the academy journal
Chancellor’s Report
Vice Chancellor’s Report
The Rt. Rev. Thomas L. Kline
The Rev. Eric H. Carswell
A
the very mustard seeds that the Lord uses to effect
the salvation of the human race.
Often I have the experience of someone coming
up with a new idea, presenting that idea and being
disappointed that there is little response. It is as if
no one heard. And how often, maybe months or
even years later, that same idea is presented by another, and now it is received, embraced and acted
upon. That initial planting was not in vain, in fact,
often it is essential for it finally being heard. And
so when we are inspired to present new ideas on
the level of the board and administration, know
that we are planting mustard seeds. Some of those
seeds are going to grow and become a miraculous
reality.
Let us rejoice in the miracle of the mustard seed
and know that our seemingly small efforts can
have a global effect greater than we can imagine.
t our last Academy Board meeting I gave an
opening worship on the parable of the mustard seed. Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is
like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed
in his field, which indeed is the least of all seeds,
but when it is it grown it is greater than the herbs
and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air
come and nest in its branches.” (Matthew 13)
At the Academy, we are dedicated to the use of
planting spiritual mustard seeds in the minds and
lives of our students. The smallest seeds of truth,
implanted within the human mind with an affection for that truth, has the potential of changing
the world when it grows into fullness. Each year
we send students out into the world with a knowledge and love of the New Church, and the Lord
can take those mustard seeds and allow them to
grow and flourish in ways we cannot imagine. At
times, we may feel that our schools are small and
insignificant in view of the grand issues the world
faces today, where in fact our small efforts may be
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ew Church education, especially at the secondary school and collegiate levels, teaches
and leads young people to be awake to what is going on in their minds. This means that the young
people are actively observing both the experience
coming through their five senses and also the
initial affective and cognitive response their conscious thought shows to this experience. We want
them to effectively recognize things that are both
good and true as well as things that are evil and
false.
Sometimes recognizing the reality in front of us
is not so difficult such as when a good thing truly
appears to be good to us or something evil appears
to be evil. It is far more challenging when something genuinely good and useful first strikes a
person as unpleasant or undesirable or something
genuinely evil and harmful strikes him as appealing and perhaps highly desirable. A person’s first
conscious response to something he or she senses
or an idea that suddenly strikes that person’s conscious thought can be highly unreliable. Because
of the way our spiritual environment influences
our conscious thought, anyone who is early in the
process of spiritual rebirth will regularly have the
first response occurring being one that is less than
angelic.
New Church education helps a person get beyond this first response in a number of important ways. Firstly it encourages a person to have
a knowledge of what is true that the Lord and the
angels can use to fight evil motivations and false
ideas. Secondly it encourages reflection that allows a person to see beyond their first response to
a wiser and more useful perspective. Thirdly the
goal of New Church education is helping a person
to better serve the long-term welfare of others and
the way teachers present this and model it themselves encourages the students to seek that welfare.
Teacher Orientation
One of the roles I served for Bryn Athyn College
this year was through providing a series of orientation sessions for recently hired instruc ܜ[