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Our Spiritual Reality: Grappling with Hell
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - August 10, 2025
If we want to really understand our spiritual reality, we have to grapple with the reality of hell. This Sunday, we will take some time with images and teachings about hell in the Old Testament, New Testament, and the teachings for the New Church. We will be looking directly at some of the most difficult and darkest aspects of human life. At the same time, we will reflect on our loving God, who shines light into even the darkest places and reaches out in love and infinite mercy to even the darkest of hearts. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Bryn Athyn CathedralOur Spiritual Reality: Grappling with Hell
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 10, 2025
If we want to really understand our spiritual reality, we have to grapple with the reality of hell. This Sunday, we will take some time with images and teachings about hell in the Old Testament, New Testament, and the teachings for the New Church. We will be looking directly at some of the most difficult and darkest aspects of human life. At the same time, we will reflect on our loving God, who shines light into even the darkest places and reaches out in love and infinite mercy to even the darkest of hearts. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Bryn Athyn CathedralThe Great Potter
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - August 03, 2025
This Sunday’s family talk explores how the Lord is like a potter and we are like clay in His hands. We’ll see how the Lord shapes our lives, and how, when we create with love and care, our works can reflect His. | By Rev. Pearse M. Frazier | Bryn Athyn CathedralThe Potter and Technology
Worship Service: Sermon only - August 03, 2025
This Sunday’s adult sermon explores the difference between the works of our hands and the work of the Lord’s. From pottery to AI, human creations often reflect our desires, but not always our wisdom. We’ll reflect on how technology can either serve or distort what only the Lord can truly form: a heavenly person. | By Rev. Pearse M. Frazier | Bryn Athyn CathedralThe Lies of the Serpent
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - July 27, 2025
The first liar in the Word is the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Ever since then, people have had trouble telling the truth. But in the book of Revelation, the serpent, also known as the dragon, is defeated. | By Rev. Jeremy F. Simons | Bryn Athyn CathedralThe Invention of Lying
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 27, 2025
The Heavenly Doctrine tells us fascinating things about how deception and lies made their way into the world. We are also told about the meaning of the eighth commandment and how the Lord is leading us into an age when bearing false witness will be increasingly rare. | By Rev. Jeremy F. Simons | Bryn Athyn CathedralFree to Do What?
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - July 20, 2025
We’re taught that “all freedom is a matter of love…” (DP 73), and yet not all “freedoms” are equal. Eating a bowl of ice cream might seem like heaven on earth but it doesn’t carry the same kind of weight or significance as choosing to help a friend in need, or choosing to invent or create something that benefits society. The type of freedom which the Lord wants us to experience is not something we are born with. It doesn’t just fall in our lap. The truth will indeed “set us free” – it’s just a matter of asking ourselves how hard are we willing to fight for it. | By Rev. Derek P. Elphick | Bryn Athyn CathedralFree to Do What?
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 20, 2025
We’re taught that “all freedom is a matter of love…” (DP 73), and yet not all “freedoms” are equal. Eating a bowl of ice cream might seem like heaven on earth but it doesn’t carry the same kind of weight or significance as choosing to help a friend in need or choosing to invent or create something that benefits society. The type of freedom which the Lord wants us to experience is not something we are born with. It doesn’t just fall in our lap. The truth will indeed “set us free” – it’s just a matter of asking ourselves how hard are we willing to fight for it. | By Rev. Derek P. Elphick | Bryn Athyn CathedralMemorial Service for Carly Rose Cole
Memorial Service - July 20, 2025
Carly Rose (Andrews) Cole passed into the spiritual world on Tuesday, July 8, 2025. She was 45 years old. | By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Bryn Athyn CathedralMemorial Service for Marcie E. Gyllenhaal
Memorial Service - July 19, 2025
Martha “Marcie” E. Gyllenhaal passed into the spiritual world on Friday, June 13, 2025. She was 78 years old. | By Rev. Nathan D. Gladish | Bryn Athyn CathedralOur Spiritual Reality: Heaven
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - July 13, 2025
A big focus of the Lord’s teaching, when He was on earth, was the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is also a big focus of what the Lord reveals in the teachings for the New Church. This Sunday, as we continue our series on understanding our spiritual reality, we will explore a few of the Lord’s teachings about heaven and reflect on the impact that our beliefs about heaven can have on our day-to-day lives. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Bryn Athyn CathedralOur Spiritual Reality: Heaven
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 13, 2025
A big focus of the Lord’s teaching, when He was on earth, was the kingdom of heaven. Heaven is also a big focus of what the Lord reveals in the teachings for the New Church. This Sunday, as we continue our series on understanding our spiritual reality, we will explore a few of the Lord’s teachings about heaven and reflect on the impact that our beliefs about heaven can have on our day-to-day lives. | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Bryn Athyn CathedralLoving our Country as Our Neighbor
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - July 06, 2025
As we celebrate Independence Day this week, it's useful to reflect on what it means to love our country. The Heavenly Doctrines tell us that loving our neighbor includes loving our country, but what does that look like in practice? How can we love something as big and complex as a whole country? | By Steven Gunther | Bryn Athyn CathedralFrom the Least to the Greatest: Loving Our Country
Worship Service: Sermon only - July 06, 2025
After we celebrate Independence Day this week, we’ll reflect on what it means to love our country as an expression of loving our neighbor. The Heavenly doctrines teach us about degrees of the neighbor that are like steps on a ladder leading to the Lord. This Sunday, we will consider how simple everyday charity can be a powerful form of patriotism and—more importantly—how it connects us to the Lord. | By Steven Gunther | Bryn Athyn CathedralYour Steering Wheel: How do we bring religion into life?
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 29, 2025
The Sabbath day is set aside to remember the Lord, but what can we do to bring religion and the Lord into life from Monday to Saturday? The Lord’s Word has some great ideas. | By Rev. Jeffrey Smith | Bryn Athyn CathedralBowing to Bloom: Humility and the Tree of Life
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - June 22, 2025
Bowing is an ancient custom symbolizing the need to lower ourselves before what is Higher. We will explore the connection between humility and eating of the tree of life over the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. | By Rev. Ethan McCardell | Bryn Athyn CathedralBowing Before the Lord: The Humble Heart and the Tree of Life
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 22, 2025
As love of our own intelligence starts to give way to humility, we open ourselves to the experience the Lord’s blessings (barak, the primary Hebrew word for blessing, carries the connotation of what is higher flowing into what is lower) and a consequent uplifting of our life. We’ll explore the connection between this bowing before the Lord and the development of a spiritual life. | By Rev. Ethan McCardell | Bryn Athyn CathedralMemorial Service for Doris A. Halterman
Memorial Service - June 21, 2025
Doris A. Halterman passed into the spiritual world on June 9, 2025. She was 89 years old. | By Rev. Jeremy F. Simons | Bryn Athyn CathedralThe Two Most Important Things
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - June 15, 2025
John saw a vision of two witnesses who were put to death and raised to life (Revelation 11). They represent the two essentials of the New Church: that the Lord in His glorified humanity is God and that people should live by the Ten Commandments. These two echo the two great commandments, showing us how to live heavenly lives. | By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Bryn Athyn CathedralThe Two Witnesses
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 15, 2025
In Revelation 11, John describes a vision of two witnesses. They represent the two essentials of the New Church. These two essentials are under constant threat of attack - in the vision, the two witnesses were even put to death - but the Lord protects them and can revive them, just as He revived the witnesses in John’s vision. | By Rev. Coleman S. Glenn | Bryn Athyn Cathedral"God has made me laugh…" (Genesis 21:6)
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - June 08, 2025
The Lord doesn’t just want to cheer us up – He wants our hearts and minds to be filled with joy and laughter. Our grumpy, skeptical side tends to have a hard time believing this is possible. What’s there to laugh about – life is full of serious business; bills to pay, pressures at work, health issues, relationship stresses, etc.? Turns out, we have a lot of reasons to laugh if we’re to take our cue from the angels in heaven for “everything they see seems to laugh and play and come alive” (HH 489). What are they seeing that we aren’t seeing? | By Rev. Derek P. Elphick | Bryn Athyn Cathedral"God has made me laugh…" (Genesis 21:6)
Worship Service: Sermon only - June 08, 2025
The Lord doesn’t just want to cheer us up – He wants our hearts and minds to be filled with joy and laughter. Our grumpy, skeptical side tends to have a hard time believing this is possible. What’s there to laugh about – life is full of serious business; bills to pay, pressures at work, health issues, relationship stresses, etc.? Turns out, we have a lot of reasons to laugh if we’re to take our cue from the angels in heaven for “everything they see seems to laugh and play and come alive” (HH 489). What are they seeing that we aren’t seeing? | By Rev. Derek P. Elphick | Bryn Athyn CathedralHere I Am. Send Me
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - June 01, 2025
Isaiah’s words are in response to the Lord’s, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” (Isaiah 6). Within them is an invitation to step forward ourselves to serve in the ways the Lord asks. We will explore our responsiveness to the Lord’s constant call to show up as a good person who strives to make a difference. | By Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr. | Bryn Athyn CathedralClear Truths
Worship Service: Ordination & Sermon - June 01, 2025
Ordination of Daniel Calvo and Thomas J. Jackson into the first degree by Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr. Readings by Daniel Calvo. Sermon by Thomas J. Jackson. Elijah retreated to a cave in a state of overwhelmed sadness when Jezebel sought his life. While there the Lord came to him and asked him the key question, “What are you doing here?” He then provided the perspective and guidance he needed most. He offers similar guidance to us, urging us to consider our situation and our next steps in light of the clear truths of His Word. | By Rt. Rev. Peter M. Buss, Jr. | Bryn Athyn CathedralOur Spiritual Reality: We Also Have Bodies
Worship Service: Family (may include music) - May 25, 2025
This Sunday we will pick up the topic of our spiritual reality again by reflecting on a curious and inescapable aspect of our spiritual reality: we also have bodies. Why did the Lord create our spirits to be embodied in these complex, frail collections of bones, muscles, and organs? And how can we better navigate our spiritual reality when we take our bodies into consideration? | By Rev. Malcolm G. Smith | Bryn Athyn Cathedral