Virginia Street Church Loses Two Beloved Elders
By Jim Erickson
With the deaths of Vivian Kelley at the age of eighty eight and Josephine (Joey) Cowern at ninety four, Virginia Street Church has lost two beloved members. These two inspiring women were the last active members from their generation with memories of the church when some of its early founders were still alive. Jo’s father was one of the earliest secretaries of the New Jerusalem church (as it was called then). Joey followed in her father’s footsteps taking an active role in the church. She spent many years serving as a member of the Board of Trustees, she directed the annual Christmas Pageant, sang in the choir and taught Sunday School. Because of her extensive knowledge of the church, people often turned to her for advice. Vivian started at the church as a young Sunday School student. One of the most frequent ways people described Vivian during her years at the church was “gracious”. She had a way of greeting strangers and long-time friends with a smile and eloquent way of speaking that put them at ease. As a member of the board she was able to get members to relax during tense moments. Vivian served many years as volunteer wedding coordinator, a role in which her graciousness served the church very well. Vivian’s demeanor was an important reason why many couples decided to get married at Virginia Street Church. For people who knew her, Vivian was thought of as the quintessential public relations representative and hostess. Vivian also had artistic talents. She was a trained interior decorator and had a keen eye for tasteful decorating as evidenced by anyone who visited her beautiful home. In addition to decorating, Vivian liked to express her artistic talent by painting landscapes. Vivian and Jo loved the New Church and its philosophy living according to its principles and no doubt they are still leading lives of usefulness in the spiritual world.
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January 2012 www.virginiastreetchurch.org visit us online www.facebook.com/virginiastreetchurch
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he good of truth, the good existing with a member of the spiritual Church, 8458, is compared to hoar frost because it forms more of a continuous sheet than snow. Consisting of tiny white flakes snow has reference to truth, while hoar frost, being the nearest thing to it, has reference to truth that has become good, which is the good of truth. - Swedenborg AC 8459
A Rose is a Rose By Eric Hoffman
Once again, as the new year commences we are invited to make decisions regarding the changes we would like to see happen in our lives. In keeping with this tradition, I attended a Winter Solstice celebration recently, during which we were given an opportunity to express our intentions for the next year. My intentions are numerous, and most touch upon living life with more passion. Let me explain a little bit about where this comes from. On one of my last trips to the bookstore, I picked up a few bound collections of “Rose Is Rose” by Pat Brady. This was a comic strip I first read, I think, in the pages of the South Bend, Indiana, newspaper, and to my mind it’s one of the best strips ever written. It depicts a family—mother (Rose), father (Jimbo), son (Pasquale, 6 years old or so) and cat, plus a coterie of other characters such as Clem (a selfish cousin), Vicki the Biker (Rose’s fearless alter-ego), and Pasquale’s Guardian Angel. I love the strip because it does such a good job in depicting the myriad joys of the simpler things of life and living it with passion. It’s quite common for one of the family to go dancing off surrounded by rainbows, flowers, beach balls and sunshine after being smooched on the cheek or treated to a surprise love note or head-butted by a kitten. The artist does such a great job, in my opinion, of showing a character’s deepest heavenly delights. We’ve had a few discussions this past year on what constitutes the Word of God. When most people read the phrase a vision of the Holy Scripture comes to mind, but Swedenborg had a broader understanding of the Word. He wrote that the Word is that which conveys the Lord’s ever-flowing truth. In this light, “the Word” may include not only the Bible, but the sacred texts of other religions, the world of nature, and our own heavenly development as spiritually conscious human beings. Indeed, when we don’t let our self-serving egos rule our decisions, and when we work to be of service to others and can find delight in it, we become expressions of the Divine Presence. We become more fully part of “the Word”. Our challenge is to find ways of expressing the Word—the deepest, most heavenly aspects of our inner life—in all that we do. Our work is a worthy recipient of our efforts, but even more so are our relationships with others. I’ve discovered over the years that one of my delights is to be of service to others, especially my family. I love doing the dishes and the laundry, especially if it gives my wife the freedom to accomplish something important to her. I love reading to my daughter in the evening, and when it can’t happen I think I miss it more than she does. I love hearing about people’s lives, especially when I can offer a fresh perspective on their current challenges. There is no question in my mind that I am exposed to as much Truth through my relationships as I am when I study Scripture. We Swedenborgians like to appreciate the deeper sense of our holidays. I see Valentine’s Day as a way of appreciating the Word that is expressed in my relationships with others. I’ll be enjoying the romantic aspects of the holiday, too—you’d be surprised at how much of the Word that brings out—but I won’t be leaving out my non-romantic relationships. For those who currently have none of the romantic in their lives, Valentine’s Day can be very fulfilling as well, because the Truth that makes our romantic relationships so delightful also makes our other relationships deeper and more satisfying. I hope everyone has a meaningful and happy Valentine’s Day, and a spiritually prosperous New Year!
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Emanuel Swedenborg—Divine Love and Wisdom #427
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here are two loves, according to which the heavens are distinct, celestial love and spiritual love. Celestial love is love to the Lord, and spiritual love is love towards the neighbor. These loves are distinguished by this, that celestial love is the love of good, and spiritual love the love 5
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of truth; for those who are in celestial love perform uses from love of good, and those in spiritual love from love of truth. The marriage of celestial love is with wisdom, and the marriage of spiritual love with intelligence; for it is of wisdom to do good from good, and it is of intelligence to do good from truth, consequently celestial love does what is good, and spiritual love does what is true.
The quote below was taken from “Lives of the Governors of Minnesota” by James H Baker (p. 158.) It was written by Edward C. Mitchall,the first minister of the Virginia Street Church, reflecting on the death of his friend Gov. William Rainey Marshall. William Marshall (b 10/17/1825 d 01/09/1870) was the fifth governor of the state of Minnesota (18661870.) He was a West Point graduate and dabbled in various businesses including hardware, surveying, banking, dairy farming, and newspaper. He purchased “The Saint Paul Daily Times” and “The Minnesotan” and merged them into “The Saint Paul Press”, which is now known as “The Saint Paul Pioneer Press.” Marshall was lieutenant colonel of the Seventh Regiment Minnesota Infantry during the Civil War and his military career ran from August of 1862 through August of 1865. Marshall also helped form our church which was initally known as “The Saint Paul Society of the Church of the New Jerusalem” Before the church on Virginia and Selby was built, the initial members met in the Governor’s office, the YMCA, and then purchased the red and brick Methodist church on Market Street between Fourth & Fifth streets (now the location of The Saint Paul Hotel.)
"William
R. Marshall was a man whom it was easy to love. He was large-hearted, broad-minded and intellectual, generous, sympathetic, genial and considerate, and unusually versatile in his activities. At the time of his death, the press of our state expressed its high estimate of his character, his ability, and his use- fulness, as a brave soldier, an able statesman, and a public-spirited citizen. And it is for me, as his pastor for the last twenty-three years of his life, to speak of him as a man; of his loving faith in the Word of God; his steadfast trust in Divine Providence; the purity and beauty of his social life; his unswerving loyalty to every good cause; his tender sympathy with all who suffered; his uncompromising opposition to all forms of meanness; his chivalrous championing of all who were oppressed; his dominant cheerfulness; his freedom from vindictiveness; his generous confidence in the good intentions of others; his patient bearing under severe trials and sufferings. He was an active member of the New Jerusalem (or Swedenborgian) Church, and one of those who united in forming the Society of that Church, in St. Paul, in 1873. He was a good man to live with, and he endeared himself to all who came in close contact with him.”
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"Continue to love me. Aye, let us love, as God would have us love one an- 1 other, and let us realise, on earth, in spirit, what Swedenborg said when he saw in his vision in heaven, that man and wife there were melted into one angel" (from a published letter to his wife).
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General William Booth—Founder of the Salvation Army.
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esus said unto the disciples that He must suffer at Jerusalem, and that the Son of Man must be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and that "they shall condemn him, and deliver him up to the nations to be mocked, to be scourged, and to be crucified, and that on the third day he shall rise again" (Matt. xx. 18, 19; Mark x. 32-34). The spiritual sense of these words is, that Divine Truth, in the church where mere falsities of doctrine and evils of life reign, shall be blasphemed, its truth perverted, and its good destroyed. The Son of Man signifies Divine Truth, which is the Word, and Jerusalem signifies the church where mere falsities and evils reign. The chief priests and scribes signify the adulterations of good and falsifications of truth, both of them from infernal love. By condemning and delivering Him to the nations is signified to relegate Divine Truth and Divine Good to hell, and to deliver them to the evils and falsities which are therefrom, the nations signifying the evils which are from hell and which destroy the goods of the church. To be mocked, to be scourged, and to be crucified, signifies to blaspheme, falsify, and pervert the truth, and to adulterate and destroy the good of the church and of the Word (as above). And the third day He shall rise again, signifies the complete glorification of the Lord's Human.
Emanuel Swedenborg—Apocalypse Explained n. 655 [10]
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Honore de Balzac French author, 1799-1850 "I have come back to Swedenborg after vast studies of all religions.... Swedenborg undoubtedly epitomizes all the religions—or rather the one religion—of humanity." "Swedenborg's theology is sublime.... He alone enables man to touch God."
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The Wonderful World of a Compost Pile By Erik Lange
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ith all of the wonderful smells of spring finally arriving after a long winter's nap, I'm sure you all have your favorites. Some that come to mind are: lilacs, a fresh rainfall, Easter lilies, newly-mown grass, someone grilling in the park. One of my favorite smells of spring is a newly turned compost pile. Each spring I turn the leaves that I collected in the fall and have been sitting in a heap all winter long. Even on a warm day the pile creates a “steamy” mist as I make my way into the superheated core. I think most people think of a compost pile as a smelly mess, but I disagree. If the compost pile is worked correctly, there is no smelly mess. All you get is that wonderfully woodsy scent that one experiences during walk in a nature center or state park trail. Sure I find all kinds of thing in the compost pile as I turn it...lots of worms, perhaps an ant or two, and some mushrooms. I even found a fresh raccoon kill left by a fox one year. I will often find things growing on and around the compost pile such as small trees and weeds that I pulled during the summer and left for dead. Spiritually, I understand why one might correlate a rotting pile of leaves full of worms, ants, mushrooms and an occasional carcass with the depths of hell. Swedenborg tells us in Divine Love, and Wisdom # 341 that “Everyone knows that marshes, swamps, dunghills, and rotting compost heaps are filled with such creatures; also that noxious winged insects fill the atmosphere like clouds, and noxious vermin the earth like armies on the march, consuming its herbage even to the roots.” I look at this a little differently as my experience shows me the good in taking the mixture that is created through the composting of leaves, and grass and making something from it. One year I decided to take a section of the yard that was just sand and I filled it with this “compost” and watered it down late in the fall. The next spring I had wild violets, ferns, lilly of the valley, and meadow rue growing in its place. Turning the compost pile provides oxygen, additional moisture and it mixes the material that has been sitting outside with the composting material from the inside. As the material breaks down it heats up which is the cause of the swampy vapors. It is a very interesting process. Perhaps there is a spiritual difference between a well groomed compost pile and one that is just left to its own. Without the turning, it takes a much longer time to break down. The constant re-exposure to air, and water assist the bacteria within the material to break it down into soil much faster. This soil material is a wonderful additive and can provide much needed minerals to a garden. It is sort of like taking the experiences of life that the tree or field has taken in during the past year and using it to fertilize the growth of something new. The thunderstorm, the sunny bright days, and the broken limb are recycled and provide a nurturing environment to that new head of lettuce or sunflower popping up. There is something quite spiritual in the world of the compost pile. You can experience it yourself in your own back yard. Give it a try...you might experience a whole new world.
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t seems to me that the New Church has a great mission in the world. The people are in need of just the message that Swedenborg gave for mankind. Instead of merely listening to that message, we should go out and teach it. We have a precious treasure in the vessel of the New Church, and we must be careful not to value the vessel more than the treasure.
I sometimes think that the withdrawing attitude of the New Church keeps people from knowing what a glorious message it has in trust for those who are lost in the fogs of materialism. With all its abounding humanity, Swedenborg's message does not reach the ears of all sorts and conditions of men. If the message does not reach them, it is due not to any narrowness in the Christian ideal that it foreshadows, but to lack of zeal on the part of those who possess it. I want to see the New Church put on its beautiful garments and shake itself from the dust of aloofness.
From “Vision of Service� —a classic sermon written by Helen Keller
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt U.S. President, 1882-1945
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"In a world in which the voice of conscience too often seems still and small there is need of that spiritual leadership of which Swedenborg was a particular example." 3
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