Christian Science church exec: Cuts over

Boston Herald/December 8, 2004
By Marie Szaniszlo

After a year of financial turmoil, the cutbacks at the First Church of Christ, Scientist are "largely completed,'' said its new board chairwoman yesterday.

"There will be tweaks, but . . . fundamentally, you're going to see us staying the course,'' said Mary Trammell, whose roles include editor-in-chief of The Christian Science Journal, the Christian Science Sentinel and The Herald of Christian Science.

Trammell of Coral Gables, Fla., was elected head of the church's five-member Board of Directors after her predecessor, Virginia S. Harris, retired Saturday after 12 years as chairwoman, a position that will now rotate annually.

"It is a tremendous responsibility,'' Trammell said. "And this allows us to share the weight of that.''

Harris headed the board during a period that included the construction of the $50 million Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity, named for the church's founder, and a $55 million renovation of its Huntington Avenue headquarters.

This year, the church cut more than 120 jobs, scaled back its Pulitzer Prize-winning Christian Science Monitor and sold its shortwave station, WSHB, South Carolina, after expenses exceeded revenues in fiscal 2003 by almost $8 million, its first financial loss in a decade.

"Our thought is to hone and adapt each one of the vehicles (the church) has developed so that it's the most useful and responsive to the needs of the 21st century,'' Trammell said.