You Can Come to the Camp Retreat in San Diego!

Hey all you teens. You have an opportunity to travel to an upcoming retreat! The Swedenborgian Church of San Diego is hosting a camping retreat in the beautiful desert hills of Campo, CA., Nov 5 - 7. You'd have to miss 3 days of school, Thurs, Fri and Mon. (Thurs and Mon would be travel days). The SCYL can pay for most of your travel and retreat costs. You'll probably only have to come up with $100. I will be traveling as well and then there leading this retreat. Interested? Please let me know as soon as possible. Travel from the East is really inexpensive right now. I don't know how long this will last, so please email me or call me soon. This is going to be an very exciting, very fun retreat with Rev. Carla who is promising exciting night vision gear to make this extra special.

2010 Survivor Service Rock of Ages

Some of you may not know that the teens at Almont are called Survivors. When a youth reaches the age of 13 (or the first year they attend Almont summer camp) teens get initiated as Survivors. Friday evening they attend a special Survivor candlelight worship service. It is always a very moving and touching experience for Survivors young and old, as well as the younger children, adults and parents of Survivors in attendance. This year Nina, SCYL President, opened the 2010 service with a duet of the hymn "Rock of Ages" with Survivor Advisor and professional singer, Tammara. Unfortunately I missed the beginning of this amazingly beautiful performance, but I did manage to catch the last minute on video. It is a dimly lite service and I was in the back of the chapel, so you won't see much and you'll need to turn the volume up to hear it. Nevertheless, since Tam and Nina have such wonderful voices it is certainly worth a listen. I just wish we had a better recording of this!

The Idea of God

The September edition of the Chaplain's Corner by Pastor Dave, SCYL Chaplain

What does it matter how we think about God, or what image we have of God? Some people wonder why we would argue about ideas like “the trinity” or other concepts of God. “How do these concepts affect my regeneration?” they ask. Swedenborg writes, “We may gather how important it is to have a right concept of God from the fact that this concept is the very core of the thinking of everyone who has religion. All the elements of religion and of worship focus on God . . .” (DLW 12). God is at the heart of all our religious concepts.

But further, how we live out our religion depends on how we view God, too. Swedenborg sees God as the risen Jesus Christ, and because God is the Divine-Human, we all are humans, too. “It is because God is a person that all angels and spirits are perfectly formed people” (DLW 11). We can see how we are to live by studying the life of Jesus. We can form a personal relationship with God when we see Him as the Divine-Human Jesus Christ. Can you form a relationship with anything other than a person? Can you form a relationship with pure energy, as some like to think about God? Can you form a relationship with the creative power of the universe, as others might think of God? I think not. I find my relationship with God becomes heartfelt when I pray to the Divine-Human risen Christ. I find I know how to live my life in a religious way when I meditate on the life of Jesus. This is why the concept of God is so important.