by Rev. Coleman S. Glenn
A couple of my younger kids have been having trouble falling asleep lately, so I’ve been taking them on aimless drives around town in the evening. It’s fun to drive through the Bryn Athyn roads I’ve known since I was young, reminiscing as I pass the homes of childhood friends, reflecting on all the ways this town shaped me. As I wind my way along the dark streets, I think about the people in the houses - many of whom I don’t know, many of whom I do. I think about the people who have passed on to the spiritual world and the friends who have moved away, and I think about the people who are here now, who (along with folks in other zip codes) make up the living congregation.
This is a time of year that lends itself to nostalgia. This coming weekend, graduates of the Academy of the New Church will gather for their reunions, celebrating the granting of the Academy’s charter in 1877. We will celebrate the people and the ideals that led to the founding of the Academy - not just the incorporated schools, but the school of thought that called for a community intentionally centered on the belief that the Writings for the New Church constitute the Lord’s Second Coming.
This is well worth celebrating. We call the schools that shaped us “alma mater,” literally “nourishing mother” - and honoring these institutions is a way of honoring our parents. It calls to mind the description in Divine Providence 215: “In the most ancient times dignities were such as exist in the relationship between parents and children. They were dignities of love, full of respect and veneration, not because children received birth from their parents but because they received instruction and wisdom from them.”
But those of us who celebrate and reminisce must remember that our congregation does not consist only of people who grew up here. Being part of a New Church society does not mean having the right family background or personal history, and the church attendee who discovered the Writings last year is no less a part of our body than the octagenerian whose great grandparents were part of the New Church. Heaven and Hell 71 states that “angels desire nothing so much as to have new angel guests come to them.” Welcoming newcomers doesn’t mean pretending that our history doesn’t matter - it means welcoming everyone who shares the hopes and visions of the Academy schools, and of the incorporated New Church, to consider themselves part of the family.