People often ask, "What is new about the New Church?" In terms of years marked by the calendar, it may seem that the "New Church" is no longer new. It has been present in South Africa since the 1840s. Yet it still is new! It is new in the freshness of its religious and spiritual insight and practicality when compared to traditional Christianity . . . . in its openness to continual renewal, as a church, rather than being directed by the heavy weight of tradition. . . . as it reaches new communities and different language groups here in South Africa and in many countries around the world.
Our basic affirmations are simple:
- The Lord Jesus Christ is the one living God.
- He is present with us in every moment of our life, with His passionate love, His profound wisdom and His pervasive power to help each one of us.
- His Word enables us to learn from Him what it is to be human, how to grow as a person, how to recognise and love Him and others, how to trust His life and reality.
- As adults we each have to choose, for ourselves, what kind of person we really want to be forever. This is being "born again" - not in a miraculous instant conversion - but in our decisions and lives from day to day, with the Lord always present helping.
- This new birth enables us to learn to love deeply, to be intimate and trusting, to be committed to forgiveness and reconciliation, to act with justice and compassion, to make a difference by our life here on earth.
- "What God has joined together" He will not separate. A marriage in which there is true love, as a result of the new birth of the spirit from the Lord, can continue forever, into eternity.
- We are born so that we can live forever. "Death" is not our death as a person. It is just the end of the physical body which enables us to live in this natural world. We continue to live forever. If we have said "yes!" to Life - "yes!" to the God in whom we "live, move and have our being" - "yes!" to living and helping others and not just living for ourself - then our life will be peaceful, rewarding and happy, forever.
These affirmations come out of a powerful set of books that we call "The Writings". We find the Writings consistently echo and support what is true in the Bible. The Writings were written over 300 years ago by Emanuel Swedenborg, a mining engineer and scientist whose quest turned to the things of the human spirit, the things that make us truly human.
Please contact us if you have any questions. Or simply join us in Buccleuch for Sunday church at 9:30am.
You are always welcome!
