Translation coordinator Thomas Mansella retires
Episcopal News Service. April 1, 2009 [040109-04]
Matthew Davies
The Rev. Thomas Mansella has retired from his post as the Episcopal Church's translation services coordinator, after serving four years in the role that has helped to raise awareness of the vitality, growth, and mission of dioceses and congregations "beyond the 'parochial' American borders," he says.
The Episcopal Church includes 12 dioceses or other jurisdictions outside the United States. Mansella hopes that raising the visibility of translation and interpretation services "has helped many to realize how much we can learn from the life and ministry of our brothers and sisters" living in Episcopal dioceses and parishes in Belgium, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Micronesia, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, Taiwan, Venezuela, and the Virgin Islands.
Mansella, 64, is an Episcopal priest and member of the American Translators Association (ATA), which he has served as an administrator in the Spanish Language Division.
As the Episcopal Church's first translation services coordinator, a position established in 2005, Mansella has provided regular translations of news reports, statements and other documents into Spanish while also coordinating translations into French and other languages as needed. He arranged for simultaneous interpretation services at General Convention, Executive Council, the Lambeth Conference and other meetings.
"I guess that it could be said that the business of the church is communication -- spreading the word about The Word," Mansella told ENS, adding that coordinating language services has given him the chance "to see how appreciative our English-speaking Episcopalians are about the contributions of all our members, regardless of where they live and serve."
At the 2008 Lambeth Conference, Mansella led a team of 54 interpreters and translators who helped to provide services in eight languages -- Arabic (Sudanese), Burmese, English, French, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, plus a small group working in Congolese Swahili for the concurrent Spouses Conference.
Mansella said he hopes that "at least in a minor way, I have helped to raise understanding about the need for availing ourselves of the service of professional translators and interpreters."
Mansella said he has been "richly blessed by the friendship of so many. But very little would have been accomplished, had not been for the support of my colleagues in the Office of Communication and the Office of the Presiding Bishop, and the unyielding cheerleading of [Presiding] Bishop [Katharine] Jefferts Schori and [President of the House of Deputies] Bonnie Anderson."
Jefferts Schori described Mansella as "a real gift to the Church Center." She recalled first meeting him the day after her election as Presiding Bishop in June 2006. "The altar party was standing in the back of the hall waiting for the procession to begin and a man ran toward us. One of the security people literally blocked him and almost knocked him over. He was trying to tell me that he'd gotten my sermon translated, which I had sent to him in the wee hours that morning," she said. "That's a small image of the servanthood and dedication he has brought to all of his work. He has been a quiet and amazingly effective behind-the-scenes presence at Executive Council, House of Bishops meetings, and overseeing the growing translation services of the Church Center. We will sorely miss him."
The Rev. Anthony Guillen, the Episcopal Church's program officer of Latino/Hispanic Ministries, said that prior to Mansella's arrival "many church documents were translated by well-meaning persons who had limited language skills and whose translations were criticized and even ridiculed. Today documents, reports, manuals, etc, from across the church, are highly regarded and appreciated. We are indebted to Thomas' persistence and dedication in raising the level of translation and interpretation, which allows us to work together as one Episcopal Church that speaks a variety of languages."
Born in Argentina, Mansella served for 10 years as a missionary in Paraguay, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1977.
Mansella was trained at the Diocesan Priesthood Program in Argentina and Paraguay, and attended seminary at Buenos Aires International Bible Institute. He came to America in 1987 as Hispanic diocesan missioner for the Diocese of Virginia.
Prior to joining the Episcopal Church Center staff, Mansella served as translation specialist in the Arlington [Virginia] Public Schools district, where he produced official translations for the superintendent, school board and senior staff, and introduced and managed a translation memory software and language database.
He served as translator for the Virginia Episcopalian for more that 10 years and coordinated translation and interpretation services for the General Convention office for one year prior to becoming the Episcopal Church's translation coordinator.
He has also served as assisting priest at Grace Episcopal Church, in Alexandria, Virginia and was missioner and founding vicar of La Iglesia de Cristo Rey in Arlington, Virginia.
Mansella's ministry has involved much travel. He says that his TripAdvisor.com profile maps 141 cities around the world where he has stayed at least one night. "I've been 1,800 feet underground in South Africa and I have traveled by train over the Andes at 11,500 feet above sea level," he says. "I have been interviewed by The Washington Post, Univision, and Katie Couric visited us at home to interview me for the NBC's Today Show."
Most importantly, Mansella says, "It has been a privilege to have the opportunity to work alongside the servants of God in the Episcopal Church."
Mansella is married to Elizabeth, his wife of 36 years and an educator for more than 20 years, and they have three grown children.