In this article, Damien Gilroy, who was ordained in Toronto in the spring of 2022 reflects on his first years as a priest in Australia.

John’s Gospel, chapter four, describes how Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well, a place connected to the patriarch of the Old Testament.  Through his powerful words, he heals her wounded past and creates a new future. Like in other scenes, John leads us on a journey from physical perception to soul-spiritual reality.

After a warm welcome dinner from the students, a preparatory conversation with Patrick and Jonah and a Sunday service at Stuttgart-Mitte, five of us embarked on a train journey to Berlin. There we met with the circle of seven to see if they would confirm Patrick and Jonah’s recommendation that we begin the ordination preparation semester in Toronto in January.

On Wednesday, November 22nd, the nine on-site Seminary students presented their work with the Word to the congregation and guests, including the students from Rudolf Steiner College. The sharing was opened by a word about Love from Claire Jerram. In this article we are happy to share the transcript of her speech and more details about the event.

Seminary Student Gloria Connell, from Chile, writes about experiencing Michaelmas in the spring in the southern hemisphere, and in autumn in the north.

In the last four weeks, we have slowly been preparing the foundations for working towards an Altar Painting. Under the guidance of Regine Kurek (our Art Teacher), we started this somewhat terrifying task by drawing faces with charcoal. In this way, we were able to explore different expressions and age groups as well as practicing to draw eyes, mouths, and noses

Camilla’s internship project specifically focuses on how to best provide children and families with the spiritual nourishment needed today. She and her mentor priests Emma Heirman and Matthias Giles have begun their studies on this question with an early book by Evelyn Francis Derry (Capel), the first woman Christian Community priest ordained in England, called Growing Up in Religion. Together, they continue to experiment and adapt the Children’s Program in ways that encourage the children to feel connected to the altar, to the priests and to the life of the congregation.

This week we would like to share with you, beautiful artwork by Jurocê Miranda, a Seminary student from Brazil. These wonderful drawings were made in the context of the “Bible Studies” course at the Seminary. They touch on two important topics that we have been covering this Trimester: the theme of Baptism and the story of Elijah the prophet.

In this longer piece, Daniil Kalinov, a student of the Seminary, reflects on the concept of fear in general and the notion of “Fear of God”. This essay is based on the short talk that Daniil gave in the affiliate community in Ottawa in October.

This fall, seminary students in Group II explored a way of looking at nature that prepares one for writing sermons. They looked at the ground, a plant and a candle. First, we observed what one can perceive with the senses, then the verbs, (the activities), then the being-ness of the object, what it might say if it could talk. Finally, in all these approaches, some gentle hints of the moral nature of the creator come to the fore, for the creator lives in the creations.

Evil and suffering in the world are showing us something about our own evil and suffering, and there are two choices: either we perpetuate it or we try to heal that wound. The brokenness of the world can give meaning to our lives. It can become the invitation to acknowledge it, to name it, to sit with it. It gives an opportunity to come closer to the Christ, to trust and engage in heartfelt, real prayer. Prayer becomes a way to connect to Christ, to go beyond our own emotions and thoughts.

The Christian Community in many regions has developed doorways into the residential seminary trainings in Canada and Germany. Similar to our Distance Learning Program, the Latin American Pro-Seminary began two years ago, meeting at first once a week online, and later three times a week online. South American lenker Telma Dave directed the course, but all of the South American priests taught in it. The four trimesters, spread over two years, culminated last April in a ten-day retreat where the eleven students gathered in-person to help prepare for the ordinations in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Reflecting on this culmination of her time in the Latin American Pro-Seminary, Gloria Connell, current student in the North American Seminary.

In this blog post, Christopher, one of the current Seminary students, shares from his biography and tells of his journey toward Seminary studies.

On September 3, the Seminary of the Christian Community in Toronto began another year with nine students, many of whom had waited many years to arrive due to many circumstances, including the recent travel restrictions. Students came from around the world, Peru, Chile, Brazil, the United States, Russia and the UK. The Seminary experience began with a moving Sacrament of Marriage conducted by Rev. Patrick Kennedy. This was a fitting beginning, as the overarching theme for this year's Seminary studies is Christ's redemptive deed on Golgotha and continued redemptive work in the sacraments.

Studying Biblical Greek is an important part of the Seminary curriculum. It allows students to immerse themselves even more into the world of the New Testament and helps them find more tools to work with the Scriptures. In the Fall of 2021, an online introductory Seminary course in the New Testament Greek was attended by both Knowing Christ and Distance Learning students. It was taught by Daniil Kalinov, who has taken over this position from Rev. Matthias Giles.

In this blog post, you can read a few impressions of this course from the students.