The New Church in Canberra

NEWSpirit

Introduction

NEWSpirit is the monthly magazine of the New Church in Canberra. It aims to provide readers with short, easily accessible articles of real spiritual substance and value. Contributors are always welcome to submit articles which fulfil that aim.

From October's NEWSpirit ...

How new is “new”?

I started thinking about what exactly we mean by ‘new’. In 2007 we shall be celebrating 200th anniversary of the 1st ever Conference of the New Church. Can we still call ourselves the ‘New’ Church?

I then thought about each new day. Do we appreciate that we are renewed every morning and offered new opportunities in which to think and do everything in a novel way? What a wonderful gift that is! The old is past and we can put it behind us.

Our forefathers found this idea a little too overwhelming as they set up the New Jerusalem Church. They built their churches in the traditional way. Worship was based largely on the Anglican style service.

Today these forms no longer hold great attraction for us in our everyday needs, though we may still admire fine old buildings. We are given a second chance to create new forms which would reflect the vibrant spiritual light and life of the new dispensation. Is this still too difficult for us? Undoubtedly it is difficult, but unless we do engage our imagination, we might just be quietly forgotten and buried with the old forms.

I believe we can do it by trying to remind ourselves every morning that we are given a chance of new life and new beginnings. Our main concept of the Lord is so fresh. As the dark clouds of confusing doctrines of a tri-personal Godhead have blown away, we realise that the Lord is our inner life, so that every molecule of our body declares his presence to us. It does not need a great ritual to get in touch with him. It almost seems that the difficulty is on the Lord’s side: how can he get in touch with us, if we persist in those not-so-good old ways? If we keep slipping into the traditional forms, which appear to put a barrier between us and the “awful majesty of the Almighty God”, as I have heard it described on many occasions on the services in the media. Let us accept the full meaning of the word ‘new’ and begin to think and act in the spirit of the New Age, remembering the wonders of the spiritual sense of the Word and the comprehensive teachings about life after death. We have something to smile about and need to be bold enough to take up the challenge - every morning.
“Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21.5

Rev Christopher Hasler