Bryn Athyn Church

09/08/2026

PRACTICAL REPENTANCE
By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn

This Sunday we will be celebrating the sacrament of the Holy Supper at every service. Taking the bread and wine into ourselves represents a commitment to live from the Lord’s life in us. We make room for the Lord’s life by removing the sins that stand in the way, and so the Writings encourage us to practice repentance before approaching the Holy Supper.

It’s easy to nod our heads in agreement when we hear that we should repent but then never get around to it. Life is busy. But the Writings are clear - it’s not enough just to think about repenting. True Christian Religion 531 says, “The question is, ‘how should a person repent?’ The answer is: ‘actually.”’

It’s important to make repentance real. Set aside half an hour on your calendar. Look over the Ten Commandments and their deeper meanings (there’s a chapter on this in True Christian Religion). Find areas where you can make an active change in your behavior. Write something down.

I find when I’m doing this practice that I can tend toward digging deep while sometimes ignoring more shallow, obvious faults. Digging deep isn’t bad, but if I’m not committing to any tangible change, that’s a red flag for me. There’s a great passage in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters in which a senior devil encourages a junior devil to distract a person from noticing his own flaws: “Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones. Aggravate that most useful human characteristic, the horror and neglect of the obvious. You must bring him to a condition in which he can practice self-examination for an hour without discovering any of those facts about himself which are perfectly clear to anyone who has ever lived in the same house with him or worked in the same office.”

I can’t read this passage without thinking of True Christian Religion 529: “What is easier… than to heave from the lungs and so pour from the lips sighs and groans, to beat one's breast, and accuse oneself of every sin, while being unaware that there is any in oneself? Does the devil’s crew not whistle at all that and stay in the person as before and make themselves at home?”

The good news is, practical repentance is powerful - small changes make a big difference. Doctrine of Life 97 says, “Let someone even once in a week, or twice in a month, resist the evils they are inclined to, and they will perceive a change.”

And again, the purpose of repentance is that change - that we become better vessels for the Lord’s love.

09/04/2026

LABOR DAY---DELAYED POST NEXT WEEK
All offices and schools are closed in honor of Labor Day. Please submit your Post announcements/ads to [email protected]. Deadline is 11:00 am on Mondays, regardless of holidays.

09/04/2026

LABOR DAY HOLIDAY
All offices and schools closed in honor of Labor Day, September 7.
Post deadline is 11:00 am Monday, regardless of holidays.

09/03/2026

IN TEN YEARS…
by Rev. Steven P. Gunther

I have a phrase I often repeat to myself when I’m going through a difficult time: “In ten years, I’ll look back and be grateful that everything happened the way it did.”

It may sound strange to say that while something is going wrong, but I’ve found that one of the remarkable things about looking back on our lives is seeing how often something difficult actually opened doors to experiences or insights that we never could have anticipated. One door closing in front of us might cause us to adjust course and find something remarkable. A mistake might teach us something we needed to learn. A painful experience might give us compassion or wisdom we didn’t have before. Something we never would have chosen becomes a part of the path toward something we are deeply grateful for.

I think this is one way of understanding Divine Providence. Growing up, I learned about Divine Providence as the Lord’s constant presence with us, gently leading and guiding us toward what is good. But that can be harder to believe when life actually gets hard. When the road ahead is uncertain, we might wonder if the Lord is leading me, why am I going through this?

I don’t think the answer is that the Lord sends hardships because we need to learn a lesson. Nor do I think that everything difficult is secretly good if only we could see it from the Lord’s perspective. Some things really are painful. Some things really do go wrong. The Lord’s ability to bring good out of anything does not mean that everything that happens to us is good.

Divine Providence means that no matter what happens, the Lord never stops working with it. He is always opening another door. He is always creating another opportunity for growth. He is always able to take even the things He did not will for us and weave them into His work of leading us toward something good.

And often, we can see that much more clearly looking backward than we ever could while we were living through it. So, when I find myself in one of those seasons when I cannot see where the road is going, I try to remember; in ten years, I might look back on this moment and finally see what the Lord was able to do with it.

I don’t have to pretend that today isn’t hard. I don’t have to know where this road leads. I just have to trust that the Lord does.

08/31/2026

MEMORIAL NOTICE - BERYL CRANCH SIMONETTI
Beryl Cranch Simonetti passed peacefully into the spiritual world on Friday, August 28, 2026. She was 92 years old. A memorial service will be held at Bryn Athyn Cathedral on Sunday, September 20, at 4:00 pm (preludes begin at 3:30 pm). Rev. Ray Silverman will officiate. The service will also be livestreamed at www.brynathynchurch.org/memorial. All are invited to a gathering at Cairnwood Village following the service.

Bryn Athyn Church is a congregation of the New Church, a Swedenborgian Christianity providing a clear path to happiness and addressing questions about God, love, & life after death with answers that make sense.

08/25/2026

FACING A NEW SCHOOL YEAR
by Rev. Malcolm G. Smith

Last Sunday at Informal Family Service, we talked about the story of the children of Israel spying out the land of Canaan. This story came to mind because a new school year is about to begin and many students, parents, and teachers face the reality of a new school year with a combination of excitement and apprehension.

When the twelve spies spied out the land, they found things that appealed to them and things that terrified them. They brought back a cluster of grapes so huge it had to be carried between two people, but they said, “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover, we saw the descendants of Anak there” (Numbers 13:27, 28). For ten of the twelve spies, the fortified cities and the giants far outweighed anything good that they had seen in the land.

Whether we’re facing a new school year, a new job, a new diagnosis, or a new phase of life we can pretty much guarantee that there will be entrenched, fortified, negative mindsets to reckon with and powerful selfish loves to confront. There will also be genuine goodness to enjoy. Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, had a different perspective than the other ten: they said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it. …. If the LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey’” (Numbers 13:30, 14:8). Which spies’ report are you listening to?

One of the people in the discussion at the end of the service pointed out that we often think of self-examination as being about identifying evils that we need to shun, but accurate evaluation of what is within ourselves will also notice the genuine goodness that the Lord has given each of us and the goodness that He wants to give us through the process of going through whatever is in front of us.

The Lord does not promise us that the school year will be easy, but He does promise to help us deal with the hardest parts — the falsities of hell in our minds and the selfishness of hell in our hearts. And He does promise that we can gain a little bit truer perspective on life and can find a bit more genuine love from the Lord in our hearts, as we work to be strong and of good courage and face whatever is in front of us.

08/18/2026

What is it like to live to eternity? Does it ever get boring? I remember being concerned about this as a child. I was concerned because I also remember feeling bored and asking my parents for ideas of something to do (the usual unhelpful response was “Go outside.”). But really, do spiritual beings get bored after a thousand, a million, or a billion years?

From our New Church teachings, we learn that there is no end to the fun and delights that we get to experience in heaven. There’s no such thing as getting tired of life, and there’s no such thing as boredom. Every day that you wake up in heaven you look forward to the things you will do and experience.

What kinds of things do you get to do in heaven? Well, to put it simply, you get to do anything you want. Well, wait, does that mean I can go and hurt someone if I want to? The answer to this question is that angels are in heaven because they love helping the people around them and obeying the Lord. They want to take care of people and make their communities better. So, angels get to do whatever they want to do, but what they want to do is love their neighbor and the Lord. So, heaven is a place where you get to do whatever you want to do. This also supports the idea that eternity isn’t boring.

And in a person’s experience, what does eternity feel like? Well, it feels like today. It feels like the present when we aren’t dwelling on the past or worried about the future. There’s no countdown to a future “date,” and there’s no counting up from a past anchor point. Each day is lived as it comes, again, doing what a person likes. There are jobs, recreation, vacations, picnics and sports—all the basic stuff that we do here in this life.

It’s important to contrast heaven—where people who want to love the Lord and their neighbor go —with hell—where people go who want to love themselves and put possessions over people. People who choose to go to hell don’t get to do whatever they want. Selfishly motivated people in hell are restrained from hurting others, and additionally, material possessions in a spiritual realm just aren’t very satisfying. Although “time” in hell drags on, it’s better than being in heaven where a bunch of goody-goods are following the rules and looking out for others.

So, what’s eternity like? Well, it really depends where you go in the afterlife. It can be a real drag if you go to the wrong place. But in the right place, you’ll have the time of your life, every single day.

08/05/2026

I have a special book I've carried with me from my very first pastorate down in Florida. I keep it in my desk and whenever I come across a "quotable quote" I scribble it down. Perhaps you do the same thing. For me, they're usually one-liners and they come from multiple sources. I've collected secular ones like "A man is seldom better than his conversation" (German Proverb), or "It is always too soon to quit" (Unknown), or "Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience" (Emerson), or "You're alive to the degree you help people" (John Travolta) or "If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough" (Mario Andretti), or "I knew a man who grabbed a cat by the tail and learned 40 percent more about cats than the man who didn't" (Mark Twain), or "If you're going through hell, keep going" (Winston Churchill). And of course, I have numerous religious quotes that have jumped out at me over the years like "If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done" (Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes 11:4), or "All we are is the result of what we have thought" (Buddha), or "When truth is used in life it becomes good" (Apocalypse Revealed 17), or "Vidi, avdivi, sensi" - I have seen, I have heard, I have felt (Emanuel Swedenborg), or "A person can be friends with anyone, but he must first be friends with what is good" (Arcana Coelestia 4804), or "Temptations come when good starts to play the leading role" (Arcana Coelestia 4341), or "All of the truths of the Word are mirrors that reflect the Lord" (True Christianity 580), or "Pride glues falsities together" (Apocalypse Revealed 421), or "For those who believe in the Lord, life grows clearer and clearer" (Arcana Coelestia 448).

We all remember simple statements, truths, or sayings that made an impression on us. We see in them wisdom and inspiration - they ring true. This is because our hearts and minds are in constant recording mode, laying "up treasures in heaven." We write these treasures down or commit them to memory because we believe they are true or, as is often the case, want them to be true! I'd like to end with what I consider to be the most unique, merciful invitation I've ever read anywhere: "Reader, treasure this up within you, and after death... inquire whether this is true, and you will see." (Apocalypse Explained 984:3) What a relief! The Lord understands our doubts and frustrations. It's okay if we don't have everything figured out. We're invited to "treasure up" those questions or concerns and hold onto them. We will find out the answer. That much is certain.

07/27/2026

Is the earth 6,000 years young or billions of years old?
The story of creation in Genesis indicates that the earth was created in a matter of days, and then the age of the earth can be established based on the given ages of earth’s inhabitants since that creation.

Modern science, however, holds that the earth is billions of years old, going through a process of planetary formation and then life evolution.

As a minister, I, of course, believe that God created this universe. But did God create the universe 6,000 years ago by speaking things into existence, or did He cause the “big bang” and then wisely and lovingly guided evolution through millions of years to the point we are at now? I don’t take issue with either one of the creation methods. Frankly, God can do whatever He wants, and He only does what He wants.

In the young earth theory, God is perfectly capable of setting a created stage within which humans might exist. Are fossilized dinosaur bones a problem for this scenario? No, not for a God who wishes to leave humans in freedom, not to mention that humans sometimes have problems thinking that they know everything.

And how about the old earth theory? Well, in the eyes of an eternal Creator, a billion years of preparing a world for eventual human existence is no different from five days of creation preparing a world for created people. Both the young earth and the old earth theory leave room for a process that happened over a period of time.

What about New Church Teachings? Do they offer any evidence for one theory or the other? Yes, they do … for both.

The Writings allude to the amount of time that has passed since the creation event of Genesis. They occur when referring to theoretical amounts of time that souls would wait in graves for a physical resurrection, or also the theoretical numbers of people who have come into existence since the universe’s beginning.

New Church Teachings also make mention of pre-humans, or “pre-Adamites” as they are called in more than one passage, suggesting, perhaps, a species that evolved in some way into the modern human. Additionally, in Swedenborg’s pre-theological works he theorizes about nebular formation of the solar system.

Is the earth young or old? We may never know in this world. The answer in no way affects our directive to love the Lord and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And, by the time we are able to get an answer in the next life, it won’t matter to us anymore anyway.

07/21/2026

This school year we will be offering seminars on the four gospels on the following dates:

• September 23: Gospel of Matthew | Rev. Malcolm Smith
• November 18: Gospel of Mark | Rev. Scott Frazier
• February 10: Gospel of Luke | Rev. Grant Odhner
• April 7: Gospel of John | Rev. Derek Elphick

We are still deciding on the exact start time and length, but the seminars will be on Wednesday evenings in Asplundh Assembly Hall, with a potluck dessert partway through the evening, similar to the Rise Above It sessions we had this past year. (We will still have some Community Suppers on Fridays, but they won’t be part of this series.)

Hearing about the gospels in four seminars will only be scratching the surface, and so we are hoping that people will also slowly read through and study at least one of the gospels in its entirety this year. You can do this individually, but it will be a much richer experience if you do it as part of a doctrinal class or small group and get to hear other people’s thoughts as they reflect on and grapple with the gospels. If you are already part of a group or a class, we invite you to consider putting one of the gospels on your schedule for the year. If you’d like to be part of a group, stay tuned for more information about when and where groups and classes are meeting. We will also have resources available for individual and group study, including commentaries by New Church authors.

In Revelation 11 we read that the two witnesses “will prophesy 1,260 days” and Apocalypse Revealed 491 explains that this means “an acknowledgment of the Lord and a life in accordance with the Ten Commandments, which are the two essential elements of the New Church, must be taught until the end and a new beginning [of the church].” We have a responsibility to teach these two essential elements of the church. Last year we focused on the Ten Commandments; this year it seems right to focus on acknowledgment of the Lord Jesus Christ. What better place to do that than the four gospels? We hope that you’ll join us and that, by the end of the year, you will have grown in your understanding and love of the Lord.