Ordinations in South America
by Gloria Connell
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, writes the following:
My living experience through the Sacrament of Ordination
In the month of April, on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 of this year, the Sacrament of Ordination was held for the first time in Latin America in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. This was the last sacrament that needed to be translated into Spanish. We are now able to celebrate and participate in the seven sacraments of The Christian Community in Spanish.
As a student of the Latin American Pro-Seminary I traveled (from Santiago, Chile) to attend the ordinations and to participate, as a preparation for this great event, in all the activities that took place around it. Those days proved to be intense and as the dates were approaching, one could feel a certain anxiety and nervousness in the atmosphere. The whole congregation was preparing the physical space to host this important event in the history of the Christian Community in Latin America.
The Altar Painting in Buenos Aires
Once in the church to celebrate the Sacrament of Ordination and after the candles on the altar were lit, we could hear the music resounding. The sound of the music permeated the whole church and our hearts. I have engraved in my heart the image of Nahuel and Nicolás entering the church, dressed in their white albs with their belts on. It was like seeing the image of newborn human beings (having only his physical body). As the celebration progressed, they were enclothed by the other bodies.
When the time came to read the Gospel, we heard for the first time the voices of the priests being ordained. Their voices had a pristine and clear tone. They pronounced the words of the Gospel in such a way that one could perceive how they were creating something visible in front of all of us witnessing the Ordination.
When the stoles were placed on them, an image that symbolizes the "carrying of Christ in the priesthood", the gesture of crossing both ends of the stole in front of their chest represented to me the state of being ready, ready for a new work, ready to take a new road, a new path in this world.
The Chapel in Buenos Aires
The spiritual strength that was lived in the celebration of the first Sacrament of Ordination was for me impressive, this being the first time it was done in Latin America. All this spiritual manifestation was accompanied by the music, the cultic words, the movements of the priests serving and the gestures of the hands of the priest celebrating. There was a calm, sacred silence.
Prior to this, I had only witnessed, during the Act of Consecration, that the priest takes off his stole to say the Creed and that allows me to see him or her as a man or woman just like me (my peer). Now that I have been able to experience the Sacrament of Ordination, I can see a more complete image of the Human Being in his or her development towards something superior, awakening, as a possibility, his Spiritual Self.
Nahuel Distefano was sent to the Community of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Joao Turunsky works as erzoberlenker in the circle of seven in Berlin
Nicolás Martín, was sent to the Community of Cali, Colombia.
Priests at the Ordinations in Buenos Aires
BACK row, left to right:
Maarten de Gans (La Choza, near Buenos Aires, Argentina); Andreas Loos (looking back, Cali, Colombia); Marta Schumann (Neuquen, Argentina); Fernando Chevallier (Buenos Aires, Argentina); Luis Gonzalez Sabater (Lima, Peru); Mariano Kasanetz (Seminary Director, Stuttgart, Germany); Telma Dave (Lenker for Latin America); Mimi Coleman (Hillsdale, New York, USA); Michael Bruhn (Lenker for Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain)
FRONT row, left to right:
Manuel Toro (Canary Islands, Spain); Guido Rosell (Berlin, Germany); Nahuel Di Stefano Villalba (newly ordained, sent to Buenos Aires, Argentina); Julian Rogge (Sao Paulo, Brasil); Nicolas Martin (newly ordained, sent to Cali, Colombia)
MISSING from photo: Emilia Hossman (Emeritus, Buenos Aires, Argentina); Carlos Maranhao (Florianopolis, Brasil); Sebastian Bardach (Buenos Aires, Argentina); Joao Torunsky (Erzoberlenker, Berlin, Germany)
Our Author:
Gloria Connell hails from Santiago, Chile. She has been married 31 years to Luis Umpierrez, and they have four sons. She is a member of the Santiago community for 13 years.
Gloria studied in the Latin American Pro-Seminary for 2 years and has now joined The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America.
Thanks to Mimi Coleman for the photos.