Theodore Pitcairn (1893-1973)

Theodore Pitcairn (1893–1973), son of PPG Industries founder John Pitcairn, was an arts collector and philanthropist, and a minister in the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

In 1927 he wrote a book titled The Book Sealed with Seven Seals with the purpose of introducing to the General Church certain new theological ideas proposed by a Dutch layman, H. D. G. Groeneveld.

In the late 1930s, a doctrinal schism within the General Church centering on Groeneveld's ideas led Rev. Pitcairn and several other church members to found a new The New Church branch known as The Lord's New Church Which Is Nova Hierosolyma.

In 1939, Rev. Pitcairn established a non-profit corporation for the purposes of promoting and maintaining the new church.

The events of the Second World War delayed formalization of the new Church's organization. Finally, in March 1947, the Church's international governmental structure was drawn up by a provisional international council composed of Pitcairn, the Revs. Ernst Pfeiffer and Philip N. Odhner, and the laymen Groeneveld and Anton Zelling, and was approved by Church members in America and Holland later that year.

Pitcairn served as a leader of the new church until his death.

Thomas Hoving, former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, described meeting the Reverend Pitcairn in the course of negotiating the purchase from him of "Garden at Sainte-Adresse (Monet)" by Claude Monet.