Happy Birthday New Church History Fun Facts!
Today marks the one year anniversary of the launch of New Church History Fun Facts, a project of NewChurchHistory.org. The “fun facts” have appeared every ten days (on average) since August 23, 2006. An index appears online here, or you can read a complete list of past “fun facts” at the bottom of this page.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our subscribers for their support over the past year. Some of their comments appear below. Your feedback is very important to us. Please hit reply to this message or write us at info@newchurchhistory.org and tell us what you think about New Church History Fun Facts or how we can improve!
We would also like to thank the Paul Carpenter Fellowship Fund, Academy of the New Church, which recently awarded NewChurchHistory.org a grant that will allow us to continue publishing the “fun facts” and adding new articles, books, and photo albums to the site.
If you get the “fun facts” by subscribing through e-mail, please take the time to forward this e-mail or your favorite ”fun fact” to your friends. We currently have almost 300 subscribers via e-mail, but we would love to have more! Tell them they can unsubscribe at any time with a simple mouse click, and each “fun fact” takes up less than 50KB of space in their inbox.
Some comments from our subscribers:
“I enjoy reading NewChurchHistory.org as a history lover. I find that reacquainting myself with our New Church past helps bring perspective to the ways we can positively serve in establishing the church of the future.”
“I get really excited about NewChurchHistory.org every time I visit. Our church has a hugely rich history that has never received the kind of popular attention it deserves, and this website is a HUGE step in the right direction!!!”
“Thank you so much for the incredible work you are doing on NewChurchHistory.org. You have created a state of the art merger of best practices in education, advanced e-technology, and New Church Doctrine. Your efforts are bringing waves of inspiration and enthusiasm to a whole generation of future New Church leaders. Whenever we take the time to honor our father and mother—in this case those who have gone before us in the New Church—the Lord will surely bless us with ever-increasing states of light and love. May the Lord continue to bless your efforts, and may your days be long in the Promised Land.”
“Whenever I open my email inbox and see a message from NewChurchHistory.org, I open it last—why?—because I save it for dessert. It’s the icing on the cake in the midst of a lot of spam and assorted messages from friends and colleagues. I love lingering over the bits of history about our church and community that connect me to my roots. Often my interest is piqued and I must go and delve deeper to see what I can find. It’s a treasure hunt extraordinaire to explore this site and lose myself in the past.”
“NewChurchHistory.org is a thoroughly professional website, and a remarkable and growing resource. Covering the history of the New Church, from its origins to the current day, the site is already the best single place to find the continuous historical context of the New Church. It is also an excellent place to simply browse—for an intriguing fact here, a scholarly inquiry there, and exciting and vivid glimpses into a variety of subjects everywhere you look. The hallmark of NewChurchHistory.org is its entertaining scholarship, and its value to the future is to provide a growing church with a better sense of its roots, its trends and its identity.”
New Church History Fun Facts from August 2006 – August 2007 (reverse order, starting with most recent):
The Importance of Hebrew in the Early Academy and General Church
Too Hot for Church This Summer? Attend Sunday Services out in the Country! (1891)
Cornerstone Laying Ceremony in Durban, South Africa (1923)
Rev. John Hargrove Delivers New Church Sermon before Jefferson and Congress (1802)
Cathedral Woodworking Shed Fire (1916)
New School House in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario (1892)
Academy Girls School Graduation (1892)
Memorial Day at the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Illinois (1918)
Herman Faber and the Academy Lion (1877)
Take the New Church History Quiz and Win a Prize!
Reflections of Faith: Making Stained Glass Windows for Bryn Athyn Cathedral and Glencairn
Tenth Anniversary Celebration of the Academy of the New Church at Seaside Resort (1886)
Easter Service in the Club House, April 15th, 1900
Riotous Mob Attacks New Church Temple (1791)
First New Church Place of Worship in the World (1791)
Placement of Cornerstone for New Church Temple Causes Rev. William H. Benade to Resign (1854)
The Tomb of Jesper Swedberg at Varnhem Cloister (1736)
Valentine Parties in New Church Congregations (1882-1945)
Cairnwood Featured in New Book about Carrere and Hastings, Architects
319th Birthday of Emanuel Swedenborg
First New Jerusalem Temple in Philadelphia (1817)
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of Glencairn Museum (January 16, 1982)
A New Year for the New Church? Not so fast!
The Great Santa Claus and Christmas Tree Debate (1888-1913)
Farmers Sell Land to John Pitcairn for New Church Community and School (1891)
A New Old Portrait of Emanuel Swedenborg (1817)
Bronze Bust of Swedenborg Disappears from Lincoln Park, Chicago; Police Baffled (1976)
Halloween Celebrations in Early New Church Congregations (1898-1900, 1958)
The First Celebration of Charter Day (1917)
347-Year-Old Tree Felled for Roof of Bryn Athyn Cathedral (1916)
Glencairn Cloister Features Twelve Capitals Carved with Symbolic Birds
Repository for the Word and the Writings of Swedenborg Returns to Cairnwood Chapel
Pinnacle of Bryn Athyn Cathedral Demolished by Bolt of Lightning (1924)
Photo of Bishop William Henry Benade and John Pitcairn in Jerusalem (1878)
For our friends who are reading this notice in “blog” format on NewChurchHistory.org:
You may be interested to know that you can automatically be notified of new “fun facts” and announcements by subscribing to this site either through a blog/rss reader or through e-mail. If you use one of the popular blog/rss readers (or would like to start using one), just click on the appropriate button in the right-hand column. To receive updates through e-mail, submit your e-mail address in the box in the right-hand column marked “Receive Updates Through E-mail” and follow the online instructions. When a new item is posted it will be e-mailed to you.
Photo: Don Rose in front of Benade Hall, circa 1909. (Name of dog unknown.) Photograph by Camille Vinet, in the collection of the Academy of the New Church Archives, Swedenborg Library, Bryn Athyn, PA.
NewChurchHistory.org is a major Web-based initiative published by Bryn Athyn College and Glencairn Museum. NewChurchHistory.org provides an electronic medium for articles, books, projects, and primary sources related to the life and times of Emanuel Swedenborg and the worldwide influence of his theological works.
NewChurchHistory.org is the result of the close relationship that has developed between Glencairn Museum and the history major at Bryn Athyn College. This ambitious project has been made possible through the combined efforts of students, faculty, and museum staff, and with the financial support of the Glencairn Foundation and the Paul Carpenter Fellowship Fund.