Come for the Heaven of it!
 We are here to help you make your
life as full of Heaven as you would like it to be. That's our mission and our
commitment. We gather at Dance Works in Redmond each Sunday to make that
happen, and it does! It happens because God is a real transforming force in
the world.
Come for the love!
People of every faith feel welcome here. Not only do we honor many
different approaches to God, we encourage it. Everyone is enriched by
learning from the spiritual path of each other.
The Swedenborgian Church of Puget
Sound is
part of the inclusive Christian denomination known as the
Swedenborgian
Church, which is a member of the National Council of Churches. The Swedenborgian denomination was instrumental in organizing the
first Congress of World Religions, held in Chicago in 1893, and was one
of the first churches in the western world teaching that salvation is an
inner experience rather than acceptance of a particular doctrine.
Who is God? Swedenborg wrote
"God never hurts or punishes, for this is as far away from the nature of
God as Heaven is from hell." For Swedenborgians, God is the Creator, the
source of every positive human quality and the very energy which is
slowly leading humanity towards the creation of heaven on earth. The
essence of God is perfect love and wisdom which draws all people to
heaven so that they would enjoy the fulfillment for which we were
created.
Who is Jesus? Jesus was a
real person who lived and taught a path we can follow to become whole. In this person, God entered
completely into the human experience as the ultimate expression of love and
compassion. He knew birth, growth, pain, testing, and fulfillment. In Christ we
are given a comprehensible and knowable God. The Second Coming is an active
process that is happening within us and the whole world. As we
increase
compassion, integrity, understanding, and healing in our lives, we
are helping God create a "new Heaven and a new Earth." |
Heaven and hell are not rewards or punishments distributed on judgment day but the present
inner experience we freely choose. We may choose to enjoy peace and
openness, or to close ourselves in fear. We can discover the highest joy of
a loving life by giving to others, or the loneliness of
self-centeredness. Life is an opportunity for learning and
spiritual growth. When we "die" we continue to live, creating the Heaven or hell of our choice in
the next life. There is no devil tempting us, but there are angels who
are always with us, leading us toward the light of heaven.
As we choose
between giving and taking, loving and hating, right and wrong, we participate
in the creation of our own spiritual character. This spiritual self, or soul, is who we really are, and this is what lives forever.
The Bible is a
very complex compilation of books that are far too rich to be limited to
literal interpretation. The creation story is not an historical account but a
description of our own stages of spiritual growth. The generations of
Abraham speak of our growing complexity. The escape from slavery in
Egypt, the wandering in the wilderness, and the claiming of the promised land
recount our own spiritual journey as we truly become ourselves. The
descending of the New Jerusalem described in Revelation is the completion
of the spiritual evolution of the human race. The Bible is a map of our journey from the Garden of Eden to the Holy City. It is our story.
Who was
Swedenborg? Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a distinguished Swedish nobleman and scientist who, by his
mid-fifties, had numerous discoveries and inventions to his credit.
After a profound mystical experience he devoted the rest of his life to
his religious quest: to explore the nature of the spiritual being
residing within humanity. Perhaps his greatest contribution to religious
thought is his personal testimony, based on daily experience, to the
reality of the spiritual dimension to life and a life beyond death. If
you Google "Swedenborg" you will be amazed by what you find. He is
listed by Stanford University as one of the three most intelligent
people who ever lived. The Swedenborgian Church regards Swedenborg in a
fashion comparable to the view the Lutheran Church has of Martin Luther.
 Swedenborg
and the Swedenborgian Church
Fifteen years
after Swedenborg's death a church denomination named after him was formed in
London. The Swedenborgian Church in North America was organized in 1817.
Swedenborg's writings have inspired some remarkable people, such as Johnny Appleseed,
William Blake, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Robert Frost,
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Judith Guest, William James, Carl Jung, Helen
Keller, Abraham Lincoln, Van Morrison, Henry David Thoreau, and many others.
Our Redmond congregation, is part of The Swedenborgian
Church of North America. |
