Are you wondering how to navigate these tumultuous times?

The news media only seem to heighten fear and leave everything up to chance. Is there a better way?

Join us for a series of interviews with forward thinking Christian Scientists addressing contemporary issues. Each interview will last 30 minutes followed by 15 minutes of live Q & A with the speaker. Events will be available live through Zoom at 6 p.m. Pacific Time. You can also listen by phone to the interview. Interviews will be available for replay after the event.

David Cook, Interviewer

David Cook joined The Christian Science Monitor’s staff in 1969 and served as Editor of The Monitor from 1994 to 2001. During that time, csmonitor.com was launched and the paper won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting. He then served for 15 years as Senior Editor and Washington Bureau Chief. From 2001 to 2017 Cook also hosted The Monitor’s Washington newsmaker breakfasts, presiding over 672 of them with guests including Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Susan Collins, Nancy Pelosi and Colin Powell. In December 2017 David and his wife, Linda, moved to The Willows.

Thinking Forward Series: The 2024 Election and the MOnitor’s Steady, Clear-eyed view With guest, Francine Kiefer, West Coast bureau chief, hosted by David Cook, former editor

Francine Kiefer is based in the Los Angeles area as the West Coast Bureau Chief for The Christian Science Monitor. She is an award-winning journalist and on the board of the Los Angeles Press Club. She also has a long journalistic history in Washington, most recently as the Monitor’s Congressional Correspondent and earlier as White House correspondent – covering the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In between those two assignments, she served as commentary editor and editorial writer, also in Washington. In 1989, Francine reported on the fall of the Berlin Wall as the Monitor’s correspondent in Germany. In her early career she was a business reporter. She joined the Monitor in 1980.

Francine also worked for nearly five years as the National Editor for The San Jose Mercury News in California’s Silicon Valley. She holds a BA in English literature from Smith College and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Goucher College. She has taught workshops on opinion writing at George Washington University and other colleges.

THINKING FORWARD SERIES: DAVID COOK INTERVIEWS ANNE COOLING - The Committee On Publication: Responding To The World as it is Today REPLAY HERE

ANNE COOLING is a Christian Science Practitioner and Committee on Publication for Southern California. She is a member of The Mother Church and the branch church in Laguna Niguel, California. Anne has completed her Master of Arts in Theology at the New Theological Seminary of the West with her Master’s thesis on Christian healing. She has served on the boards of Broadview and Sunland, Christian Science Nursing Facilities and was a Christian Science Assistant Nurse at High Haven. Anne has written articles in the press and the periodicals. She has given Association addresses and other talks for the Christian Science community, including Bible talks here at The Willows, at Principia Summer Session and within her branch church. She has been involved for years in interfaith and ecumenical dialogues, also giving talks in these venues.

Thinking Forward Series: David Cook interviews Paul Collins on The Promise of God's Economy

Paul Collins founded American Trust Investment Advisors in 1991, a company dedicated to helping clients invest in companies consistent with their values. Mr. Collins was one of the founders of the Charitable Trust Department at State Street Bank and helped it grow over a five-year period to be the largest of its kind in the United States. Mr. Collins has served on numerous for-profit and non-profit boards, and currently serves as board chair of Tenacity – a literacy and fitness-based afterschool program for inner city youth. He teaches Sunday School in his local Christian Science branch church.

Jill Grimes & David Cook i Thinking Beyond the Headlines

Jill Grimes is a life-long Christian Scientist and resident of The Willows. A native Californian, Jill has been in the public practice of Christian Science healing for over 30 years. Six years on the Board of Lectureship took Jill across the country from coast to coast along with her husband Paul Grimes, C.S.B., lecturing and addressing Christian Science Associations—her most recent one via Zoom. There’s nothing like interacting with people essentially 24/7 in the healing work—poised metaphysically and primed spiritually. What better preparation for a metaphysician in today’s challenging times.

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Click here for resources from last night’s event

Julie Finnin Day i 05.26.22 i Out of the Shadows i The Blessing of Caring for Loved Ones with Special Needs

Julie Finnin Day is the chair and executive director of Rainbow Valley Resource Network, a nonprofit organization serving Christian Scientists with developmental special needs and their families. As a mother who has the privilege of raising a child with that label, Julie has seen how a spiritual view can lift all of us above the limitations of identifying with mortality, no matter what label we might face.

Before taking up this role, Julie worked as an editor and writer for several news organizations, including The Christian Science Monitor and The Associated Press, and later home-schooled her two children. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband Ryan and their children Elliott and Sabine.

Click here for recommended resources from Julie Finnin Day

Dr. Joan Bernard Bradley i 3.24.22 i How a Good Education and Brotherly Love Can Contribute to Social Justice

Dr. Joan Bernard Bradley is a former school principal and professor of education. She also served Principia for 9 years as a faculty member on both the college and St. Louis campuses. Her doctorate is in Educational Leadership and Administration.

Joan has contributed a number of articles to the Christian Science periodicals and The Monitor’s Religious Perspective column. Two of her articles on education and social justice are entitled: "Brotherly love and fairness in education" and "Building a just society through God’s love.”

Currently, Joan offers Bible Connections Leadership Workshops that show how to apply lessons learned from Bible role models to improve our practice of leadership.

She is enjoying her recent move to Laguna Hills, California, and for fun, she loves to visit her sons and their families in the Cayman Islands, Michigan, and Toronto.

Click here for recommended resources from Dr. Bradley

Bruce Jeffrey I 10.21.21 I Practicing Inspired Benevolence

Bruce Jeffrey is Executive Director at The Principle Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri, a nonprofit organization that offers modest grants to Christian Scientists in need of financial assistance. The Principle Foundation also administers the National Fund for Christian Science Nursing. In his time there, Bruce has worked with hundreds of Christian Scientists who find themselves needing financial assistance.

Bruce is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and has served as both a navigator on B-52's and as an instructor at the Academy. His Masters degree is from the University of Wisconsin. He has worked as a manager, trainer, consultant and coach for leaders and executives in businesses small and large.

Bruce is a life-long Christian Scientist. At various times, he has served as Sunday School teacher, usher, Clerk, meeting leader, first and second Reader, and as a member of his Church's Board.

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Shannon Horst i 8.5.21 I Humanity & The Environment I Reasoning Further Together

Shannon Horst has an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s School of Languages and Linguistics. In the mid-1980’s, Shannon was Africa Affairs editor for The Christian Science Monitor, where she worked on a number of series on the developing world.

In serving the Cause of Christian Science, she has been Committee on Publication for New Mexico, Media Training Manager in the Boston headquarters of the Committees on Publication, and currently is director of service programs for The Principle Foundation, which provides temporary financial assistance to Christian Scientists.

In between these church-related assignments, Shannon spent 25 years in the fields of sustainable agriculture and wildlife management. She was co-founder and CEO of the Savory Institute whose mission is “to regenerate the grasslands of the world and the livelihoods of their inhabitants”.

She also has served as Executive Director of Tree New Mexico, the state’s premier private, non-profit urban tree planting organization which has planted more than 1 million trees in communities across the state.

In addition, Shannon has written on environmental topics for the Christian Science Sentinel and the Monitor. In 2019, she and her mother published a book, “The Delicate Balance”-- a work of fiction about what could happen if humanity were really forced to get serious about climate change.

Click here for Resources from Shannon Horst

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Marshall Ingwerson i 06.17.21 i The Arc of Progress

Marshall Ingwerson is the former Editor of The Christian Science Monitor and a career journalist who recently served three and a half years as Chief Executive of Principia. As a journalist, he was a reporter based in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC – covering the George HW Bush and Clinton White Houses – and then Moscow. His coverage of the oil boom around the Caspian Sea won an Overseas Press Club citation in 1997. He was brought back to Boston by then-Editor David Cook. He served there as managing editor for 14 years before becoming Editor.
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Shannon Horst i 04.22.21 i What Blesses One Blesses All - Humanity and the Environment

In the mid-1980’s, Shannon was the Africa Affairs editor for The Christian Science Monitor, where she worked on a number of series on the developing world. She has also been Committee on Publication for New Mexico, Media Training Manager in the Boston headquarters of the Committees on Publication, and currently is director of service programs for The Principle Foundation, which provides temporary financial assistance to Christian Scientists.

Shannon spent 25 years in the fields of sustainable agriculture and wildlife management. She was co-founder and CEO of the Savory Institute. Its mission is “to regenerate the grasslands of the world and the livelihoods of their inhabitants” through a management process that aims to strategically mimic Nature. She also has served as Executive Director of Tree New Mexico, the state’s premier private, non-profit urban tree planting organization. The organization’s partners and volunteers have planted more than 1 million trees in communities in Shannon’s home state.

Shannon also has written several times in recent years on environmental topics for the Christian Science Sentinel and the Monitor. In 2019, she and her mother published a book, “The Delicate Balance.” This work of fiction weaves a tale around the question: What would happen if humanity were really forced to get serious about climate change?

Click here for the RESOURCES from Shannon Horst

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Clara Germani I 2.18.21 I A Perspective on Race and Racism

Clara Germani has been a reporter and editor at The Christian Science Monitor, Baltimore Sun, The Orange County Register and New England Center for Investigative Reporting. Her work – often focused on the oppressed – has taken her from the Siberian Arctic where she covered indigenous reindeer herders trying to be capitalists after the fall of Communism to Haiti, the world's only nation created by a slave revolt. Between 2017 and 2019, she studied at Washington University in St. Louis for an American Studies master's degree, focusing on race and inequality. She recently moved with her family back to her native Southern California, where she grew up in the Imperial Valley and attended USC.

Click here for the RESOURCES from Clara Germani

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Lona Ingwerson I 12.17.20 I What's Love Got To Do With It?

Lona Ingwerson is a Christian Science practitioner from Laguna Beach, California. She is a lifelong Christian Scientist, and a former member of the Board of Lectureship. Prior to entering the public practice of Christian Science she was an actress, having appeared in motion pictures, on stage, in radio and on television. She has been published in the Christian Science periodicals over 65 times.

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Paul Collins I 11.19.20 I Financial Security During Uncertain Times

Paul Collins is President of American Trust Investment Advisors. He co-founded American Trust Company, the predecessor business to ATIA, in 1991, Mr. Collins worked in the Investment Division of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts for eight years. He then joined State Street Bank as a Senior Trust Officer. He also served on State Street’s Investment Policy Committee. Besides managing over three hundred trusts, Mr. Collins also managed the investments of four of State Street’s common trust funds. He graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a major in Economics.

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Jill Grimes I 10.20.20 I The Elections: Standing on Holy Ground!

Jill Grimes is a life-long Christian Scientist who recently became a resident of The Willows. A native Californian, Jill has been in the public practice of Christian Science healing for over 30 years. Six years on the Board of Lectureship took Jill across the country from coast to coast along with her husband Paul Grimes, C.S.B., lecturing and addressing Christian Science Associations—her most recent one via Zoom. There’s nothing like interacting with people essentially 24/7 in the healing work—poised metaphysically and primed spiritually. What better preparation for a metaphysician in today’s challenging times.