FARMINGTON – Sorry, New Jerusalem will have to wait.
Licia Kuenning of Farmington had been stating for more than a year that she believed that on June 6, 2006, the town would be “blessed by God.” She scheduled a 7:30 p.m. meeting at Meetinghouse Park on Main Street, in order to discuss the event.
Instead, Kuenning told a crowd of more than 80 people that she was wrong.
While she initially said that she was canceling the meeting, Kuenning answered questions from inside the park’s gazebo for the audience for more than 20 minutes. She repeatedly said that no miracles had apparently occurred and added she was “disappointed.”
The crowd, which ranged from high school students to senior citizens, were generally supportive of Kuenning, applauding several times. Several members of the audience went onto the gazebo to thank her personally.
The June 6 meeting was just one more preordained event in Kuenning’s “prophesy,” which she claims was “a message from God.”
Kuenning has said that the Bible’s Revelation 21:2-4, the New Jerusalem, foretells this “New Order.” She said that as of 4:26 a.m. June 6, no one in Farmington would die. Furthermore, all disabilities and illnesses would go away after “three days or less.”
Interestingly, Kuenning said that that miracle would be effective only within the official town limits. However, she suggested that “annexing New Sharon to Farmington” would allow others to benefit from the June 6 blessing.
Kuenning worked hard to spread her message, using several different methods. She commissioned Joel Batzell, a Farmington resident, to display a billboard for several months advertising the advent of New Jerusalem as well as the June 6 meeting. She wrote several letters to the editor – and took out advertisements – in The Franklin Journal, the area’s local weekly. The most recent of these was a full page ad in the June 2 edition touting the time and date for the public meeting.
Also in the advertisement was a brief explanation outlining some of the changes in store for the town.
Kuenning has written a book, called “Farmington, Farmington,” which details the future of the “Coming New Order in Farmington.”
In the book, which Kuenning self-published, Farmington becomes a sort of Mecca, with people coming from all over the world to take part in the town’s miraculous healing.
Some people who read the book complained about the its portrayal of certain minority groups. Homosexuality, for example, is considered a condition curable by the town’s healing ability in “Farmington, Farmington.”
For now, though, her vision of a New Jerusalem will have to wait. At the meeting, Kuenning was asked whether the entire incident had shaken her faith.
“My faith has taken a lot of beatings over the years,” she said, smiling at the crowd gathered around the gazebo, “I’ll just keep doing what the big guy upstairs says.”
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