Church board names new director

The Christian Science Board of Directors has elected Mary Weldon Ridgway of Dallas as a member of the board, effective July 1, succeeding Olga Chaffee.

Mrs. Chaffee, who had served on the board since 1990, is retiring. "In her service as director and clerk of the Mother Church, Olga has embraced hundreds of branch churches and thousands of members on every continent," says Virginia Harris, the board's chairman. "Her warm heart, irrepressible sense of humor, and keen insight will be greatly missed."

The Christian Science Board of Directors is the five-member, self-perpetuating body that transacts the business of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, which publishes this newspaper.

Mrs. Ridgway will serve as clerk, the office that cares for members and branch churches in more than 70 countries.

She also will oversee the Board of Lectureship that provides talks to the public about Christian Science and its founder, Mary Baker Eddy.

"Mary's abundant energy and spiritual acumen will make a wonderful contribution to the board and to the activities she will oversee," Mrs. Harris says.

Ridgway has been in the public practice of Christian Science healing since 1987 and has been a teacher of Christian Science since 1991. From 1995 to 1998, she was second reader of The Mother Church. Before being named a director, Ridgway was chairman of the church's Board of Lectureship. Ridgway and her husband, Curt, have four grown daughters.

Chaffee moved to Boston from her home in Houston in 1988 to serve as editor of the Spanish- and English-language broadcast activities of The Herald of Christian Science. Earlier, she lectured widely on Christian Science in her native Spanish as well as in English and Portuguese.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor