Swedenborgians Worldwide
(1) Our Role in the World
We are part of the “Swedenborgian” family of churches. We know the name sounds funny (please, no jokes about Swedish meatballs or the Swedish chef on the Muppets – we’ve heard them all).
Think of it this way: just as you get “Lutherans” from Martin Luther or “Calvinists” from John Calvin, so you get “Swedenborgians” from Emanuel Swedenborg. By the way, the “g” in Swedenborgian is a “soft g”, so it’s pronounced “Sweden-bor-jenn”. Okay, good, now you’ve got it!
Actually, Swedenborg never intended to found a new Christian denomination. Instead, he went to some lengths to make his writings available to the leaders of the various churches in western Europe. His hope was that what God had revealed to him would gradually come to be preached from the pulpits of the nations, leading ultimately to the emergence of a truly "new church” from within the framework of the old.
However, Swedenborg faced increasing opposition from the official or "state" churches of his day, even in his native Sweden. This was hardly surprising, considering how strongly he rejected their traditional doctrines and divisions while upholding the new revelation of a truly universal gospel. In fact, although Swedenborg always sought to work with the churches, there is much in his work which also suggests the need for an entirely new community of faith to help point the way. Both approaches are necessary to accomplish what the Lord intends, the creation of a new world and a new human family, rich in its diversity yet united in the Spirit.
Accordingly, a new denomination the Swedenborgian Church was founded but NOT to be an “elect” or “chosen few” who have the truth while dismissing all others as deluded and damned. That’s nonsense. The whole point of the universal gospel we proclaim is that it constitutes the deeper truth uniting all people and all religions (sacred and secular). It represents a path for bringing us all together in peace and justice while honouring our differences.
Swedenborgians are called to serve and be of use in making this path known, that a new and better world might arise (the symbolical “New Jerusalem” described in the Book of Revelation). We recognize that the Lord is stirring up this same vision in the hearts of other Christians as well as in those of other religions – Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and many others. Swedenborgians gladly work with them all for the sake of the one Lord who is known by many names.
To learn more about the worldwide family of Swedenborgian churches and how it all started, go here.
To learn more about Swedenborgians in Canada, go here.
(2) How We Started
The story begins in England, the only country in Europe with a real measure of both religious toleration and freedom of thought and speech. There both Swedenborg and his writings were welcomed and given a sympathetic reception. (In fact, Swedenborg chose to live out his last years in England and his remains rested in English soil for well over a century before being taken to Sweden for re-burial.)
Shortly after Swedenborg's death in 1772, a number of English "receivers of the doctrines" as they were called began work on translating and promoting his writings. Ten years later, in 1782, Robert Hindmarsh, son of a Methodist minister and a successful printer in London, formed a small circle of "readers of Swedenborg". Numbers grew, and soon the group acquired a permanent location where they began not only to publish Swedenborg's works but also to hold their own worship services.
Finally, in 1787, a "Dissenter's Licence" was procured and the "Church of the New Jerusalem" as it was called appeared for the first time. Swedenborgians were now an organized and recognized body, and already some of their number had begun making their way across the Atlantic, to the New World.
The first Swedenborgian church building was erected in the United States in Baltimore in 1800 and the pastor, Rev. John Hargrove, so impressed President Jefferson that Hargrove was invited to address Congress on two occasions! Other churches also soon appeared in cities such as Philadelphia, Boston and New York as well as in a host of smaller centres. Thereafter the Swedenborgian Church in North America followed the westward tide of settlement across the continent. Famous American Swedenborgians include Johnny Appleseed and Helen Keller.
(3) Two Separate Branches
“Convention”
By the early 1800’s, Swedenborgians were exploring ways to join their scattered churches into a single denominational structure. What they finally created was very de-centralized in nature. Each church, as an assembly or congregation, has a large degree of autonomy in deciding its own affairs. Churches in each region of the country come together in annual meetings of regional “associations” (called “conferences” in Canada) to discuss issues of cooperation and common interest.
Once a year, representatives from all the churches in North America, plus all the clergy, come together for what is called “Convention”. Convention is a kind of grand gathering of the clan, a week-long series of meetings, workshops, dinners and special events in which the business of the denomination is conducted, strategic decisions are taken, new ministers are ordained and elections are held to fill church offices.
Convention was first held in 1817 and has met every year since that time, hosted by a different church in the US or Canada. Connections are also maintained with Swedenborgian ministries in many parts of the world. The Church of the Good Shepherd in Kitchener is affiliated with Convention and has played host to this annual gathering a number of times, most recently in 2004.
“General Church”
Alas, for all their breadth of vision, not even Swedenborgians always see eye-to-eye! Just over a hundred years ago, it transpired that a group within the Convention of associated churches wanted to walk another path. In 1890 they separated to form what is called the General Church. Since that time there have remained two separate and quite distinct branches of the Swedenborgian family in North America.
The General Church has a very different denominational structure, based on bishops and a male-only priesthood. The General Church has traditionally placed great emphasis on operating its own schools, based on a Swedenborgian curriculum. This practice has endowed the General Church with a rich heritage of creating wonderful educational resources for both children and adults.
The General Church has traditionally placed a greater emphasis on the Divine inspiration of Swedenborg’s writings, so much so that, in the 1930’s, a group calling itself “Nova Hierosolyma” (Latin for “New Jerusalem”) made the claim that Swedenborg’s own writings, no less than scripture, contained a hidden divine sense. This group separated itself from the parent body but remains based in Bryn Athyn, the headquarters of the General Church.
General Church ministries are located across the US and Canada and there are affiliated bodies in many other parts of the world.
(4) A Worldwide Family
Today, there are many Swedenborgian denominations and church organizations, all loosely affiliated or maintaining fraternal relations with one another, all over the world. Our largest churches are now in Africa, especially in South Africa (founded 1911), as well as Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and the Ivory Coast. There are also churches in parts of Latin America, Europe, Russia, South Asia and Australia. We are a worldwide family of churches!
The Story in Canada
In Eastern Canada
The lack of large urban centres tended to inhibit the evangelism of the typically well-educated Swedenborgians arriving from England. A group was started in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1791 by a Dr. Joseph Russell, a former member of Hindmarsh’s London circle who had emigrated to Halifax that same year. Later, we hear of a small group in Markham, north of York (Toronto) around 1830.
Historically, however, the major centre of our faith has been here in Kitchener-Waterloo (see Our Story), with both a Convention church (Good Shepherd) and a General Church ministry (Carmel) located here. The General Church also has a ministry in Etobicoke (the Olivet Church) and a teen Bible camp called Maple Leaf Academy in Palgrave, Ontario. Both branches of the Swedenborgian family have individual families and members-at-large scattered across southern Ontario.
Before General Church came into being, an association representing all Swedenborgians in British North America was founded in 1860. At that time it was simply called “Canada Association” but it is now known as Eastern Canada Conference and it remains affiliated with Convention.
In Western Canada
In the late 1800’s, German-speaking Mennonite settlers from Russia began emigrating to the Canadian West. Some of these hardy pioneers had begun reading Swedenborg’s works and were convinced by the new revelation. By the 1890’s, the first Swedenborgian church had been established in Manitoba. Other churches soon appeared in places like Winnipeg, Rosthern (where the oldest Swedenborgian building in Canada, dating from 1903, still stands), Saskatoon, Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna and elsewhere.
The General Church also operates a ministry in Dawson Creek, British Columbia.
In 1961, a forty acre, wooded, lake-front property was obtained near St. Paul (about two hours drive northeast of Edmonton), thanks to the generous donation of Rev. Paul Tremblay, a major builder of the church in the West. This property was christened “Paulhaven” and it has become the major youth and family Bible camp of Convention in Canada.
Meanwhile, back in 1907, all Swedenborgians in the West came together to found a regional body to represent their common interests. This was called Western Canada Conference and it is affiliated with Convention. In 2007 WCC celebrated its centennial at Paulhaven!
Invitation What to Expect Our Story Worldwide
116 Queen Street North. Kitchener, Ontario N2H 2H7. 519-743-3845.
