All posts by Eden Lumsden

About Eden Lumsden

Eden is loving wife to Derrick Lumsden and full-time mother to five little men and one little lady. She grew up attending the New Church of Phoenix, went to the GC College, married a priest and was promptly shipped off with him to Africa. They spent 6yrs enjoying the people and culture at the Westville New Church, near Durban, South Africa before returning to the USA in 2014. They currently live in Kempton, Pennsylvania where they dabble in self-sufficiency, homeschool their boys, and scheme of ways to help the Church. Eden finds the True Christian teachings about women and marriage to be particularly profound.

Not Just Decoration: Ramblings on Defining “Womanhood”

Article

When my eldest son was three he started asking an indecent number of “why?” and “what is it?” questions about the world. Coming up with answers was sometimes challenging; no one can draw attention to the folly and illogical nature of the adult world like a child. And so it was that we began distinguishing those things that had a clear purpose (the “why” questions we answered) from those things that were “just decoration” (ones we couldn’t quite figure out the point of).

I am afraid that modern Western society has subconsciously relegated the female figure to “just decoration”; it appears set on divorcing the appearance of my body from its point– it’s use. And I believe this has had a tragic effect on society’s definition of “womanhood.”
Continue reading Not Just Decoration: Ramblings on Defining “Womanhood” →

Some Paths are Better than Others

Quotes and Reflections

I often hear New Church men and women share the teachings that a person does not need to be Christian to be saved –that a mechanism for salvation is present in all religions. This is true.

What is less commonly discussed is the reality that, while Heaven may be accessible through many religions, those religions don’t all provide equal access. Some religions lead closer to the Lord than others.

Some paths are better than others.
Continue reading Some Paths are Better than Others →

Seeking the Morning

Quotes and Reflections

Question: What do you do when you are the manager of a blog and you wake up Wednesday morning to the realization you have nothing to publish?

Answer: Defer to the Lord.

The Lord is present with every man, urging and pressing to be received; and His first coming, which is called the dawn, is when man receives Him, which he does when he acknowledges Him as his God, Creator, Redeemer, and Savior. From this time man’s understanding begins to be enlightened in spiritual things, and to advance into a more and more interior wisdom; and as he receives this wisdom from the Lord, he advances through morning into day, and this day lasts with him into old age, even to death; and after death he passes into heaven to the Lord Himself; and there, although he died an old man, he is restored to the morning of his life, and the rudiments of the wisdom implanted in him in the natural world grow to eternity. (True Christian Religion 766)

And His Name Was Called Jesus

Article

Throughout my childhood I was taught that The Lord has many names and that each of these is holy and represents something special about Him. But I’ve recently discovered that there is one of His names I have an aversion to hearing and, I suspect, there are others in the church with a similar handicap. Can you guess which name I mean?

Now my husband is a priest. Which means that a lot more thought and doctrinal research goes into the formation of his opinions than usually goes into mine. He is also a very intentional person. So when he starts to do something unusual, I know he is doing it on purpose. A few months ago, I started noticing him using the term “Jesus” a lot in his sermons and conversations. It felt odd to me—I would have said “The Lord” in those instances—but I assumed it had something to do with the doctorate program he is in at a Presbyterian school. Maybe he was trying to remind himself to use words that they would understand (to the old Christians, “Lord” refers to Jehovah). But recently he gave a (really fantastic) sermon where he used “Jesus” left and right and the General Church woman in me had to call him on it: What was he doing? Why wasn’t he using the acceptable term “The Lord”? “Jesus” sounded so trinitarian and old Christian! Continue reading And His Name Was Called Jesus →