Earth. Community. Sacrament.

Presenters on the Theme

Kate Kennedy was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but was on the move from an early age. In addition to the Midwest, she also grew up on the East Coast and in Southern California. Kate studied Philosophy and Cultural Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz, where she met her now husband of over 20 years, Patrick Kennedy. Before becoming a priest, she trained and worked as a Waldorf High School Humanities teacher. Kate was ordained in 2021 and currently serves the Toronto congregation; she will begin a new sending in Atlanta this summer. She is also the mom of two wonderful daughters.

Kate Kennedy

Jonah grew up in Sacramento, California and attended the Sacramento Waldorf School through all 12 grades. Later, he received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University in Sacramento. He then attended the Seminary of The Christian Community both in Chicago and Stuttgart. He was consecrated as a priest in 2008 and has worked as a community priest in Johannesburg, South Africa, Spring Valley, NY, and currently in Toronto. In 2018, he was asked to co-direct the seminary, and he has been actively doing so since the seminary moved to the Toronto area in the summer of 2019. He is married and has three lovely daughters.

Jonah Evans

Matthias Giles

Matthias Giles was consecrated into the priesthood of the Christian Community in 2019 in Spring Valley, New York. He received a master’s degree in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School in 2014. The spiritual scientific works of Rudolf Steiner, discovered while a student at Earlham College, became a guiding force in his life and eventually led him to an encounter with the movement for religious renewal and the Act of Consecration of the Human Being. The invigorating forces of this healing medicine of the sacraments grew into an impulse to serve its working into the world and human destiny.

Matthias is glad to be serving the congregation of the Greater Washington-Baltimore area in Maryland with his wife and colleague Emma Heirman. Matthias also teaches Biblical Greek at the seminary and guides its publications wing.

Luis González was born in the Canary Islands, where he lived most of his life. He worked mainly as a social worker in his professional life until we attended the Seminary of The Christian Community in Spring Valley, New York. He was consecrated as a priest in March 2019 and served the Sacramento Community until September 2021, when he was sent to Lima, Perú.

Paul Corman

After 4 semesters at the Stuttgart Seminar and a year and a half practicum in Berlin and Hamburg-Volksdorf, Paul was ordained on Lazarus Day, 1986 in Stuttgart.  His first sending was to Pforzheim, Germany until 1989 and then to Lima, Peru.  Since retiring in 2019, he has increased his adventures within the Christian Community and feel fortunate and grateful to have worked also in Latin America in Cali, Colombia and Santiago de Chile; in North America in NYC, Boston, Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, San Francisco and Denver, in various communities in Germany, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and in the developing community in Manila.  These experiences have brought him much joy, meeting so many members and friends of the Christian Community around the world and learning evermore about how the Christian Community incarnates in different geographic settings, cultures, languages and folk. Before the congress in Atlanta begins, he will have spent time in the Los Angeles and Toronto communities to help out and, as the conference ends, he will fly to Hamburg to do the same there.  As long as he is able to continue with these shorter and longer visits as a "substitute" priest,  he says it certainly will never be boring!

Telma is the Lenker (regional coordinator) for Latin America. Telma was born in a small town in the Argentine Pampas called Ascensión, where she lived until she was 18 . She earned a degree in chemistry from the National University of Buenos Aires in 1981 and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 16 years. From 1976 to 1992, she belonged to the Theosophical Movement in Argentina, and since 1994 she has been active in the Anthroposophical Society and The Christian Community. She has been an active member of the School for Spiritual Science for 23 years. In February 2002, in Stuttgart, she was ordained a priest. She worked in Vienna (Austria) for 1 year and in The Christian Community of Buenos Aires (Argentina) for 20 years . Since February 2021, she has been The Christian Community’s Lenker (regional coordinator) for Latin America, and since February 2022, she has been a coordinator of the Pro-Seminary for priests in Latin America. She has been married for 18 years.

Telma Dave

Daniil was born in Moscow, Russia. He met The Christian Community in Boston, while he was doing his Ph.D. in pure mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Shortly after this momentous meeting, it became clear to him that once he finished his Doctoral Studies he would like to attend the Seminary of the Christian Community to see if the vocation of the priest was right for him. And so, after studying in the Seminaries in Toronto and Stuttgart and doing an internship in Hannover, Germany, he was ordained in Toronto in July, 2024. He is more than happy for the opportunity to give his life and energy to serving Christ within His community, so that His Love and His Peace may be evermore present in our world.

Daniil Kalinov

Emma Heirman

Emma grew up in Silver Spring, MD when the Greater Washington-Baltimore congregation of The Christian Community was an affiliate community of Devon, Pennsylvania. While her childhood was shaped strongly by her 12 years at the Washington Waldorf School, many of the memories that burn most bright are from her times in front of the altar of The Christian Community.  In her twenties, her search for her work and place in the world led her back to the altar. She found that those who also gathered there were students of the school of which she longed to be part—the school of life that turns to Christ Jesus as its brother and guide. After studying at the Seminary of The Christian Community in North America and in Stuttgart, Germany, she was ordained in February, 2016. She served her first congregation in Denver, Colorado from 2016-2020 and is now serving the Greater Washington-Baltimore community beside her husband, Rev. Matthias Giles.   

Manuel was born in Colombia in 1978 on a coffee plantation near Medellin. At the age of 18, he had his first encounter with Native American culture and religion as they have evolved in our time and remained in close contact with them, although his work was mostly in construction and agriculture. His journey toward the priesthood, together with his family, began in New York and continued in Stuttgart. In 2020, he was ordained as priest in The Christian Community and was sent to Spain after a short sojourn in Germany. He will work in Madrid until June 2025, after which he will be sent to Cali, Colombia.

Manuel Del Toro

Carlos Maranhão