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What the Chapel Means to Me
Some thoughts from Rev. F Bob Tafel
I.
The Church of the New Jerusalem in Cambridge, familiarly known as Swedenborg Chapel, means much more to me than an architectural structure or a place where I function as pastor. It has, not merely by its location in the heart of the campus of Harvard University, but also by its many ministries and bulding usage become a highly visable Window to the World for the Swedenborgian movement.
Sometimes "the medium is the message" as Marshall McCluen demonstrated. I believe quite simply and plainly that this is the case for the Cambridge Society of the New Jerusalem and Swedenborg Chapel.
I find that in discussing the name of this landmark building, "Church of the New Jerusalem becomes an opportunity for me to talk about the Holy City New Jerusalem of the last book of the Bible. The same is true of its popular name, Swedenborg Chapel, for it invites me to talk about the Swedenborgian theology behind the building. It is a natual lead-in and invitation to talk about the life that leads to heaven. The four walls and 12 gates mean it doesn't matter very much how the principles of that life are phrased in the many religions, but whether one's quality of life will qualify him or her to dwell there.
Just about everyone who visits finds the architecture compelling. So the Chapel becomes a metaphor for our perspectives on the function and value of one's life.
I know well the difference between "ministry" on the one hand, and "bricks and mortar" on the other: the danger of falling in love with a building and allowing one's perspective to be distorted. I have read many of the books on the subject and heard the arguments by experts making the plea to bear in mind and distinguish as clearly as possible the difference between ministry and its locus.
I believe there are compelling reasons for separating one's passion from a building which has lived beyond its use. In this case the best is yet to be. As a national orgainzation we don't have very many old buildings which are serving magnificently. Church of the New Jerusalem, Swedenborg Chapel, is in its centennial year of service. It only takes a little bit on imaginaton to comprehend how its centennial celebration done well can bring noble sentiments to the Swedenborgian movement.
II.
The principal reason I have been fighting to Save the Chapel goes beyond any personal ambition and desire to maintain the Chapel's ministries for my own liveihood. Since I am so close to retirement age, I do not need the Chapel to be saved for my sake. Gretchen recently brought to my attention something I had written a few years ago for my own encouragement late one night. It went something like this: "I fight this fight not for myself alone nor to preserve the ministries I have been blessed to inaugurate with the help of this fine congregation. I fight for succeeding generations of Swedenborgians yet unborn who will find Swedenborg Chapel a source of encouragement." I had been thinking, "Who would ever have imagined back in the mid-1950s that someone like Sarah Buteux or Rebecca Kline would come along in the 1990s as students at Harvard Divinity School to discover a Swedenborg Chapel at its border?
Quite simply I happen to believe the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. I believe that in the fulness of time the Lord revealed to Emanuel Swedenborg a new theology which this generation needs as much as any previous generation. People today respond to our message of hope. These perspectives on the Lord,.on the Bible as the Word of God and of heaven and the necessity of the life of Charity are just as valid and needed today as by the generation at the turn of the last millenium. I believe the challenge to us to Save the Chapel is just as important as that of the challenges to those who built it.
III.
I feel myself to have truly been led by the Lord's Providence and been enabled by the Lord to develop, with the support of the congregation, ministries far beyond my own humble imagination. which can and do serve succeding generations. Among them, The Wedding Chapel ministry, begun in 1983 was the first ministry I introduced simply because of my experience in Cincinnati and Washington, DC The Swedenborgian Chaplaincy at Harvard, mostly through the efforts of Dr. Eugene Taylor which Gretchen and I have supported with our presence and by hosting receptions for his lectures and the Chapel as an approved Field Education Site for Harvard Divinity School (and, by extension BTI Schools of Theology instituted by Sarah
Buteux's Student Initiated Project. I will be available to serve in these ministries so long as I am able and serve a use. Ministers and members who will follow us will of course develop their own paths of service and outreach.
IV.
It has been my deeplly held conviction that one of the challenges of this generation of Swedenborgians is this current endeavor to save and preserve the Chapel, with its high profile on a corner which is one of the highest foot traffic areas in Cambridge -- for future generation. We can not see into the future. But we can learn from the past. For example, internships at Harvard Divinity School of Sarah Buteux and Rebecca Kline. and, recently a prospective intern from H.D.S. who was just married through the ministry of the wedding Chapel.
V. I am also well aware that I have sometimes offended both friend and foe alike in my fervent speaking up on behalf of the Cambridge Society and its endeavor to save its ancestral spiritual home, Church of the New Jerusalem in Cambridge.
The latter half of the previous decade saw a continual worsening of the Society's relations with Swedenborg School of Religion in whose hands the previous generations had conferred title to the Chapel. The dispute over shares in equity in the Chapel became a focal point in the conflict.
What was an ongoing, deep-rooted struggle going back to the 1960s became a pitched battle when a developer was encouraged to bid on the property. What seemed to be an offer, in February of 1999, was actually discovered to be an offer to-make-an-offer. This was identified through the court case the Society brought in order to determine whether there was truly an offer which must be met to preserve its right of refusal. Indeed, Harvard also needed this determination. The Society and I as its minister became reluctant warriors to preserve the Chapel at all costs.
I regret and apologize for any needles offense that I have caused to any one. But I do not and will not apologize for taking up arms against what was a real and present danger.
It was wrong -- and I shall never be convinced otherwise -- for the Board of Trustees of SSR to have accepted the development offer (or, offer to make an offer). It was wrong because the Cambridge Society and the entire movement known as Church of the New Jerusalem became objects of ridicule. Indeed, Emanuel Swedenborg's explication of the descent of the Holy City Church New Jerusalem was, be extension brought into low regard.
The only good that came of it is that which the Lord has bent and extracted from the acceptance; namely, Church of the New Jerusalem in Cambridge became a protected landmark by order of the Cambridge City Council on March 15, 1999 (pursuant to a recommendation of the Cambridge Historical Society on March 4th). The neighbors had begun the petition to landmark the Chapel in April of 1998 to protect the Chapel posed then by Harvard University's desire t o build a Knafel Center for Studies in Government and International Affairs.
There is a time for everything; and, the time has come for me to "lay down my sword and shield." I have been speaking out in defense of Church of the New Jerusalem, now a Landmark.
I am sure that there are some who even think I am unaware of these concepts or need to be reminded of them!
The metaphor of "a Polaroid shot" (images on film which develop before one's eyes) is apt for this discussion. Because most Swedenborgians outside of Massachusetts rely on their vivid memory "snapshots" from the past for their understanding of the Society today, it is no wonder to me that confusion about the role of the Chapel and the Cambridge Society abounds. Digital streaming video would be a more accurate portrayal of the manifold forms of ministry at the Chapel today.
Rev. F. Robert Tafel, February 2001
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