Gary Buchanan and Gene Savoy Jr at Fortaleza Kuelap, March 3, 2020

The Community is getting involved again in Peru after a lapse of several years. Following extensive legal entanglements over the nature of the Andean Explorers Foundation, The Community regained control over the unique research and valuable archives in 2019. Then COVID hit. Three years ago, the editor of the Community Communique sat down with Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. to discuss his recent visits to Peru in January and November 2018 to explore possibilities for the future work of The Community there and his vision for the future.

The interview was recorded February 11, 2019. The ending commentary was written May 24, 2022.

ED: Let’s start our discussion with an explanation of the name “Gene Savoy Xplorations.”

GSJr: In June 2018 we formed a DBA [fictitious firm name] of the Church, which is “Gene Savoy Xplorations” with an “X.” This will be the beginning of recreating our work in Peru, as the Andean Explorers Foundation as an entity is no longer part of the Church. The formation of “Gene Savoy Xplorations” as a part of The Community will also ensure that we never have the kind of problem again that we have had with incorporating the Andean Explorers Foundation, because this entity will be part of the Church and not a separate corporation subject to outside manipulation, as the Andean Explorers Foundation proved to be.

ED: And you went down to Peru a few months ago?

GSJr: I went in January of 2018 and November of 2018.

ED: And you had a plan at that time?

GSJr: Yes. The plan in January was to see what the climate was for us getting involved, and what the interest was, and, also, to see how Chachapoyas had changed. We had heard that it has changed quite significantly. And I had gotten reports that the government is spending a lot of money in Amazonas because they are very concerned with the number of people visiting Machu Picchu, and so they want to limit the number of tourists there and expand into other areas.

Pedestrian walkway in Chachapoyas, Amazonas, Peru

That means they have to open up additional archaeological sites, which makes sense.

Restoration work underway at Kuelap Fortress

The next major site is Kuelap, and that’s why a magnificent cable car system going up there has been built.

New cable car tramway with old mule trail below

This is the area where we spent many, many decades working. The government is spending a great deal of money there, as I said, which interested me because we had thoughts back in the old days, in the 1990s, of how we could take advantage of the archaeological sites that my father had discovered, and how we could capitalize on that. We were letting the whole world know about these places – these archaeological sites – and where they were, but then other people were coming in and reaping the benefits of what we had discovered. And that’s fine, but we should also be a part of that. Maybe thirty years ago wasn’t the right time. But now definitely is. In the last twenty years, the Peruvian government has built national road systems that didn’t exist before. There are daily flights from Lima to Chachapoyas, which you didn’t have before. The townspeople have spent a lot of money in Chachapoyas itself, beautifying their city. It really is quite different from what it used to be when I was first there.

ED: Can you describe the way it was in the early 1990s, and the way it is now?

GSJr: Well, it was kind of like being in the old west in a way. There were horses and mules and the occasional pickup truck. People were coming in from the countryside, the campesinos [peasant farmers]. And in the best hotel in town, for example, you didn’t have private bathrooms. There was a communal bathroom. You didn’t have hot water. You showered in cold water. There was one TV in the whole town. That was a big deal. It belonged to a guy who owned a restaurant on the plaza. And everyone in town would come and watch through the doors and the windows what was on the TV because that was very novel. It’s totally different now. You have internet service. You have hotels that have private bathrooms. You have hot water. They’ve renovated a lot of the old homes with courtyards for restaurants, coffee shops and wine bars.

Ismael Seoane, Martin Chumbe and Eduardo Morocho at a coffee shop in Chachapyas, Amazonas, Peru

It’s just a totally different scenario. They actually have a fleet of taxis. It’s changed quite a bit. That cable car system is really phenomenal. I recommend it to anybody, if they are there. You have to take the cable car system up to Kuelap.

ED: What was it like to get from Chachapoyas to Kuelap before?

GSJr: From Chachapoyas you would take a truck to the town of Tingo, which was about an hour or an hour-and-a-half drive back in those days because they didn’t have paved roads. All of the roads are paved now.

New national road, Amazonas, Peru

Now it’s about forty-five minutes to get to Tingo by car. And then, in the old days, you would have to take mules up the mountain, which would take you half a day to get up to the fortress. Now you do the whole trip up the mountain in twenty minutes via the cable cars.

New cable car crossing the mountain valley below

ED: Where did the idea come from to do explorations in the corporate sense rather than going in to do archaeological work?

GSJr: We are not limiting ourselves with what we can do with Gene Savoy Xplorations. Really, the first thing in January 2018 was to just feel things out. I was able to go to Chachapoyas. I was very, very impressed with what I saw. There is a lot of opportunity there, and the tourism is increasing. It has been doubling every year, for pretty much the last few years. According to government projections and other projections, that is only going to increase . For the most part, though, people are still not going into Gran Vilaya. The importance of Kuelap is that it was the fortress of the cities that lie beyond.

Gene Savoy Jr. at Kuelap examining Chachapoyan frieze

Kuelap basically protected what we now know as Gran Vilaya and Gran Sapasoa, which my father discovered. These were all Chachapoyan civilizations. They were conquered by the Incas. Nobody is really going beyond Kuelap. But now it is very easy to get to, for instance, Gran Vilaya. But the tourist agencies are not taking people in there yet. We believe that we can start taking people into Gran Vilaya. And that is the basis for us to establish our own tourist agency in Chachapoyas.

ED: And who is helping to put this all together?

GSJr: Right now , the main person that I work with in Peru is Ismael Seoane.

Gene Savoy Jr. and Ismael Seoane in the Swiss Hotel Lobby, Lima, Peru

He’s the third son of Pancho Seaone. [Francisco “Pancho” Seoane was the logistics officer for the Andean Explorers Foundation and worked with Gene Savoy, Sr. on his expeditions from 1984 until Pancho’s death in 1997.] Ismael is also the brother of Francisco and Alfonso Seoane. Ismael has connections. He’s the one who has connections with attorneys. These attorneys have connections with high profile people in the government, with the media and public relations firms and things like that. We are starting out with something very small. Also, his eldest brother, Francisco, is also helping in various ways. Francisco is now our archaeologist. He teaches at the University of Trujillo. He had been on a few of the expeditions when we were first there with my father. Francisco has agreed to be our official map maker and the liaison between us and the Institute of Culture. If we do anything in the future, we have to go through the Institute of Culture. So it’s very important for us to have an archaeologist that is our “archaeologist in-residence,” so to speak.

ED: Is there anyone else you have been working with in Peru?

GSJr: The other person who is helping a great deal is Martin Chumbe.

Gene Savoy Sr. and Martin Chumbe at Gran Vilaya, c. 1989

He was on expeditions when we were there in 1989 and the early 1990s. He is familiar with Gran Vilaya. He has also become very familiar with Gran Saposoa. He has connections in Chachapoyas. He is really the key to our connections in Chachapoyas. Ismael and Francisco have connections in Lima and Trujillo, but Martin is equally important because he knows everybody in Chachapoyas.

ED: And he now makes his living as a guide?

GSJr: Martin always had made his living as a guide, and he has become very prominent as a guide. Everybody knows him. Tourists seek him out to be their guide.

Gene Savoy Jr. with Martin Chumbe in expedition gear at the entrance to Gocta Falls, Amazonas, Peru

He’s very good, and he wants to work with us. He reveres my father and has pictures of him, and his relatives have copies of magazines going all the way back. They are very excited that this is now happening.

ED: You put all of this together last January?

GSJr: The initial trip was in January 2018. Other things were taking place between January and November, when I went again. By that time, we actually had a few more things in place. We were able to meet with the law firm of GLB Abogados.

Gary Buchanan, Ismael Seoane Peyon, and Gene Savoy Jr in Lima, Peru , March 7, 2020

The law firm is two brothers, and they are helping us right now putting together the legal structure for what we are going to do in Peru. At this point, the idea is to have two corporations, one for-profit and one non-profit. The reality is that people will help us get things started, but they eventually will want to be compensated for their efforts; and quite honestly, I think, so do we. If we were to start the tourist agency, which we would like to do, the plan for 2019 is to do three things: First of all, and as we speak, Martin is in the field for 75 days. What he is doing is mapping, further mapping. We have maps that Gary Buchanan did back in the old days. Martin has his own set of maps, which he has shared with us. What he is doing now is going to these sites, and, with a GPS, taking the elevations and the distances from one point to another along the trails. The idea is to approach the Peruvian government to designate a specific official route, which will be called the “Route of Savoy” or “The Savoy Route” or, in Spanish, “La Ruta de Savoy,” similar to the Inca Trail in concept. The Inca Trail is down in Cusco and Machu Picchu. If you want to backpack you can take a few days going on the Inca Trail, and you can walk to Machu Picchu. This would be the same kind of concept. La Ruta de Savoy is going to be based on all or most of the sites that my father discovered in the 1960’s. So basically, everything that was talked about in his book Antisuyo is going to be part of “La Ruta de Savoy.”

ED: Including Gran Vilaya?

GSJr: Gran Vilaya and Gran Sapasoa are going to be two other separate things. So we have some big ideas. For right now, Martin is in the field for 75 days, mapping, getting coordinates, distances, elevations. The idea is that ,with the travel agency, we’ll be able to take backpackers and campers and people like that. He needs to know, for instance, how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B, and from Point B to Point C, and so on. It takes so many days to do the whole route, but you need to set up designated places for people to camp, and this is where we need the government’s assistance to help us with investments. The government has set up some very interesting investment programs so that they can start developing these sites and then recoup their expenses with, obviously, the tourist dollars. That’s the first thing that is happening. Second, we will have an expedition. It will be kind of a scouting expedition in the summer, probably in July or August [of 2019], where we will go into Gran Saposoa with Francisco and start mapping Gran Sapasoa. It’s the place that hasn’t really been mapped. Gran Vilaya has been mapped many times. Martin will also verify certain distances and things so we can update our main map.

ED: So you are actually talking about doing three different routes?

GSJr: Yes, we are talking about three things: The Savoy Route, Gran Vilaya, and Gran Sapasoa. That’s what we’re concentrating on.

Scenic overlook, Amazonas, Peru

After the scouting expedition this year, when we have better information about places and distances and where to visit, then the idea is in 2020 to have a true expedition where we actually have some media exposure, and we will announce Gene Savoy Xplorations as being active in Peru. We’ll have the travel agency set up. And we already have people who have donated space right off the main square for the offices and all of that. So I think this is actually quite exciting. The way that I look at it is, if The Community is going to expand its ministry and at some point and some day have a presence in Peru, which I believe it should, it again has to have some basis for financial survival. So we have to set up some things that are going to bring in revenue. And, obviously, the work that we have done at the ruins can be the revenue stream that initially supports The Community’s establishment there. You have to do the one thing before the other. Otherwise, it doesn’t make any sense, in my mind.

ED: And as far as the expedition in 2020, do you want to say anything more?

GSJr: Not this point. The only people who know about it at this time are Ismael, Francisco, Martin, and I, and also Alfonso [Alfonso Seoane, also the brother of Ismael] who is helping us in Reno. The idea is that all of this will be kept quiet until we actually do something, because we want to make a big splash. But working with Ismael is easy for me because he is a businessman, so he understands that you have to take things slowly, and you have to plan things and do things properly, and make sure that everything at the back end is set up before you do anything on the front end. We don’t want to rush into things, and then have everything fall apart or be unorganized and sloppy. Then people get upset.

ED: Anything else you would like to add?

GSJr: That’s basically the whole idea, and I think that is all we really need to say right now, except that this isn’t a new idea for me. I had been talking about these ideas years ago, but certain people involved in the Andean Explorers Foundation didn’t see things my way and went off on their own doing their own thing which didn’t have anything to do with the mission of the Church. Gene Savoy Xplorations is already a legal entity here in Nevada. The attorneys have already reserved the name “Gene Savoy” in Peru on our behalf, so the whole idea is that once this comes out, who knows what’s going to happen? That’s why we are doing everything very meticulously on the back end before we make our next move. The Community has its roots in Peru and Mexico. Those places are significant to us. We shouldn’t forget that.

* * *

During the three years since the February 2019 interview with Bishop Gene, much has transpired in the world. Covid-19 was a major factor everywhere, including Peru, and The Community’s plans had to be put on hold. The planned 2020 expedition never happened. However, Gene was able to make one final trip with Gary Buchanan in February/March 2020 before Peru was locked down due to Covid and before Gary’s passing in October of that year.

Gary Buchanan with statue of Chabuca Granda, Barranco, Lima, March 7, 2020. PHOTO: Gene Savoy Jr.

Since that time, Gene Savoy Xplorations (GSX) has developed and trademarked an official logo.

Newly trademarked logo for Gene Savoy Xplorations

The logo emphasizes the importance of the feathered, or plumed, serpent and its representation of Quetzalcoatl in Mexico, Kukulkan in Mesoamerica, and Viracocha in Peru. Readers will remember that Gene Savoy, Sr. named the three vessels he sailed Feathered Serpent I, Feathered Serpent II, and Feathered Serpent III. The first craft, which was the totora reed raft he sailed in 1969 from Peru to Panama, was also referred to as the Kuviqu, for Kukulkan, Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl.

Another positive development has been the collaboration of Gene, Jr. with Mr. Gabriel Urza. Mr. Urza, originally from Reno, Nevada, is a Fulbright Scholar and currently on the faculty of Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. (For a profile of Gabriel Urza click here.)

Mr. Urza contacted Gene in early 2021 about the possibility of writing a full biography of Gene Savoy, Sr. from his childhood and youth, to his service in the United States Navy during World War II and thereafter entering Catholic seminary to become a priest, to his explorations and life in Peru, including with The Child Jamil, the System of Cosolargy, the founding of The Community and its relocation to Reno, as well as its activities from 1957 to the present. Gene has been working with Gabriel on the project over the past year-and-a-half.

An exciting development of their working together is the opportunity for Gene to travel next month, June 2022, to the legendary site of Vilcabamba, which Gene’s father discovered in 1964. The discovery catapulted Gene Sr. on to the world stage. Gabriel invited Gene to accompany him to the famed ruins of the Inca resistance to the Spanish conquest, which Gene gladly accepted. The son of the guide who accompanied the elder Savoy in 1964 will guide the younger Savoy and Gabriel Urza on their trek next month. It is anticipated to be an exciting meeting spanning two generations of explorers!

March 31, 2022

The combined 2022 Cosolargy Convocation and Seminar will be held in Reno from September 7th through September 12th. This year is a very special year, as it marks the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Sun of Righteousness and the announcement of God’s Second Advent. It is also a cosmically important 20-year cycle – the 3rd since 1962. The planned schedule includes:

Residence Training: Color & Sacred Imagery

Readings: The Jamil Commentaries

Presentations:

• The Three Communions

• Solar Cultures of Africa

• Liturgical Chimes and Hand Gestures

• Origins of Shingon Buddhism

• What is Metanoia ?

• The Solar Cross and The Sacred Calendar

• The Essene Legacy

• New Scientific views of Consciousness

State of The Community Address

Updates on Japan, Mexico and Peru

Wellness Sessions at Steamboat Hot Springs

First, Second, and Third Degree Ordinations

Sunrise Divine Services

Yours, most sincerely,

In 1948 Charles F. Cutts, a long-time member of the Latimer Art Club and a founding trustee of the Nevada Art Gallery, willed his house and estate to the Nevada Art Gallery. The Art Gallery received Cutt’s home at 643 Ralston Street in Reno, Nevada in 1949 upon his death.

643 Ralston Street is the address of the offices of the International Community of Christ and Cosolargy International and the Chapel of The Holy Child. This property was acquired by the Church from the Nevada Art Gallery in 1979, including the expansion that served as the gallery itself, and in 1981 Church members constructed the Chapel in place of the gallery.

The story of the building that houses our offices is part of the book The Latimer School: Lorenzo Latimer and the Latimer Art Club. We have excerpted the pertinent pages of the book (pp. 29-44) and are making them available to our members with permission form the publisher. The pages provide an interesting backstory to the building that has housed our offices for over forty years.

Latimer School.Building.643Ralston.Excerpt

The Nevada Museum of Art, on its 90th anniversary, has organized an exhibition that brings together landscape paintings by the watercolor painter Lorenzo Latimer, alongside those of the artists he mentored, including Mattie S. Conner, Marguerite Erwin, Dora Groesbeck, Hildegard Herz, Nettie McDonald, Minerva Pierce, Echo Mapes Robinson, Nevada Wilson, and Dolores Samuel Young. These artists joined together to formally found the Latimer Art Club in 1921. The Latimer Art Club is still active and celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021. The exhibit is being presented July 31, 2021 – March 27, 2022.

The Latimer Art Club was the founding volunteer organization of the Nevada Art Gallery, which is known today as the Nevada Museum of Art. The San Francisco-based painter Lorenzo Latimer first visited Fallen Leaf Lake on the south side of Lake Tahoe in summer 1914. It was there that he began to teach annual plein air painting classes. In 1916, he was invited by two students to teach a painting class in Reno. He returned for the next twenty years and became a cherished member of the Northern Nevada arts community.

The watercolor paintings by Latimer and his students of the Truckee Meadows, Washoe Valley, Lake Tahoe, and Pyramid Lake are foundational to the history of Northern Nevada’s outdoor painting tradition. By 1931, the Latimer Club joined together with the visionary humanist scholar and scientist Dr. James Church to establish the Nevada Art Gallery, now the Nevada Museum of Art. The founding group planned art exhibitions and interdisciplinary public programs for the nascent museum for many years.

The exhibition is co-curated by Nevada art specialist Jack Bacon and Ann M. Wolfe, Andrea and John C. Deane Family Senior Curator and Deputy Director. The exhibition will be accompanied by a major book with an introduction by Wolfe and an essay by Alfred C. Harrison, a nineteenth-century painting scholar and art historian with a special emphasis on California art.

< Latimer School.Building.643Ralston.Excerpt >

You are invited to the 2022 Convocation February 17, 2022 Dear member of the Jamilian Order, It is with great pleasure that we once again are able to extend to you our invitation to join in Community for the annual Convocation of the Sacred College and ministry of the Second Advent Church. We will meet for this year’s Convocation from Thursday, June 2nd to Monday, June 6th, 2022 . This will be the first time in three years that we will be meeting in person, and we will be honored by your presence. This year’s annual Convocation marks an important milestone for our Community and its members. Together we will be defining the future direction of our Community. We need you to be part of this special moment in time. This year we will host the Community Convocation of ordained ministers from Thursday, June 2nd to Monday, June 6th, 2022 and host a separate Seminar for Academy Consociates in September. The June Convocation will be geared exclusively towards those persons who are ordained within the Jamilian Order and will include advanced concepts and techniques relating to Sacred College studies, research and practice, including the purpose of ceremony, liturgy, the use of chanting, tones, and the like. The importance of 2022 in our calendar cannot be overstated. It is the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Sun of Righteousness and also marks an important 20-year cycle – the third since 1962. We will be emphasizing during the June gathering how we have revived the ancient Essene Covenant of Renewal which always took place during the Feast of Weeks and later around Pentecost which, in our Community, is June 6th, a fixed day according to the solar calendar. In the early Church that originated out of the Essene communities, Pentecost was a time of regeneration and revitalization for the Community that signified the annual renewal of the Covenant. In a similar state of gratitude, peace and love, we will be able to participate together in the Divine Service on June 6, 2022, at one with God and the cosmos. The Book of God’s Revelation records the importance of this date in the Sacred Calendar of the Second Advent Church: In 1982 Revelations were received atop the Temple Mount on Divine Law and on the building of the Shrine of God’s Waters. It is always important to reconnect at the Center, with others from around the world, and with our Prophecies and Teachings. And so we welcome this event as an important moment to connect, reconnect, and fuse together all members of Cosolargy International. In this era of an emerging new dimension of Consciousness, there is a power in the liturgics and the liturgy we perform in Community, aligned with the spiritual Forces of Light, to serve as an antidote to the influence of Dark Powers. Register electronically through the email invitation sent to you. If you do not have an email address, you may register by phone. Call our offices at 775-786-7431 and ask to speak with Elizabeth Reece. We need to know if you will be attending this year’s Convocation before April 1st so that we are able to make proper arrangements for our out-of-town members. Every year your active participation has a profound meaning beyond words. Your presence will enhance the forces that have activated and motivated our Community for many decades. We look forward to seeing you! Convo2022.invite.ltr.vows Yours, most sincerely, Reverend Francine Petrovich Convocation Coordinator /FP cc: lib. Convo2022.invite.ltr Click to Register Visit our website

Download a PDF of this invitation

It gives us great pleasure to announce that the “Retreat” at Red Rock Sanctuary is now available for your visitations.

In doing the renovations, it was our focus to make the Retreat a cozy and comfortable dwelling.

The entrance offers a coat and hat rack, with a bench for changing shoes and snowy boots.

The main living area is an open concept with kitchen, living and dining area sharing the space.

The kitchen offers new counter tops, stove, and range hood, plus new track lighting throughout.

The mini-island offers an extra work place.

The kitchen is equipped with all new cookware and dishware for your cooking needs.

The living area offers a queen size sleeper sofa, with a flat screen TV for your streaming use.

There is also a desk for computer usage with HDMI connections. (Note: The living room floor light and bedroom lights have phone charging ports.) The main living area also provides a bluetooth audio receiver that will allow you to connect to the audio files on your iPhone. The tube design of the Rockville blutube amplifier gives a smooth, deep sound to your favorite music.

The hallway between the living area and bedroom reflects various instruments from the late Rev. Mother Carol Ann Crabb, and also a piece from the late maestro Rev. Canon Gary Buchanan.

Our own Rev. Mother Elizabeth Reece did the beautiful stained-glass work throughout.

The bedroom offers all new carpet and furniture with a queen size bed.

An original piece of artwork painted by Rev. Shinobu Sonoda Fuelling helps to brighten the walls.

The bathroom offers a new spacious easy walk-in shower with a new vanity, mirror, and lights.

Overall we believe you will enjoy your stay at the Retreat in pursuit of spiritual rejuvenation.

Please remember to sign the guest book!

Thank You,

Stan Waltemeyer & Rev. Greg Klinedinst

P.S. To make reservations, email Rev. Elizabeth Reece at nereece@communityofchrist.org or call Elizabeth at the Chancellery offices T-F 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

*

Stan Waltemeyer & Rev. Greg Klinedinst have spent the better part of 2021 planning, designing, and renovating the guest suite at Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary, the former residence of the late Reverend Mother Carol Ann Crabb, with the help of Reverend Canon Ted Staver. In addition to the hundreds of hours volunteered toward the renovation, the Church has expended thousands of dollars. All donations received by visiting guests at the guest suite retreat will be applied toward recuperating the cost of the renovation project. All financial donations are welcome.

It recently came to the Communique editors’ attention that the Winter 2007 newsletter of the now defunct International Sun Imbibers’ Society, entitled “The Sun Gazette,” contains an interview which the newsletter’s editor conducted with Gene Savoy Sr.

We thought the interview was interesting enough that our Community members and friends would like to read it, so we are making it available to our subscribers as a PDF document.

Read the entire Winter 2007 edition of the Sun Gazette here.

HEAD OVERSEER’S  MESSAGE

 

 

 

August 1, 2021 Confirmation of the Active Principles of Divine Law On this auspicious day in our Sacred Calendar – August 1st – it is my distinct pleasure to finally invite you formally to The Community’s 2022 Convocation. Of course, we hosted a successful virtual conference earlier this Summer, but we have not had the opportunity to assemble collectively in person with our non-resident members since 2019. Based on the recent Convocation survey, which was almost evenly split between those preferring June and September as months to hold our Convocation, we have decided to do something special. We will host the Community Convocation from Friday, June 3rd to Tuesday, June 7th, 2022 and host an additional Academy Seminar from Wednesday, September 7th through Sunday, September 11th, 2022. This idea is not entirely new. We have been discussing having two events annually for quite some time. In fact, when I was growing up in the 1970s, we used to have four seminars a year. But, because we have so much material to share (advanced, intermediate, and fundamental), it’s hard to fit all of this information into five days. The June Convocation will be geared towards those persons who are ordained within the Jamilian Order and will include advanced concepts and techniques relating to Sacred College studies, research, and practice, including the purpose of ceremony, liturgy, the use of chanting, tones, and the like. The September Seminar will provide in-person training for Academy Consociates in color and sacred imagery, the importance and use of the Sacred Thread and gemstones, the mechanics of nine fundamental healing techniques, including the use of crystals and expansions on the basic archetypal imaging of our Solar Cross that is introduced in the twelfth volume of The Cosolargy Papers. The importance of 2022 in our calendar cannot be overstated. It is the 60th anniversary of the birth of the Sun of Righteousness and also marks an important 20-year cycle – the third since 1962. We will be emphasizing during the June gathering how we have revived the ancient Essene Covenant of Renewal which always took place during the Feast of Weeks and later around Pentecost which, in our Community, is a fixed day according to the solar calendar. You will be hearing soon from our Convocation Coordinator, the Reverend Francine Petrovich, soon with further details. Of course, our resident Community will be welcoming you to both events, and you are always welcome to stay longer than the actual scheduled conference dates. But, please mark the dates in your calendar, and always feel free to contact someone here at the Center if you have any questions. We are very much looking forward to seeing you next year, if not sooner. Very truly yours in Light+,

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PHOTO: Joshua Schmidter

This past June the Church hired Go Green Roofing to lay a new roof on the Chapel of The Holy Child and vestibule of the Chancellery building.

The Church received three bids on the project and chose GoGreen Roofing for the job after seeing the quality of their work.

The last roof was laid in 1981 when the Chapel was originally constructed and had been patched and repaired every since –  not always with success. (See photos of chapel leaks below.)

Leaks at Chapel entrance

Leaks at Chapel chancel area

The leaks over the past winter could not be patched or repaired. The leaks were so bad that no company would accept the job,. Every company who examined the project insisted that the roof needed to be replaced.

Go Green Roofing specializes in spray foam roofing for flat roofs. The sloped, wood-shake roof over the Chancellery offices is a separate project and will be replaced over the next year with composition shingles.

Go Green Roofing is a locally operated, family owned, incorporated roofing company with more than 50 years of combined experience. The company has installed hundreds of thousands of square feet of both spray foam roofing and fluid-applied roofing membranes throughout Northern Nevada and California. Their other clients include Nevada Fine Arts and North Star and Heavenly Ski Resorts at Lake Tahoe.

The Go Green Roof System is sustainable and has a working life of 30+years. With superior leak protection, spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) is the only roofing material that has no seams. A thick (typically 1″) closed-cell polyurethane waterproofing barrier seals the roof against leaks. The SPF roofing forms an impenetrable seal around roof penetrations such as pipes, vents, rooftop equipment, and parapet walls. The roofing system allows them to build up in ponding areas to reduce heavy standing water and improve drainage.

IMAGE: GoGreen Roofing

Spray polyurethane foam is the fastest growing insulating product in the world. As a roofing material it provides many benefits over traditional roofing materials. Exceptional durability, unmatched R-value, air barrier properties and a multitude of additional benefits make it a truly versatile roofing system. The Everplus MIP (Manufactured In Place) Spray Foam Roofing System utilizes Bayseal Spray Foam manufactured by Bayer Material Science, the inventor and leader in the polyurethane industry. (See before and after photos below.)

Spray polyurethane foam is watertight because the system is manufactured in place; major weaknesses, including seams and mechanical fasteners, are eliminated. The roofing system is highly heat reflective. It dramatically improves occupants’ comfort by typically cutting a summer roof surface temperature by 50-90˚. Simply maintaining the protective surface coating on the roof every 10-15 years will ensure that the roof will last indefinitely.

BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS