The New Church Newsletter Hurstville Society August Successful General Assembly Held In Guelph, Ontario By Rev. David W.

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1 The New Church Newsletter Hurstville Society August 2000 Successful General Assembly Held In Guelph, Ontario By Rev. David W. Ayers By all accounts, the 33rd General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was very successful. Close to 750 New Church people from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Togo, Ghana, Korea, Japan, England, France, Sweden, the United States and Canada gathered on the beautiful campus of the University of Guelph from June 21-25th for a program of education, worship, recreation and mutual support. Organized under the banner "The Many Faces of the General Church," Assembly 2000 offered a great variety of program choices (over 70 different sessions were held over the fourday period). Many of these sessions were audio taped, and are available from the General Church Sound Recording Library. Sessions currently available on tape will be listed at the end of this article. Assembly 2000 also successfully included complete programs for children and teens, which enabled entire families to attend. The Assembly also provided many different worship service formats. Each morning attendees could choose between a Celebration Worship (family style, with 20 minutes of music/singing prefacing each service), or a Prayer/Meditation service. The children's program also began each day with worship led by husband/wife teams. Every evening included both an Adult Vespers and a Teen Vespers. A Holy Supper Service was offered on Friday afternoon. And three Sunday closing services were held, comprising both traditional and more contemporary formats. As reported in last month's newsletter, the Hurstville Society presented a display, which joined those of other societies in the University of Guelph's University Centre. These displays offered each person attending a chance to learn about other General Church societies from around the globe, as well as the various activities of the General Church central offices in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, USA. Hurstville's display featured a beautifully colourful banner and interactive computer program. While there were many wonderful displays, ours was unique and very well-received. It should be noted that these displays were especially useful, drawing the attention not only of conference attendees,

2 but also that of the many students and visitors to the University. I myself spent quite a long time with a student who was attracted to our display and had many questions about the Writings and the New Church. Brand new this year was an Assembly Yearbook, which replaced the group photographs common in previous years. The yearbook is being produced by a professional photographer, and will include portrait photos of each person or family attending the Assembly. Hurstville and Australia-New Zealand were well represented at the Assembly. Joining Hurstville Pastor Rev. David Ayers and his wife Darcy, were society members Murray and Lori Heldon and children Naomi and Jeffrey; Norm Heldon; and Gary and Laurel Walsh and their children. Others from Australia included Rev. Les Sheppard and his wife Bev from Brisbane, and Phillip and Eleanor Richards from Canberra. Rev. Dick Keyworth and his son David (a theological student from the Academy of the New Church Theological School) represented New Zealand. Assembly 2000 Sessions Available on Audio Tape # Title Speaker 2 Three Meanings of the Word Church Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss 3 How the Lord Introduces His Teachings Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss 7 Strengthening the Home Front Rev. Peter Buss, Jr. 8 Spiritual Causes of Natural Things Rev. Dr. Reuben Bell 12 Preserving Our New Church Heritage Panel 13 New Church Christology Rev. Erik E. Sandstrom 14 Faces of the Church John Raymond 16 The Church in the Year 3000 Rev. Erik Buss 17 Leadership Styles Dr. Sonia S. Werner 21 The New Church in West Africa Panel 22 New Church Challenge Rev. Kurt Ho. Asplundh 23 Idealism and Reality Rev. David Lindrooth 24 Contemporary Worship Services Caroline Glenn 26 Young Adults Connection Joanne Kiel 27 Answering Questions Rev. Grant Schnarr 29 Dove at the Window Vera Powell Glenn 30 New Church Early Childhood Education Dr. Sonia S. Werner 31 Loving Arms Mission Mandy Petro-Rogers

3 33 New Church Translations of the Word Rev. Stephen Cole 35 Noah &endash; The Story of Our Life Rev. Goran Appelgren 38 The New Church in the New Millennium Rev. Jeremy Simons 39 Understanding What is Human Pelle Rosoenquist 40 The Ten Commandments Rev. Dr. Ray Silverman 41 The New Church and the Arts Richard and Debbie Cook 45 Failure is Fabulous Lori Soneson Odhner 46 The Lord's Glorification Rev. Geoffrey Childs 48 Polarities Ned Uber III 49 Recruitment Seekers Dorothy Brisco 50 Meditation on the Lord's Prayer Valerie Jorgrenson 51 Religion, Dating & Marriage Rev. Kenneth Alden 52 Reading the Word Rev. Goran Appelgren 53 Prayer Rev. Bill Burke 54 Large Scale Evangelization Dr. Kurt Simons 55 Daniel Rev. Andy Dibb 56 Balance/Women's Roles Panel 58 Co-operation Rev. Dan Goodenough 61 New Century Writings Rev. Dr. Jonathan Rose 62 Preparing Pastors/Theological School Rev. Brian Keith 63 Helping the New Church Grow Ned Uber III 66 Nature and Spirit Rev. Grant Odhner 67 Living the Good Life Rev. Kurt Ho. Asplundh 68 Forgiveness Rev. Mark Pendleton 69 Variety In Harmony Makes Unity Rt. Rev. Alfred Acton 72 Benjamin, The Vital Link Rev. Michael Gladish 73 State of the Church Rt. Rev. Peter Buss You can order any of these titles by writings to: General Church Sound Recording Library, PO Box 743, Bryn Athyn, PA Each tape is $2.00 (US) plus postage and handling. An invoice will be included with each order. To order by phone: (215) or

4 The Writings Make The "Bestseller" List! We are having some real success in distributing copies of the Writings in the Sydney area, thanks to funding from the Basil Lazer Fund, and the efforts of Hurstville Society member Mike Lockhart. Basil Lazer left a substantial bequest to the New Church in Australia, for the intended use of promoting the Writings for the New Church. Taking the lead from Rev. Les Sheppard's efforts in Brisbane to distribute the Writings through the network of Brisbane's used book stores, the Hurstville Society recently purchased a large order of the Writings from the Swedenborg Foundation with the intention of distributing them throughout the network of Sydney used book stores. Mike Lockhart, who manages a hardware store on Pitt Street in Sydney's Central Business District, offered to try and move some of the copies through several used bookstores on Pitt Street. Mike's efforts have been extremely successful in just a short time. He has cultivated a relationship with two of the most prominent used bookstores in the area. One is Ashwoods Book Shop, the largest used bookstore in town, located at 376 Pitt Street, Sydney The owner of Ashwoods reports that Emanuel Swedenborg has become his best selling author! Apparently, people are coming in and buying up anything written by and about Swedenborg. The owner is so impressed with the popularity of the Writings that he has given prominent shelf space in his front window to seven titles. Especially "hot" are Heavenly Secrets (Volume One), Light In My Darkness, Heaven and Hell, and Apocalypse Revealed. Anyone familiar with Pitt Street knows just how much foot traffic passes by these stores! The Pitt Street Bookstore, located just a few doors down at 378 Pitt Street, Sydney 2000, is also moving the Writings at a good rate, according to Mike's contacts with that store. Between these two stores alone, almost 100 copies of the Writings have been sold in a two-month period. These are just the beginning of the Hurstville Society's efforts to saturate the Sydney area with as many copies of the Writings as time and funding allow. This work will receive a substantial boost when Adriane Junge and Maddy Glenn arrive from Bryn Athyn College in late August to begin their threemonth internship with our society. One of Adriane's and Maddy's main tasks will be to cultivate working relationships with area bookstores, which will hopefully be willing to distribute copies of the Writings. Other related projects will include media advertising and free book giveaways to inquirers.

5 Each book that we place in these used bookstores contains multiple copies of ID stickers with the name, address, phone number and address of the Hurstville Society and the Swedenborg Bookroom. Our hope and prayer is that some interested readers will be moved to contact us for additional information, and visit our worship, doctrinal class and reading group offerings. Even if we don't see any immediate newcomer inquiries, we content knowing that more Australians are becoming aware of the Writings for the Lord's New Church. Only good things can come from a wider readership of the Heavenly Doctrines. There are several distinct advantages to distributing the Writings in this way. 1) We are able to advertise the Hurstville Society and Swedenborg Bookroom within each volume - something that would not be possible with traditional retailers of new books. 2) There is a wide network of used bookstores in the Sydney area. Nearly every township and suburb boasts such shops, ensuring a wide and thorough coverage of the metropolitan area. 3) These shops are always eager to accept books - especially when the books are in brand new condition and well presented, as are the newer printing of the Writings. The shop owners can then price these new books attractively, making them exceptionally good buys for the reading public. This is a ready-made market for book distribution that costs the shop owners little except for trade credit toward other titles in their stores. 4) Each volume is likely to have multiple retail lives, i.e. if a customer who has purchased or traded for a book of the Writings does not like it, they are most likely to return it to the same store, or another like it, for additional trade credit - thus ensuring even more exposure. In practical terms, each volume distributed in this way is equivalent to several books. Titles purchased on our first run included Heaven and Hell, Heavenly Secrets (Volume One), Apocalypse Revealed, Divine Love and Wisdom, Divine Providence, Four Doctrines, New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrines, Conjugial Love, Charity, and Light In My Darkness. If, as we have every reason to expect, these volumes continue to sell well, we will make additional purchases and broaden our distribution efforts. If you would like to help with this exciting project, please contact the Pastor. And stay tuned to future editions of this newsletter for updates on our progress. May the Lord bless our efforts to spread the truths of His New Word!

6 Featuring prominently in the window of Ashwoods Book Store are: Top row left to right starting from second on the left, Heavenly Secrets, Divine Providence, Divine Love and Wisdom, Heaven and Hell Bottom row right to left, Apocalypse Revealed, New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine and The Four Doctrines The Writing On The Wall By Norm Heldon Nowadays it is widely forgotten that quite a number of expressions used in everyday speech and writing originally came from the Bible. One example is "the writing is on the wall," meaning that a certain thing is bound to happen. This saying comes from a story in the Book of Daniel (Chapters 4 and 5). Nebuchadnezzar, Babylonian conqueror of Jerusalem, had taken the gold and silver vessels from the temple. Humbled by the Lord, Nebuchadnezzar died, and was succeeded by Belshazzar. At a feast, Balshazzar ordered that the golden and silver vessels taken from the temple be brought to him. He and others drank from them, while simultaneously praising the Babylonian gods of gold, silver, brass, iron, wood and stone.

7 A hand then miraculously appeared in the midst of Belshazzar's feast, and wrote these words on a wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPSHARIN. When he saw this vision, Belshazzar was very afraid. His magicians and soothsayers were unable to translate the meaning of the words. The Queen, however, told Belshazzar about Daniel, one of the captive Jews. She said that Daniel would be able to interpret the strange words. When Daniel was summoned, he bluntly told Belshazzar that because he had set himself against the Lord, he would be deprived of his kingdom. Daniel's words to Belshazzar were "You are weighed in the balance and found wanting" (which, by the way, is another common expression with its origin in this story). On the very night of this vision, Belshazzar was slain. General Church Office of Education Offers Early Childhood Religion Program Children love learning about the Lord. When parents (or other caring adults) share the stories of His Word, they instinctively respond! Helping your child develop a relationship with the visible God in His three-fold Word is one of the most important things a parent can do. However, we know that the external demand of raising very young children takes a tremendous amount of energy and time. Therefore, the Office of Education wants to help support your efforts to meet the spiritual needs of children from birth to age 6. * "I felt like I should be doing religious education, but I wasn't sure how to do this for my young child." (Quote from a parent) Last year we were able to help over 100 families by producing a new Early Childhood Religion Program. This year, we will again be offering the program with brand new age-appropriate projects. There are three different age categories - 0&1, 2&3, and 4&5.) Each month of the year, September through June, your family will receive a package of "treasures" based on a story from the Word that follow spiritual concepts that have been carefully chosen for these critical ages of development. The package includes a project for your little one (complete with all materials and instructions), a song or two on tape, a children's talk and/or story, and suggestions of additional ways to develop the month's theme with one child or with the whole family. We also send along inspirational quotes and pamphlets based on the theme of the month that is just for parents! * "This program really opened my mind on how to continue to make the Lord real for my daughter." (Quote from a parent)

8 The cost of this program will be $25.00 (US) before July 31 and $30.00 (US) after that date for each child that you enrol. Only one shipping charge will be applied per family. If you receive your mail through interoffice services at the Academy, there will be no mailing charge. The total charge for mailing to all parts of the United States and Canada will be $20.00 (US) per family. All overseas mailing will be $45.00 (US) per family. Scholarships are available, and incremental payments are possible. Please do not let a lack of funds stop you from subscribing to this program. * "The Early Childhood program is a strong way for parents and children to bond over a religious experience." (Quote from a parent) To sign up, please look for flyers at your church or call Sheila Daum at or send her at sldaum@newchurch.edu. She will be happy to assist you! Can't Wait Until Next June 19th? If you can't stand waiting until Hurstville's 2001 New Church Day Pageant, we have something that will help tide you over. During his recent North American visit, the Pastor purchased a video of the New Church Day Pageant held in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania on June 18. This beautiful outdoor service was held on the grounds of Bryn Athyn Cathedral, and featured horses with riders in dramatic costumes depicting the four horsemen and the opening of the seven seals, and the Lord riding on the white horse. While the second performance was cut short due to rain, the first was complete, serving as the subject for the video. If you would like to borrow the video, please contact the Pastor. Note: you must have a VCR that is capable of playing North American VHS format tapes to enjoy this production. People News Best wishes to Bryan Clancy, brother of Kerry (Clancy) Lockhart as he recovers from recent surgery.

9 Our prayers are with Rebecca Horner for a full and speedy recovery from an illness that led to a recent hospital stay in Tamworth. Our prayers also go out to Rev. Les Sheppard and his wife Bev, as they come to terms with the reality of Les' recently diagnosed Parkinson's Disease. This month we extend a warm welcome to Bryn Athyn College students Adriane Junge and Maddy Glenn, who are completing a three-month internship with the Hurstville Society. Adriane and Maddy will arrive on August 23 and stay until late November. We look forward to their participation and help in every facet of Hurstville Society life. Congratulations to Kendall Ayers, who earned a spot on the Academy of the New Church Girls School Honour Roll for the 4th quarter, an honour she earned every term this year. Kendall also won the school's Religion Award for Grade 10 girls at the year-end Awards Night. Kendall is currently spending the North American summer in Colorado with family, before heading back to Bryn Athyn for summer sports camp. Then it's on the Grade 11, where she will be joined byé Naomi Heldon, who will also attend the Academy Girls School as a Grade 11 student and live in Glenn Hall. Naomi is living with her Aunt Marci and family in New York City, working and preparing for the new school year. We are sure that Naomi and Kendall will represent Hurstville in the dormitory and school communities with great distinction! Carly Ayers was recruited to be part of the dance troupe that performed in both of the Bryn Athyn Society's New Church Day Pageant services. Unfortunately, she only got to participate in the first service due to a downpour, which forced the premature closing of the second service. We wave a sad goodbye to Kyra Hendricks, who returned to her home in the United States after a six-month stay in Oz. Kyra fitted into the Hurstville Society and the Heldon family very well, and we will really miss her. Come back and see us again Kyra! Gary Walsh is doing well in America as he enters his final year of theological school. Gary, Laurel and their children were in Guelph, Ontario for the recent General Assembly and Council of the Clergy meetings. As part of his candidate duties, Gary was called back to the Ivyland New Church to preach in Rev. David Lindrooth's absence on the Sunday between the Assembly and Clergy meetings. All went well until Gary attempted to fly back to Canada after the

10 service. Apparently, bad weather forced extended delays and cancellation of his flight. After waiting for hours in the Philadelphia International Terminal, he travelled by bus to a local hotel with other passengers who missed their flight, only to find out that the hotel had no vacancies. Gary and others then spent the night in another hotel in a "dodgy" part of Philadelphia, glad for a shower and clean sheets. He finally made it back to Toronto on a flight the next morning. He was last seen looking rather worse for wear, muttering something that sounded like "You owe me big time, LindroothÉ" Pancake Breakfast Don't forget to make a special note about the Pancake Breakfast on Sunday 27th August at 8.30 am before church. It will be prepared by the Young People and based on past experiences it will be delicious with fruit salad, eggs, pancakes and who knows what else. Admission is by donation with proceeds going towards young peoples' activities. Also this may be your first opportunity to meet Adrianne Junge and Maddy Glenn who will have arrived a few days earlier. Bowling Outing We are hoping to have a Ten Pin Bowling outing on Saturday 2nd September. The more we get the cheaper the price so bring a friend as well. Please let Lori Heldon know if you plan to come on so we can plan numbers. Birthdays July Lachlan Hinds (9th), James Kermond (10th), Theo Kirsten (30th) August Norman Heldon (1st), Grace Horner (7th), Bridget O'Sullivan (7th), Mark Brettell (8th) Melanie Davis (8th), Rhonda Hall (12th), Rebecca Horner (17th), Ralph Horner (30th)

11 August Calendar of Events Note: All events are located at the church at 22 Dudley St, Penshurst 2222 (off Hillcrest Ave) unless otherwise stated. Contact the pastor Rev Dave Ayers on (02) for more information or Dave at All are welcome and refreshments are served after church each Sunday. Wednesday August 2nd a.m. Discussion Group Friday August 4th 7.00 p.m. Tea and Class Sunday August 6th a.m. Worship and Sunday School followed by Property Trust Meeting and TENNIS DAY Monday August 7th 7.00 p.m. Young People's Group Tuesday August 8th 8.00 p.m. Business Committee Wednesday August 9th a.m. Discussion Group Sunday August 13th a.m. Worship and Sunday School followed by PASTOR'S COUNCIL Wednesday August 16th a.m. Discussion Group Friday August 18th 8.00 p.m. Doctrinal Class Sunday August 20th a.m. Worship and Sunday School Monday August 21st 7.00 p.m. Young People's Group Wednesday Sunday August 23rd August 27th a.m. Discussion Group Adriane Junge and Maddy Glenn arrive 8.30 a.m.pancake Breakfast a.m. FAMILY SERVICE followed by THETA ALPHA GUILD Wednesday August 30th a.m. Discussion Group Saturday September 2nd Ten Pin Bowling Outing - details to be notified