CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH BORROWS $45M FOR BILLS.(Main)

Byline: Associated Press

The Christian Science Church borrowed $45 million from reserve accounts, including a pension fund and a restricted endowment fund, to pay off bills, officials said.

"We have paid our bills in the past," said church spokesman Nathan Talbot, "and we will not let ourselves be put in a situation where we can't pay our bills."

Church officials also announced some replacements for four senior editors of religious periodicals who resigned last week in a dispute over the church's direction.

The church said it shifted $20 million from a restricted endowment fund established to subsidize its Christian Science Monitor newspaper.

The church ran into cash problems because of large expenses from building the Monitor Channel, the church's cable television network, and other broadcasting operations. Critics say the network has consumed about $500 million over the last five years, The Boston Globe reported Saturday.

"Working funds" used to pay expenses were cut in half over the last five years to $117 million last spring, and were exhausted Dec. 31, sources told the Globe.

Officials of the Committee on Publication, the church's legal and public affairs arm, acknowledged that $5 million was borrowed from the trustees under the will of Mary Baker Eddy, who administer the estate of the church's founder.

In addition, they said another $20 million has been borrowed from the church's pension fund.

While confirming the amount of borrowing, church officials didn't disclose any details.

"We have done everything according to proper procedures, and this has been checked by legal counsel inside and outside the church," Talbot said.