the rituals for worship and the organizational structure were
attracted to the message of the theology, rather than to the
man who had written it.
The British Conference of the New Church, as it was
officially named, was an offshoot of the London Theosophi-
cal Society, which by 1787 had approximately one hundred
members drawn from various ranks in British society and in-
cluding individuals from a variety of countries who resided
in London. Their religious backgrounds were also diverse,
coming from a wide range of Christian confessions, includ-
ing Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Calvinist, and Dissenters.
Among them were also individuals who were mystics, Quak-
ers, deists, or agnostics. This Theosophical Society, which
predates the organization founded by H. P. Blavatsky and
Henry Steel Olcott in 1875, was an organization whose
membership had widely different interests in Swedenborg’s
religious writings. Some members believed that they were di-
vinely given revelation from God and thus were to become
over time the source of renewal for Christianity. Among this
group, however, some believed that renewal first should be
attempted within existing Christian confessions, while others
felt that it was more in keeping with the message to form a
new and separate organization. Other members were inter-
ested in Swedenborg’s writings in order to learn the secrets
through which spirits could be contacted.
Those who wished to form a separate organization asked
that a vote be taken in order to proceed. Losing the vote by
a small margin, these members decided to go ahead with
plans to form a new church. Hindmarsh led this movement.
Clowes hastened to London to dissuade them from making
such a move. Unconvinced, the separatists went ahead with
their plans and, on July 31, 1787, fourteen men and two
women gathered to celebrate the sacraments of baptism and
the holy supper in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thereby established the New Church. According to Hind-
marsh’s record in Rise and Progress, “All those present de-
clared themselves to be ‘of the Lord’s New Church in its out-
ward and visible form on Earth.’” On June 1 the following
year they completed the establishment of a new church when
two men were ordained into the priesthood. Although other
Swedenborgian or New Church organizations have devel-
oped in different countries around the world since 1788, all
of them acknowledge some form of direct or indirect indebt-
edness to the actions taken by the men and women present
at these foundational ceremonies.
The operational structure of this new organization was
far from clear. In order to proceed, it was determined that
a national conference of believers should be called to estab-
lish common beliefs, principles of association, and forms of
worship. A circular was sent out that included forty-two reso-
lutions of belief to be affirmed at a conference to be held at
a chapel in London’s East Cheap section in April 1789. On
Easter Monday that year, approximately eighty men and
women gathered at the chapel to attend the five-day confer-
ence, which ran from April 13 to 17. Among those present
was the poet William Blake (1757–1827) and his wife, Cath-
erine. Both signed the conference minute book acknowledg-
ing their assent to the thirty-two propositions drawn from
the religious writings of Swedenborg that had been discussed
and affirmed during the conference. Among other things, the
approved resolutions stated that “the Theological Writings
of the Honorable Emanuel Swedenborg are perfectly consis-
tent with the Holy Word; they also contain the Heavenly
Doctrines of the New Church, which he [Swedenborg] was
enabled by the Lord to draw from the Holy Word, while
under the Inspiration and Illumination of his Holy Spirit.”
The last of the resolutions called for the group to meet
again in April of the following year. On the agenda for subse-
quent conferences was the need to approve a liturgy consis-
tent with Swedenborg’s teachings, as well as principles of or-
ganization that would likewise be drawn from Swedenborg’s
revelation. Harmony reigned during this first general confer-
ence of the New Church, but the same spirit did not prevail
in the gatherings that followed. The underlying issue that de-
veloped among conference participants was the growing at-
tachment of certain members to opposing models of church
governance—congregational versus hierarchical.
BRITISH CONFERENCE OF THE NEW CHURCH. The issue was
not resolved until the general conference of 1815, when the
congregational model favored by the majority was no longer
challenged. By that time there were three societies in Lon-
don, thirty societies in Lancashire, and ten others in Great
Britain. The British Conference has convened every year
since that date with the various congregations and societies
sending delegates. In 1815 the conference also adopted a
presidential form of government with a one-year renewable
term. This form of government persisted within the British
Conference until 1970, when the length of the presidential
term became five years. In 1900 the British Conference had
seventy-three societies with a total membership of 6,337.
They ran eleven day schools, which served 4,375 students,
and they had over 7,000 children in attendance at their Sun-
day schools.
From its beginning until the middle of the twentieth
century, the British Conference not only served the New
Church in Great Britain, but also believers and congrega-
tions throughout the British colonies. It was a source of theo-
logical training, ministers, and hymnals and other printed
material for groups in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa,
and Nigeria. At the beginning of the twenty-first century
these groups form independent associations, although histo-
ry and tradition connect them to the British Conference.
The largest of these groups (approximately 15,000 members)
is the New Church of Southern Africa, founded by David
Mooki (1876–1927) in 1911. It was run as a mission of the
British Conference for many years, creating its own theologi-
cal school in Orlando, Gauteng. The New Church of South-
ern Africa became independent in 1970, under the leader-
ship of Obed S. D. Mooki (1919–1990), son of the elder
Mooki. The president holding office in 2000 was Paul S.
Kenene.8902 SWEDENBORGIANISM