A new school year at the Seminary
By Jared Coady
On October 5th, classmates of the Knowing Christ cohort gathered at the Seminary of the Christian Community in North America, located in Toronto. Two new members joined eight returning students. One of our friends from the Southern Hemisphere was--sadly--unable to attend, and we were joined for artistic and movement activities by our two ordination candidates-- Sean Waters and Marc Dellanoy.
Notably missing were Reverends Kate and Patrick Kennedy (who have been sent to Atlanta, Georgia), and integrating into the space left behind by them were Reverend Matthias Giles and Reverend Emma Heirman, respectively.
The week was roughly a chiasma in form in which the first half mirrored the latter half, with a distinct variation in the middle. I invite you to picture the seven altar candles of the Consecration service for an image of this form (although our ‘school’ week was five days, rather than seven). On the far ends of our week—Monday and Friday--were classes focused on artwork and movement. One day towards the middle of the week from either direction—Tuesday and Thursday-- were classes in which the students discussed the fruits of their contemplations on various texts and study material. As is with chiasma, the middle was unique. On this day, we came into community, joining Reverend Jonah Evans for his online/onsite hybrid class Living with Christ, now celebrating its eleventh season.
This structure invited the students to subtly experience an inner-crescendo and connection with Him and His beloved community on Wednesday, before reversing the process to gently back us out of our time together.
Perhaps the parallel with a human biography is apparent, and so the reader might be expecting a death. On the final day, after being consecrated, we celebrated Emma’s birthday. Our new teacher crossed the threshold into her forty-second year of life (turning forty-one years old). After this moment, our student-body began its process of decay, with individuals leaving in waves. Those who stayed “swept the tomb”-- cleaning the seminary and the church-- and were thereby offered the opportunity of a devotional activity of service.
On the following Sunday, the last few off-site students gathered for Consecration of the Human Being one last time before returning home. The author had a meaningful experience, which can be best shared through understanding this timeline:
Friday-- Reverend Heirman’s birthday, the student body began to “excarnate” to their respective homes.
Saturday-- Silence...
Sunday-- Reverend Heirman celebrated the Consecration of the Human Being with the remaining students and the Toronto congregation.
What happened at that celebration was sacred, of course, and I feel it is my responsibility to share what I saw from the completely unique position from which I participated.
Whereas I had sat in the front row during every Eucharist service throughout the week, I sat in the back that day, in the middle of the row. I had the thought that I wanted to behold the entire scene. Strangely, nobody sat in any of the chairs in front of me. There were five columns of chairs on my right on on my left, and there were people in all of the other columns but mine (a column being a series of chairs running from the back of the chapel towards the altar, in contrast to a row, which is parallel to the altar). This arrangement made it such that experientially, I was in the middle of the community, with not a soul sitting between me and the celebrant.
This extraordinary arrangement was necessary for me to see the following. During the offering, Reverend Heirman’s head was such that the middle candle of the aforementioned seven was eclipsed by her. Three candles stretched out to the left of her head, and three to the right. Above her head, the base of the cross in the painting of the crucified one met precisely at the top of her head. From my viewpoint, Golgotha met the celebrant’s skull, which held the central light inside of it, and on each side were three flames extending symmetrically to her left and right. The line of candles became the horizontal beam of a cross in which the priest was the vertical beam. It was not normal consciousness that caused me to perceive things in this way, and yet the material facts are just as I described them.
Above this scene was a painting of the resurrected Christ, golden-yellow in His glory, shining into the darkness.
I offer this image for the readers to find their own relationship with; but the week and the culminating image leaves the author with this question: if this was Michaelmas...What will Easter bring?
Jared Coady, 47, is a Knowing Christ student residing onsite at the Christian Community Seminary in North America. He resides in Norman, Oklahoma, USA, where he enjoys gardening, householding, and community building.
- This is a blog entry by The Seminary of the Christian Community in North America. These are posted weekly by the student blog team of Athena Masilungan, Nicole Reinhart, and Lincoln Earle-Centers. For more information about our seminary, see the website: www.christiancommunityseminary.ca and for more video/audio content check out the Seminary’s Patreon page: www.patreon.com/ccseminary/posts.
The views expressed in this blog entry are the views of it’s author, and do not necessarily represent the views of the Seminary, its directors, or the Christian Community.
