A Common Heart

Chelsea writes of how religion, while becoming more central to peoples lives generally, is also the justification for increasing aggression between people of differing faiths. She calls on humanity to recognize our common heart, and shows us how New Church doctrine is uniquely suited to inform the growing desire for interfaith respect and love. -Editor.

Effort to understand people of various religions is needed right now in our national and global society. Religious intolerance and extremism are current issues in American society and around the globe. The combination of increasing religiousness world-wide and a vastly interconnected global society makes it nearly impossible for people of different religious identities not to cross paths. These current circumstances raise the question: is it possible under conditions of such close proximity for the world’s religious variety to coexist harmoniously?

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Women in the Ministry

Joel presents an argument for why women should not be ordained in the General Church. He draws passages from the Writings that support his opinion, while admitting that the writings are absent of a clear position on this issue. This is the third entry in the series: Women as Ordained Priests (or Not). -Editor.

This article addresses the question of whether women should be ordained into the Ministry of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. This can be a very complex and frustrating debate. My own position, that I have come to after much uncertainty, is that it is better to have an all male priesthood. This is based on my understanding of how men and women operate and on the role that the priesthood is to play in the church. My hope is that in this article, I can share with you a little of how I believe that this position is consistent with the truths we are taught in the Word and in the Doctrines.

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“The Ball Is In Your Court”

Peter has taken three essential concepts of the New Church—love, wisdom and use—and condensed each one into a strong statement of purpose. They illuminate the role we must play as individuals in cooperating with the Lord and His providence. -Editor.

One of the things that has always struck me about the teachings of the New Church is the significant role the Lord gives us in charting our own destiny. Not only is this true in the big picture of our lives, namely whether we choose to live in heaven or in hell, it is also true of so many facets of the life we live along the way. We are called to obey the Lord’s teachings, to repent of certain things, to be life-long students of the Lord’s Word, to believe in the Lord and trust in His providence, to seek enlightenment, to pray, to engage in worship, to be useful, to care for one another, and to figure things out for ourselves. It’s true that the Lord’s part will always be larger than our own, and that we are called to acknowledge that we don’t do anything good without His help, but there is no doubt that He has set up the system in such a way that requires our engagement. There are three phrases that I’ve discovered which now serve as a consistent reminder of this theme of “doing my part.” One came in the context of marriage, one arose out of a mental exercise I was asked to engage in, and the third came out of my pastoral work.

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