Carbon Canyon Historical Artifact #59: A Postcard of a Bucolic Scene at St. Joseph's Hill of Hope, 1970s

Among the most popular posts on the blog over its 11-year history are a pair about the remarkable St. Joseph's Hill of Hope religious compound, nestled among the hills north of Carbon Canyon Road at the border of Orange and San Bernardino counties.

Disillusioned by the changes wrought by the Roman Catholic Church after the Vatican II or Second Vatican Council completed its work in 1965, Frances Krug announced two years later that she was visited by God, who revealed directions to her concerning how to return to the true faith.

One of these instructions was "that a basilica be built in honor of The Holy Trinity" and Krug, who died in 2009, proclaimed that "Heaven directed her to purchase 440 acres of land in Brea, California."  Further commands from "Heaven" required more structures so that the project became a "City of God," the title of a famous book by St. Augustine in the early days of Christianity.

A 1970s postcard published by the St. Joseph's Hill of Home religious community showing a portion of its 440-acre property near the San Bernardino and Orange counties line in Carbon Canyon.

Perhaps as a promotional vehicle for the building program at the Hill of Hope, postcards were published with photographs of the site.  As we close out the year, we feature one of them, printed in the 1970s by the Angelus Shop of Yorba Linda, and showing a beautiful bucolic scene with a dirt road winding through gently sloping hills and stands of mature oak trees.

The caption on the reverse states that the view is "reminiscent of the Holy Land and Biblical times" and that "this scene is similar to the road to Emmaus which Jesus traveled after His resurrection."  There is also a post office box in Anaheim for the curious to write to for more information.

Notably, the location of Emmaus has been in dispute ever since the account of the journey to it from Jerusalem was discussed in the Gospel According to Luke.  Just this past September, however, a team of French and Israeli archaeologists working west of Jerusalem near the town of Abu Ghosh and the hill of Kiriath Yearim offered the supposition that they'd found the town.  Because Luke identified Emmaus as 60 stadia from Jerusalem, this is about the 7 miles that separates the holy city from the archaeological site.

It is stated on the reverse that the Hill of Hope tract is "reminiscent of the Holy Land" and that the dirt road shown in the photo is similar to that Christ was said to have taken after his resurrection when going from Jerusalem to Emmaus, the location of which is in dispute.

An Israeli expert of ancient history stated that the leaders of the dig made a good case, though he added "it is a hypothesis and remains a hypothesis" and noted there are two other sites in close proximity that could have been Emmaus. 

Whether the Hill of Hope property bears any real resemblance to can be left to those who read the linked article above and see the photo showing Abu Ghosh and the Kiriath Yearim—albeit we're now two millenia removed from the time of Christ.

With 2019 ready to recede and 2020 poised to ascend, best wishes to everyone reading this for the New Year to come.

Carbon Canyon's Newest Religious Facility: Bharat Sevashram Sangha

Last Sunday, 24 July, the former Carbon Canyon Christian Church and Samsung Presbyterian Church property was the site of a dedication for the newest religious group to occupy the site: Bharat Sevashram Sangha, a Hindu organization that was founded in Kolkatta (Calcutta), India in 1917.  The local BSS chapter Web site (see here and here for some pages) identifies its core beliefs or mission as:

• Service of humanity, irrespective of caste, creed, or national origin
• Moral & spiritual regeneration
• Spread of moral, spiritual and physical education
• Study of Hinduism, Hindu culture & heritage
• Teaching of yoga and health science subjects
• Education through moral and spiritual publications

The swami at the ashram is Purnatmanandaji Maharaj, who is also described as Chairman, Director & Principal Coordinator & Chief Official Representative of the Overseas Branches and Chairman of BSSW-California, the local organizational chapter.

The BSS West--California chapter opened in 2004 at a Riverside location, but found that site to be too limited for its needs and the 50-acre Olinda Village site, adjacent to Hollydale Mobile Home Estates was purchased.  The chapter Web site describes the location:

Tranquility, beautiful, scenic and unique—can hardly describe the magnificence of our Brea Bharat Sevashram Temple.  It is here that one seems separated from the rest of the world similar like “Rishikesh” in India.  Apparently this temple location is one of the most beautiful place in Southern California.  Please come, join and take a tour to experience the solitary beauty, exotic landscape, spectacular and beautiful sites.  Natural beauty, mountains and forests makes it one of the most stunning place.

It’s a quiet place with abundant parking available even on the weekends. The neighborhood is welcoming and safe. The Temple is now a place of great divine beauty and peace. It is breathtakingly beautiful. It is a great place for people looking for a powerful escape from everyday demanding life and divulge it’s panoramic beauty.  To summarize in short, our Brea BSSW Ashram is a swell destination.

Rishikesh might be best known, if at all, to most of us as the place where The Beatles spent some months at an ashram back in the late 1960s.

As described in the local India Journal newspaper (see here)  in its coverage of the grand opening:

the monastic order is a socio-religious, philanthropic organization dedicated to the service of humanity, propagating the great human values of fraternity, tolerance and inclusiveness with non-sectarian, non-communal and nonpolitical outlook.  Ever since its inception BSS, with its goals of Universal Emancipation, has been tirelessly working for the upliftment of the downtrodden and the neglected section of society.

As for its programming, the BSS West--California chapter identifies daily offerings as including early morning prayer, yoga and meditation; noontime puja and bhog.  A puja is a ritual offering usually made several times daily to deities, as well as distinguished persons and special guests.  A bhog entails a ritual sacrifice to deities.  Devotional music and scriptural readings and an offering of lamps (arati) are also part of daily rites.  A limited schedule on Fridays through Sundays involves mid-morning yoga and meditation.  Weddings and spiritual lectures and classes will also be held at the temple.

The BSS West--California chapter identified the Olinda Village neighborhood as "welcoming and safe," although a recent Hindu temple project in Chino Hills has been involved in some controversy in the decade or so since it was proposed at a location on undeveloped land east of the Chino Valley Freeway (SR-71) between Chino Hills Parkway and Soquel Canyon Parkway.  A good summary of that project's history from the Pluralism Project at Harvard University can be found here and a certain blogger can well recall e-mail and phone correspondence with persons who expressed broadly-stated concerns about non-Western architecture and cultural practices not "fitting in" with the community majority, even though the ethnic, racial and religious diversity of our area has been, as in many places, shifting and evolving (and not always in very predictable ways.)  Nearly a quarter century ago, the establishment of the Tsi Lai Buddhist Temple in Hacienda Heights (see here) generated somewhat similar issues and a certain blogger who began working nearby in 1988 when the temple was finished can vividly remember those contested days, as well.

It will be interesting to see what reactions, if any, will arise with the establishment of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha here in Carbon Canyon.