Join us this summer for a 12 part series on my experience with doctrinal pillars of the New Church. In the fall I’ll host larger Be Honest Livestream conversations on each topic, so if one resonates in particular let me know and join the conversation!

The New Jerusalem encapsulates the hopes for our human species — that we were not created to live in competition and suffering, but that we were created to live in community, in connection, in a diverse unity. This is the image of the holy city with its twelve gates that are always open, its constant daytime where all is transparent and true, where honesty reigns, and where the tree of life lives, bringing healing to the nations.

Many of the world’s spiritual and religious traditions speak of such a time of unity and cooperation. Within Christianity — and made even more explicit in the vision of the New Church that Emanuel Swedenborg proclaimed — we hold the New Jerusalem as the image of humanity’s fulfillment. That our fulfillment will come, and is coming into the world, insofar as we bring our full selves to the table. Insofar as we grow in our understanding that we are one family made of many diverse parts. That has been the intention all along, and it is a beautiful and glorious thing.

Now, to be honest — as I believe we all must be — it can be hard to hold the belief that that is where we’re headed. When we look around at all of the suffering in the world, all of the conflict, and even when we feel into the suffering and conflict that exists in our own hearts, in our own families, in our own relationships, and in our relationship to this earth and all of its resources — to hold on to the hope that we are moving toward peace, fulfillment, connection, and unity can feel like a huge stretch.

There was a time, certainly in our more recent history, when we carried a bit more optimism, a bit more hope in progress and perfection. Over the last hundred years or so, with two world wars and all that continues to transpire now, we have seen the limits of those visions. And yet, even in facing those limits, even in facing the great conflicts that persist all over this planet and throughout our species, I can’t help but continue to have hope in this vision of the New Jerusalem.

Part of what is occurring is a continual revealing of the limitations we have placed upon ourselves — the old tribal identities that are having trouble loosening, the old prejudices that have lived within our human family for so long. As painful as these last hundred years have been, they have also been incredibly revealing. And at the same time that great harm continues in many places, there are many humans who are waking up to their divine origins, to their connection to all that is, to the many parts of their own selves — going through journeys of healing and transformation that are making this New Jerusalem experience possible.

I know I have begun to taste that, particularly over these last six years since the global trauma of the pandemic. Many false assumptions and false separations are falling away for so many of us. And it is my best hope and belief that this is part of the emergence of the New Jerusalem.

Other words we might use to describe the New Jerusalem: the invitation of a new heaven and a new earth — a new way of understanding who and what we are, and bringing that understanding into being in the world. It is also tied to the Christian belief in the Second Coming of Christ: that Christ is coming again through us, through our transformation as a world and as a species. And that is a hopeful prospect.

So my first Note from the New Heaven lifts up this doctrine of the New Jerusalem — this foundational understanding that we are a people of hope, moving toward an era of peace and connection within ourselves and with each other. Even when that is hard to hold, I hope you can feel the utility of holding that hope. It is the belief that something is possible that will make it possible.

Whether you resonate with the image of the New Jerusalem or carry your own image of a renewed society of unity and diversity, we are on the same team. And if you are feeling this transformation happening inside of you, then you too are being invited into this life of the New Jerusalem.

Over these next twelve weeks, as I explore other topics, I hope you will begin to feel and hear how each one is part of this new way of being — this new understanding of who we are and what we are that makes peace possible.

Many blessings, friends.

If any of these truths speak to you, I hope you’ll join us this fall for some larger conversations. These truths are only real insofar as we live them — and I would love to hear your experience.

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