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News Release on new President of Christian Science Church

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Argentinean New President of the Worldwide Christian Science Church

Boston, MA, USA-  Juan Carlos Lavigne of Olivos, Argentina recently became
the first Latin American to be appointed President of The First Church of
Christ, Scientist in Boston.  As President, he presided over this year's
annual meeting of members, will open the annual meeting in 1997, and will
take on special assignments from The Christian Science Board of Directors.
 Speaking to some 3,000 members in attendance at this year's meeting in
Boston, Mr. Lavigne pointed out, "To the degree that God's love becomes
closer and more real to us, our capacity to love expands.  It overflows the
limits of individual affection, and we embrace our community and the world. .
. . We . . . pray for others.  We cannot help but recognize and embrace those
reaching out."
 Beginning his study of Christian Science after witnessing healings in his
own family, Mr. Lavigne left 25 years as an account executive and associate
producer in the advertising business, to become, in 1974, a Christian Science
practitioner engaged in full-time healing activity.  In 1982, he became a
teacher of Christian Science.  He was for many years the information officer
representing Christian Science churches in Argentina and a member of The
Christian Science Board of Lectureship giving lectures in English, Spanish,
and Portuguese.   
 Stressing the importance of appreciating church as more than a physical
structure or a human organization, Mr. Lavigne told the annual meeting, "The
idea of God and man, united and inseparable, is the center of the unique
theology that originated and sustains church.  We enter the church in the
measure that we experience Christ's regenerative power."  
 He also reminded church members of the provision in the Church Manual by
Mary Baker Eddy that as their lives commemorate the words and works of Christ
Jesus, they receive the moral courage to fulfill the true mission of the
Christian Science Church to ". . . reinstate primitive Christianity and its
lost element of healing."  He added, "We eagerly put the book which contains
the divine Science of the Comforter promised by Jesus,-Science and Health
with Key to the Scriptures by Mary  Baker Eddy- into the hands of those to
whom it really belongs:  into the hands of humanity.
 "It's the understanding that God loves us that gives our church experiences
substance and purpose," he concluded.  "And it's love in the church that Mary
Baker Eddy envisioned."
 Although founded in the United States by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879,  today
there are Christian Science churches in 67 countries throughout the world
with 16 in Argentina including Buenos Aires, the federal district, Salta,
Santa Fe, and Rio Negro provinces.  There are also 32 Christian Science
practitioners in the country who give their full time to healing activities
and who advertise in The Christian Science Journal,  a monthly publication of
The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, USA.
                                              ###
CONTACT: Michael Born, Christian Science Committee on Publication Office,
Boston, MA, USA; TEL: (617)450-3321 or
e-mail: WMBorn@aol.com

6-18-96