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Welcome to the New Church in New Zealand's Home Page.
Sunday Worship and Sunday School - 10.00am
Evening Fellowship - 5.00pm
(Last Sunday of the month)
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A new Christian era
The New Christianity is a religion or form of spirituality that is
transcending and transforming that brings us into an experience of God
within. Many People believe we are living in a post christian era but in the New Christian Church we see ourselves as living in a new era or age. This new era is a new dispensation of the church represented in the Bible by the New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation.
In Revelation 21 it is declared, "Behold, I make all things new." This newness is about new teachings about spiritual growth. It entails focussing on the Lord Jesus Christ as God, on personal responsibility and choice and on an understanding of the inner meaning of the Bible as it relates to our thoughts and feelings. It reveals more about human immortality and the life of religion being one of mutual love and useful living.
For a religion to be our own, we must each see things for ourselves, that these teachings are in accordance with the self-evident reasoning of love. A blind or inherited faith have no part in the New Christianity. We can't love what we do not know, or believe what we don't understand.
What do we mean by religion?
For many it may raise ideas of attending services, praying and all the external things that go with church membership and attendance. The New Church teachings show us that in essence, the true religion has relation to life and that the life of religion is to do good. It is to obey God's laws and to act faithfully and honestly in our daily occupations.
Further to this, the word 'religion' means to retie or bind back (to the source). Religion, therefore, is about binding ourselves back to the source of love and wisdom which makes us truly human, or loving and understanding people. This is the state of life pictured by the creation of Man on the sixth day in Genesis 1.
We arrive at this state after it dawns on us (day 1) that we need a higher power in our life. We realise that we have a void and an emptiness in our hearts and minds - we lack love and the answers to life (truth). We spiritually hunger and thirst!
How new is it?
The New Christian Church has been around for over 200 years. In New Zealand since 1888. In some countries it is known as the Church of the New Jerusalem, often just the New Church and sometimes the Swedenborgian Church. Every church has its theologian from which the church is sometimes referred to, e.g.. Lutheran, Wesleyian etc. Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swede who lived from 1688 to 1772 was the theologian of the New Christianity. He was also a famous scientist of his day. He did not found a church himself. Church organisation were established by followers of the New Church teachings after he died.
You may not have known...
Though you may not have heard of Swedenborg, you will have most probably have benefited from concepts drawn from the theology. For example, the infant school movement had its origins in the New Church and the concept of kindergarten comes from the book Heaven and Hell. A lutheran pastor employed the teaching of how children were taught in heaven in a garden setting to improve the lot of children in his village. A practical example of doing God's will on earth as in heaven!
A Broad Influence.
Many poets, authors, artists, reformers, political figures and famous people have been influenced by the teachings of Swedenborg. We say it was given through him, because we see it as a revelation from God through a human instrument. That teaching or structure of truth, are genuine concepts which provide a framework (like a building) within which we can live. This teaching is represented by the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven in Revelation 21.
Some of the distinguished contributors to the culture of our age, who have acknowledged the influence of the teachings in Swedenborgs theology are:
| Honore de Balzac | Robert Browning |
| Andrew Carnegie | John (Johnny Appleseed) Chapman |
| Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
| Benjamin Franklin | Johann Goethe |
| Victor Hugo | Carl Jung |
| Helen Keller | Henry Longfellow |
| John Oberline | Edgar Allen Poe |
| George Bernard Shaw | August Strindberg |
| H.G. Wells | Colin Wilson |
| John Greenleaf Whittier | William Blake |
| Elizabeth Browning | March Cost |
| John Flaxman | Henry George |
| Julia Ward Howe | Henry James |
| Imanuel Kant | Abraham Lincon |
| Maurice Nicoll | Sir Isaac Pitman |
| George Sand | Sundar Singh |
| Daisetz Suzuki | John Wesley |
| William Yeats | |
A Broad View of Being Saved.
In the New Christian Church we see God's love extending to all people no matter what their religion and that the new spiritual era, though it may be centred on Christianity, encompassed all true spirituality. People of all religions can be saved for it is not from any wrath of God. It is to be saved from the bad feelings and false or negative thoughts that destroy our real and eternal happiness.
If you wish to know more about the teachings of the New Church you may send for the introductory pamphlets. Topics in the series are :
The New Church
Who is God?
Life After Death
The Bibles Deeper Meaning
Rebirth and Spiritual Growth
Heavenly Marriage
A more comprehensive introduction to these new concepts can be found in the books:
Light in My Darkness -
Helen Keller
Introduction to Swedenborgs Religious Thought -
Spalding
