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The
Angel Festival is
modeled after The Parliament
of the World's Religions founded by Charles
C. Bonney, a Swedenborgian. In
that spirit, THE
ANGEL FESTIVAL invites all religions to participate
to share their beliefs about angels.
The
first Parliament of the World's
Religions was held in 1893, at
the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago.
The second Parliament of the World's
Religions was held in 1993, at
the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago.
Candace Frazee, Director of The Angel Festival
attended and worked in the Swedenborg Booth
there.
In
1893, the World's Fair
was in Chicago, Illinois.
Charles Carroll Bonney, 
(1831-1903) a Chicago lawyer and a Swedenborgian,
proposed the idea that in connection with the Fair's exhibition "of
the material triumphs, industrial achieve-ments,
and mechanical victories of man, however magnificent
that display may be, something higher and nobler
is demanded by the enlightened and progressive spirit
of the present age."
Thus
a convention of twenty different departments was
created. Mr. Bonney was Chairman of the convention,
titled, World's
Congress Auxiliary of the World's
Columbian Exposition,
of which the
Congress of Religion—the
Parliament of the World's
Religions— was
the crowning glory.
Bonney
began his Opening Speech with: "Worshippers
of God and
lovers of Man, Let us rejoice that we have lived to see this glorious
day!"
He
later said: "As the finite can never
fully comprehend the infinite, nor perfectly express
its own view of the divine, it necessarily follows
that individual opinions of the divine nature and
attributes will differ. But, properly understood,
these varieties of view are not causes of discord
and strife, but rather incentives to deeper interest
and examination. Necessarily God reveals Himself
differently to a child than to a man; to a philosopher
than to one who cannot read. Each must see God
with the eyes of his own soul. Each must behold
Him through the colored glasses of his own nature.
Each one must receive Him according to his own
capacity of reception."
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