Press Release

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FOR RELEASE:
AUGUST 5, 2003

Contact:	Ethel Baker
	Manager, Public Communications

Office: 617-450-3082
Mobile: 617-510-8596

The Christian Science Board of Directors Appoints a New Publisher of The Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Board of Directors has elected M. Victor Westberg of Los Altos, California, to be a director. Mr. Westberg succeeds John L. Selover, who passed away August 1, as a member of the five-person Board and as Manager of The Christian Science Publishing Society, which publishes The Christian Science Monitor.

“John expanded the Monitor’s reach, increased its visibility, and established a new standard of excellence,” said Virginia Harris, the Board’s chairman. “These are big shoes to fill, and Vic has the experience, dedication, and spiritual strength to fill them.”

Mr. Westberg, who flew combat missions for the US Navy during the Korean War, started a wholesale distribution company that eventually became one of the leading toy distributors in the state of California. He then left the business world, donating the company to its employees, to become a full-time Christian Science practitioner – the term commonly used to describe a professional who utilizes the teachings of Christian Science to heal individuals through prayer.

Westberg has since spent much of his time in his native California, holding a variety of positions in service to the well-being of humanity – serving as a prison chaplain, a co-founder of a school and home for the mentally disabled, and an advisor to Christian Science organizations for university students in the San Francisco Bay Area. From 1985 through 1992, Westberg was Committee on Publication for Northern California. From 1992 through 1998, he held the position of Manager, Committees on Publication for The First Church of Christ, Scientist.

Since then, Westberg has served as assistant manager of The Christian Science Publishing Society and as President of the Church’s Board of Education, which selects and trains Christian Science practitioners to be teachers of Christian Science. In both roles, Westberg worked with, and reported to, Mr. Selover.

“The founder of this newspaper, Mary Baker Eddy, said that the Monitor’s mission was ‘To injure no man, but to bless all mankind,’” said Westberg. “John greatly enhanced this newspaper’s ability to make good on that mandate, and I look forward to building on his legacy.”

The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, author of the pioneering work on spirituality and healing, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and Founder of The Church of Christ, Scientist. In the ensuing decades, the Monitor has built a peerless reputation for fairness and impartiality, and won virtually every major journalistic award, including seven Pulitzer Prizes. It has eight domestic and ten foreign bureaus – more than all but a handful of newspapers in the world. It is also one of the few remaining major media outlets not owned by a conglomerate. Its Web site, csmonitor.com, receives over three million unique visitors each month.

The Christian Science Board of Directors was established by Mrs. Eddy not only to manage the day-to-day operations of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, but to oversee the publication of her writings, and to support the practice of Christian Science throughout the world. Christian Science is a proven system of healing based on prayer that can be practiced by anyone, regardless of faith tradition, to heal physical conditions, financial troubles, relationship problems – indeed, any challenge of the human condition. Its most in-depth explanation can be found in Science and Health.

As Manager of The Christian Science Publishing Society, Westberg will also oversee the publication of the Christian Science religious magazines – The Christian Science Journal, a monthly; the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly; The Christian Science Quarterly; and The Christian Science Herald, printed monthly in four languages, and quarterly in nine other languages.

Westberg graduated from San Jose State University, where he studied economics and marketing.



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