Commencement Address

By Tom Neuenfeldt

If you would like to watch the complete graduation ceremony, including the valedictorian speech given by Pastor Robert Hagan, it is available on our YouTube channel @TheSwedenborgianChurch.

Having our Convention that celebrates the arts in Boston seems quite natural. Boston is the home of the Museum of Fine Arts. James Taylor was born here. The New Kids on the Block and Aerosmith are from here. This is the home of The Boston Pops. As a matter of fact, in 1980 when Convention was here at Wellesley, there was an outing to go hear the Pops perform with John Williams conducting. Equally iconic are the Sam Adams brewery and Cheers on Beacon Hill, where everyone knows your name.

With the Convention theme of Creating Harmony: Art as a Spiritual Practice, I’ve decided to emphasize music in my remarks tonight. Hearing the Choir of the New Jerusalem during our opening session was stunning.

Rev. Catherine Lauber’s worship service last night lifted all of us spiritually. She, the musicians, and soloists combined poetry and music to create a heavenly state of mind.

We are honoring our graduates tonight with their diverse and varied backgrounds, interests, and visions of ministry. They are similar to the many voices of a choir singing in harmony, or instruments in a band or symphony. Our graduates are bringing all of their varied and diverse life experiences and talents to produce the same heavenly harmony—the love of the Lord and neighbor through their individual musical score of uses. 

I am reminded of a great children’s song that BJ used to sing with her youth choir at church several years ago. It is All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir. If you don’t know the song, it goes like this: 

All God’s Creatures got a place in the choir, 
Some sing low and some sing higher,
Some sing out loud on the telephone wire, 
And some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they’ve got now.  
Everybody here is part of the plan, 
We all get to play in the great critter band. 
From the eagle in the sky to the whale in the sea, 
It’s one great symphony.

Our denomination has come a long way in promoting diversity and including everyone in our Swedenborgian critter band. In our 1980 Convention that I mentioned earlier, we ordained Rev. Gladys Wheaton. She was our second female clergy member. Of course, Dorthea Harvey was our first. [Editor’s Note: The 1980 ordination class consisted of four people (three of whom were women): Gertrude Dole Tremblay, Susan Turley-Moore, Gladys Wheaton, and Carl Yenetchi.]

Our current Roll of Ministers lists thirty-six female clergy. That is 50% of our current menagerie of ministers.

Our diversity goes beyond clergy gender. In 2015, in Bridgewater, we reaffirmed that the Church Universal includes those of diverse origins, and stated that no society should exclude anyone from membership based on ethnic origin, race, color, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, health, handicap, or economic status.

In 2022, we approved a Standing Resolution to welcome and support all people in the LGBTQ+ community.

Our denomination has created a Social Justice Committee, Swedenborgians in Action Against Racism, and a resolution on Climate Justice. In 2023, Rev Colin Amato began his virtual ministry, The Rainbow Church of the New Jerusalem.

Today we honor graduates with a wide variety of interests, backgrounds, and life stories.

We welcome Pastor Robert Hagan and thank him for offering his inspiring and meaningful address this evening. Robert tells us that the people in Ghana are hungry for the inner meaning of the Word. He is envisioning holding regular classes on correspondence and training lay leaders who can visit the sick, teach children, and carry on pastoral care in communities that he is not able to reach.

Michael Goos is thankful to the Center for Swedenborgian Society (CSS) for giving them tools to deepen their search for the abiding presence of love and wisdom in scripture, nature, others, and themself. Michael is making a physical pilgrimage to sacred places in nature to better appreciate the correspondence between the natural and spiritual worlds. Michael has focused their research on William Cowherd, an English minister who was a vegetarian activist who encouraged abstinence from meat and alcohol. 

Ben Gunter is the inaugural recipient of the Rev. Chauncey Giles Ministerial Fellowship and is serving a call to ministry here in Boston, at the Church on the Hill. He has also joined with several agencies to develop the first naloxone distribution program in downtown Boston. Ben has a background in neuropsychiatry and has previously been awarded fellowships to do research and teaching at UCLA. Ben found Swedenborg through a used copy of Earths in the Universe in the bookstore that he owned.

As you can see, our 2026 graduates are bringing their interests and skills to share the same message of the Lord’s Love, and Swedenborg’s interpretation of the Word, to all of us from their unique perspectives of the world socially and politically. 

But wait, there is more:

Tirah Keal is currently planning a ministry through Bloom Haven Spiritual Community Center. Bloom Haven is intended as a place for everyone, Swedenborgian and otherwise, to gather in spiritual growth and mutual support, with a foundational inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community. Tirah strives to embody the Swedenborgian idea that, “Religion is all about how we live, and the religious way to live is to do good.” 

Tassy Farwell is the Licensed Pastor at the Hillside Church in El Cerrito, California. She served as vice chair of the CSS board of directors before her call to ministry. Tassy has written a curriculum that incorporates Swedenborgian theology and ethics. For her, spirituality is living, vitalized, moving, and progressing, as adopted from the Bahá’í; which is compatible with Swedenborg’s concept of uses. Tassy believes that women can do anything if they have the right shoes.

Paul Deming is a musician and Licensed Pastor in St Louis, Missouri. He reports that his studies at CSS have helped him understand more of the depth and inner sense of Scripture through Swedenborg’s writings and have given him an appreciation for the diverse and colorful ways that God uses people in ministry. Paul has served on the Committee on Worship, the Standing Committee for Education and Resources, and is currently on the Standing Committee for Nominations and General Council. Paul has served as the music coordinator for several of our Conventions.

Music can bring us joy, pleasure, excitement, reflection, and peace. It can also leave us with feelings of pain, terror, and displeasure. Watching a movie without the music track is lackluster and leaves us a bit flat. 

We listen to it in our cars, on our headphones, and through our play lists as we exercise or meditate. We sing and play music in worship. We sing in the shower, and we use music to celebrate and mourn.

Christmas Eve would not be complete without turning off the lights, lighting candles, and singing “Silent Night.”

Memorial services need “Amazing Grace” or “In the Arms of Angels” to express grief and our belief in the future awaiting us all in the spiritual world.

Music has a rich and varied history in our denomination and the churches we attend.

The talents of the members of our denomination have been shown through groups like DEADSU. You remember: that unique combination of Grateful Dead and Swedenborgian Support Units, made up of Robert McClusky, Ken and Laurie Turley, Lon Elmer, Joe Tucker, and Amy Reichardt.

We have Missing Rachel, with the harmonious voices of Sarah Buteux, Rebecca Esterson, Leah Goodwin, and Rebekah Maddock, singing scripture the way it was intended. 

Rev. Ken and Laurie Turley have made music their life’s expression both personally and professionally. This year’s Convention has been blessed with their talented work.

The Almont Band is made up of whoever shows up with an instrument or has an interest in an instrument. We have members who have included a Concert Master at a local symphony, our Sweet Dean the Queen Trombly on keyboard, and any camper who wishes to perform “Out on Brandau Bay” for skit night. We also have our Convention choirs and musicians. 

Other members, including Rev.  Kathy Speas, have joined voices with the Threshold Choir, singing gentle a capella blessings to anyone at a threshold in their life: quite often at the threshold of passing to the spiritual world. 

John Titus and the Cowens from the Urbana Church are members of the World House Choir, singing for justice, equality, and peace. Rev. Renée Machiniak, Joe, and the Royal Oak Church have a Music Ministry that provides music and presence to the sick, lonely, and isolated members of the church and community in their homes, nursing homes, local homeless shelters, and hospitals. I can’t forget our CSS Secretary Karen Conger, whose lovely voice we are missing at this Convention.

Many of you, attending our service online or in-person, are members of local bands and choruses, and you sing in your church choirs at home. BJ, our keyboard player tonight, is also the choir director at the Presbyterian church that we attend at home, and Marjie Leas is the piano player at the church. The list can go on and on. 

A special shout out goes to Heather Garland, a CSS student and music coordinator at the San Francisco church, for her solo, and creating tonight’s liturgy.

We learn from Swedenborg that music is both an earthly and heavenly experience. Music and musical instruments performed and expressed on earth have a correspondence in the spiritual world.

As Swedenborgians, we view the Psalms as inspired by the Lord, primarily written by David. They are a collection of 150 songs. Their original Hebrew title translates to Song of Praise. They were originally intended and arranged for musical performance, with instrumental accompaniment. 

We have heard earlier of singing for joy in Psalm 95. Listen now to Psalm 98:4.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who live in it. Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the Lord.

Are we talking about playing instruments and singing, or are we talking about truths and affections? As all of you know better than I do, the answer to both questions is yes.

In 2017, Rev. Wilma Wake wrote an article for Our Daily Bread, titled “Reflections on Swedenborg and Music.” She wrote:

Swedenborg talked of life in heaven as filled with music, concerts and singing. He said that music originated in the heavens before coming to the natural world. Music can be an experience of wholeness and connection with each other and with God.

Some of you may know Leah Martin, the organist at the Bryn Athyn Cathedral. 

In her 2024 Doctoral Dissertation titled “Music in Emanuel Swedenborg’s Theology Revitalizing New Church Hymnody” at the University of Notre Dame, Leah goes even deeper into the connection between earthly music and the heavens.

She writes:

Without music, worship would not resemble worship in Heaven….
Swedenborg’s writings about heavenly choirs demonstrate that hymn singing can aid spiritual growth and connect congregations with heavenly choirs….
Swedenborg wrote about heavenly choirs joining in with earthly choirs and experiencing indescribable joy when biblical texts, such as the Psalms, were sung.

Leah goes on to say that angels hear these musical expressions through their inner meaning, even if the singers do not know or understand that inner meaning.

I believe that there is power in song and music of all kinds. When performed or listened to with purpose, intention, and reflection, music can become life-changing and transforming. 

In an April, 2024 interview with Rev. Dr. Jim Lawrence, for the Messenger, Rev. Ken Turley shared his life’s journey with music as a change agent for him and how he “became a minister who does music.” Ken said:

For me personally, it has a profound effect on my inner state of being and has been and continues to be an uplifting means of personal expression and, at the same time, a wonderful way to connect with other people.
I am forever grateful for having found and made music a central part of my life, even as I continue to explore and discover music without ever approaching any kind of sense of complete comprehension. It is a gift to be gratefully received and shared, and a mystery to be enjoyed and shared.

Please know, Ken and Laurie, that we are grateful for you and your music and presence in our lives.

Our 2026 graduates and certificate recipients: may each of you find a voice that lifts and inspires you and everyone who is touched by your ministry. In whatever form it takes, may it be lived out through our two greatest commandments:

To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

When appropriate, do it in song.

And remember “All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir.” 

Read the full issue of the 2026 Convention Special.