Episode 68: Rooting Law in Love
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The Rev. Armando Ghinaglia Guhnahglia was ordained to the priesthood in 2018. He serves as the missional curate at Christ Church, New Haven, and last year as missional curate at St. John's, Bristol, and Church of Our Savior, Plainville. Armando is a native of Venezuela raised in Texas, he graduated from Yale College with a bachelor's degree in political science before completing his M.Div. at Yale Divinity School. He is currently a second-year student at Yale Law School, where he engages in litigation and advocacy on behalf of fellow immigrants and workers.
Alli starts the conversation asking Armando if he had always imagined going into law or the priesthood. Armando said that throughout college the always imagined going to law school. Part of that was due to his immigration status and inability to work after college, until the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was implemented in 2012 by President Barack Obama. After DACA, more opportunities for Armando opened up. |
While in college he was in a Christian a cappella group, and he found himself wanted to explore his faith. Armando was received and confirmed in the Episcopal Church in his junior year of college from the Catholic Church. In his senior year he felt a calling to study more theology and his faith more, not necessarily ordained ministry. Discernment for ordained ministry happened after college before entering into Divinity School. His desire to study law was low-lying throughout his time in Divinity School. Upon graduation, it was very clear for Armando that law school was the next step for him.
Armando is in his second year of law school and is an ordained priest. Alli asks if he keeps his priestly life a secret while in the classroom and/or if him being clergy comes up at all in class. Armando jokes that he does sit in the back with fellow clergy person from the Catholic Church, and that he does wear his collar some days. In some fields of law he studies it is less obvious to make the connection between the law of the people and the Law of the Lord. However within immigration law, that is one where Armando sees the connection very clearly because you witness the impact on people more directly.
Alli asks Armando about the relationship of politics and religion, and how he as a being who both studies and lives in the political and religious spheres understands the hesitations some may have with politics and religion. Armando said that he does see how difficult it is to actually separate the two, as there is inherent overlap. Besides topics on the first amendment, conversations about law and religion aren’t present in law school, at least as Armando has seen.
The conversation shifts towards Armando’s focus on immigration law. In college, Armando got involved as an organizer in the immigration rights movement with Connecticut Students for a Dream and United We Dream. Armando felt more comfortable working with the policy side of the immigration rights movement.
Immigration is a hot topic in the media and the news in 2019, Alli asks Armando what advocacy for him look like. Armando spends a lot of time lobbying for proposals that groups or movements believe will be beneficial to immigrants. This work needs to include the people who are affected as well. As a priest, Armando said that this work for him and for Christians must be rooted in love, just as God’s laws are rooted in love.
Alli asks Armando how his work and his studies at law school has impacted his spiritual life. Armando said that law schools’ strongwomen emphasis on analytical reasoning and text has influenced his spiritual life the most. It is crucial to law to look at text, how people have used text, and the history behind the text. Armando says he feels a desire and need to read the Bible in the context of other readers and writers about the text, especially those who disagree.
Armando shares a story he read between church fathers disagreeing around Psalm 1. This story opens the conversation further to talk about the risks of the relationship between politics and religion.
Armando is in his second year of law school and is an ordained priest. Alli asks if he keeps his priestly life a secret while in the classroom and/or if him being clergy comes up at all in class. Armando jokes that he does sit in the back with fellow clergy person from the Catholic Church, and that he does wear his collar some days. In some fields of law he studies it is less obvious to make the connection between the law of the people and the Law of the Lord. However within immigration law, that is one where Armando sees the connection very clearly because you witness the impact on people more directly.
Alli asks Armando about the relationship of politics and religion, and how he as a being who both studies and lives in the political and religious spheres understands the hesitations some may have with politics and religion. Armando said that he does see how difficult it is to actually separate the two, as there is inherent overlap. Besides topics on the first amendment, conversations about law and religion aren’t present in law school, at least as Armando has seen.
The conversation shifts towards Armando’s focus on immigration law. In college, Armando got involved as an organizer in the immigration rights movement with Connecticut Students for a Dream and United We Dream. Armando felt more comfortable working with the policy side of the immigration rights movement.
Immigration is a hot topic in the media and the news in 2019, Alli asks Armando what advocacy for him look like. Armando spends a lot of time lobbying for proposals that groups or movements believe will be beneficial to immigrants. This work needs to include the people who are affected as well. As a priest, Armando said that this work for him and for Christians must be rooted in love, just as God’s laws are rooted in love.
Alli asks Armando how his work and his studies at law school has impacted his spiritual life. Armando said that law schools’ strongwomen emphasis on analytical reasoning and text has influenced his spiritual life the most. It is crucial to law to look at text, how people have used text, and the history behind the text. Armando says he feels a desire and need to read the Bible in the context of other readers and writers about the text, especially those who disagree.
Armando shares a story he read between church fathers disagreeing around Psalm 1. This story opens the conversation further to talk about the risks of the relationship between politics and religion.
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In Christ and Coffee,
Alli
In Christ and Coffee,
Alli