A congregation is born!
By Claire Jerram
During the third year of my seminary life, I attended the affiliates conference in Tucson, Arizona. What a joy to meet so many people who loved the Consecration of the Human Being, but seldom got to experience it. We celebrated it three times, along with three Close of Day services in the evening. We sang up a storm. Along with study, the discussion revolved around how affiliates could ever become congregations. I could feel the longing, and I also wanted to become a priest, and I saw that, since more priests were being ordained, I wondered… could I ever play a part for these future congregations?
During that same year, I was interning with Revs. Emma Heirman and Matthias Giles in College Park, MD. I had the joy of visiting the affiliate in Chapel Hill, North Carolina five times during that year with Matthias. I learned how to set up the candlesticks on the altar (there is a front and a back, and a certain order). I got to know so many people here. Two years later, they have become a congregation, and I am their priest. Grace has bestowed upon us a second priest until August, Daniil Kalinov, my ordination brother.
The lovingly handmade altar which can be taken apart and fits (just) in a large car, and the lovingly handcrafted candlesticks.
On Sunday November 17th, this new congregation was born (inaugurated) and we two priests were inducted. I stepped out into the large conference cabin, with the two servers, spoke the opening words, and then turned around for the Christ blessing to see—goodness me!—a sea of faces. Over seventy people from all over the south had come. Our colleague Lisa Majoros had driven from Atlanta with her husband, and the lenker (coordinator) of the North American region, Jonah Evans came from Toronto to induct us. Matthias, the previous shepherd for this flock, also drove the last, for now, of his six-hour journeys form Maryland.
Five priests present for the founding.
Former seminary student Diana Haynes and her husband Robin.
An anthroposophical conference about healing encounters took place at the Emerson Waldorf School on the Friday and Saturday preceding our founding day. Jonah Evans gave a talk as one of the keynote speakers at this conference, along with Dr. Jame Dyson from Stourbridge, England. Jonah was also one of my seminary directors, and I knew James from my first internship in Stourbridge, where he is a Christian Community member. The words, “healing encounter” could be applied to many aspects of the weekend.
I read aloud a letter written in 1999 by members of this affiliate, asking the circle of seven for a priest. Two members who went to the seminary back in those days attended the founding. It turns out this letter galvanized many voices in the Christian Community in North America to eventually form an English-speaking seminary on this continent. What a long wait they had to endure.
They have never given up their hope, through many twists and turns of the biography of the community. And now somehow, so many different factors came together to make it possible.
When I feel overwhelmed by all there is to sort out—there is no permanent altar space, there is no budget yet, we have only three servers, etc—I remember all of the amazing work that the angels did to bring us to this moment. The board is an all-star team: seven devoted, hard-working souls who serve with joy. I know the angels will not abandon us now, and that, as Goethe says, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
Post-Christmas postscript:
We now have seven servers. Two new servers were born over Christmas and two stepped out of retirement. Thanks to them, we were able to celebrate all three Christmas services, all twelve subsequent Christmas days and Epiphany! We have a rough budget. We still have no permanent space.
Our Author: Claire Jerram, priest in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Claire was born in Louisville, Ky in 1975. She taught in Waldorf Schools for many years, mostly in Baltimore, and she joined the seminary in 2020, travelling to Germany, England and Toronto during that time. She was ordained with Marc Fortin, Daniil Kalinov and Gloria Connell in July in Toronto. She is happy to be living again in the south, with all its unique challenges and joys.