Attack on Mother Church

Last December a curious nine-page letter landed in the mailboxes of Christian Science practitioners and local church leaders. It warned that the faith's Boston headquarters was rife with "gross mismanagement, inexperience and lack of Christian ethics." Unless "the Field" demanded a housecleaning, the letter said, the religion could virtually disappear within a decade.

In the serenely authoritarian world of Christian Science, rarely had such a challenge been issued against officials of the Mother Church. Its author is Reginald G. Kerry, 62, a straitlaced former restaurateur and police-and fire-commission member in Santa Barbara, Calif, and devout Scientist for 40 years. In 1973, Kerry came to the Boston headquarters as a consultant on security. He learned about other matters, however, and decided to tell all.

Attacking the optimistic generalities of official church reports, Kerry charged that the number of practitioners--healing counselors who are the closest thing to clergy in Christian Science--is less than half what it was 20 years ago, 500 churches and societies have disbanded since 1972, and 500 of the 3,000 that remain are on the brink of closing. Worldwide membership, he reported, is about 195,000, substantially less than previous outside estimates.

Bump Incomes. Kerry put much of the blame on officials. Troubled churches write in for help and their pleas go unanswered, he claimed, and devout practitioners receive abusive letters. The all-powerful five-member Board of Directors, he added, avoids urgent matters. Even so, he said, the directors are paid $54,000 a year--appreciably more than the top executives of larger church groups--and are able to bump their average incomes up to $100,000 a year with copyright and other income as trustees for the estate of Founder Mary Baker Eddy, as well as various additional fees.

The directors' cautiously crafted reply to recipients of the Kerry letter ignored some charges and insisted that others "verge on conscious dishonesty." They said their annual incomes were "far less" than Kerry's $100,000 estimate, but granted that financial reserves had been "seriously depleted" in order to build the Boston church center. Last week a spokesman added that the Kerry figures on membership and failing churches were distorted. Apparently undeterred, Kerry wants his fellow Scientists to demand a special investigation and insist on "an honest and thorough account" of church conditions at the annual June meeting in Boston.

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