Pastors

The Rev. Colin Leitch, the only non-Swedenborgian minister to serve as the Senior Pastor, was ordained by the Unitarian Universalist Association it was a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and Florida State University.  Serving in several transitional ministries before this, in  he became the church is primary preacher in 2013, which followed the arrests and convection of two of the church’s leaders who had rested control from the historic congregation. In January 2017,  he was called to be senior pastor for two and a half years as a transition to a permanent Swedenborgian pastor.  He continued his service to the church as the Assistant Pastor from 2019 to Present.

The Rev. Dr. Theodore “Ted” Klein was attending Boston University in the mid 1960’s when he first decided to visit the church. Upon his arrival, he found a huge hole in the ground, as the church had been demolished and the new building was about to be erected. His career focused much on educational ministry. He was faculty at Urbana University and then at the Swedenborg School of Religion (New Church Theological School), which started at the Boston Church in the late 19the Century. He was elected as Assistant Pastor in the late 1990’s. Upon the termination of Rev. Ellis, Rev. Dr. Klein was a natural successor. His ministerial work at the church spanned the length of difficult times at the Church on the Hill. He eventually resigned due his ethical issues with the church’s governing personalities. After the FBI and IRS raids, while not in a pastoral position, the Rev. Dr. Theodore Klein re-affiliates with the church and was integral to assisting with its healing.

The Boston Society of the New Jerusalem established a scholarship for ethics and philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Boston (where he taught). Rev. Dr. Klein’s passion was for the Ethics of Care and hoped future generations would understand compassion as the foundation for ethical behavior. 

The Rev. G. Steven Ellis served the church for 26 years. During his pastorate, the church was a leader in interfaith collaboration and religious diversity. In 2004, Rev. Ellis supported the church severing its ties with the General Convention and in doing so, he was also removed from their clergy roll. It is safe to say that the last four to six years of his pastorate were turbulent and that the church’s conflict forced his early retirement.

The Rev. George McCurdy was the first pastor after the opening of the Bostonview building. While he preached and offered pastoral services a student, he was not installed as pastor until his ordination in 1967. He was the pastor of the church for 12 years, until he severed his ties with the General Convention of the Church of the New Jerusalem (dba Swedenborgian Church) and joined the General Church of the New Jerusalem (dba New Church). He was with the church through some difficult financial and theological times. Upon his departure, the General Church group that was meeting at the church was served by Rev. Harold Cranch, who served as an interim pastor for the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem as well.

The Rev. Regamey was the last pastor who served in the 1845 building. His pastorate runs until the building is demolished. Regamey remembered his long conversation with the Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks as they discussed the finer points of Swedenborg’s theology. He is pastor during the second world war. He was famous for saying that the church is not the building, but the people, and in doing so he prepared the church for its next building and chapter of its existence.

The Rev. Dr. Henry Clinton Hay graduated from Harvard in 1978 and from the New Church Theological School in 1885. He served several Swedenborgian Congregations and also lectured at the New Church Theological School. He was the pastor of the Swedenborgian Church in Providence, RI and Brockton, MA before he became the pastor of the Boston Society. He and his wife’s life was forever changed by the loss of his three sons in 1894 (diphtheria). His faith in Swedenborg’s understanding of children in heaven helped sustain him.

The Rev. James Reed is the son of Sampson Reed, who inspired Emerson and many of the other transcendentalists to read Emanuel Swedenborg’s writings. A graduate of Boston Latin and Harvard, James Reed was a schoolmate and friend of the Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks (Episcopal Bishop of Mass). In 1858, James reed became the Assistant Pastor to Rev. Worcester (his uncle). Upon Worcester’s resignation in 1868, Rev. Reed was elected to the position.  He served as the General Pastor of the Massachusetts Association (State Executive). He was well known to the clergy of Boston as a person deeply concerned with the relief of suffering. 

The Rev. Dr. Thomas Worcester, the founding pastor of the church, was enrolled in Harvard in 1818 when the church was founded. While he was active within the society, he does not receive a license to preach until 1821, and it is not until the late 1820’s that he is finally ordained. Under Worcester’s leadership the church not only formed, but also became one of the most prominent Swedenborgian churches in the new world.

In the 1850’s he journeyed to Italy on a sabbatical. There he met and baptized Hiram Powers (a famous American sculptor). Hiram Powers was so impressed by him that Rev. Dr. Worcester became the subject of a powers bust that now resides at the church. 

Under Rev. Dr. Worcester Leadership, the church grew from a handful of people, to a state recognized church, and built a cathedral style building on Beacon Hill next to the Massachusetts State House.