ON Monday, August 30, the St. Petersburg Department of the Ministry of Justice announced that the Christian Science Society in St. Petersburg is now legally reregistered. The announcement marks the end of a diligent two-year effort to gain reregistration as a religious organization and not an informal group. Originally registered in 1994, the society was required to reregister after the passage of a new law restricting religious freedom in 1997.
When asked to comment on the Ministry's decision, one of the delegates from the Christian Science Society replied, "I felt much relieved, of course. All along I had imagined that one day she (the inspector) would say, 'Come and see me, you have been reregistered.' I had rehearsed that so many times, that when it actually happened, I was not surprised anymore, but simply said, 'All right, I will come right now.' "
A three-part series on the history of Christian Science in Russia appeared in the Journal from April through June 1999.
