburg, Austria, became interested in Christian Science when a colleague was seriously wounded in a shooting. The doctors said he would not survive. A week later she met him on the street, completely healed. To her question, how that had happened, he said: “go to the Christian Science church!” She went and has never looked back. About the same time she was studying the Russian language in order to help Russians who were displaced after the war and wanted to immigrate to America. She worked at the time for the American Military Government as a German translator and interpreter and since there was no one in her department who spoke Russian, she learned the Russian Language.

She received a BA from the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD from the University of Washington in Russian Language and Literature. She studied the CS Bible Lesson in Russian for years in preparation for, and in hope that some day she would be able to help bring Christian Science back to Russia.

For the past 14 years she has spent three to six months in the former Soviet Republics lecturing, teaching and being the only practitioner for the Russian speaking world. She now warmly welcomes Marie Helm CSB to share in this work.

return to top of page

click any photo for larger image

Hildegard Arnesen in office

Hildegard Arnesen, St. Petersburg

Marie Helm, CSB
Marie Helm began attending Christian Science Sunday School when she was a teenager, and when she "graduated" from Sunday School a few years later, she was greatly inspired by her Sunday School Superintendent's words. She reminded her that all things are possible with God and to widen her view and expect to do something wonderful with her life. Little did she know how far those words would take her!

In the spring of 1991, Marie had an opportunity to participate in a Sister-City visit to the Russian Far East. she soon discovered that what she thought would be a once in a lifetime experience was only the first step in an ongoing series of events that has bound her life to a people and culture which she has come to deeply love and respect. One visit led to another and soon she was given an opportunity to work with two Russian-American women’s centers. Her heart was deeply touched by the generosity, kindness, and openness of the people she met. She discovered that, like people everywhere, many Russians are very spiritually-minded, and whenever they took a break from the center’s daily business people asked her about her faith and about spiritual healing. Sharing Christian Science with them became a natural activity that enriched her life and touched many lives, even though sometimes only in passing. She loved working at the women’s centers, but it was a short-term project and she found herself longing to return to Russia and continue sharing Christian Science, but not knowing how or when she might have another opportunity

In 1999, Marie became a fulltime Christian Science practitioner and was delighted to discover that through this work her connection with the Russian people continued to grow. For many years she read about Hildegard Arnesen’s work in Russia with great interest, sometimes thinking what a privilege it would be to share in this work. Life is full of amazing surprises, and she finds herself filled with wonder and gratitude that she has been given the opportunity to work alongside Hildegard sharing this vital Science with spiritual seekers in the Russian-speaking field. The closing stanza of a poem written by Jane Borthwick has become her prayer: "Let all that now unites us, more sweet and lasting prove, a closer bond of union, in a blest land of love." (Hymn 196 in the Christian Science Hymnal)

Marie has committed to a minimum of three months each year to serve as Christian Science practitioner, teacher and lecturer in the Russian-speaking field.

return to top of page

Marie Helm

Marie and friends in her St. Petersburg apartment.

Genadi Shcherbanev
Genadi was born in the Northern Caucausus in the large Cossack village of Yst-Jegytinskaya near Stavropolsk. Later his family moved to Kazakstan. After graduating from a professional technical school, he moved to Ural, where he studied for his Masters degree in industrial education at a teacher's training
college. After three years of study, he was called to serve in the armed forces of the Soviet Union, and returned to finish his studies when the military service ended. After completing the degree, he worked as an instructor of industrial production at a professional technical school in Alma-Ata. There he graduated from Alma-Ata's institute of economic development and worked as an economist in Yst-Komenogorski's lead-zinc factory.

In 1986 he moved to the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), where he now lives. Here he worked as an instructor in professional technical school. In 1992 an acquaintance invited him to a Sunday church service where he first learned of Christian Science. He reports: "My life then quickly changed and I became a different person." Through the practice of Christian Science he left behind the use of material medicines, tobacco and alcohol.

He now has a wonderful job working with children in a children's shelter where Christian Science has been a helpful support in his work. He recently wrote: "I am grateful to God for Christian Science, for through it I am able to have a wonderful apartment and a harmonious life."