Welcome to this issue of The New Age and enjoy its contents. The middle of the year issue has, as part of its focus, New Church Day on June 19th , this year on a Sunday. Here in the southern hemisphere it is in the middle of winter, but in the northern hemisphere, June 19 th is just two days short of the summer solstice on June 21 st when the longest day happens, with 24 hours of sunshine at the North Pole.

I have always felt that this is part of the reason for New Church Day being on this particular date of June 19 th. But it’s not geography or astronomy, it’s the spiritual idea that this gives. Swedenborg writes that the Lord’s disciples, now of course in heaven, were given the commission to broadcast throughout the whole of the spiritual world that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns and his kingdom shall be for ever and ever. He added that this happened on June 19 th 1770.

That is an amazing statement and we should try our best to understand what it is saying. Keep in mind that June 19 th is coming very close to the longest day of the year. So light is a feature of New Church Day, and “light” corresponds to truth and more personally, to our own ability to see what is true and even more, receive it in our life.

Go back to the disciples’ broadcast that it is the Lord God Jesus Christ who reigns. The point of spreading this anew has two reasons. One was that the Christian Church had got caught up in separating Jesus and God, saying that Jesus was a sacrifice. No, said the disciples, Jesus Christ is God.

The other reason for the broadcast is more personal to us. It is Jesus who is God, and Jesus here in human form is God now visible. We are to come to Jesus as our Lord and live our lives by living his teachings because he is the Word. And we are to ask him, the Lord God Jesus Christ, to help us in our lives and be the one God whom we worship and serve for ever and ever. No separation, no division, the one and only God, with us. This is what we celebrate on June 19th .