Boynton Beach Retreat 2016
Yesterday: Art and
Religion in History
Today: The Process of
Beginning a New Life
Tomorrow: Swedenborg Now
Starring on YouTube
Bruce Henderson
T
his year’s program at the Boynton Beach Retreat – January 18-22 in Florida
– was not planned as a theme but fell into a natural progression.
Dr. Martha Gyllenhaal, associate professor of Art and Art History and
Head of the Art Department at Bryn Athyn College, offered a look back: the
changing images of Christ in early Christian art; how the Catholic Church
used art to bring people back to the church; Swedenborg’s influence on two 19th
century artists; and what students are doing with art in Bryn Athyn College.
The Rev. Mark D. Pendleton, newly confirmed as the pastor of the
Glenview New Church, shifted the focus to the present where we are trying
to build better lives through regeneration. He presented the framework of a
process he has developed – and taken throughout the Church – on using the
steps of regeneration to “Begin a New Life.”
Curtis Childs took a more futuristic view of an exciting new internet
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