Bryn Athyn Church School Mission & Purpose

Mission

The Bryn Athyn Church School seeks to provide children with an education based on the teachings of the New Church to prepare them to become confident, caring and useful citizens of this world, and of the Lord’s heavenly kingdom.

The Purpose of New Church Education

New Church education begins in the home, where the foundations are laid by the parents. The greatest single influence in the life of a child is his affection for his parents, and it is through this first-formed affection that the Lord instills those spiritual delights called remains.

When the home requires more help in providing adequately for the child's mental growth and development, school becomes necessary. The school then forms a partnership with the home, and it is essential that together the home and school should reflect and implement the life and faith of the New Church

New Church education rests on the premise that a person is a spiritual being, endowed by his creator with the ability to acquire knowledges and to order them in such a way that truths may be seen.

When the delight which a child finds in learning is directed to the Word, the child can be introduced into a progressively interior perception of the Lord as a Divine Human. This is the reason the school and the home must support each other, for the truth which is not received with affection does not remain, and the quality of the affection by which the truth is received is profoundly influenced by the home.

The purpose of New Church schools, therefore, is to supplement the home in the following ways:

To establish in the mind of the child a true idea of God.
To protect that sphere of innocence which is the Lord's own with humans.
To cultivate in the children an affection for spiritual truth.
To serve as a means whereby the child's mind may be opened to the perception and acknowledgement of spiritual truths, and hence a means whereby she may be led to the good of life.
To look to the establishment of a spiritual conscience in the understanding.
To equip the child for a life of useful participation in society.


(Derived from Education for Use by Rt. Rev. W.D. Pendleton)