PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Gathering in the Chapel of the Holy Child                           PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Harris

September 2022 Convocation & Seminar
September 7 through September 12, 2022

The Convocation held this year was the first in three years due to Covid restrictions and was a
rousing success. People who have attended for many years said it was one of the best, and new
people found it enjoyable and informative. Here is a breakdown of the events and lectures
accompanied by photos.

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. Giving his presentation.                                        PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CAPTION: Robert Roy

A display of Gems, jewels, stones, and crosses.                    PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. giving a presentation                        PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Bruce Kanzelmeyer answering a question.                                PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Wednesday, September 7 – Friday, September 9
RESIDENCE TRAINING SEMINAR

Color & Sacred Imagery
Advanced Programs I & II

The seminar was presented in the Chapel of The Holy Child by Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. in morning and afternoon sessions. Each session was video recorded for future use as an online training program. The original version of the lecture series was presented in 1980 by Rt. Rev. Gene Savoy Sr. The 10-hour training seminar updated for a contemporary audience.

Part 1 is six hours of oral instruction on the psycho-physical and spiritual bodies; color polarities; demonstrations on the use of gemstones, the sacred thread, and mirrors; and the use of color in ancient medical practices. Part 2 is an expansion of Part 1 in four hours of oral instruction on healing, the use of the sacred thread and vestments, the Pythagorean image of the sun, and the awakening of the force centers.

Friday, September 9

“The Three Communions”
The lecture was presented in the Chapel of The Holy Child by Bishop Gene Savoy Jr. and video recorded for future use as an online training program. It provides a comprehensive commentary on the three communions – the communion of bread and water, the communion of light, and the communion of the Divine Presence – their importance, meanings, and related symbologies.

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Saturday, September 10

A morning Communion of Fellowship & Homily was held in the Chapel of the Holy Child.

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Acolytes and other children of the community with Francine Petrovich.        PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Bishop Savoy conducting ordinations.                                                PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Bishop Savoy conduction ordinations.                                             PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Ordinations:
Vivienne Marcsik, 1st Degree Ordination
Martha-Lucia Sierra, 1st Degree Ordination
Yuka Honjo, 1st Degree Ordination

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Bishop Savoy conduction ordinations.                                                      PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Michele Grief, 3rd Degree Ordination

Saturday, September 10

Three lecture presentations were made on Saturday afternoon in the Chapel of The Holy Child:

“New Scientific Views of Consciousness”
Presented by Rebecca Willis
A new movement within science is working to overturn the currently accepted materialistic worldview and its limitations on understanding the human spirit. They recognize consciousness as beyond the brain and primary to physical existence. Their work offers new perspectives on consciousness while laying a groundwork for greater receptivity to the teachings of Cosolargy within society.

“What is Metanoia?”
Presented by Ted Staver
Exploring the concept of metanoia as it relates to The System of Cosolargy and the Community as a whole: the forms of metanoia; metanoia as regeneration of spirit and a special state of grace that is a blanket over the Community; collective manifestation of metanoia and Shekinah; the oral tradition of the paradosis as the secret of the parousia and the means to metanoia.

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephan Fuelling

Bruce Kanzelmeyer giving his presentation.                          PHOTO CREDIT: Stephan Fuelling

“Liturgical Chimes & Hand Gestures”
Presented by Bruce Kanzelmeyer
Sound, color, and an introduction to chants and gestures in the Sunrise Divine Service:
1. An Introduction/Review of the Natural Harmonic Scale
a. An introduction to harmonics, the nature of sound
b. The quest for harmony; intro to musical scale
c. The natural harmonic scale: “It’s all about Fundamentals”
2. The Relationship between Color and Sound
a. Sympathetic vibration
b. Establishing fundamental pitches based on the color spectrum
c. Light, color and color bodies: The Cosolargy Papers
d. The Primary and Secondary Force Centers as related to Color and Tone
I. The use of chimes
e. The ICC spectral scale
f. A Visualization of the Solar Cross
3. Intro to Chant and Gesture Used in the Divine Service

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephan Fuelling

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephan Fuelling

Sunday, September 11 morning
Sunrise Divine Service
Cathedral Church of the Americas

PHOTO CAPTION: Robert Harris

Bishop Savoy conduction ordinations.    PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Harris

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Bishop Savoy conduction ordinations.                                                 PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

2nd & 3rd Degree Ordinations:
Shawn Smith, 2nd Degree Ordination
Marilyn Taylor, 2nd Degree Ordination
Gary Huss Jr, 3rd Degree Ordination
Terry Hutchinson, 3rd Degree Ordination

Breakfast
A buffet style breakfast was served at the End Times Parsonage.

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Bishop Savoy delivering the State of the Community Address.              PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

10:00-11:00
“The Counsels” delivered by Gene Savoy Jr.
A “State of The Community Address”
A report by the Head Overseer on the activities of The Community; on things accomplished; projects in the works or nearing completion; and strategies, tasks, and ventures planned for the near future. Held at Monastery Gar

Sanctuary Tour
A tour for first-time visitors to the Red Rock Consecrated Sanctuary  was conducted by Gene Savoy Jr.

Sunday, September 11
evening
“Developments in Peru”
A tour of the Gene Savoy Sr. Museum at Bishopstead was conducted by Bishop Gene Savoy Jr.

Following the tour of the museum, a buffet style Banquet was held at Bishopstead.

The Jamilian Bell Choir during Divine Sunrise Service.                 PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Monday, September 12
Sunrise Divine Service
Cathedral Church of the Americas

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Breakfast
At the End Times Parsonage

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Radheka Savoy presenting.                 PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Amanda Buchanan presenting.                    PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Following breakfast, we moved to the Monastery Gardens for a reading of the new publication of the Jamilian University Press, The Jamil Commentaries.

Originally published in 1973, a series of six moving impressions expressed by people who actually met The Child, with a foreword by Gene Savoy Jr., who met and knew each of the six individuals. The presenters included Gene Savoy Jr., Rebecca Willis, Robert Petrovich, Amanda Buchanan, Radheka Savoy, Ted Staver, Marilyn Taylor, and Harold Boulette.

PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Rebecca Willis and Gene Savoy Jr. presenting. PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Roy

Monday, September 12
afternoon
Lunch and a series of five lectures at the End Times Parsonage:

“The Sacred Calendar”
Presented by Amanda Buchanan
The geometry of the Sacred Calendar, sacred days and how they were derived, the calculation of sunrises and sunsets, and how the calendar relates to the Solar Cross.

“The Solar Cross”
Presented by Michael McIntyre
A multi-faceted approach on the symbology of the Solar Cross borrowing from the disciplines of anthropology, cognitive science, ancient texts, geometry, and psycholinguistics.

“The Essene Legacy”
Presented by Robert Petrovich
Rediscovering, through the Sacred Teachings of Light and the findings of recent scholarship, the power and dedication of the Essenes and Therapeutae.
Rediscovering the power and dedication of the Essenes and Therapeutae through the Sacred Teachings of Light and the findings of recent scholarship:
Relation of the Therapeutae and Essenes through Moses
History from the Hasmoneans to the Herods
The two Orders of Essenes
Distribution in towns & cities of Judea
Community Centers & Essene society
The Covenant of Renewal
Common property & entering the Order
Qumran as monastic production center
Jesus’ amendment to the old Essene teaching on the War of Light and Darkness

“Origins of Shingon Buddhism”
Presented by Yukinori Matsushita
Shingon Buddhism, one of the major sects of Buddhism in Japan, was founded by Kukai (774 – 835 CE), known posthumously as Kobo Daisih, after he traveled to China, where he studied Tangmi under the monk Huiguo and became a Teacher of Light.

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephan Fuelling

Shawn Smith presenting a gift to Gene Savoy Jr. PHOTO CREDIT: Stephan Fuelling

“Solar Cultures of Africa”
Presented by Shawn Smith
Every culture that applied The System has something to offer us. This includes the many solar cultures that existed in Africa. This presentation will focus mainly on the Dogon of western Africa.
Most of the pre-colonial history of Sub-Saharan Africa remains shrouded in mystery to us in these modern times.
Unfortunately, this ignorance extends to what is known of the true nature of her “indigenous” religions and thus, her many Cultures.
The native religions of the Continent known for her colorful sights and vibrant sounds, and warmth of 1.4 Billion inhabitants, has been categorized with prejudice by proponents of Western Religious Anthropology with monolithic models of either “Pagan Animism” or “Shamanism”.
However, with delicate consideration of certain African Traditional Religions (ATRs), we can observe that what even seems polytheism has evolved from an erosion of an earlier monotheism associated with the Solar motifs.
Cameroon, a nation of 17 million, is home to 216 ethnic groups, each with its own distinct dialect and culture. We attempt to decode the most prominent of her Tribal liturgies, the etymology of sacred words, and symbology of her ancient local landmarks to “connect the dots” and consider their greater significance in the light of the Second Advent in the Sun of Righteousness.

Humberto Garcia takes an early morning dip this May in the Gulf of California.

The following interview took place on May 25, 2022.

Communique Editor: When did you and Humberto Garcia make your trip this year to Baja Sur, Mexico.

Gene: The dates we went are May 10-16, 2022.

Communique Editor: And when did you begin speaking with Humberto about residing on the property?

Gene: Well, we’ve been talking about that for many years really. But a few things got in the way. First of all, Covid set us back. Then we were waiting for Humberto to retire from his teaching position. And so it’s become possible now.

Communique Editor: When he came to visit for a month, that was part of the initial plan, to have him go down there with you and check the place out, and make arrangements with him. What things happened down there to help him get settled?

Gene: Well, remember that he went down with me when I first went down on my first trip. That was in 2015. So he joined me there at that time. But we didn’t have the property at that time. We were just checking the place out. So this has been quite a process actually.

Communique Editor: After those seven years had passed, we’ve owned the property now for –

Gene: – Five years.

Communique Editor: During this trip, did you introduce him to anyone in particular that would help him?

Andrew Tuck speaks with Humberto Garcia at the Earthblocks manufacturing site.

Gene: He met with everybody we work with down there. He met Andrew Tuck, who of course is our main person there; and he’s the earth block manufacturer. He’s also the designer and the engineer, and he has a vision for what we want to do. Andrew also has the connections with the Legacy group. That is important, because that is the environmental group that wants to do something very unique on that side of the Baja Peninsula.

Communique Editor: We have an article on what they are doing in the Communique already, which we will link to: 2019 Baja California Sur Impact Expedition.

Gene: And you might link to their website also (http://legacyworksgroup.com/) because they have a good writeup on what they are doing in Baja on their web site. And while we were there in Mexico, I found out that Humberto’s first degree was in environmental science.

Communique Editor: He has a PhD in environmental science as well.

Gene: I didn’t know this until we were there. And Andrew started talking with Humberto about the Legacy Group. So Andrew and Humberto were able to talk very technically about the science of it all. We are in a very unique position because we are, basically, at the center of the zone that they are trying to create as this environmentally protected area. So the place that we chose in El Cardonal is actually turning out to be something we didn’t even realize when we bought the place. It’s a pretty perfect location.

Humberto on the property in front of the Cardon.

Communique Editor: And the idea is for Humberto to move down there as soon as possible, possibly by the end of the year, I understand.

Gene: That would be great.

Communique Editor: And while he’s down there, … Let me put it this way, I guess the plan now for the property has been modified. It’s going to take certain stages.

Gene: Right. We are going to start with the first stage, which is building a residence for Humberto, which will also have a guest room and an office so that he can do the Cosolargy and the Jamilian University work. He’s going to be the perfect person to be there, not only because it’s his country but because of his background with environmental science. He’s going to be a perfect representative for us with the Legacy people and all of the scientists that are there, the environmentalists.

Communique Editor: And while he’s there on the property, I understand that he is going to be doing some developing of the property. I understand there is also talk of a garden and fruit trees and things like that.

Gene: Right.

Communique Editor: I understand that the initial plan for development includes the house for Humberto, but also the infrastructure for something more. Is that right?

Gene: Yes. We don’t really know exactly what that is at this point, but we are going to be putting in … Remember, we already have water and electricity to the property. So that’s already there. The first step is to put in the septic system, which we want to make sure can accommodate up to four structures. What those will be at this point in time we don’t know.

Communique Editor: And all of that probably will create an environment that we will then build within. And so the placement of all of these things will be –

Gene: We’ll know more next month when Andrew comes up with a new plan. And he needs about a month to do that. The other interesting thing is that when Humberto met with Andrew, I introduced him to Kevin O’Leary, who was our real estate person. He’s very well connected down there because he lives there. So that was a good connection for him to make. We are in the process of getting the beach concession.

Communique Editor: What is that?

Gene: In Mexico you cannot own the beach, but you can limit who can do things on the beach in front of your property with a beach concession. You have to own it, which means you get a license from the federal government so that other people can’t do certain things in front of your property. Kevin has been very adamant that we need to get that, and so it seems like a good time. Right now Humberto also met with our accountant, and he met Cal and Janice Abel, who sold us the property and who have offered to pay for the septic infrastructure.

Cal Abel points out the location of the first building development on the property.

Communique Editor: Wow! So we are getting help.

Gene: Yeah. We are getting help from the people who sold us the property. And they live in Cardonal.

Communique Editor: Oh?

Gene: So they are right there.

Communique Editor: We are going to be working with the property as a Center for Cosolargy in Latin America. Could it also work as a local center in relation to some aspect of the Legacy program?

Gene: Well, I think so. Again, I haven’t met with them. There is supposed to be a big conference in December in Los Barriles that we’re invited to attend. So we’ll be going to that. We’ll know more in December.

Communique Editor: Okay. I’ll look forward to hearing about that.

Gene: But I think they are looking for a place to put a learning center, which we might offer.

Communique Editor: Well, that sounds great.

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.