Introduction to the New Church

In the New Church, sometimes called the Swedenborgian Church, we worship the Lord God Jesus Christ. We believe that the Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, and that everyone is saved who seeks Him and lives a life in which His love and wisdom can be present. His love and wisdom come into our lives when we keep His commandments, which are all about rejecting evil and doing what is good.

The Word teaches us how to live this life—the life that leads to heaven and salvation. The Word consists of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Heavenly Doctrine. The books of the Heavenly Doctrine were written in the 18th century by Emanuel Swedenborg. Everything in the Old and New Testaments is a parable with a deeper meaning that shows us how to live a life of wise and loving service to the Lord and to the neighbor.

When we live a good life, our hearts and spirits are opened to the Lord’s love—the love that fills the heavens. People who chose to act from heavenly love on earth are welcomed into heaven after death; and there they continue to grow, becoming wiser and more useful forever. People who don’t want heavenly love also don’t want to live in heaven, so they make their homes in hell. Hell is not a punishment inflicted by the Lord: it is simply a place inhabited by people who love evil.

The Lord is present with every person in creation. He honors our freedom, but He is always gently guiding us towards better things. His desire is to give eternal joy to each and every one of us.

Read more about our core beliefs

If you have questions about New Church teachings, try asking the chatbot below. NB: This is a fairly early version and its answers are not always fully reliable.

Core New Church Beliefs

  • The Lord is the God of heaven and earth. He is the Divine creator, and is also an approachable, loving, human God who reaches out to all of us. He is one, though there is a Trinity within Him. The aspects of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—make one God, just as soul, body, and activity make one person.

    The Lord is love itself and wisdom itself, and is incapable of anger or coldness towards any human being. His greatest purpose and His heart’s desire is to create a heaven from the human race. So He is present with every human being, working with us in countless ways to bend the paths of our lives towards heaven and eternal joy. Read more about God.

  • The Word, or the Bible, is where God teaches us. In the pages of His Word He tells us about Himself and eternal life, and He tells us that happiness (in this life and to eternity) is found when we live according to His commandments.

    We can read the Word on many different levels. There is a literal meaning, a history of God's relationship with His people, and a deeper symbolic meaning which teaches us about our own spiritual lives. On the deepest level the Word is about God's love for all people and His work to bring us close to Himself in heaven. This symbolic meaning is called the "internal sense" of the Word. Read more about the Word.

  • Jesus said that the two great commandments are to love God and to love other people, and that every other teaching in the Word depends on these two commandments. What we love determines who we are, and whether or not we go to heaven. Heaven is where our hearts rest—and where we go after death—when we love God and the neighbor above all else. Read more about love.

  • We open ourselves to God’s love by turning away from evil and learning to do what is good. When we do these things His love is shared with us, and it inspires us to live useful and productive lives for the sake of others. This gives us joy and a sense of purpose, and prepares us for eternal life in heaven.

    God doesn’t force us to receive His love. He guards our spiritual freedom carefully, because if we aren’t free to choose what we love, we have no real identity. Because we are spiritually free, we can reject His unselfish love and choose to love ourselves more than anything else—and this is the origin of evil. But because we are free, we also have the ability to turn away from evil and find mercy and purpose with God. Read more about the meaning of life.

  • Being saved, or born again, doesn’t happen in a single moment; and simply saying that we believe in God is not enough. To have faith in God is to live as He teaches: as we do this we are made new, little by little, by the love that we receive from Him.

    The New Church teaches that every person who acknowledges God and lives according to the Ten Commandments is saved and goes to heaven. The Lord works through many churches in many nations to make sure that all people have the opportunity to learn these basic principles of religion. Read more about faith and salvation.

  • The New Church teaches that when we die, we do not really die: we merely leave this world behind and wake up in a new world, a spiritual world. In that world our earthly griefs and confusions will gradually and gently be healed, and who we truly are will come to light. Where in that spritual world we make our home will depend on who we truly are.

    The Lord’s goal is to create a heaven from the human race—in other words, He wants everyone to go to heaven. Everyone who has striven to keep His commandments and to love God and the neighbor is received into heaven after death, and becomes an angel. No one is thrown into hell; but people who don’t want to love God and the neighbor also find that they don’t want to live in heaven, where those loves reign. So they choose hell of their own accord.

    Heaven is just as real as this world, and the bodies of the angels are just as real as bodies that we have right now—the only difference is that angels’ bodies are more beautiful and more perfect, because they are eternal. Heaven is not a place of leisure: the angels find their joy in lives of useful service to God and to the neighbor. Read more about heaven and life after death.

  • A marriage is truly a spiritual covenant between a man and a woman, and the love shared by a couple who are united this way is a beautiful gift from the Lord. When married partners look to the Lord and apply His teachings both to themselves as individuals and to their marriage, troubled times can be overcome, and true married love can grow. This love produces peace, trust, and inmost friendship. Marriages in which this love is present do not end with death, but continue to eternity. Read more about marriage and love in marriage.

  • When Jesus was born on earth, His purpose was to save His people from spiritual darkness. Some people expected Him to establish an earthly kingdom, but that wasn’t why He was there: He had come as a Savior and a teacher of spiritual truth. Earthly things were simply not His priority.

    Similar things can be said of His second coming. There are passages in the Word that seem to say that the world will end when the Lord comes again, but that’s not what those passages really mean. His goal is to save people and lead them to heaven; how would ending the world serve that purpose?

    The New Church teaches that the Lord has already made His second coming, not in person but by means of a new revelation. Over the centuries after He made His first advent, the world gradually descended into spiritual darkness once again. So He brought new light to the world—and He did this by means of the books that were written in the eighteenth century by a man named Emanuel Swedenborg. In the New Church these books are known as the Heavenly Doctrine, and also as the Writings. The Writings show us how to see the Lord within His Word, and shine new light on the core message He has always taught: if we follow Him and keep His commandments, He will lead us to eternal happiness.

    This new relvelation is not to be believed because Swedenborg wrote it, but because it’s founded on the Bible, because it shows us how to understand the Bible, and because its teachings make sense. It invites us to use our rational minds, to see God and His creation in clear light, and to do the most obvious thing of all: to live like loving God and the neighbor is what matters most. Read more about the Second Coming and the new Christianity.

 

Wondering about something else?

If you have questions about New Church teachings, try asking the chatbot below. NB: This is a fairly early version and its answers are not always fully reliable.

New Church Theology

The unique teachings of the New Church are contained in a set of books written by a man named Emanuel Swedenborg. He published two groundbreaking works of Bible interpretation, and 16 other books on the nature of God, humanity, reality, and life after death. The New Christian Bible Study project has assembled a large collection of Swedenborg’s works and made them freely available online, in many languages.

Explore New Church Theology

Vision & Purpose

The VISION of the Pittsburgh New Church is that we can provide a spiritual home and community for all in the Pittsburgh area who love the Lord and want to grow and support one another in life and faith according to His Word. This uniquely includes:

  • A special focus on Jesus Christ as the infinite God present for us in His Divine Humanity.

  • An understanding of the Bible and eternal life enlightened by the spiritual writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, whose inspired message appeals especially to the rational mind.

  • A commitment to the life of faith through love and charity toward the neighbor.

The PURPOSE of the Pittsburgh New Church therefore is:

  • To engage as fully as possible in this work, worshiping, learning and working together, and sharing our vision with all in the Pittsburgh area who—searching for a deeper, stronger faith—are receptive of a whole new approach to traditional Christianity.

Rev. Jared Buss - Pastor

Pastoral work has always spoken to me—I’ve wanted to be a minister ever since I was a child. I am honored and delighted to be able to serve the Pittsburgh New Church as its pastor.

I received my M. Div. from the Bryn Athyn College of the New Church Theological School in 2015, and started my career as an assistant pastor at the Olivet New Church in Toronto, Canada. I moved to Pittsburgh in July of 2021. My wife and I have five children, and we’re happy to call Pittsburgh our home.

I look forward to many years of working and growing with this congregation, as we strive to bring love of the Lord and love of the neighbor into our lives and into our communities.

Rev. Dan Calvo - Assistant to the Pastor

I was born and raised in Havana, Cuba, and my path into ministry began through translation work. I got my start as a translator for the Heavenly Doctrines Publishing Foundation and have worked as an editor on the Spanish translations of the Heavenly Doctrines, including an ongoing translation of Secrets of Heaven. After completing the Master of Divinity program at Bryn Athyn College, I was ordained into the priesthood of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in 2025.

I began serving in the Pittsburgh New Church in the fall of 2025 as Assistant to the Pastor, where I preach, teach at the school, and offer pastoral care whenever it is needed.

I look forward to working and growing alongside this congregation, as together we strive to live out the doctrines of love to the neighbor that the Lord teaches in His Word.