Seminary Blog
The voice of the Seminary Community, with new articles each Friday written by Students, Faculty, and Friends.
The Priesthood of the I: An Interview with Rev. Jonah Evans
Article offered by Janna de Vries of an interview with Rev. Jonah Evans preceded by an introduction by Daniil Kalinov
Could you share something about this imagination; what does the North American Seminary strive for in the development of a priest-to-be?
Our main impulse for the seminary is to help cultivate in the students a conscious, free, heartfelt, prayer-filled relationship with Christ Jesus. This being is the god of the human ‘I’, he carries our true I in himself, and when he comes close, he speaks: “I am your true I and I bestow it on you when we have a relationship.” We work with questions like, “How can I begin to find my truest self in him?” And then, “How can I start to find that at the altar?” and then, from the altar, “How can I turn and try to find that in you?” We need human beings that can be priests in the priesthood of the I, the new mystery.
Notes from the Seminary: Chapel Anniversary, Holy Week, Good Friday Workshop on Jonah’s Sign
Article by Marc Delannoy
On Palm Sunday, April 10th, 2022, the 20th Anniversary of the Chapel of the Congregation of the Christian Community in Toronto was celebrated. I am sad not to have been present but am very pleased to see the photos displayed in the foyer and the book produced for the occasion.
Interestingly, I see in many photos my home congregation’s priest, Rev. Susan Locey. Year after year, month after month, she has been so steadfastly coming to my home congregation in Ottawa by making the five-hour drive from Toronto to offer my tiny affiliate community the Act of Consecration. What wonder to see how Susan was so instrumental in bringing about the building of the Toronto chapel for the local congregation!
On War, Hate and Violence
Article written by Daniil Kalinov
There are many works of art that can be called “anti-war”. It seems that every major conflict in the 20th century brought together with it a host of films, books, poems and musical pieces that would like to help digest such a traumatic experience. Their goal is to understand why such a terrible event could happen, how could we make meaning of it, and what can be done so that it doesn’t repeat itself. And, as the current events show, we still have a long way to go before we can reach satisfactory answers to such questions. So, in this essay, I would like to share my thoughts on these topics, starting with one particular “anti-war” film. This film is “Come and See” by Elem Klimov. It depicts, in an almost hyperrealistic style, the atrocities that have happened to the civilians in Belarus under Nazi occupation. And at first it can seem that this is what the film aims to do: to simply confront the viewer with the reality of these events. However, what reveals the true genius of the director is the final scene which goes far beyond recreating the events in a documentary fashion. And this scene is what I would like to zero in on.
“What does love look like on Zoom?”
Article written by Claudia Pfiffner
What does love look like in our thinking, feeling, and willing?
This question came up at the end of Rev. Patrick Kennedy's presentation on the Trinity Epistle during a "Living with Christ" class.
I reflected upon this question and what came to mind is the current situation of considering whether to move from online back to in-person meetings.
Zoom meetings have become so familiar to us…
Chronos and Kairos
by Claire Jerram
As a Waldorf teacher in the early grades, I often wished for more time to prepare for the many hours with the students. My colleagues in the middle school complained of the opposite problem: enough time to prepare, but too little time with the students. Yet even they had two hours a day. Compared with a teacher, a priest may not spend two hours with a congregant in the space of several weeks.
“Living with Christ” - In Person and Online
Article by RC
Perhaps sometimes my heart is too closed to the experience, or maybe other people or other factors prevent it for me; but the fact that it sometimes doesn’t work, just underlines the amazingness of all those times that the experience that I’ll call the feeling of the presence of Christ Jesus does actually happen. I credit my participation in this [‘Living with Christ”] group with helping me draw closer to Jesus and to deeper participation in the life of the Christian Community in recent years. I am now in year two of the seminary’s “Distance Learning Program” (DLP2) and I try to attend the services as often as I can.
Light Bulb Moments
by Silke Chatfield
Stepping through the door of the Seminary is like stepping into another world.
Outwardly, not so much different; there is community, laughter, joy, an endless supply of good coffee and snacks and of course the daily celebration of the Act of Consecration of Man.
Inwardly it is a different story, for me anyway. When the “Knowing Christ” group (the program for the first year at the Seminary) started the studies at home in the Fall Semester, we were all separated and only connected via zoom. We began by reading through the four Gospels, reading one or two chapters each day. This was a new experience for me.
Letters to the Ground: Ordination Preparation Group
by Damien Gilroy, Erica Maclennan, Nigel Lumsden and Robert Bower
Beloved Ground,
You are the sublime yet humble counter-balance to the infinite periphery and magnitude of the cosmos. You are the most precious life bearing blue and glistening jewel of all the worlds. You are beloved of gods, glorified and nurtured by divine spirits. Yet so little are we humans conscious and grateful for your majesty in all existence. It is time now to try to speak some words of recognition to you, O ground, of how you benefit our earthly lives and spiritual evolution.
Participating in the Act of Consecration of Man: Once a Month or Twenty-Four Times a Month
by Claudia Pfiffner
I am a member of the Ottawa affiliate of the Toronto Christian Community congregation. Once a month Reverend Susan Locey from Toronto visits Ottawa and celebrates the Act of Consecration of Man. The service is held in a rented room in an old high school building where Polaris Waldorf School is also housed.
While studying at the Seminary I have experienced the Act of Consecration of Man almost every day. It is held in the beautiful, large, and purpose-built chapel of the church building of the congregation of the Christian Community in Toronto.
About the Seminary Patreon Podcast “The Light in Every Thing”
By Lory Widmer Hess
In their conversations, Jonah and Patrick demonstrated not just a what, a lump of information, but a how, a method of taking in, digesting, discerning, reflecting and summarizing experience or content that truly brings it to a higher level. I found the listening to be an amazing journey of discipleship in itself, one that I could return to again and again.
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.