General Church of the New Jerusalem.” Originally pub-
lished in 1914, it has been revised six times since that date.
The last revision occurred in 1999, when the language of the
document was made gender inclusive. The decision not to
write a constitution was made so that the organizational
structure of the General Church of the New Jerusalem could
be more responsive to the membership as it grew and devel-
oped. Furthermore, given the difficulties of its own founda-
tion, those involved did not want any form of organization
that would prevent future generations from making changes
they might deem necessary for the life of the church.
Council and assembly are also important governmental
principles for the General Church of the New Jerusalem.
The bishop and the ministers all have lay councils that meet
with them on a regular basis. In addition, every four or five
years, all the members of the church get together at a general
assembly to make important decisions. These councils and
assemblies are governed by the principle of unanimity, with
doubt signaling the need to delay decision making.
Education is a word that is synonymous with the Acade-
my Movement and the General Church. This Swedenbor-
gian organization has made education one of its highest pri-
orities; however, in 1995 evangelization became an
equivalent priority when an Office of Evangelization was es-
tablished. Due to its origins in the Academy Movement, the
General Church was a school before it became a church. The
Academy Movement organized a theological school in 1876,
when several ministers who were proponents of academy
principles were no long welcome to teach at the theological
school in Waltham, Massachusetts. Soon the Academy
Movement not only ran a theological school in Philadelphia,
but also a college and high school. These institutions moved
to Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, in the 1890s and were still in
operation in 2003. The international character of the Gener-
al Church of the New Jerusalem has helped to create an in-
ternational student body at all of its schools, but particularly
at the college. In 2000, students came from more than seven-
teen countries, including Brazil, Canada, France, Korea, Sri
Lanka, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
The General Church of the New Jerusalem is consid-
ered the most conservative of the New Church organizations.
By 2003, for example, it still did not ordain women. None-
theless, it is the most diverse both racially and nationally. An
unpublished study by Jane Williams-Hogan in 1998 showed
that the British Conference had a minority membership of
5 percent, the Swedenborgian Church of North America had
a 1½ percent minority membership, and the General Church
of the New Jerusalem had 11 percent.
Although nowhere is it mandated that members of this
church live together in communities, in practice this is also
a characteristic of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.
Communities have developed around existing General
Church schools, or individuals will band together to form a
community and a school. In the year 2000 the General
Church operated ten elementary schools, six of which are lo-
cated in New Church communities in the United States and
Canada. In addition, there is a New Church elementary
school in South Africa, and one was established in Ghana in- Two preschools were established that same year in
Denver, Colorado, and Ivyland, Pennsylvania.
A statistical profile of the General Church of the New
Jerusalem in 2000 indicated a membership of 4,585, with
a total international community of approximately 14,000,
including minors, young adults, and adults who attend
church services but who have not signed the rolls. The
church had 92 public places of worship in 2000—57 in the
United States, 8 in Canada, and 27 outside of North Ameri-
ca. These groups were served by a total of 99 active and re-
tired clergymen.THE SWEDENBORGIAN MOVEMENT WORLDWIDE. Other
Swedenborgian organizations exist in the world beyond the
three discussed above. In 2003 independent New Church
groups existed in Australia, France, Japan, Kenya, Nigeria,
the Philippines, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and the
Ukraine, among other places. It is interesting to note, howev-
er, that from its inception the Swedenborgian movement has
developed organizationally primarily within the framework
of English-speaking countries. The three organizations dis-
cussed in this article not only developed in Great Britain and
the United States, but they also chose to establish theological
schools. Although other theological schools have subsequent-
ly been established outside of the United States and England,
these have all been developed through the missionary efforts
of English-speaking organizations.Many of these independent Swedenborgian organiza-
tions have been started as a result of an individual reading
one of Swedenborg’s theological writings and discovering the
divine within it. The reader has then determined to form a
church or religious organization in response. This pattern oc-
curred in Great Britain, France, Russia, and Sweden in the
eighteenth century; in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and
the United States in the nineteenth century; in Brazil, Nige-
ria, South Africa, Japan, Korea, and Ghana in the twentieth
century; and already in the twenty-first century in the Philip-
pines and Sri Lanka. While the membership numbers are not
large, these groups nonetheless represent a different mecha-
nism of conversion than that of a personal encounter with
believers, gurus, or some other religiously inspired charismat-
ic person. Conversion occurs after reading a book, after
which the individual often attempts to find other similarly
interested people or organizations. Writing to book publish-
ers is a common method by which these individuals find ex-
isting organizations and fellow believers. Thus, Sweden-
borg’s method of spreading his message by publishing and
distributing books, although it is no longer the only method
used to recruit new members, has been surprisingly effective.SEE ALSO Swedenborg, Emanuel.SWEDENBORGIANISM 8905