Bryn Athyn Church

05/20/2026

Sunset Organ Vespers tonight at 7:30! Come share the power and beauty of the organ and sacred readings while these thunderstorms cool the weather down.

It's been a delight hearing Jessie Zixi Deng get to know the instruments here the past few days.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1711331500286212/1711331506952878/

05/20/2026

SUNSET ORGAN VESPERS
Wednesday, May 20, 7:30 pm (Cathedral)
Join us at the Cathedral for an evening of organ music interspersed with scriptural and doctrinal readings read by Rev. Alan Cowley. Curtis student Jessie Zixi Deng will be our guest organist. Included in the program are Dupré’s uplifting Prelude and Fugue in B Major and Samuel Barber’s variations on the well-known tune, “Wondrous Love.” Other featured composers include Bach, Howells, Jongen, and David Conte. Vespers is suitable for ages 12 and up. Doors open at 7:10 pm; donations are welcome.

For more information and future dates, visit our website below
https://brynathynchurch.org/get-involved-overview/upcoming-events/sunset-organ-vespers-2026/

05/19/2026

During community worship yesterday, Malcolm showed a picture of people of many different races and cultures. He made the point that many of those people may speak different languages here on earth, but in heaven they are all able to communicate effortlessly. That example brought to mind one of my favorite teachings in the New Church.

The teaching comes from the explanation of the story of the Tower of Babel. In the literal story, humans believing they could build a tower to heaven led to them having their languages mixed up. Before building the tower, they were said to have one language. In the Heavenly Doctrines we are told that this story is about the Ancient Church, and how the people of that church shared one common goal despite the variety among them. Here is what is said in Arcana Coelestia 1285:

“A doctrinal view is united when everyone loves each other or displays charity. Mutual love and charity bring such people together into one despite the variety among them, because it draws unity out of variety. When everyone practices charity, or loves each other, then no matter how many people there are — even if they number in the hundreds of millions — they share a single goal: the common good, the Lord's kingdom, and the Lord himself. Variety in doctrine and worship are, again, like the variety of senses and organs in the human body, which contribute to the perfection of the whole.”

In other words, in the Ancient Church, even though there was a lot of variety in terms of people’s understandings and styles of worship they were all united because they all looked to the common good and to serving the Lord. This passage shows the power of charity and mutual love.

These days it often feels like we are more polarized than ever. We so quickly notice where we differ from others, and often we find ourselves judging or condemning people who are different from us – whether it be someone of a different culture, religion, political affiliation, sports fandom, etc. It’s easy to see those things as dividing us, but this passage is saying that, actually, variety helps our society be more perfect. When we have variety and diversity in our community, as long as we are guided by charity and love to the neighbor, then those differences actually help to create a more full, beautiful image of the Lord’s kingdom on earth. So, this week, I would invite us all to reflect on variety and ask ourselves how we can prioritize charity and unity rather than separation and division.

https://brynathynchurch.org/from-the-pastors/

05/14/2026

Part of the process of repentance is to “make oneself guilty” for our sins. For a long time, I believed this to mean that we ought to make ourselves feel guilty. In other words, I should feel bad and feel shame and think that I am the worst of the worst. This idea of guilt would make sense in our culture and in how we approach our relationships. The way it seems to work in many relationships is akin to eye-for-an-eye retribution, so that, if I am hurt, the perpetrator ought to feel as much hurt as I experienced. We even see this bear out in our legal system where a victim can be compensated for emotional suffering.

So, is this what the Lord wants? Does he want us to and instruct us to feel bad for our sins and mistakes?

There is a difference between what the Lord makes use of and that which He wants for us. The Lord does make use of our feelings of guilt and shame to lead us out of our darkness. When we feel bad for what we have done, the Lord can utilize those unpleasant feelings to inspire us to leave that old life behind and move toward a happier one in Him.

With that said, just because the Lord makes use of unpleasant feelings doesn’t mean the Lord wants us to have them. Feelings of guilt, shame, stupidity, or unhappiness are not from the Lord, and the Lord does not give them to us.

In the process of repentance, the guilt that is referred to is more of a feeling of responsibility. Making ourselves guilty of our sins means that we acknowledge our part in committing them.

Applying this distinction of guilt can be important for ourselves and for our relationships. For ourselves, it can help us remember that God does not demand retribution or suffering for things we have done wrong. The Lord wants us to change, and He wants us to be happy.

For our relationships, removing the need for our own retribution allows us to see our neighbors—even those from whom we experience hurt—not as villains who need punishment, but maybe as hurting souls who need love in the form of help. Sometimes that help may take form as correction when necessary, but we can approach that correction with compassion instead of revenge in the heart.

So, a guilty conscience can be a useful experience through which the Lord leads us from hell to heaven, but it is only useful insofar as it leads us to working with the Lord to real life change.

https://brynathynchurch.org/from-the-pastors/

05/13/2026

This Sunday is Community Worship!
Rev. Malcolm G. Smith: “Divine Providence and Our Choices”

As we go through life, there are countless things that do not go the way we want them to—at the humdrum level of daily life and at the global level. How should we interpret and respond to these things? Should we be fatalistic and assume that our opinions and decisions are largely meaningless? Should we see hardships as challenges the Lord wants us to face? Or as signs that we are on the wrong track? This Sunday, using teachings about the Lord’s Divine Providence from the teachings for the New Church, we will attempt to see things a bit more from the Lord’s perspective: what matters to Him in our choices, and why there is reason to hope in Him.

NOTE: There will be no informal, Young Children's, or Family or Adult Services on this day.

https://brynathynchurch.org/worship/community/

05/11/2026

MEMORIAL NOTICE - JUDITH ABELE JUNGÉ
Judith Abele Jungé passed peacefully into the spiritual world on Friday, May 8, 2026. She was 79 years old. A memorial service will be held at Bryn Athyn Cathedral on Saturday, May 16, at 4:00 pm (preludes begin at 3:40 pm). Rev. Chuck Blair will officiate. The service will also be livestreamed at www.brynathynchurch.org/memorial. All are invited to a gathering at Asplundh Assembly Hall 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.

05/11/2026

MEMORIAL NOTICE - BETTY IRENE MOREY
Betty Irene Morey passed peacefully into the spiritual world on Friday, May 1, 2026. She was 97 years old. A memorial service will be held at Bryn Athyn Cathedral on Sunday, June 28, at 3:00 pm (preludes begin at 2:30 pm). Rev. Jeremy Simons will officiate. The service will also be livestreamed at www.brynathynchurch.org/memorial. All are invited to a gathering at Asplundh Assembly Hall 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.

05/05/2026

Sports have been on my mind lately. The Flyers and the 76ers have both beaten the odds and advanced to the second round of the NHL and NBA playoffs. The Phillies still don’t have a great record, but this past week they won more games than they lost. The Eagles look to have made some solid additions via the draft and trades.

I’m cheering for all these Philadelphia teams, but these are not the sports that are at the forefront of my mind. That mental space is reserved for two softball teams and tee ball team. These are, of course, teams that my kids play on. It can make the family schedule pretty busy. This week, for example, there will be games on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday - but it also gives the kids opportunity for fun, exercise, and even spiritual growth.

Sports aren’t the only way to get these things, but for those who enjoy them, they can be a great source of recreation, health, and learning.

The Heavenly Doctrine speaks in a few places about the importance of recreation. Charity 190 says, “When the mind has been continually upon the stretch, at its work, it aspires to rest; and when it rests it descends into the body, and seeks there its pleasures, correspondent to its mental operations.” We can’t be constantly working. Watching sports and playing sports are just two of many ways that we can take a break from daily work, so that we can be refreshed when we return to it.

Besides simple recreation, physical activity leads to greater health, which enables us to better serve others. Arcana Coelestia 5159 says, “Someone who is being regenerated loves the things of the body with the end of having a sound mind in a sound body, and they love their mind and its soundness with an end still more interior — that they may be wise in good and understand truth.” Playing sports is one of many ways we can help our bodies work better as vessels for love and wisdom.

Finally, sports provide an opportunity for us to learn spiritual lessons. Even if the rules of a game are not eternal truths, the experience of working hard to do our best within a structure of rules lays groundwork for the work of following the Lord’s Commandments. Arcana Coelestia 3470 speaks of “children, who first learn many things, even trifling ones, such as things relating to sports and the like; not that these may make them wise, but that they may prepare the way for the reception of useful things which are of wisdom.” Even in the innocence of a simple tee ball game, the Lord is at work preparing the way for a heavenly life.

By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn

https://brynathynchurch.org/from-the-pastors/

04/28/2026

This weekend my wife and I built some raised garden beds in our front yard to grow vegetables this year. As I worked away at putting the beds together, filling them with topsoil, and planting our plants, I was thinking about how gardening reflects our spiritual life. One of my favorite parables is the parable of the growing seed in Mark 4, where Jesus says “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.”

I love this simple analogy because it shows us what our partnership with the Lord is really like. Anyone who has ever grown plants of any kind knows that there is more to it than simply planting seeds and watching things miraculously grow. The soil needs to be prepped. Often the plants need to be started before going into the ground. The young plants need to be watered, protected, and cared for so they can survive and mature. They take continual maintenance and patience all the way until the food is finally ready to be picked. There is a lot of active work, thought, and care that goes into growing plants.

And yet, there is a thread of miraculous growth that does take place. When we aren’t looking, new leaves sprout, blossoms bloom, and vines crawl. While we put a lot of work into caring for the plants, we don’t actually make them grow. In a lot of ways, we are simply giving the plants what they need so that they can grow on their own, and we get to reap the benefits after the fact.

The Lord offers us true ideas which are like seeds. Just like with gardening, we have to do work to prepare the “soil” of our minds and hearts so those ideas can take root. We can water them by applying them to our life and practicing them every day. We can protect them the way we protect plants from predators by watching out for thoughts of selfishness, enmity or hatred toward others. More than anything, we need to have patience and trust that as we do this work, something is growing within us. Even if our lives don’t feel instantly changed overnight by focusing on following the Lord, if we keep tending our garden, we can trust that the Lord is allowing these things to grow in us and one day we will reap the benefits and enjoy the fruits of our labors. Those fruits show up as heavenly peace, happiness, and the fulfillment of living a life of useful service.

So, if you are someone doing gardening this year, I invite you to reflect on how the actions we take in our yards can help us see how we work with the Lord to allow our spiritual garden to grow, bloom, and bear fruit in our hearts.

https://brynathynchurch.org/from-the-pastors/