Homes for Herons Sarah Orne Jewett, George Inness, and Swedenborgian Ecology

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By Devin Zuber borders of the pages where Swedenbor- gian theories of “the language of na- s some readers of the Messenger ture” were being propounded: a fit- might already know, I am com- A pleting a book that explores the [A]t the heart of both impact of Emanuel Swedenborg’s ideas Jewett’s short story and on American environmental imaginar- modeled in Inness’s ies—the collective ways that a diverse canvasses is a personalized group of nineteenth century authors, spiritualization of nature painters, and poets imagined and de- imbued with Swedenborgian picted nature as a location for spiritual overtones . . . . experience. This reading of the spiritual within the natural—facilitated ting example, I believe, that illustrat- by adaptations and creative responses ed how Swedenborgian theology came to Swedenborg’s well-known doctrine to braid emergent American ecological of correspondences— thought and environ- patterned a substantial mental conservation. body of literature and My book proceeds painting that carried, more or less chronologi- and continues to car- cally, and the chapter af- ry, particular environ- ter Muir turns towards mental import. The last a group of paintings and time that I wrote for the short fiction created in Messenger, I shared my the decade that followed research-in-progress in Muir’s illustrative anno- the John Muir Archives tations of Swedenbor- at the University of the gian literature. This cur- Pacific in Stockton, rent chapter in-progress California, where I was examines a famous sto- tracing how Muir— ry written by the region- that quintessential icon George Inness, “The Home of the Heron” (1893), Art Institute of Chicago alist author Sarah Orne of wilderness conserva- Jewett entitled “A White tion—responded to Swedenborgian ery of several unknown sketches that Heron” (published in 1886), and a thought. My study of Muir’s nota- Muir had done outdoors, in-situ, of Si- group of paintings of the same birds tions and marginalia in various Swe- erra Nevada mountain peaks and al- created by the Swedenborgian land- denborgian texts included the discov- pine lakes, delicately positioned in the Continues on page 4

Briefly, . . . Toward a Newer Church, part t2 SCYL Teen Winter Retreatt COMSU Says Hello More Inside Diverse Faiths Coming Together in EdmontontNews from SHStEbola, Fear, and God Contents: page 2 2015 SCYL Officers ElectedtHow Would My Parents Recognize Me? 2 the Messenger January 2015

The Editor’s Desk it has an internal one. From the exter- all the beauties of literature. I guess in nal point of view it means that the in- a sense Edgar Allan Poe was talking dividuals involved must avoid external about eros when he talked about his In this month of physical violence. So they don’t have beautiful Annabelle Lee, with the love the holiday honoring guns, they don’t retaliate with physical surrounded by the halo of eternity. In Rev. Dr. Martin Luther violence. If they are hit in the process, a sense Shakespeare was talking about King, Jr., he will speak they avoid external physical violence at eros when he said, to us about the mean- every point. But it also means that they Love is not love / Which alters when ing of love in a way that echoes what avoid inter nal violence of spirit. This it alteration finds, / Or bends with Emanuel Swedenborg says about love. is why the love ethic stands so high in the remover to remove / O no; It is Rev. Dr. King believed it was not the student movement. We have a great an ever-fixed mark, / That looks on enough to be non-violent. He preached deal of talk about love and nonvio lence tempests, and is never shaken; / It that you must love your enemy as well in this whole thrust. is the star to every wandering bark. as your neighbor. In 1961, he spoke to “Now when the students talk “(You know, I remember that be- the Fellowship of the Concerned. about love, certainly they are not talk- cause I used to quote it to this little ing about emotional bosh, they are lady when we were courting; that’s “Those who adhere to or follow this not talking about merely a sentimen- eros.) The Greek lan guage talks about philosophy [of non-violence] must fol- tal outpouring; they’re talking some- Continues on page 5 low a consistent principle of noninjury. thing much deeper, and I always have They must consistently refuse to inflict to stop and try to define the meaning injury upon another. Sometimes you of love in this context. The Greek lan- will read the literature of the student guage comes to our aid in trying to the Messenger movement and see that, as they are deal with this. There are three words © The Swedenborgian Church of North America Published monthly except July and August by getting ready for the sit-in or stand-in, in the Greek language for love; one is the Communications Support Unit of the Swe- they will read something like this, ‘If the word eros. This is a beautiful type denborgian Church of North America (founded 1817, incorporated 1861 as the General Conven- you are hit do not hit back, if you are of love, it is an aesthetic love. Plato tion of the New Jerusalem in the United States of cursed do not curse back.’ This is the talks about it a great deal in his Dia- America), Ken Turley, president. whole idea, that the individual who is logue, the yearning of the soul for the January 2015 Volume 237, No. 1, Whole Number 5396 en gaged in a nonviolent struggle must realm of the divine. It has come to us Editor, design and production: Herbert Ziegler never inflict injury upon another. to be a sort of romantic love, and so Copy editing and proofing: Robert Leith, Renée “Now this has an external aspect and in a sense we have read about it and Hellenbrecht, & Trevor experienced it. We’ve read about it in Communications Support Unit: Kristina Madjerac, Katie Pruiett, & Steve Sanchez Contents Reproduction: Gnomon Copy, Cambridge MA Editorial Address: Homes for Herons To subscribe to Herb Ziegler, the Messenger 2 Hancock Place Sarah Orne Jewett, George Inness, the Messenger Cambridge MA 02139 and Swedenborgian Ecology...... 1 online, scan this Tel: 617.491.5181 The Editor’s Desk ...... 2 image with a QR Email: [email protected] reader on your Letter from the President ...... 3 Business and Subscription Address: cell phone or Briefly, . . . Toward a Newer Church, The Messenger, Central Office tablet. 50 Quincy Street part 2 ...... 4 Cambridge MA 02138 SCYL Teen Winter Retreat ...... 6 Tel: 617.969.4240 2015 SCYL Officers Elected ...... 7 Email: [email protected] COMSU Says Hello ...... 8 Subscriptions: free online subscription at Church Calendar www.swedenborg.org. Printed and mailed to US Foundation Releases Swedenborg’s ࠮ (WYPS !.LULYHS*V\UJPS:WYPUN address, $20/year; to Canada address, $30/year; Life / Faith ...... 8 *VUMLYLUJL*HSS4LL[PUN to all other addresses, $35/year; single copies, ࠮ (WYPS¶!:/::WYPUN)VHYK $2.00, Libraries, prisoners, free. Send check with Diverse Faiths Coming Together address to Central Office. Other requests, write in Edmonton ...... 9 4LL[PUN)LYRLSL`*( Central Office. ࠮ 1\UL¶!.H[OLYPUN3LH]LZ·H How Would My Parents Recognize Me? 14 Deadline for submissions is six weeks before :^LKLUIVYNPHU>VTLU»Z9L[YLH[ Passages ...... 15 the first day of the month of issue. *PUJPUUH[P6/ The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect News from SHS ...... 15 ࠮ 1\UL¶1\S`!(UU\HS*VU]LU[PVU the views of the editor, the Communications Sup- Ebola, Fear, and God ...... 16 )YPKNL^H[LY4( port Unit, or the Swedenborgian Church. 3 the Messenger January 2015

notice, there are usually eyes inside remarking on all that is being passed. Letter In this darkness, with the wind so loud, the clouds fleeing and the trees bowing to keep from from the having their heads taken off, I too bow. I offer my timid greeting, like a newly hired secretary might President summon the courage to hesitantly venture a greeting to the top boss breezing by—filled with inner 2014–15 terror, not so much fear of being destroyed as sim- The Year of Regeneration: ply being disregarded as insignificant. But as the The Way of Change wind passes by, seemingly oblivious, as does the boss, I’m filled with a strange joy at being so close Dear Friends, to such power—to my mind, the wind possessing a Happy New Year to everyone! To begin the new power to which no boss can ever compare. year, a brief personal reflection and then a look back I simply sit huddled, small in my own quiet- in order to look ahead. ness, while the darkness breathes all around me. I Snowblowers are for wimps. After four hours of feel like a tiny seed wedged in the teeth of a run- shoveling snow yesterday I’m feeling good and am ner whose breath is rushing by in gigantic rhyth- not even sore. However, I say that with the full re- mic waves. I hold to the earth a little closer, fear- alization that it is only a matter of time before I re- ing to be dislodged and swallowed at any moment. sign myself to being a wimp! Time passes, the earth continues to draw in huge Either that or I move to Alabama. Still, today gulping breaths, pausing in silent suspension and I look out on the sun shining on the frozen lake, then expelling great drafts that shake the trees. enjoying the wood stove’s gentle warmth with the This breathing continues until, finally, the dark- knowledge that things change. Things that were, ness begins to lift. My eyes probe ever deeper into fade; things that are not yet, await emergence. the space between the trees. The landscape becom- I realize that my relationship with the natural ing a weird collage of blacks and whites and grays. world is in transition. I spend far less time in the I have the odd sensation of watching a bad Italian woods and much more time exploring the undis- film from the 50s. The alders looking like marble covered realms of musical composition. While the pillars in moonlight amidst scattered puffs of snow former is without question better for my body, it is that will soon become the light green of moss. not at all clear which is better for my spirit. Perhaps I so admire the slow, steady, inevitableness of the I need to cultivate a better balanced and gradual dawn. You cannot actually see it happen and yet, it transition. . . . does. No power on earth can stop it. Color creeps With that thought in mind, I share a bit of writ- into the scene before me with infinite patience un- ing I just discovered from my past, a kind of medi- til, finally, with the memory of pitch black still tation on change. To provide the proper context, fresh in the background, the subtle, soothing lumi- you must imagine yourself bundled up in the cold, nescence of the forest warms to life, fills my sens- sitting in the woods in the pitch dark of a 5 AM es, touches my spirit, and leaves me on the verge of winter morning. It is anything but quiet. tears. It is so beautiful that it almost hurts: wonder- fully shaped rocks, their sharp angles softened with “Good morning, God,” I whisper in the dark to moss; the deep blood-red brown of an ever so slow- the wind. It sounds eerily similar to, and returns as ly decaying log; the paisley pattern of fallen, yet much notice as, a subway train rushing by. Yet, as still dancing leaves, filling the spaces between the I think on it, while the train itself seems to give no Continues on Page 14 4 the Messenger January 2015

Toward a Newer Church, part 2 eading up to our 2015 Annu- Arcana Coelestia (AC) 6632 comes Lal Convention, readers of the Briefly, . . . from the introduction to a presen- Messenger are invited to participate tation of a “theology of charity” first in the conversation about a Newer By George Dole laid out in separate sections between Church through this second of six col- the chapters of the exegesis of Exodus, umns by the Rev. Dr. George Dole. hy didn’t Swedenborg give later fairly lightly edited and published In this installment, he brings our at- us a brief, clear summary as The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly tention to summaries of our theology, Wof the theology of the New Doctrine (1758). This consists of a pref- noting that there are those who lament Church? Wrong question. The right ace, an introduction, and twenty-three that there is not a simple way to talk question is, “Why haven’t we taken ad- very brief chapters, mostly between about our teachings. George points to vantage of the brief, clear summaries of three and six (Standard Edition) pag- a very basic summary and encourages the theology of the New Church that es long, each followed by a more de- us to ask ourselves: “Why haven’t we we have?” Case in point: tailed exposition in the form of brief taken advantage of the brief, clear There are three essentials of the excerpts from the Arcana Coelestia. In summaries of the theology of the New church: the acknowledgment of the a way, we have in one volume a booklet Church that we have?” Please join the Divine [nature] of the Lord, the ac- overview and a significantly longer ver- conversation! knowledgment of the holiness of the sion of the same. I’ll be looking at that —Gard Perry, chair, 2015 Word, and the life which is called next month. It takes a very unorthodox Convention Planning Committee charity. (Divine Providence 259:3) approach to “theology” itself. Want a less abstract version? The second overview we are offered The whole Sacred Scripture is is the little series known as The Four lished . . . nothing else than the doctrine of Doctrines (1763), which have to do “That the faith of the present day love and of charity, as the Lord also with the Lord, Sacred Scripture, life, should be removed” hardly qualifies as teaches, saying, and faith. This seems to take us a step a “doctrine,” so we wind up with the “Thou shalt love the Lord thy essential three. God from all thy heart and in all Of particular interest (at least to me) thy soul and in all thy mind; this is The acknowledgment of the first and great commandment: the divine nature of the is the order of presentation. “That the the second is like unto it, Thou shalt Lord equals the love of Word is now opened” is a reference to the second of the four works, The Doc- love thy neighbor as thyself; on these the Lord, the life which is trine of Sacred Scripture. A major asser- two commandments hang the law called charity equals the and the prophets (Matthew 22:37– tion of this work is that doctrine is to 40).” “The law and the prophets” are love of the neighbor, and be drawn from and confirmed by the the whole Word in all and each of its the acknowledgment of the sense of the letter of the Word (§§50– parts (Arcana Coelestia1 6632.) holiness of the Word equals 61), and that is precisely what Sweden- Notice how nicely the three essen- the reference to the Law the borg does in the presenting the doc- tials match the Two Great Command- Prophets. trines of the Lord and of life. Section ments. The acknowledgment of the di- 4 of the former cites no fewer than 101 vine nature of the Lord equals the love beyond the three essentials, but even- Scripture passages mentioning the day of the Lord, the life which is called tually, Swedenborg makes it very clear of the Lord and twenty-one on the charity equals the love of the neighbor, that it does not. He does this in Apoca- coming of the Lord, while §2 of the and the acknowledgment of the holi- lypse Revealed 668: latter cites forty-one texts enjoining ness of the Word equals the reference That the Word is now opened, obedience to divine commandments to the Law the Prophets. What could and that it testifies that the Lord and identifies six parables on the same be simpler? alone is the God of heaven and theme. None of these is given a “spiri- Then we have three much more ex- earth, and that one ought to live tual meaning” or inner sense. tensive overviews. That quotation from according to His commandments, That is, Swedenborg does not rely and that the faith of the present on individual “proof texts,” but looks 1 Heavenly Secrets is the title in the New Centu- day should be removed, may appear ry Edition translation (Swedenborg Foundation instead for evidence of pervasive prin- Press). from the Four Doctrines just pub- Continues next page 5 the Messenger January 2015

Continued from preceding page Martin Luther King rises to the point of loving the person Continued from page 2 who does an evil deed while hating the ciples; so The Doctrine of Sacred Scrip- philia which was another level of love. deed that the person does. I think this ture explains what he has just done con- It is an intimate affection between per- is what Jesus meant when he said, ‘love cerning the Lord and what he is about sonal friends, it is a reciprocal love. your enemies.’ to do concerning life. By the time he On this level you love because you are “I’m very happy that he didn’t say has begun to talk about life, then, the loved. It is friendship. like your enemies, because it is pret- stage is set for that first assertion, that “Then the Greek language comes ty difficult to like some people. Like everyone who has any religion knows out with another word which is called is sentimental, and it is pretty diffi cult that people who live aright think aright the agape. Agape is more than roman- to like someone bombing your home; not only about God but also about the tic love, agape is more than friendship. it is pretty difficult to like somebody neighbor (there are those two great Agape is understanding, creative, re- threatening your children; it is difficult commandments again), but that this is demptive, good will to all men. It is an to like congressmen who spend all of not the case with anyone whose life is overflowing love which seeks nothing their time trying to defeat civil rights. evil. The little work on faith comes as in return. Theo logians would say that But Jesus says love them, and love is a kind of appendix whose affirmative it is the love of God operating in the greater than like. Love is understand- message is that a true doctrine of faith human heart. So that when one rises to ing, redemp tive, creative, good will for is implicit in a true doctrine of char- love on this level, he loves men not be- all men. And it is this idea, it is this ity—that is, of life. cause he likes them, not because their whole ethic of love which is the idea In discussing “appearances of truth” ways appeal to him, but he loves every standing at the basis of the student as signified by the veil with which Re- man because God loves him. And he movement.” bekah covered herself (Genesis 24:65), —Herb Ziegler Swedenborg offers some examples. Excerpted from A Testament of Hope: The All are saying much the same thing: Whether or not to use “the” is up to Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. the first two will serve our present the translator, and in this case, to refer purposes. to the work as the true religion smacks 1. Man believes that he is re- of dogmatism. By way of appreciation, formed and regenerated through the the work was written when the theolo- Will They Recognize Me? truth of faith; but this is an appear- Continued from page 14 gy was being attacked as heretical, and ance; he is reformed and regenerated through the good of faith, that is, I would insist that its main purpose is to argue that it is truly Christian. writings. These ideas flooded my brain, through charity toward the neigh- and at once I felt compelled to dissipate bor and love to the Lord. 2. Man be- It strikes me that if we set the three Elizabeth’s fears. Yes Elizabeth, your lieves that truth enables us to per- overviews side by side, The New Jerusa- ceive what good is, because it teach- lem and Its Heavenly Doctrine is the parents love you very much. They will es; but this is an appearance; it is most pastoral, Four Doctrines the most be happy to reunite with you and to good that enables truth to perceive biblical, and True Christianity the most be together with you forever; you will for good is the soul or life of truth academic. There is surely merit in all never be an intruder. She smiles with (AC 3207:5). three approaches; but we would do well the bright grin of a happy child. We could memorize the entire theo- to use each for the task for which it is We got back into the car and drove logical corpus: if we were not trying to designed. home. Every minute of that trip live by its principles, we would have no brought memories and elicited stories idea what it was talking about. The Rev. Dr. George Dole is a Swedenborgian of happiness and love. This was our last The third and last major overview minister who teaches part time at the visit to the cemetery. Swedenborgian House of Studies at the Pacific is of course the one we have known School of Religion. Before we departed, looking at the as The True Christian Religion (1771), He is a past pastor of headstone, Elizabeth said, “My middle which will be the focus of my atten- churches in Maine name [Anne] is spelled without an “e”; tion week after next. For now, all I and Massachusetts it needs to be changed when my days want to do is to explain and appreci- and taught at the are over.” She stood quietly for a few Swedenborg School ate Jonathan Rose’s translation of the of Religion. He lives minutes before we turned away. title as True Christianity. By way of ex- in Bath, Maine, with Ilia Gonzalez is a former member and friend of planation, Latin has no definite article. his wife, Lois. Swedenborg Chapel in Cambridge. 6 the Messenger January 2015 SCYL Teen Winter Retreat at Almont

he Swedenborgian Church Youth League (SCYL) gath- Tered for their winter retreat at Almont Retreat Center in Michigan, under the guidance of youth director Kurt Fekete. Two teens share their thoughts on the event.

he retreat was really fun, and the Tpeople were great. The sessions were very interesting. I will most defi- Teens and adults at the SCYL Winter Retreat nitely try to go as long as I can. —Freya Montesanto discussion was started during this re- ation. I have many friends—practical- treat. Are we regenerating, repenting, ly family—to help me through learn- reforming? Are we a combination of ing my errors, and they can teach me two of them, three of them? Are we not even on this stage, but rather in a “blissful ignorance?” And I am left wondering where I am on this scale of the three R’s. Thinking about this has led me to realize that I am nowhere near regenerating. I doubt I will regenerate in this time that I am alive, simply because I am only just beginning The writers’ table Birthday girls, Rev. Renée and Scout to repent. I am only now beginning to repent, realize my mistakes more than any book can about how I have been to only two winter retreats. and my errors, and make the necessary am to better myself. I have felt alone in II am, in a sense, a newbie. However, preparations to change these things. crowds of friends at school but never I am not a newbie to the sense of fam- But I have learned something much once have I felt alone at SCYL retreats. ily that is exposed in retreats and the more profound at winter retreat, and it And I believe that is the most impor- togetherness that is found. is shown in this one as well as all previ- tant lesson learned at retreats: you are This winter retreat’s theme was “Re- ous ones in existence. I am not alone in never alone. generation,” and a thought-provoking this repenting, reforming, and regener- —Riley Tishma

The artists’ table Break time with the Frisbee

. 7 the Messenger January 2015 2015 SCYL Officers Elected

he 2015 Swedenborgian media scene. I know Savannah Church Youth League (SCYL) and Riley will do a great job pre- Telections of officers and chap- senting the SCYL to the world. lain took place at the Almont Winter We welcome Freya Monte- Retreat this past December. The re- santo as our new East Coast and sults are service officer. Freya, elected at t 1SFTJEFOU3FCFLLB-BOHF her first Almont Winter retreat, t&BTU$PBTUBOE4FSWJDF0GGJDFS is no stranger to Almont as she Freya Montesanto has been going to Almont Sum- t .JEXFTU BOE 'VOESBJTJOH 'J- mer Camp for quite a few years. nance Officer: Tony Kalinowski The teens all know her and love t $BOBEBBOE1VCMJD3FMBUJPOT0ï- her. We welcome her intelligence (l to r) Tony (Midwest Officer), Bekka (President), Skylor cer: Xavier Mercier (West Officer), Bailey, and Liv; Xavier (Canadian Officer) in and quiet confidence to our lead- t 8FTU$PBTUBOE"DUJWJUJFT0ïDFS front and Bryce and Will photo bombing in the back ership team. Skylor Daisy We welcome back Rev. Renée t &EJUPS Clear Blue Sky (CBS) and our CBS editors, Natalia Castillo, and Machiniak for her third year as league Communication Officers: Savan- thank her for her service in helping to chaplain. nah Ellsworth and Riley Tishma set up our new Clear Blue Sky page on Renée joined t -FBHVF$IBQMBJO3FW3FOÏF.B- Facebook. us for the be- chiniak A few of our returning officers ginning of the Because a young- move to new posi- SCYL Win- er slate of SCYL of- tions: Bekka con- ter Retreat and ficers was elected tinues in her sec- led the open- in 2014, our newly ond year as the very ing session elected 2015 team capable and orga- with the teens. of officers remains nized league presi- Unfortunate- nearly the same. dent; Tony remains ly, her sched- Clear Blue Sky Six of the seven of- as Midwest and fi- ule did not al- co-editor Riley ficers, Bekka Lange, nance officer; Skylor low her to be with us for the entire re-

Skylor Daisy, Xavi- Will with East Coast Officer, Freya slides over to West treat. Renée is a caring and insightful er Mercier, Riley Coast representa- chaplain and has talked and listened Tishma, Tony Kalinowski, and Savan- tive and continues as our activities co- to many of the teens at Almont Sum- nah Ellsworth return for another year ordinator; Xavier is now our public re- mer Camp, SCYL Winter Retreats, of service. We say goodbye to one of lations officer along with representing and Swedenborgian Church Annual all the provinces of Canada; Savannah Conventions. We are so thankful to remains a Clear Blue Sky co-editor; and have Renée as our teens’ loving spiri- Pretty Prairie Riley moves out of the West Coast rep- tual leader. resentative slot to join Savannah as a Please join me in congratulating Church Is Online Clear Blue Sky co-editor. Riley is an all of our 2015 SCYL officers and our You can enjoy worship services with amazingly gifted writer and, like most league chaplain. We have a young, en- the Pretty Prairie (Kansas) Church. teens, knows how to navigate the social ergized, and now seasoned team of If you need a positive message, pick- teen leaders this year. Their care for me-up, scriptural food for thought, or our church and for each other will help just can’t get enough Swedenborgian Start your Amazon shopping make the SCYL brighter and better. I insight, go to YouTube and search for at http://tinyurl.com/n9e3eto, and am blessed to be working with this “New Jerusalem Pretty Prairie,” or go Amazon will give a percentage of group and I hope that you get a chance to http://tinyurl.com/pmb5ukl, where your purchase directly to the Swe- to get to know them all. the videos are posted on Facebook. denborgian Church. —Kurt Fekete, youth director 8 the Messenger January 2015

and easy to navigate, a website that is COMSU Says Hello relevant and easy to find. I have had to learn (sometimes the hard way) to stay By Katie Rienstra Pruiett of written communication and over- connected to people and things I care on behalf of COMSU saw the production of the Messenger. about—I need to be current with Face- ello every- The Messenger continues under COM- book, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, one! The SU’s supervision, but the world has Tumblr, LinkedIn, etc.—otherwise I Communi- changed drastically in the past twen- will be missing out. As a church, we H ty years, and something interesting has also need to stay current and relevant. cation Support Unit (COMSU) has been happened. I have discovered a break- COMSU’s job is to facilitate that ef- given an assignment down of communication within Gen- fort—that is what we are beginning to by General Council eral Convention and even within our do. We welcome any and all ideas. “to oversee the reg- support units. Why is it so hard to stay Please feel free to contact us at ular, at least quarterly, communica- connected? We live in the age of com- [email protected]. tion of useful material between sup- puters and instant communication. Is COMSU members are Kristina Madjerac, port units and local ministries.” We it that we feel that those instant com- chair, Kathryn Pruiett, Sue Ditmire, and have sent out invitations to all sup- munications via Facebook or Twitter denomination president, Ken Turley (ex officio). port units to submit either “what they are silly? They aren’t, and I have proof. are up to” or some useful information. I recently responded to a Facebook thread in regards to a recent event. My How many of us really know what the Foundation Releases support units do? I didn’t. I’ll admit I response was a quotation from Swe- had absolutely no idea—even when I denborg, one of my favorites: “Every Swedenborg’s Life / Faith accepted the nomination to serve on moment in time has a series of conse- COMSU—I only knew it had some- quences that extend to eternity.” This Emanuel Swedenborg published the thing to do with . . . communications! quotation struck a chord with a friend short works Life and Faith separately, Since my career background was in of a friend, who wanted to know more but he makes it clear that the two top- communications, I figured I’d be okay. about this man I had quoted. My ini- ics are intertwined. This is what I found out about tial reaction was to panic: I couldn’t di- Life refers not to the life force that COMSU from the Bylaws of the Swe- rect this person to our denomination’s sustains us but to the way we live our denborgian Church: website; I was afraid he would “get lives. This short lost,” as that was what happened to piece focuses on the Article X, Section 3 There shall be a Support Unit for me. Instead I provided the address of concept of regener- Communication consisting of three the Swedenborg Foundation’s YouTube ation, or spiritual members, whose central focus shall channel “Off The Left Eye” (http://ti- rebirth, as a probe on coordinating, initiating and nyurl.com/ncgabq4) and their website, cess of consciously promoting communication both www.swedenborg.com. rejecting our own within and across the boundaries This, however, brings to light one destructive impuls- of the denomination in all variety of COMSU’s main projects, a new- es and internalizing of media. It will seek to foster co- comer’s packet that can be distributed love and goodness. ordination among the Swedenbor- electronically in printed form. COM- It argues that the choices we make and gian Church’s publishing activities. SU has sent an appeal to all churches the reasons we make them have every- This Unit will be alert to the climate of opinion both within and beyond as to what they provide to newcomers. thing to do with our salvation. Swe- the boundaries of the Swedenbor- Wouldn’t it be great to have a newcom- denborg includes a brief overview of gian Church, and will also be alert er’s packet that you could provide— the inner sense of the Ten Command- to developments in communication electronically or printed—to any in- ments as a way to understand the na- technology. The official organ of the quirier? We are in the process of com- ture of the choice between good and denomination, the Messenger, shall piling one. Do you have information evil. be under the supervision of this Sup- that you feel would be useful? Please In Faith, Swedenborg rejects the no- port Unit. let us know. tion that faith can be a choice to be- For many years, COMSU produced Our second major project is a new lieve things that make no rational a series of pamphlets and other forms website—a website that is up-to-date Continues on page 13 9 the Messenger January 2015 Diverse Faiths Coming Together in Edmonton

By David Fekete Interfaith Centre at the “launches” es. In response to my prayer, His Wor- of different religions in City Hall, an ship, Mayor Iveson replied, “What he n June of 2014, I was elected pres- event called Celebrating our Faiths. said!” ident of the Edmonton Interfaith Once a month, a different religious tra- One of the regular events that I par- ICentre for Education and Action. dition puts up a display in City Hall ticularly enjoy is what we call, “Faith It is a delight and a privilege to lead that remains standing for the entire Explorations.” We visit the worship this organization with such a meaning- month. Usually, this religion is cele- space of one of the religions in the In- ful mandate in this world. The Inter- brated in a ceremony featuring speech- terfaith Centre bimonthly. The reli- faith Centre comprises fifteen faiths. es and informative talks about the fea- gious leader of the church, synagogue, Muslims, Jews, and Christians all meet tured faith. What is striking to me is mosque, or temple gives a short talk at the same table at our board meetings about their faith and shows us around to plan events and transact business. the facility. Often, the institution pre- There are Zoroastrians, Eckankars, pares food for us, which can have an Hindus, Buddhists, Catholics, United ethnic taste. When we visited an Egyp- Church, Unitarians, Orthodox, Con- tian Orthodox church, we were served servative and Reform Jews, Muslims, a vegan eggplant dish that would make and a Swedenborgian. In our world, in me a vegan could I eat like that regu- which the name of religion is misused larly. We were served that dish because for acts of violence, the Edmonton In- we were in Lent, and for the Orthodox terfaith Centre is a powerful testimony it was a time of fasting. Other mem- to peace and harmony among differing orable experiences were an Orthodox religions. In fact, the Interfaith Centre Jewish synagogue, a Sri Baba temple, has published a statement, signed by a Buddhist temple, a United Church representatives of our diverse religions, of Christ church, a Baha’i temple, and decrying violence in the name of reli- (l to r) Rev. David Fekete, , Edmonton Mayor Don the Swedenborgian Church, in which gion. Our fellowship shows that people Iveson, and past Interfaith President Nasim Kherani I gave a talk on the seven stages of matter first, and that different religions regeneration. can coexist in harmony. that these launches take place in the As a member of the Interfaith Cen- Our past president, Rabbi David public room inside City Hall. So City tre, I also had the delight of being in- Kunin, spoke eloquently about his vi- Hall—a secular institution—is show- vited to a Muslim wedding. We re- sion of interfaith relations. He spoke ing support of the diverse religious moved our shoes and sat on the carpet against attempts to find a harmony complexion of Edmonton. in the mosque. Since this was a family that may not exist among different re- In a related event, as president of from India, many of the women wore ligions. In fact, forcing harmony where the Interfaith Centre, I was invited to brightly colored saris. The actual ser- it doesn’t exist does violence to the in- give a prayer for the opening of a ses- vice was in the form of a business con- tegrity of religions. Rather, he urged sion of City Hall. I was introduced tract, as marriage is not a sacrament us to respect and honor different faiths as the minister of the Church of the in the Muslim religion. The ceremo- and to embrace differing beliefs. In the Holy City, and several members of the ny included cultural customs from In- post-modern world, there may not be cabinet made the inevitable comment, dia. For instance, the bride was given one single truth. And it is unlikely that “I’ve never heard of the Swedenborgian as much jewelry as she could hold on any one religion will have the complete Church.” This gave me the opportunity her person. And at the conclusion of truth, even if there is one. At the In- to give my three minute introduction the service, the bride and groom each terfaith Centre, we are united by good to Swedenborgianism. In the council stomped on a plate given to them. will and we listen to each other’s faiths chambers, I prayed for the council to Whoever broke their plate first would without imposing our own constructs show wisdom in transacting business, be master of the family. (The bride was on each other. And it works. and love for the city of Edmonton and unable to break her plate.) As president, I have the delight and for harmony among councillors despite We have an annual interfaith con- honor of bringing greetings from the potential differences in political stanc- Continues on page 14 10 the Messenger January 2015

Homes for Herons bued with Swedenborgian overtones: a and, one is tempted to say, intellectu- Continued from page 1 moment of rarified, transcendent per- al apprenticeship with the Swedenbor- ception that blurs categories of distinc- gian Theophilus Parsons. Parsons was scape painter George Inness, includ- tion between viewer and the objects part of that fabled 1818 class at Har- ing his “Home of the Heron” (1893), perceived, between figuration and at- vard University that included Sampson which is widely regarded as one of In- mospheric abstraction. While this ef- Reed, another significant Swedenbor- ness’s greatest Tonalist masterpieces. fect creates rhetorical and visual am- gian, and the Transcendentalist Ralph My chapter argues that with both Waldo Emerson’s older brother Wil- Jewett’s short story and Inness’s paint- . . . it is important to liam. Sampson Reed and Theophilus ings, neither production is extrica- remember the demonstrable Parsons became the Swedenborgian ble from the background context of a ways that the millinery vanguard in antebellum Boston, and looming environmental crisis that co- industry’s rapacious Parsons went on to become a success- alesced at the end of the nineteenth slaughter of herons and ful lawyer and law professor. By the century: the prospect of wholesale de- other waterfowl had been time Jewett met Parsons at a seaside struction of entire species of birds. In moving more and more into resort in Maine, in 1872, Parsons had particular, plumed, long-feathered wa- the public sphere . . . . become dean of Harvard University’s terfowl like herons and egrets were be- Law School. ing decimated by the women’s fashion biguity, it also sharpens, by contrast, a Between 1872 and 1881, over an industry, literally pushed to the brink clear message from Jewett and Inness eleven-year period, Parsons and Jew- of extinction by millinery tastes. In about what their nature is not: that it ett maintained an extensive correspon- other words, the birds at the center of is not simply dead matter available for dence, and Parsons passed on a num- Jewett’s story and Inness’s paintings commercial extraction and exploita- ber of works by or about Swedenborg were not just any fine feathered friends tion, and that a higher use—beyond to his young female protégé. Jewett, in but species whose fate was being much the utilitarian calculus of markets and her turn, regularly sent to Parsons her contested and debated in newspapers profits—may lie in our ecstatic connec- burgeoning fiction, and regularly asked and periodicals around the country. By tions with some- the time Inness painted his first her- thing larger and on painting in 1891, the first Audubon non-human Societies for the protection of birds in nature, that had already come into existence—the draws us out of very first, in fact, appeared in 1886, ourselves. This the same year that Jewett published her spiritual value, “White Heron” story—and such soci- my chapter ar- eties were actively and noisily agitating gues, is striking- for the preservation of birds. ly different from If we acknowledge how the Amer- both the laissez- ican public sphere became charged faire econom- with this new concern for ornithologi- ics of the Gilded cal conservation, what does that mean Age that saw the for how we read Jewett’s story or look natural world Sarah Orne Jewett Theophilus Parsons at Inness’s paintings? The questions are largely in terms not so easily answered. Neither her fic- of resource extraction, and the cornu- for his input and advice. The impor- tion nor the paintings by Inness func- copic optimism of nineteenth-century tance of Parsons and Swedenborgian tion as didactic agit-prop—they do not Progressivism that assumed advances thought for Jewett in this period is un- thunder at us to sign a petition or send in technology would ensure an end- mistakable: “nobody has helped me to a message to our senators, as our email less supply of goods for all our mate- think more than you have,” Jewett en- and Facebook threads in the twenty- rial needs. thuses to Parsons in a letter from 1881. first century so incessantly do. Instead, We can find this debt apparent in Jew- at the heart of Jewett’s short story and arah Orne Jewett’s engagement ett’s most well-known example of Re- modeled in Inness’s canvasses is a per- Swith Swedenborgian ideas was pri- gionalist fiction—her “White Heron.” sonalized spiritualization of nature im- marily through her deep friendship Continues next page 11 the Messenger January 2015

Continued from preceding page [Innes’s] most overtly exclaims how Swedenborgian [landscape] the more one lives out of doors As one reads this story, it is important . . . dovetailed with his deep the more personality there seems to remember the demonstrable ways engagements with political to be in what we call inanimate that the millinery industry’s rapacious things. The strength of the hills and questions of social justice, the voice of the waves are no lon- slaughter of herons and other water- even in ways we might call fowl had been moving more and more ger only grand poetical sentenc- consistently radical. es, but an expression of something into the public sphere. For example, real, and more and more one finds the same year that Jewett published “A God himself written in the world, White Heron,” George Bird Grinnell imagining what the young man would and believes that we may read the had established in New York City the say when she revealed where his object thoughts that He writes for us in the first Audubon group that was explicitly of desire lay. But then, in a reversal of book of Nature. dedicated to ending the mass-slaughter reader expectations, once Sylvia is back Like the angels of heaven that Swe- of birds and wholesale destruction of at the farmhouse, she refuses to speak, denborg describes in Heaven and Hell their habitat. and the story ends ambivalently with 489, who learn spiritual truths from The short story is fairly straight for- the young girl retreating into silence. the pleasure of looking at their beau- ward. The protagonist, Sylvia—a name What is it that suddenly forbids tiful gardens, the characters of Deep- that immediately evokes the Roman her and makes her dumb? Has she haven locate the truths of God in the woodland deity, Silvanus—is a young been nine years growing and now, voice of the waves and the strength of nine-year-old girl living with her im- when the great world for the first the hills. poverished grandmother in rural New time puts out a hand to her, must England. Her parents appear to have she thrust it aside for a bird’s sake? The murmur of the pine’s green abandoned her to seek their fortunes in branches is in her ears, she remem- California. Sylvia and her grandmoth- bers how the white heron came fly- er’s poor but harmonious pastoral life ing through the golden air and how is interrupted by a young ornithologist they watched the sea and the morn- tramping through the countryside who ing together, and Sylvia cannot is shooting and bagging bird specimens speak; she cannot tell the heron’s se- for his collection. When he learns that cret and give its life away. little Sylvia has a deep affinity with You might be wondering, what is “wild creatures,” he suspects that she “Swedenborgian” in Jewett’s story that may know where to find the elusive turns its back on an opportunity to nesting ground of the white heron, a transform nature into profitable sci- rare bird he had recently glimpsed in ence—this young man who could, in the area. Sylvia feels a budding attrac- Jewett’s words, “make them rich with tion to the young man with a gun, and money,” if Sylvia were but to reveal George Innes wrestles within herself, for she indeed the home of the heron? One Sweden- knows where the heron is likely to be borgian thread is certainly found in he painter George Inness—who, found. Late one night, in the strangest the text’s locating of spiritual author- Tas far as I have been able to dis- part of the story, while the visitor is still ity in nature. Through a correspon- cern, had no measurable professional staying with them, Sylvia wanders out dential lens, nature is made to speak or personal contact with Jewett—ad- into the moonlit forest in her night- and teach and instruct. A paradigmat- hered to similar Swedenborgian be- clothes to an old-growth pine, the larg- ic moment of this in Jewett’s fiction is liefs about the presence of the spiritu- est tree for miles around. She climbs it in the earlier novella Deephaven, pub- al within the natural. The story of In- as the dawn begins to come up, and lished in 1877, which among all of Jew- ness’s sustained engagement with Swe- as the sun rises “bewilderingly bright,” ett’s works probably bears the imprint denborgian theology has been detailed she catches a glimpse of the elusive her- of Theophilus Parson’s thinking and by many others (including the art his- on near its mate and nest, in a moment Swedenborg’s ideas most strongly. One torians Rachel Delue, Adrienne Baxter of transcendentalized perception and of the female characters has been med- Bell, and Sally Promey), with no need spiritual epiphany. She scales down the itating on the close proximity of the for substantial rehearsal here. What is tree, exhausted, covered in pine-sap, spiritual world to the natural one, and Continues on page 12 12 the Messenger January 2015

Homes for Herons hind Inness’s her- New Churchman Single Tax League, Continued from page 11 on paintings. and began publishing a radical pe- riodical, The New Earth, that had an worth underscoring is that rather than hough not eleven-year publication run. Accord- Inness’s increasingly subjective and Twell known ing to the church historian Marguerite dreamy landscapes signaling a corre- today, Hen- Beck Block, “George was impressed sponding detachment from the real, as ry George was a with the fact that more of his follow- has been sometimes suggested, Inness’s wildly popular ers in proportion belonged to the New later career in the 1880s and 1890s— nineteenth-centu- Church than to any other. They said it his most overtly Swedenborgian, we ry economist and was because they found in his teach- might say—dovetailed with his deep journalist who published a book called ing a sound economic basis for Swe- engagements with political questions Progress and Poverty in 1880. It was denborg’s Maximus Homo, the greater of social justice, even in ways we might an excoriating critique of the growing social Man.” call consistently radical. For Inness, wealth inequality in the United States, George offered several concrete pro- Swedenborgianism and a critique of and argued that the so-called advances posals for economic and social reform the bourgeois status quo went hand-in- made by modern technocratic civiliza- which we know that the painter In- hand. When Inness first encountered tion had actually financially crippled ness directly, viscerally responded to. Swedenborgian ideas and underwent individuals more than it had helped One was a call for the eventual transfer a sort of conversionary experience, it them. George’s critique of capitalism of privately owned land into the pub- was when he was living at the utopi- shares much with concerns over the lic domain, and a revival of the pre- an commune of the Eagleswood Mili- divisions of labor and class structures modern notion of the commons. Like tary Academy—a motley group of art- articulated by his contemporaries Karl air and water, George argued, no one ists, writers, and poets dedicated to the Marx and William Morris, as its par- could privately own land, as it was in- herently a public resource. At a charged Abolitionist cause, who lived together Henry George found a and offered an unusual curriculum to rally for Georgist reform in New York particularly fertile reception young soldiers in training. City in 1890, Inness gave a dinner Drawing any direct connections be- amongst Swedenborgian speech to great applause, sounding not tween Inness’s paintings and his cul- congregations on the East a little like the later Aldo Leopold (the tural and social contexts is tricky, how- Coast and in the Midwest . . . . progenitor of the “land ethic”) when ever, as almost all his manuscript pa- he concluded by saying “the individual pers and correspondence were burned ticularly American concerns with in- has rights to that which he pays for or in a fire that destroyed the Inness fam- equality distinctly anticipate the re- makes; that which he does not create ily home in New Jersey in the 1940s. cent work of Thomas Piketty. Where- himself belongs to the whole commu- We do nevertheless have a record in as Marx and Morris were, and in some nity, and that is the land.” The art his- nineteenth century periodicals—news- cases still are, anathema to a broad torian Leo Mazow has forcefully dem- papers, pamphlets, brochures and the swath of the American population, onstrated how that after Inness began like—where Inness occasionally raised George’s book became (somewhat in- reading George in 1880, his canvases his voice in overt political ways that credibly) one of the most reproduced, become preoccupied in new ways with have led one recent art historian to call reprinted, and translated American depicting labor and work. Mazow has him a quintessential “artist-activist” of texts of the post-Civil War period. also uncovered a previously unknown the nineteenth century. And while it Henry George found a particularly article written by Inness in 1894, pub- is certainly true that I have found no fertile reception amongst Swedenbor- lished the month before Inness died— “smoking gun” evidence in the news- gian congregations on the East Coast perhaps the last thing Inness ever pub- paper archives (yet, anyway) that In- and in the Midwest, and the early re- licly wrote. It stridently argues for la- ness ever publicly voiced an overt opin- ception of his ideas was accompa- bor reform and the necessary regula- ion about ornithological conservation, nied by speculation that George “was tion of an eight hour workday, and de- his engagement with the economic largely permeated with Swedenbor- cries, in Inness’s words, “the tyranny ideas of Henry George has specific en- gian thought,” as one 1884 review- of wage bondage” created by “capital- vironmental corollaries. George’s cri- er put it. A group of Swedenborgian ists and corporations”—a rhetoric not tiques of modernity get particularly congregants that Inness was part of unfamiliar to anyone listening to the interesting when they are situated be- formed a Georgist group in 1889, the Continues next page Save the Date

13 the Messenger January 2015

Continued from preceding page tected as a national park until 1916, Swedenborg’s Life / Faith there was considerable clamor much Continued from page 8 recent street protests raised by the Oc- earlier over various civic projects to cupy Movement, beginning in 2011. drain the swampy wetlands and turn sense. He defines faith instead as an Besides such pro-Georgist speeches them into private real estate. A frenzy inner recognition of what is actual- and articles in newspapers, Inness was of land speculation in Florida opened ly true. He explores the complex rela- quite active in the New Churchman up in the 1880s and 1890s, as thou- tionship between faith and knowledge Single Tax League. Such tax “leagues” sands of square miles of land became and emphasizes that true faith can oc- advocated for legal reform of the tax viable not just for Florida’s burgeoning cur only in people who love others and code that would abolish all taxes apart tourist industry that the Inness family treat them well. from property tax, and attempt to end was participating in, but also for indus- Life / Faith (www.swedenborg.com/ land and property speculation (a nine- trial-scale agriculture that fed growing archive/products/life-faith/ ) is trans- teenth-century harbinger of our more northern and Midwestern appetites for lated by Rev. Dr. George Dole and is recent housing bubble crisis). exotic southern citrus fruits. part of the New Century Edition What would Inness have felt about (NCE) of the works of Emanuel Swe- his context, my chapter argues, is the transformation of Florida wet- denborg. The NCE series incorporates Tcritical background for Inness’s lands, their incorporation into land the latest scholarship and translation coterminous paintings of herons. Why speculation, and the privatization of standards for a more accurate and ac- did Inness create three unusually dis- public property? His clear and emphat- cessible rendering of Swedenborg’s tinctive bird paintings at the end of his ic Georgist economic stance suggests works. Traditionally titled The Doc- career? They are unique in his oeuvre: one possible answer, and perhaps in trine of Life and The Doctrine of Faith, there are no other singular treatments these late heron paintings from the these short works are often published of animal species in this specific way— 1890s lies another. Like the young Syl- together with two others—The Lord no homes for buffaloes, or eagles, or via of Jewett’s short story, who resists and Sacred Scripture—under the title the like. Cows, sheep, horses, and dogs the appropriation of the white heron The Four Doctrines. These four titles certainly make their mark through- for capital, these paintings visually cir- will be published together in the forth- out Inness’s career, but they are whol- cumscribe a home that belongs not to coming NCE hardcover annotated vol- ly subsumed in the pictorial iconog- humans, but resolutely to herons. We, ume The Shorter Works of 1763. raphy of pastoral landscape painting the viewers, are on their turf. As we as a genre. The titles Inness affixed to perceive the figures of the herons bleed- these bird paintings—“The Home of ing and blending into the twilight This article is an abridged text of a public the Heron”—is furthermore striking, shadows and atmospheric colors, the address—“Homes for Herons: on Birds, as it draws our attention not only to the charged ephemerality of the canvas in- Swedenborg, and Ecopoetics”—delivered at heron species per se, but its larger natu- vokes “a higher spiritual world, glim- Bryn Athyn College April 24, 2014. ral biota and ecological home. mering behind the natural,” in the Dr. Devin Zuber is In addition to the bird popula- words of the art historian Adrienne assistant professor tions themselves, the habitat of herons Baxter Bell. The aesthetic experience of of American Studies, at the end of the nineteenth century seeing these works by Inness—squint- Literature, and Swedenborgian was acutely distressed. Inness’s heron ing at the canvas, looking to make Studies for the paintings have been variously located sense of the barest suggestion of Swedenborgian by art historians as having a specific form—may be akin to that affective House of Studies geographical locus in Florida—start- moment in the climax of Jewett’s short (SHS) at the Pacific ing in 1890, Inness had been spend- story where Sylvia ecstatically sees the School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union ing winter vacations with his family heron from the top of the pine tree. (GTU) in Berkeley, California, where he there in the gulf coastal community Boundaries are blurred; a rhetorical also serves as core doctoral faculty for the of Tarpon Springs, a sleepy fishing vil- ambiguity opens up. Perhaps such aes- GTU’s PhD Programs in Art & Religion and lage established by Greek immigrants. thetic experiences of reading, and of Interdisciplinary Studies. He was recently The 1890s witnessed an emerging pub- seeing, have something spiritual to of- nominated for a 2015–2016 Fulbright award at the University of Stockholm, Sweden, where lic debate about Florida wetlands, es- fer our environmental ethics, at least in he intends to develop a new manuscript on pecially around the Everglades. While more substantial ways than we tradi- Swedenborg, Romanticism, and postsecular the Everglades were not federally pro- tionally give the aesthetic credit for. literary theory. 14 the Messenger January 2015

Diverse Faiths: Edmonton Fear, Ebola, and God Reflection Continued from page 9 Continued from page 16 How Would My Parents cert in February. The concert features the air, only by direct contact with music from the traditions that compose bodily fluids, and this only after an in- Recognize Me? the Interfaith Centre. Last year there fected person is very sick, presenting By Ilia Gonzales was Indian music with tablas and si- with fever and other symptoms. The tars, prayers and Buddhist chants, gos- man from Liberia who died in Tex- Her physical body caught up with her pel music, and Native songs. This year as did not infect fellow passengers on chronological age, and her mind wan- I am told there will also be dancing. his flight to the US as he did not yet dered in the direction of her affections. I feel blessed to be a part of the Ed- present symptoms. He did not infect On January 12, 2015, she separated monton Interfaith Centre. It educates his son or wife or others he came in from that physical body. (Elizabeth Wis- us in mind and spirit as we come to- contact with in the US, only the nurs- dom’s obituary appears on page 15.) gether to plan and enjoy the events we es who took care of him when he was organize. Swedenborg teaches that if deathly sick. t is a warm and sunny spring day, only religions would put charity first, I began to realize we are becoming May 3, 2011, in Cambridge, Mas- the dissentions between the differing a fear based society, or maybe we al- Isachusetts. The sun is shinning and faiths would disappear. ways have been, but I don’t think so. a balmy ocean breeze is keeping the In the Christian world it is doc- This fear causes us to buy more guns temperature in the sixties—very pleas- trinal matters that distinguish for protection from the unknown. This ant. The birds are returning from their churches, and from them men call fear separates us from those who are winter grounds, the sun has warmed themselves Roman Catholics, Lu- different. This fear causes us to pull in the soil, and the bulbs have sprouted. therans, and Calvinists, or the Re- and worry only about ourselves, that Elizabeth Wisdom and I are on our formed and the Evangelical, and by we won’t have enough and not share annual spring drive to Mount Auburn other names. It is from what is doc- with those in need. Cemetery. trinal alone that they are so called; Why do we go to the cemetery to which would never be if they would We are told in the Bible to seek the make love to the Lord and charity truth and “the truth will set you free.” admire spring flowers? The answer is toward the neighbor the principal The truth doesn’t bind us or blind us. simple: as a child Elizabeth grew up of faith. Doctrinal matters would Swedenborg writes in Divine Provi- visiting her departed family who all then be only varieties of opinion dence 139, are buried at the Mount Auburn Cem- concerning the mysteries of faith, . . . fear takes away freedom and etery, a spectacular landscape filled which truly Christian men would reason or liberty and rationality. For with some of America’s most beautiful leave to every one to hold in ac- love opens the interiors of the mind species of trees, shrubs, and flowers. cordance with his conscience, and but fear closes them, and when they On this trip, the only time Eliza- would say in their hearts that a man have been closed, the person thinks beth got out of the car was when we is truly a Christian when he lives but little, and only about what then arrived at her family plot. We read the as a Christian, that is, as the Lord presents itself to his conscientious- teaches. Thus from all the differ- names of the family aloud, beginning ness or senses. All fears that invade with her paternal grandparents. Af- ing churches there would be made the mind have this effect. one church; and all the dissensions ter reading her own name, Elizabeth that come forth from doctrine alone When we succumb to fear spread by asked “Will I be an intruder between would vanish; yea, all hatreds of one the media or uninformed friends and father and mother? They have been to- against another would be dissipated don’t take time to investigate for our- gether for such a long time. How will in a moment, and the Lord’s king- selves, we are imprisoned in fear. This they recognize me?” dom would come upon the earth. fear does not affect just us but many How do souls recognize one anoth- (Arcana Coelestia 1799). around us. Fear is er? Divine inspiration shed some light The Edmonton Interfaith Centre for what is conta- and helped me to understand the age- Education and Action is a powerful gious. less nature of our souls. The departed witness to this teaching, a witness from Rev. Jane Siebert is a are not affected by physical things or which the world could well learn. member of the Pretty time; they live in a spiritual reality de- Rev. Dr. David Fekete is pastor of the Prairie (Kansas) New scribed by Emanuel Swedenborg in his Edmonton (Alberta) Church of the Holy City. Jerusalem Church. Continues on page 5 15 the Messenger January 2015 News from SHS (including churches, mosques, and Passages synagogues), and artists’ residences to he Swedenborgian House of experience how the arts have incubated Births Studies (SHS) is conducting both transcendence and social change. an intensive course titled “Swe- Amy Blanchette, a member of the T The class quickly filled up, leaving a denborgian Rites and Sacraments” Okanagan Chapter of the British Co- number of students sorely disappoint- during the last week of January in a re- lumbia New Church Society, and ed not to be able to participate. treat-like atmosphere at Hillside Com- Grant Blanchette, announced the ar- munity Church (Swedenborgian) in El rival of Ada Brynn Blanchette, born Cerrito, California. September 14, 2014. Letter from the President All-day sessions will explore the the- Continued from page 3 Kevin and Kristyn Degi happily wel- ology behind, the articulation of, and comed Elliot Jacob Degi to their fam- the practical skill enactments for com- smooth grey tree trunks so firmly root- ily on December 12, 2014. Grandpar- munion, baptism, confirmation, wed- ed; and black and shiny sticks, twisted ents are Greg and Sandy (Siebert) Degi dings, and memorial services. Bay Area and fragile, overlaying it all. of the Pretty Prairie, Kansas, Church. clergy Rev. Dr. Rachel Rivers, Rev. Again, I notice the silence of the Junchol Lee, and Rev. Kathy Speas earth’s breath suspended in that mo- Deaths are each helping to anchor one of the ment of fullness before the noisy ex- Margaret (Marge) Elaine Pardue days, and Rev. Jane Siebert and Rev. hale. But this time the silence is shat- passed away on November 11, 2014, Ken Turley (both on the Committee tered by the indignant screeching of a at age 78. She was active in the life of on Admission into Ministry) are co-in- red squirrel just ten feet over my head, the New Church in western Canada structors with the dean of SHS, Rev. shocked and offended at finding me in from the time she was a child, serv- Dr. Jim Lawrence , for the entire week. his domain. I am glad squirrels are as ing church boards, the Western Cana- Almost all ordination-track and li- small as they are; from the tone of his da Conference, and Paulhaven Camp. censed pastor students in our programs voice, he would gladly tear me limb Marge was predeceased by her husband have been able to enroll, so it has all from limb, if he only could. “Go pick Ray on March 17, 2014. She is survived the makings of “deep community” in on someone your own size,” I think, by her children Brian Pardue, Kathy theological education. “and good luck to whoever that might Card, and Susan Bergman, six grand- Dr. Devin Zuber, assistant professor be!” children, two brothers, and a sister. of American Studies, Literature, and I give thanks that this particular Linda Reed of the Edmonton Swedenborgian Studies, is co-teaching squirrel has other things to do as he Church of the Holy City led a celebra- a January intensive local-arts immer- moves off tossing invectives over his tion of Marge’s life at the Balmoral Bi- sion course with the religion and arts shoulder, leaving me to my rocks and ble Chapel in Red Deer, Alberta. professor, Rossitza Schroeder, at Pacific logs and gently waving ferns. The sun School of Religion. They will take stu- is up, the earth is warming, even if ever Lifelong member of the Cam- dents to Bay Area museums, galleries, so slightly, and I prepare myself to re- bridge Society of the New Jerusalem pop-up art and performance spaces turn home having witnessed the eter- Elizabeth Anne Wisdom passed ful- nal transition of night into day. While ly into the spiritual world January 12, I may not take notice, it will happen 2015. She was born May 16, 1917, in Hospital gift shop. She was a lifelong again tomorrow. And the day after Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her par- member and supporter of Swedenborg and the day after. In fact, perhaps as ents were Arthur Edward Wisdom Chapel in Cambridge, Massachusetts, some sort of metaphorical reassurance, and Mary Cook Wisdom, a found- led by every minister there except the it dawns on me (pardon the pun) that ing member of the Cambridge Society. first, Rev. Theodore Wright. Rev. Wil- this majestic transition from cold and Her uncle, Chester Cook, was the trea- liam Worcester was her pastor from dark to warmth and light is happen- surer of the Swedenborgian Church for childhood to early adulthood. ing somewhere in the world always, in many years. Elizabeth graduated from Elizabeth sat in the same pew every every given moment, without pause or Lasell Junior College and worked for Sunday her whole life. She was a vital end. It is as if God would remind us thirty-five years at Harvard Business member of the Cambridge Chapel that transformation is the way of the School. She was a volunteer for over community, and they will sorely miss world, and of life itself. twenty years at the Mount Auburn her smiling presence. —Blessings, Rev. Ken The Swedenborgian Church of North America .)Jnbg\rLmk^^m

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16 the Messenger January 2015

About the Ebola, Fear, and God Swedenborgian Church By Jane Siebert and most of Europe put together. And Emanuel Swedenborg was South Africa is a long, long way from born January 29, 1688, in Stock- ecently I returned from an the Ebola-stricken countries of West Af- holm, Sweden. Although he nev- amazing mission trip to South rica: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. er intended a church denomina- R Africa. We worked with church In fact, it is a longer distance from Cape tion to be founded or named af- members from Simon’s Town near Cape Town, South Africa, to Sierra Leone ter him, a society was formed in Town to develop a garden around the (3600 miles) than across the US from /RQGRQÀIWHHQ\HDUVDIWHUKLV church, complete the tip of Maine to death. American groups even- with greenhouse. the shores of Cali- tually founded the General Many of the residents fornia (3200 miles). Convention of Swedenborgian are poor and live in South Africa has not Churches. tenement housing, had a single case of $VDUHVXOWRI6ZHGHQERUJ·V spiritual questioning and in- so this project offers Ebola, while the US sights, we as a church exist to them a place to grow has. And South Af- encourage that same spirit of vegetables to eat and rica was one of the inquiry and personal growth, share with others. first countries fight- to respect differences in views, This article, how- ing this devastating and to accept others who may ever, is not about the disease. have different traditions. trip, but rather the When I explained In his theological writings, reaction of friends these facts, the next Swedenborg shared a view of and acquaintanc- fear expressed was *RGDVLQÀQLWHO\ORYLQJDQGDW es when I told them that I would be fly- the very center of our beings, a I was going to South Africa: fear. Fear ing with people from Africa. The mis- view of life as a spiritual birth- that I would be exposed to Ebola. Fear sion group flew from the US to Amster- ing as we participate in our own that I would bring it back with me. And dam and from there non-stop to Cape creation, and a view of scripture fear that they would get it from me. Town, the reverse on the return trip. Yes, as a story of inner life stages as we learn and grow. Swedenborg At first, I didn’t understand their re- we flew with Africans. Over one billion said, “All religion relates to life, action. My husband, Ray, and I lived in people live in Africa. We cannot live and the life of religion is to do Sierra Leone more than thirty years ago with the fear that all Africans are carri- good.” He also felt that the sin- while serving with the Peace Corps. We ers of Ebola. cerest form of worship is a use- had the wonderful opportunity to travel And then there is the unfounded fear ful life. around this vast continent of Africa, as of Ebola. It is not transmitted through large as China, India, the United States, Continues on page 14