Church Structure and Organization
The Church is essentially organized as an episcopal polity, a form of church governance which is hierarchical in structure, and in which the chief authority over a local Christian church rests with a bishop. The external governmental structure of the Church is based upon a portion of Swedenborg's writings that describes a 'circle of life' composed of a 'descending line' and an 'ascending line'; the priesthood corresponds to the former and the laity to the latter.
Headquartered in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania, U.S., the Church has ministries or societies in Africa, Europe, and the United States. It has a worldwide membership of approximately 1000, with the majority of these residing in southern Africa.
The headquarters of the church, with its main church building, are located adjacent to the Pennypack preserve, west of the Pennypack creek and the creek road trail.
The Church is supported by a non-profit corporation of the same name.
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Famous quotes containing the words church, structure and/or organization:
“Isn’t this your life? That ancient kiss
still burning out your eyes? Isn’t this defeat
so accurate, the church bell simply seems
a pure announcement: ring and no one comes?”
—Richard Hugo (1923–1982)
“Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.”
—Sydney J. Harris (1917–1986)
“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)