international women’s day | New Church of Montgomery, in Glendale

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” www.womankind.org.uk

What does Swedenborg say about Freedom?

Doing harmful things in freedom seems to be freedom, but it is actually slavery. It comes from selfish and materialistic loves, which come from hell. (The Heavenly City §142)

and also…

All freedom is a matter of love, even to the point that love and freedom are the same thing. Since love is our life, freedom is also essential to our life. Every pleasure we experience comes from our love; there is no other source of pleasure. Acting for the sake of the pleasure of our love is acting in freedom, because pleasure leads us along, the way a river bears its burdens quite naturally along its current. Since we have many loves, some of which agree with each other and some of which disagree, it follows that we likewise have many kinds of freedom. In general, though, there are three kinds: earthly, rational, and spiritual. (Divine Providence §73:2)

Here in the U.S. Rev. Dr. Dorothea Ward Harvey (1922-2010) was the first woman to be ordained in the New Church (Swedenborgian).

In her early life, she was recruited directly from Wellesley University to be a code breaker in WWII, was in WAVES, and did archaeological and biblical research in Jordan and on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Dr. Harvey got her doctorate from Columbia University and was on the teaching faculty of Lawrence University, Urbana University, Milwaukee Downer College and Wellesley College.

She was the Chair of the Swedenborg House of Studies at the Pacific School of Religion, and a faculty position is named after her. Dorothea was an influential and spiritual woman and through her intelligence, kindness and mentorship helped many along the way.