“Eight newly ordained priests are on their way . . .”
by Shannon Young
In May, we witnessed the ordinations of eight new priests – all women – in Hillsdale, NY. Carol Kelly, resident priest in the Taconic-Berkshire congregation, and the entire congregation graciously opened their chapel doors and grounds to host this momentous 10-day experience, which was attended by hundreds of people, including 23 priests from North America, Germany, and Brazil.
The Knowing Christ and Walking with Christ seminarians currently studying in Hillsdale worked carefully preparing for the experience. They were joined by two of the three Walking with Christ students studying in Toronto, Erica Maclennan and Robert Bower, who managed to cross the border for the first time in months. Seminary director The Reverend Jonah Evans also managed to travel from Toronto. It was very joyful for us eight students to finally meet in person with both seminary directors for the first time since the full-time Seminary program began in Hillsdale and Toronto in January, 2021, after many covid related delays.
The first 3 days of the 10-day gathering were devoted to a North American Priest Synod. Outgoing Erzoberlenker Vicke Von Behr, from Germany, and incoming Erzoberlenker João Torunsky, from Brazil, along with his wife, Claudia, faithfully undertook the very uncertain journey to arrive in Hillsdale for these events. Oberlenker Oliver Steinrueck also arrived from Berlin.
We seminary students were thrilled to be involved in the exhaustive planning and implementation of the synod, surrounded by so many inspiring priests. We cooked, cleaned, and assisted in any small and large way we could. A frequent image was of the seminarians clustered around a table in the living room of the meeting house diligently sewing by hand many brightly colored vestments for the ordinands (stoles and belts).
After the three-day synod concluded, we joyfully welcomed the eight ordinands. Over the next three days, we witnessed their ordinations, with many people attending from the surrounding area.
The Sacrament of Ordination is woven into the Act of Consecration of Man (ACM). The eight ordinands all sat in the front row in their new bright white albs, facing the altar, as the erzoberlenker celebrated the ACM. Behind the ordinands sat the gathered body of the priests. As Rudolf Frieling observes in the section “Ordination of Priests” in his treatise The Seven Sacraments*, by this “encircling of the gathered priesthood . . . the newly ordained know themselves to be within a golden ring. They now stand within the area where the gift of the new priesthood is preserved.” This is powerfully revealed when, within the Ordination Sacrament, after the transubstantiation, the erzoberlenker takes the chalice with the transformed and consecrated substances, covers them, and solemnly walks in a circle with them around the gathered body of priests.
At specific places in the ACM, each ordinand received from the erzoberlenker, the celebrant, their stole, the chasuble (for the celebrating of the service), a sacred anointing, and a question to accept their calling to continually “become” as they serve to lead souls to Christ. Rudolf Frieling observes in The Seven Sacraments, “nothing can more effectively call us to ‘become who you are!’ than the priest’s future-revealing work at the altar. Whoever grasps the archetypal, apocalyptic character of the work at the altar will clearly recognize that the ordination at the high altar serves the developing future universal priesthood. In its strictly ordered form, ordination carries Christ’s eternal priesthood through cycles of time and sinks it into human souls so that it may arise anew in them.”
Following the ordinations, the seminarians toasted the new priests through a festive celebration involving songs, skits, poetry, speeches and some fun gifts: like communion bread recipes, throat lozenges, black socks, and a “sermonizer” – when the priests have difficulty thinking of a sermon topic, all they need to do is spin the dial . . .
“The Sermonizer,” Art work by Claire Jerram, Knowing Christ student
The final momentous stage of the ten-day process was witnessing each of the new priests prayerfully fulfilling the responsibility of celebrating the ACM for the first time. This concluded the eventful series of solemn and joyful days. Eight new priests are now on their way. All the seminarians feel deeply honored that we could play a role in assisting them, celebrating them, and sending them off with our deeply felt gratitude and many good blessings as they travel the separate roads that lie ahead for them.
Vicke, Patrick, the 8 new priests, and their sendings
Left to right, back row:
Erzoberlenker Vicke von Behr,
Anna Silber – Spring Valley, NY
Jong-Won Choi – Devon PA
Seminary Director Patrick Kennedy
Jeana Lee – Chicago IL
Front row:
Kate Kennedy – Toronto, Canada
Lisa Majoros – Denver, CO
Lesley Waite – New Zealand
Mimi Coleman – Taconic-Berkshire, NY
Victoria Capon – Chicago, IL
*A new edition of The Seven Sacraments, a booklet by Rudolf Frieling, will be published by The Seminary of The Christian Community in North America in the future. Check http://www.christiancommunityseminary.ca/publications for the availability of this and other publications.
Shannon Young, a student in the Knowing Christ program, is a former university English professor who now splits her time between the Seminary campus in Hillsdale, NY, and Spring Valley, NY, where she lives with her son, Giancarlo.
This is a blog entry by a student at The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America. These are posted weekly by the student editorial team of Robert Bower, Shannon Young and Faith DiVecchio. For more information about our seminary, see the website: www.christiancommunityseminary.ca and for even more weekly podcast and video content check out the Seminary’s Patreon page: www.patreon.com/ccseminary/posts.
The views expressed in this blog entry do not necessarily represent the views of the Seminary, its directors or the Christian Community. They are the sole responsibility of its author.