Seminary Blog
The voice of the Seminary Community, with new articles each Friday written by Students, Faculty, and Friends.
Art Inspired by Ivon Hitchens at the Toronto Seminary
by Erica Maclennan, Marc Fortin, and Robert Bower, students in the "Walking with Christ" program
… Such life in browns and grays! …
The Wounded Healer, an Image for the Priesthood
by Faith DiVecchio, a student in the “Knowing Christ” program
What does it mean to be a wounded healer? To explore this image, we can first ask, what does it mean to be wounded? And when we understand our woundedness, what is the alchemy that transforms wounds into the activity of healing?
There, but for the Grace of God, go I – wait…what?
by Erica Maclennan, Student in the Walking with Christ program; with an introduction by Seminary Director, Patrick Kennedy
…But beyond this knowledge and practice what makes the path to priesthood – and its accompanying training – so subtle and profound is that it has to do with who we are. It is in the sacred realm of our own activities of ‘self’ that a foundation can be laid upon which a healthy priesthood in the renewed stream of the movement for religious renewal can be built. …
Gathering
By Claire Jerram
There comes a moment for a dandelion when it creates a silvery orb. The sun-like flowers give birth to seeds which cluster around a center, each with a feathery wing, and these, together, create the orb. All previous activity of the plant culminates in this silvery sphere.
The Shepherd-King
Marc Fortin, a student in the “Walking with Christ” program at the Toronto Seminary, created the following painting during the art class with Regine Kurek (see the blog post from 2 weeks ago). The class moved from enlivening the senses to ensouling the life processes. Marc’s classmates noticed the figure below in his artwork and encouraged him to bring it more forward.
Inspirations from the Distance Learning Program (DLP), Part III
The first-year Distance Learning Program explored practices of Christian Meditation. For one of those weeks, we contemplated the Creator as Word, building up our contemplation from our direct human experiences of speaking and listening. Out of the shared activity in the class arose spontaneous creative offerings in the form of poems and artwork. The final artwork grew out of our work contemplating the Trinity.
Art Classes at the Toronto Seminary
by Robert Bower
I almost don’t recognize who I was when I look back at myself just 18 months ago, when I first set foot in the Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. I’ve gone through multiple transformative processes in such a short time. One area in particular in which I have grown is in my experience of creating visual art.
Inspirations from the Distance Learning Program (DLP), Part II
by Marc Delannoy
What was I thinking as I took up this program? The curriculum did state that it would be “transformational” learning. Still, how could this take place?
Youth Adventure Camps 2021: Interview with Ann Burfeind and Jen Zimberg
By Caitlin Wallace French
This interview is a window into camp experience: What happens there? Where does all this acceptance come from? Youth Adventure Camps – what are these? I had the pleasure of meeting with both Rev. Ann Burfeind and Jen Zimberg individually to talk about the upcoming Youth Adventure Camps.
Inspirations from the Distance Learning Program, Part I
by Daniil Kalinov
In 2019 the Seminary began its first full-fledged Distance Learning Program (DLP). Looking back, it seems as if the DLP was preparing the ground for the times we live in right now. It feels as though we were the pioneers of this digital space, which was soon to become a world-wide necessity.
Approaching Easter: Finding Strength to Bear The Cross
By Dhruva Corrigan
The local seminary endeavor here in Hillsdale has been and continues to be a great adventure. It is an experiment in student initiative and an exercise in the Michaelic impulse of our time: for each of us to take our spiritual formation into our own hands, and consciously and freely apply the forces of our soul to the tasks at hand.
The Experience of the Arts at the Seminary in Hillsdale
By Shannon Young
Arriving at Hans Schumm’s studio, there is a sign on the door: “No cell phones allowed inside. Leave them in your cars. You will feel the difference.” You do feel as though you have stepped back in time….
Pioneer Paths: Gathering Courage from the Founders’ Journey
By Claire Jerram
It was Advent. I had spent all the autumn in a state of expectation. Like millions of eighteen-year-olds ready to leave the nest, I could not begin what was for me my mid-life change of course. The Canadian border, which stood between me and the The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America, remained closed.
Learning to Walk on Water...
By Robert Bower
As we continue into our studies, the Walking with Christ and Knowing Christ students, with some help from those who are in the Distance Learning Program, will be posting here weekly, sharing some of our experiences, artistic work and thoughts as we-somewhat precariously, but full of heart--wind our way through a pandemic version of the seminary spread out over our three locations.
“You live that you might give…”
By Anna Silber, student in our Ordination Preparation group
This is the eighth in a series of blogs meant to introduce our readers to participants in our ordination preparation course at The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America.
Friend of the Heart
By Jong-Won Choi, student in our Ordination Preparation group
Dear Friends, I would like to share with you some writings, or rather some notes from inner hearing, of Claire Blatchford. They are published in two books titled Turning, – words heard from within and Friend of My Heart, – meeting Christ in everyday life. In these books, Claire shares with us, sometimes in the most simple, direct, and clear words, sometimes in beautiful poetic paintings, her inner experiences of someone whom she calls “the Friend of my heart,” and the words she has received inwardly from him.
“Everything I See, Returns to You Somehow”
Sacramentalism in the music of Sufjan Stevens
By Kate Kennedy, student in our Ordination Preparation Group
Every year or so, I get the urge to send some of my Christian friends the final track of Sufjan Stevens’ 2004 album Seven Swans. The song “The Transfiguration” relates the event in Christ’s life known by the same name.