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Hillside Community Church (Swedenborgian) in El Cerrito, CA |
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A spiritual community open to all—join us in worship and celebration |
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About Us |
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What distinguishes the Swedenborgian faith from other Christian traditions?
Like all who follow the Lord, we turn for guidance to the Word of our Holy Bible. Literally, the Word tells an old and still surprising story, but our church looks for a deeper, spiritual story as well – the letter and the spirit, an outer and an inner meaning. Emanuel Swedenborg compared this to the soul inside the body. To reveal this inner, spiritual meaning, we believe, is to have the Lord come to us again… in the Spirit.
This Second Coming reveals, we believe, that:
· The purpose of all Creation, by the God who “is love”, is the formation of a Heaven of angels from the human race. · Although we are born into a mortal body, we each have an eternal spirit as well. This loving spirit is who we really are. · For us to love well, we are each made as receptacles for the inflow of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, the two essences of God. Love and Wisdom have many facets: goodness and truth, charity and faith, righteousness and judgment. · As human beings created in the image and likeness of God we are gifted with Free Will and Reason. Love not given freely is not really love at all. · Heavenly love is loving the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves. Hellish love is loving only ourselves and the things of this world. In order to correct the evil of generations of selfish choices by humankind and re-establish the proper order of Creation, and to show us the way to our individual salvation, the Lord did take on human form to walk among us – the Word made flesh.
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To contact us: |
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Emanuel Swedenborg 1688-1772 |