As a Swedenborgian, who grew up far outside any GC “society”, I had many opportunities in my childhood to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the other religious organizations around me. My family drove the hour to church each Sunday, but we were often the only family with kids to show up. My friends were mostly Mormons (with a few Catholics and a Protestant thrown in).
With Mormons, discussing your religion and comparing it to other perspectives is common practice. I had frequent conversations throughout my childhood where I was asked to compare my Swedenborgian faith to others. These friendly conversations became very satisfying to me; the more I analyzed the doctrines of the people around me the more impressed I became with the clarity and consistency of the New Christianity.
However, I still deeply envied my Mormon friends. For although the logic of their church was “iffy”, the practices of their organization were admirable. As a girl, I was particularly struck by what the Mormon church offered my girlfriends. Every Wednesday night they met with Mormon women to learn from them and to do activities and charity work together. They went on trips with other girls. They read articles in their Mormon magazines specifically for them. They received encouragement, guidance and support in a form only women can provide other women. They had a truly healthy and vibrant “women’s ministry”, as it is called in the Christian world. I saw the beauty of it and I wanted it too.
As I’ve continued to observe other religious organizations I’ve grown more confused. Whether Catholic, Baptist or Jewish, everyone else seems to have some system in place for women to support and nurture women. Why doesn’t the General Church?
Maybe she needs a little help.
New Christian Woman is an attempt to regain some forward motion in the General Church’s women’s ministry. This blog is run by a collection of GC women from around the world. We each may have our personal soapboxes we like to stand on from time to time, but all of us desire community. We want to kindle friendships, share ideas, and offer and receive support from other women who are trying to live their lives with the Lord God Jesus Christ as their guide.
New Christian Woman strives to celebrate all things feminine (in the Heavenly Doctrines definition of the term). Here we are endeavoring to provide a positive, safe, and inspiring outlet for General Church Women to nurture and support each other in all aspects of their life, whether weighty matters of religion or the trivia of the daily drudge.
Do these words resonate with you? Please join us!
I look forward to the community element of this project. I often find it difficult to make the time for bigger religious conversations at social events or even just at church because of needing to run around after my kids, and I feel it as a gap in my life. Having this available on my schedule gives me hope that I’ll actually be able to feel the community effect here more.
I think this is a great way for us to be able to talk together about our roles as women. It will be a nice thing to be able to return to, read comments and get us all thinking a little more about important religious topics.
I’m really excited about this! I’ve bounced around, denominationally, and have treasured finding community done in different ways in different places. I’ve struggled a lot with figuring out how to do community over the Internet and I think this is a great start. I can’t wait to see how the Lord uses this platform to build His church!
Ladies and Sisters, your publication is excellent. I am raised up by the quality of the writing, and the sharing which is wise because it seems to be heart-felt, well-considered and open-ended. The Theta Alpha Journal used to serve as a women’s ministry to answer Anna’s query, but it bogged down because (my opinion) it became too much ranting or complaining or fighting and who wants to read that? At any rate, I didn’t feel it supported the inner life or the intellect of the thinking New Church woman. I sincerely hope your fresh and informed pieces will reach many and knit people together not tear apart. One thought: could you post names of authors right along w title? Oh, and I want to share this with a non-New Church friend, and she’d be confused by references to “General Church” instead of “New Church” I think. Maybe choose one and keep it for all articles. Anyway, thank you, I love it, it’s BRILLIANT! Ann Buss
Thanks for the feedback Ann. I would love to figure out how to make the authors name more prominent but as yet we have’t found a simple way to do that. Our server thing, WordPress, is quite limited.
The GC vs NC question is more complex. Often they are two distinct ( though obviously related) entities in people’s minds. The organization as opposed to a less defined “new Christianity” that could mean anybody who is connected to the ideas. But it is possible for us to intentionally attempt to define those terms when they come up…thinking of options:)
Wow. I just binged read a bunch of these articles while nursing the baby to sleep since I have a mother’s helper with the other two 🙂 What a gift! It felt so nice pondering all these thoughts when usually my day to day has become “I can’t do thinking”. Sometimes I feel guilty for not elevating my mind above laundry and “who gets to use the princess spoon today”. I’ll be checking back regularly for this great oasis of thought!