Projects and Achievements

Financial Support
Metaphysical Support
Events
Publications
Broadcast
Website

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

• In 2000, The Committee to Support the St. Petersburg Church, later to incorporate as The Spiritual Resource Foundation, helped purchase and furnish a beautiful, centrally located space for church services and a Reading Room in Saint Petersburg, Russia. When the members found that they could not pay the utilities and taxes on the space, the Foundation bought and renovated an adjoining apartment, which is now providing income to support the Society and other Christian Science activities in Russia. [photo]

• In 2004, contributions were made to help the first-ever Ukrainian Christian Science Society, in the Black Sea port city of Kherson, purchase and renovate a commercial space for their church services and Reading Room. The Foundation was able to provide roughly half of what they needed, and the rest was provided by The Mother Church and spontaneous contributions from individuals. [photo]

• In 2004, The Mother Church received a request from The Technical Academy of Armenia to provide a lecture on Mary Baker Eddy for a conference they were sponsoring. The Mother Church provided funding for Dr. Arnesen to go to St. Petersburg and the Foundation paid for transportation. It was so well received that she was made an honorary member of the Academy and invited to give a lecture/workshop on Healing in 2005 to a group of scientists, doctors and psychologists. This presentation was unexpectedly well received and a member of the Academy gave a talk on Mary Baker Eddy at a later symposium. Members of the Academy were provided funds by the Foundation to set up a Reading Room where they could meet and study Christian Science. The Foundation met this request and also provided them with a computer to help in their study. They have tried to register as a church, but the law requires that they have 500 members before they can register, so they are meeting as a ‘metaphysical society.’ [photo]

• In 2005, shortly after the Yerevan Lecture, the first Lecture/Workshop was given in Tbilisi, Georgia. The Foundation paid for the Lecturer’s transportation and for attendees to travel to Tbilisi for this event. Lectures were given in Russian and English. A group began meeting after the lectures and one new member is now translating Science and Health into Georgian. The Foundation provided him with a computer for this purpose.

• In 2006 the Foundation provided funding for Dr. Arnesen to go to St. Petersburg to negotiate printing of the 2006 Russian Language Herald.

• In 2006 the Foundation also provided transportation for a Mother Church representative to accompany the Lecturer, Marie Helm, CSB, to travel to Ukhta, Russia to provide additional support to the informal group there.

METAPHYSICAL SUPPORT

The foundation quickly discovered that financial support of the activities in the Russian-speaking field satisfied only a small part of the needs of the groups there. Many obstacles have been encountered that financial support could not overcome. The primary one is government resistance to recognizing any ‘foreign’ religion as a legal entity. Without this recognition groups cannot register, which means that they cannot rent or own property, buy or sell literature or in some cases even advertise a public lecture. In late 2006 the Russian Duma passed a law requiring all churches and NGOs to report the names of every person attending every meeting and the amount of money they contribute. This has the effect of scaring people away from church meetings. For several years a group of Christian Scientists in the Olympia, Washington area have been working as a metaphysical committee to help the groups in the Russian-speaking field overcome these obstacles. Out of this committee work, and requests from these groups for contact with experienced Christian Scientists, the ‘Sister Church’ project has evolved.

The Sister Church Project. As groups form with interest in Christian Science, they reach out for help to learn more about basic church functions such as reading the Lesson and how to conduct services. The Foundation has set up a network of churches that have offered to provide this help. Many more churches have responded to this project than there are groups in the Russian-speaking field so these churches have been asked to be part of a large ‘metaphysical support committee’ until they can be united with a ‘sister’ group or society. Ralph Emerson is chairing this committee and keeping all the ‘sisters’ informed of the current and on-going needs for prayerful support of the field. As our lecturers visit each group they introduce the project to them and explore its possibilities. We have great expectations for growth from this adventure.

EVENTS

•In 2003, close collaboration with Christian Science Churches in Germany, helped bring a large delegation of Christian Scientists to the 2003 Annual Meeting & Conference in Berlin. Attendees from Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia and Poland gained a much broader view of the Christian Science movement and came away greatly inspired by the experience. [photo]

• In 2005, the Foundation helped subsidize a booth at the Moscow International Book Fair. Some Book Fair attendees expressed an interest in knowing more about Christian Science and having meetings. Dr. Arnesen, made several trips to Moscow to help them get started and when she returned to the US, the Foundation sponsored a member of the Christian Science Society in Kherson, Ukraine to live in Moscow for three months to help the group grow in their understanding of Christian Science. The Foundation will continue to support these Book Fairs.

• In 2005, the first Lecture/Workshop was given in Tbilisi, Georgia.  The Foundation provided funds for attendees to travel to Tbilisi for this event.  Lectures were given in Russian and English.  A group began meeting after the lectures and one new member is now translating Science and Health into Georgian.

• The 2007 Lecture schedule included the following:

• March 17th – Ryazan, Russia
• March 24th – Riga, Latvia
• March 31st – Ukhta, Russia
• April 7th – Moscow, Russia
• April 14th – St. Petersburg, Russia

PUBLICATIONS

• In 2003, a project was launched to add one of Mrs. Eddy's biographies -- Persistent Pilgrim: The Life of Mary Baker Eddy by Richard Nenneman -- to the current collection of Russian translations. These include: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Manual of The Mother Church, No and Yes, and Rudimental Divine Science, all by Mary Baker Eddy. There are also an abbreviated Christian Science Hymnal, several special printings of The Christian Science Herald, and a few articles from periodicals. The printing of the biography is scheduled for December 2007.

• In 2005, the diaries of the Russian composer, Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) were published in Paris, France. The Foundation purchased the diaries for a Christian Science scholar who will write an article on Prokofiev’s life as a Christian Scientist. The article will be translated into English for publication in a future Russian Herald.

• In 2005 Dr Krapivin, a history professor at the University of St. Petersburg, received a grant from the Foundation to research the KGB files in St. Petersburg and Moscow, which, according to Dr. Krapivin, contained more information on Christian Science activities than any other church in the Soviet Era. He had previously written a monograph on the early Christian Scientists from 1905 until 1929 when they were all sent to the Gulag. He has produced a 400+ page document which has been printed in St. Petersburg. A copy of this document will be presented to the Mary Baker Eddy library. Sections will be translated for interested scholars.

• The Foundation is partnering with the Christian Science Publishing Society to help fund the publication of future printings of the Russian Herald. The Christian Science Publishing Society will edit and copyright each issue and the Foundation will have them printed in Russia. Three thousand copies were printed under this arrangement in the Fall of 2006. These Heralds are primarily being sold or given away at Lecture/workshops and to shortwave broadcast listeners, who request information on Christian Science. Our representative in St. Petersburg is in charge of distribution. The Foundation is also paying for a project manager for Herald production in Russia. The first printing was totally funded by a single donor who is also willing to fund the second edition. It is our hope that these printings will continue on a regular basis. Much gratitude has been expressed by Christian Scientists in the Russian-speaking field for these Heralds.

• Requests have come from several groups and Christian Science Societies for materials to use in their Sunday Schools. The Foundation had three children’s books translated into Russian, glued the Russian translations into the books and sent them. One offer of books from an individual came the same day as a request came from Latvia. The response to our request for children’s books has been so great that we now have all the materials we need for some time to come. Spiritual Resources at work!

BROADCASTS

In 2004, The Christian Science Publishing Society discontinued all Russian shortwave radio broadcasts. In short order, a dedicated group of Christian Scientists in Germany stepped in to continue Russian broadcasts of the Bible Lesson and Herald program repeats from a station in Germany. The Foundation has since taken over funding of these broadcasts on a greatly reduced scale. The Foundation has contracted Russian speaking Christian Scientists in Ukraine to record the Lesson Sermon in Russian for broadcast from Germany and for inclusion in our website for Russian listeners. The Foundation also hired one of the members of the St. Petersburg Society to be its representative and respond to requests from listeners for information and literature on Christian Science. Many Textbooks have been requested and sent. Of the 1994 printing of 10,000 Textbooks, less than 3,000 remain. The next printing may become another project for the Foundation.

WEBSITE

In 2005, the Foundation established this English/Russian website. It is heartening to learn that Russian speakers in the US and in the Russian-speaking world are listening to the Lesson Sermon on the website.