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Mr. Clapp’s Dream
By Kurt Simons | August 4, 2009
History often seems to run in cycles, teaching us if we listen. Otis Clapp, a bookstore owner in Boston, gave a speech given to Convention (the major “new church” body of the time) in 1880. Does it carry more for you than just a past echo? Possibly some pieces of blueprint for a better Christian future?
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“We desire especially that the attitude of the organized New Church may no longer continue to be one of seeming antagonism or conscious superiority to other religious bodies, but rather one of modest self-appreciation, and kindly fraternal recognition of other Christians…. There is little danger, we think, of becoming too broad in our sympathies, too catholic in our feelings, or too conciliatory in our disposition and attitude toward others. The danger, we submit, lies wholly in the opposite direction. We believe there never has been and never can be more than one Church, in the large and comprehensive sense of the term, at any given time, –though this, like the human body, may consist of a great variety of parts. We believe that since the time of the Last Judgment (1757), the New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem, has been and continues to be the only Church on earth. We believe that this Church is much larger and more inclusive than any sect; that it is distinguished less by its beliefs or doctrines than by righteousness of life, –love to the Lord and the neighbor being its great fundamental…. We believe, therefore, that members of the New Church are to be found in all existing religious bodies, –and some, doubtless, outside of all; for we cannot doubt that there are, both within and without such bodies, some who truly love the Lord and the neighbor; while some who accept the doctrines of this Church, and join the organization bearing its name, may be quite destitute of its heavenly spirit and in reality constitute no part of it….
“We believe that, since the time, and in consequence of the Last Judgment, there has been and continues to be a freer, more interior and more universal influx of spiritual good and truth into all humble, earnest and truth-seek ing minds, – giving them more enlightenment on subjects of transcendental interest…. Believing this, and finding for our belief the amplest justification in the teachings here referred to, as well as in reason …, we are anxious that the body which assumes the name and stands as the most conspicuous representative of the New Church at this time, should by its declared policy and its attitude towards Christians, exemplify the grand catholicity of this Church. We do not deprecate a separate organization based upon the New Doctrines; this perhaps, was unavoidable, and has doubtless been useful. We would not lessen but gladly increase its efficiency and usefulness…. We desire especially that the Convention cease to claim for itself any special prerogatives, any special right to the Christian name or ordinances or any special efficacy in the latter when administered by its own officials; that it frankly admit… that these ordinances are equally valid, efficacious and significant, when reverently administered by Christians of whatever name or creed….. [By this action] you will remove all just grounds for the charge or even suspicion of narrowness and illiberality. You will regain the affection and confidence of brethren who have been alienated by what (to them) has seemed like a sectarian exclusiveness. You will, – we doubt not, open new channels of usefulness and new avenues for the descent of the Divine Spirit, and many souls will thereby be blessed.”
- From M. Block The New Church in the New World (New York: Henry Holt 1932, p. 306)
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