During his exile on the isle of Patmos, the Apostle John received strange and wonderful visions of things to come. He saw cataclysmic upheavals and then a new reign of peace - a new golden age - symbolized by a beautiful city descending from God out of heaven: the New Jerusalem, adorned as a bride for her husband.

This prophetic book, the Book of Revelation or Apocalypse, has never been understood in the Christian Church for no prophecy is every really understood until its fulfilment. We can see this in regard to the Lord's first coming. He was unrecognized because the ancient prophecies concerning the Messiah had been misunderstood as meaning an earthly king, who would deliver the nation Israel from her enemies. But in truth the Lord came as a spiritual king, who would conquer the hells and redeem all humanity from spiritual slavery.

It is our belief that the prophecies contained in the Book of Revelation have been and are being fulfilled today, and that they refer, not to the end of the world, but to the end of the first Christian era, and the establishment of a new Christian age on earth - a new church.

Jerusalem, where the temple - the centre of worship and instruction in the Scriptures - was, stands for the Lord's church on earth. And the New Jerusalem, symbolically portrayed in John's vision, stands for a new church - not a new church organization, primarily, but a new dispensation of Divine truth from heaven. When this is received, it creates a new state of spiritual love and wisdom within the hearts and minds of people on earth. This is where the church essentially exists - within people who know and love the Lord.

He that sat upon the throne and said, "Behold, I make all things new" is no other than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. His throne is heaven, where He is acknowledged as king, and more than king, the source of life itself. And from His kingdom of heaven the Lord is continually re-creating or making new the life of religion in each person who believes in Him as the only God of heaven and earth. This is what the Lord makes new - all things of religion.

In order to come into the kingdom of heaven, the Lord said, "you must be born again," that is, made entirely new - seeing God where you never saw Him before, aware of His presence in new ways, looking upon spiritual things with the freshness and wonder of a child, rediscovering the spiritual dimension of life - this is the newness the Lord makes. And how does the Lord bring a person into this state of life? How does He bring into existence a new church, in which He appears with new clarity and power to save? He does it by means of a new revelation of Divine truth, coming down from heaven to make all things new, to raise up a new, more perfect Christianity.

The Lord has always revealed Himself to people, as far as He possibly could, according to their state of understanding. He spoke through the prophets of the Old Testament. Then He was born on earth Himself as the Word made flesh, or Divine truth in human form. After His resurrection, He appeared to His disciples and later to John on the isle of Patmos, foretelling wondrous things to come.

But revelation did not end there. The Word (Bible) looks forward to, and specifically refers to, future revelation. For instance, when He was on earth the Lord told His disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth…" (John 16:12-13).

We believe that this promise of a new revelation has been fulfilled in the teachings given through Emanuel Swedenborg, who, like the prophets of old, served as a human instrument whereby the Lord could reveal new truths for all people. The solemn testimony of this well-known and respected scientist, philosopher, and statesman, was that the Lord appeared to him, opened his spiritual eyes, and revealed to him all the teachings contained in the theological writings which he then published; and furthermore, that not one word of those teachings came from himself or any other merely human source, but from the Lord alone.

These Writings, or Heavenly Doctrines, do not supplant or replace the Word (Bible), any more than the New Testament supplanted the Old; rather, they infill the Sacred Scriptures by disclosing the hidden meaning contained within them. This internal sense, or spiritual sense, is like the soul or spirit within the letter of the Word. Without it, our understanding of the Scriptures is as limited as that of Nicodemus, who, when the Lord said to him, "you must be born again," asked: How can I, a grown man, return to my mother's womb? (see John 3). He took the Lord's words at their literal face value and so missed the whole meaning, which was spiritual.

It is this revelation of the internal sense of the Word which makes all things of religion new. It gives a new vision of the Lord Jesus Christ as the one God of heaven and earth. This new vision is what is meant by the second coming of the Lord. It is not a second physical coming, or a coming in person, but is a spiritual coming. The Lord said that He would come again as the Spirit of truth, or as new truth about spiritual things, new truth about Himself - the essence or soul of all truth. This is what the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word discloses.

No one is asked to accept any of this on faith. It is a cardinal principle of the new revelation that religious truths must be freely accepted, not supported by emotional persuasion, external human authority, or "blind faith." What people do not see for themselves to be true and freely choose to follow is not really their own. Investigate the Heavenly Doctrines for yourself, and see if they do not provide deep and satisfying answers to the important questions of life, in full agreement with the Scriptures and also with what common perception tells you must be reasonable and true. You will find - contrary to what is widely believed - that spiritual things can be understood. They can be and should be. The Lord wants us to understand His purposes in our creation and thus be able to freely cooperate with them.

The New Jerusalem is not limited to any organization, although there are New Church bodies in the world; it exists in the minds of those whose lives have been made new by the new revelation. It is not Catholic, nor Protestant, but a new dispensation - a New Church. It is eminently Christian, for it worships the Lord Jesus Christ as God and seeks to bring the teachings of His Word into life.

The New Church is open to all. The city seen by John in his vision was foursquare, with twelve gates, three on each side. These gates are never shut, but are open to all people of whatever religious background. Each gate is a great pearl, the pearl of great price, worth acquiring above all else - the acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ as the one God of heaven and earth.

I believe that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came into the world to subjugate the hells and to glorify His Human; and without this no mortal could have been saved; and those are saved who believe in Him.

He removed hell from man by means of victories over temptations admitted into His Human, made feeble by a maternal heredity. He subdued hell, reduced it to order and made it obedient to Himself to eternity. By these means too, He glorified His Human which He took on in the world - united it with the Divine from which are all things, and cast off that maternal heredity. He became Righteousness Itself.

The Lord God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, is one in essence and in person, and in whom is a Divine trinity. This Trinity consists of the Divine Love, Divine Wisdom and Divine Uses that love and serve man, seeking for our happiness in a conjunction of love with Him.

I believe that the Old and New Testaments, and the Heavenly Doctrines are a Divine Revelation which testify to these truths and bear witness to the two essentials of the New Church: the Divinity of the Lord's Human and the life of repentance and charity that leads to salvation and heaven.

My purpose as a priest of the New Church is to teach truths from the Word which lead to the good of life, and proclaim the wonderful news of the Second Coming.

Lord, I pray that Your Second Coming may be received into people's hearts. Lord, I ask that You make me fit for serving You in this great cause: Humble my heart, impart Your wisdom, bend me to Your holy use.

All Glory and Honour are Yours, forever and ever. Amen.

Dear Hurstville Society and Friends,

I want to let you know how excited Janine, Kai (1 1/2) and I are about visiting Australia in July and August. I have been working my way through the Academy Theological school for the past 3 years and feel grateful for a chance to get out of the classroom to start interacting with real people.

I feel privileged to have visited New Church people in Ghana, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico in addition to the USA where I was born and South Africa where I spent my high school years. Seeing all sorts of different people around the world committed to the same important truths about the Lord is inspiring and humbling. I look forward to getting to know Australian men and women, learning from you and sharing the experiences of walking this earthly road together.

My wife Janine Gladish Smith, daughter of Nathan and Elise has already visited Sydney when she was 16. She grew up in San Diego, California and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After four years at Bryn Athyn College majoring in Biology, Janine agreed to marry me. She is now a committed and excellent mother for Kai in addition to continually learning about nutrition, cooking and health. The two of us have lived in Bryn Athyn for eight years attending various schools and we expect to move out sometime next June when I will hopefully be ordained as a minister. While in Australia I hope to visit Perth and Canberra in addition to doing some local site seeing.

It is hard to resist the possibilities of spending money and time exploring Australia. However, in addition to preaching and offering doctrinal classes I will also be trying not to completely neglect my capstone thesis for my Master's program. I am pursuing questions about the use and dangers of doubt in the process of coming to know the Lord. We are looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible on our visit.

Brian Smith.

Following on from our New Church Day celebrations (see separate report), the sermon by Rev Walter Orthwein, Robert Cooper's declaration of faith and the words of Brian Smith as he prepares to head to Australia to begin serving the church, along with the message from Angela Cooper on New Church Live and the News Item about The Centenary of the New Church in South Africa, all seemed to fit together in a theme of The New Church, its place in the world and how we might strive to help the church serve the world at large.

Hello,

This is Angela Cooper from NewChurchLIVE. Throughout my time working here I have had the opportunity to write and/or talk with each of you about the ways in which your groups might be able to get involved with NewChurchLIVE. As many of you might already know on May 31st, 2009 we had our preview event as a way to begin to let people see what we are capable of and get an overview of this initiative. I thought each of you would be interested in taking a look at this event to begin to get a better picture of what NewChurchLIVE is all about. I would love to continue to have conversations with each of you, answer any questions, and find ways to connect with your groups.

The talk is posted up on YouTube. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/NewChurchLIVE. It is listed on this page as The Road Ahead and is broken up into four segments. It is also our hope that with any feedback that we receive that it is from "guest eyes". The goal for NewChurchLIVE is to reach out to people who have never had the opportunity to be exposed to our church. We are encouraging everyone with feedback to think of it from that point of view.

We are currently working on our next series Creation Works set to begin on June 21st 2009. [Now posted on the internet. Ed] Once this has been filmed and is up on YouTube I will be sure to let you know so that you can take a look at it as well. It is our goal to work on series like this throughout the summer that we will be filming and putting up on YouTube. This will provide us with an opportunity to get all of our systems in place. In the fall we are hoping to be able to begin streaming live over the Internet so that each of you can watch it with us LIVE!

This is all very exciting and such an important step for getting the messages and teachings out to the world. Feel free to share this information with anyone you think might be interested and let me know if you have any feedback, questions or comments. I look forward to connecting with each of you and hearing your feedback.

Be Well,

Angela Cooper
Community Director ,
New Church Live

PS. Also, be sure to check website: www.newchurchlive.tv for other resources such as the links to our Facebook and twitter pages.

This year is the Centenary of The New Church in South Africa, which now has 70 ministers and 35,000 members. Centenary celebrations will take place in September and to mark the occasion a world wide appeal for 500,000 RAND ($AUS76,000) has gone out to fund the completion of the second phase of the Mooki Memorial College where their ministers are trained. The New Church in Australia has set a target of $10,000 to be raised to help with this and it is understood to have reached this with donations from societies and individuals across the country including Hurstville.

In addition the Basil Lazer Fund will be providing a copy of True Christian Religion to each of the ministers to commemorate the finding of a second hand copy of TCR by Rev. David William Mooki in December 1909.

Please start planning for next summer's Annual Camp to be held at Elanora Heights, the location of two previous camps in 1990 and 2000. Elanora is situated near Narrabeen, one of Sydney's northern beaches and the Conference Centre provides excellent accommodation in a beautiful bushland setting. Although close to suburban dwellings, it seems miles from hectic city life, just the place to explore the theme of Relationships which has been chosen as the focus for this camp.

The camp will be held from Monday 4th January to Sunday 10th January. Pamphlets are available at the Hurstville New Church and can be mailed on request. Subsidies can be arranged on application to Murray Heldon (02) 9579 5248 or via email murrayheldon@optusnet.com.au.

Bookings or firm commitments are needed by 1st October in order to finalise arrangements with the Conference Centre.

We will soon be welcoming Theolog Brian Smith, his wife Janine and Kai (1 1/2 years old) who are due to arrive on 2nd July. There will be a welcome morning tea after church on 5th July. PLEASE NOTE: There IS church on this first Sunday in July. They will be staying in Australia till the end of August. Brian is at a similar stage in his training to Coleman Glenn who many of you will remember from last year. At this stage trips are planned to Canberra (21st and 22nd July) and Perth in the first week of August. Please see separate article on himself and family by Brian elsewhere in this issue.

A most successful banquet dinner was held on Friday 19th June to celebrate New Church Day on the day. A delicious meal in an attractively decorated Richard Morse Room was enjoyed by 22 people. Many thanks to the ladies involved with special mention to the efforts of Patricia Walsh. The meal was followed by a program with the theme "What Do You Love About The New Church". We read and considered the eight testimonials in Issue 3 2006 of The New Church Connection magazine and discussed how each of them related to what we love about The New Church. It was great to have a big roll up including Philip and Eleanor Richards from Canberra, friends of Mike and Kerry Lockhart from Mackay in Queensland and Rev Julian and Ruth Duckworth.

From Perth we hear that Raymond Smuts passed on to the spiritual world peacefully on 7th June after a long and courageous fight with cancer. Our deepest sympathy to Mary and the family.

Shirley Taylor is recovering in President Private Hospital after a shoulder reconstruction. She is making steady progress.

Jeffrey Heldon has been accepted into the Bryn Athyn College for the 2009/2010 year. He will be relocating there by the end of July.

Around 300 parents, staff, past teachers and past pupils joined current pupils at Hurstville South Public School to celebrate its 90th birthday on Thursday 28th May. A number of past pupils gave speeches to various classes, including Norman Heldon who talked and recited some of his poems to a year 5/6 class. He also told the class "You never stop learning" - quite appropriate coming from a 91 year old school boy! Also there for the celebrations were past pupils Beryl Laidley and Rhonda Hall along with their brother Barry Stephenson, Mrs Adams' daughter Julie and Patricia Walsh.

Owen Heldon and Ralph Horner recently visited their wife and sister Margaret Heldon, respectively, on Baringa Vale where she is caring for her mother Grace Horner. The highlight of the trip was the installation of satellite internet - Margaret and Grace are now connected to the world and don't feel so isolated from everyone.

Carolyn Heldon is on the second leg of her world trip having left the USA and settled into Uppsala University, Sweden where she is doing an 8 week international course on learning Swedish. She is loving every minute.

Thanks to a birthday present from her boyfriend, Michelle Heldon is at present spending a wonderful week in the south island of New Zealand.

Late news to hand is that our friend and now ordained minister Coleman Glenn has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, a very treatable form of cancer. Unfortunately his assignment to Canada has been put on hold but prognosis is good and in Coleman's words: "I've really appreciated all the support I've gotten from my friends and family over the last couple of weeks. I wouldn't say I'm happy to have lymphoma, but it really does make me appreciate just how blessed I am to know so many loving, kind people. I've started a blog - http://colemanglenn.wordpress.com - to help keep anyone up to date who wants to know how the whole process is going." You're a champ, Coleman! Our prayers and thoughts are with you.

Happy Birthday to Lachlan Hinds (9th), James Kermond (10th) and Babbette Horner (14th).

Note: All events are located at the church at 22 Dudley St, Penshurst 2222 (off Hillcrest Ave) unless otherwise stated. Contact the Hurstville New Church on (02) 9580 1589 for more information or email us at newchurch@optusnet.com.au All are welcome and refreshments are served after church each Sunday.
Sunday	5th July	10. 00 a.m. Worship (with Welcome Morning Tea for Brian Smith family)
Friday	10th July	7. 00 p.m. Dinner and Class
Sunday	12th July	10. 00 a.m. Worship (Holy Supper)
Sunday	19th July	10. 00 a.m. Worship
Tues/Wed	21st/22nd July	Visit to Canberra
Friday	24th July	7. 00 p.m. Doctrinal Class
Sunday	26th July	10. 00 a.m. Worship