| The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma | |
| Classification | New Christian |
|---|---|
| Orientation | Swedenborgian |
| Polity | Episcopal |
| Founder | Former members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem |
| Origin | 1937 Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, U.S. and The Hague, The Netherlands |
| Branched from | General Church of the New Jerusalem |
| Congregations | Ministries or societies in the United States (Bryn Athyn, PA), Lesotho, South Africa, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Ukraine |
| Members | Approximately 1,000, worldwide[1] |
| Official website | http://www.thelordsnewchurch.com |
The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma is an international, Christian church based on the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, which its members view as the Third Testament. It was founded in 1937 by former members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, also a Swedenborgian church, after a doctrinal dispute led to the ousting of Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer of The Hague Society, a branch of the General Church located in the Netherlands. Headquartered in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, U.S., the Church maintains an international congregation, with ministries or societies in Africa, Europe, and the United States, and has a total membership of approximately 1,000.[1][2]
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The Church was founded in 1937, under the principal leadership of Rev. Theodore Pitcairn (son of PPG Industries founder John Pitcairn) and the Rev. Ernst Pfeiffer of The Hague Society in the Netherlands, by former members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem who had left as a result of a doctrinal dispute.
The dispute in question centered on theological ideas proposed by a Dutch layman, H. D. G. Groeneveld, in De Hemelsche Leer (The Celestial Doctrine), a Dutch periodical started by Pfeiffer in 1929. Emanuel Swedenborg, whose writings compose the distinctive body of material used by the General Church, had proposed the idea that the Bible had, in addition to its intended material meaning, a spiritual meaning that had been revealed through the communications between Swedenborg and the angelic realm. The General Church placed paramount authority on the writings of Swedenborg, but Groeneveld went beyond this; he proposed that Swedenborg's theological writings themselves were nothing less than a Third Testament, and thus, according to Swedenborg's ideas, must also have an inner, spiritual meaning.
In the United States, Pitcairn emerged as an early proponent of Groeneveld's perspective. In 1927, he wrote a short book entitled The Book Sealed with Seven Seals to introduce the idea to the American church.[3]
In the 1930s, first the leadership of the General Church, and later, its Council of the Clergy, rejected the leading theses propounded in De Hemelsche Leer. Rev. Pfeiffer, whose Hague Society supported the periodical, was thus ordered to stop publication. When he refused, he was forced, in 1937, to leave the General Church by its leading Bishop, the Rev. George de Charms. This led other leading adherents of the theses, including Pitcairn, to resign that year as well. That same year, Pitcairn, Pfeiffer, and others proceeded to establish the Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma, centered in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, and The Hague, The Netherlands.[3][4]
In 1939, Rev. Pitcairn established a non-profit corporation for the purposes of promoting and maintaining the new church.[1]
The events of the Second World War delayed formalization of the new Church's organization. Finally, in March 1947, the Church's international governmental structure was drawn up by a provisional international council composed of the laymen Groeneveld and Anton Zelling, and the Revs. Pfeiffer, Pitcairn, and Philip N. Odhner, and approved by Church members in America and Holland later that year.[4]
The Church is a branch of what is commonly called the "New Church" or the "Swedenborgian Church",[5] and is a post-Reformation form of Christianity that bases its teachings on the Old Testament (written in Hebrew), the New Testament (written in Greek), and the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (written in Latin), the last of which is referred to as the Latin Word. The Lord's New Church differs from the General Church, as its parent denomination is commonly called, and from other Swedenborgian branches, in that the former's members view Swedenborg's theological writings as a Third Testament.
The Three Essentials
The Church propounds three essential theological principles:[6]
The Principles of Doctrine
The Church also identifies three 'Principles of Doctrine':[6]
The Church is essentially organized as an episcopal polity, a form of church governance which is hierarchical in structure, and in which the chief authority over a local Christian church rests with a bishop. The external governmental structure of the Church is based upon a portion of Swedenborg's writings that describes a 'circle of life' composed of a 'descending line' and an 'ascending line'; the priesthood corresponds to the former and the laity to the latter.[4]
Headquartered in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, U.S., the Church has ministries or societies in Africa, Europe, and the United States. It has a worldwide membership of approximately 1000,[1] with the majority of these residing in southern Africa.[2]
The Church is supported by a non-profit corporation of the same name.[1]