May 5, 2005

The Rev. Thomas Mansella has joined the Episcopal Church Center's Office of Communication in the newly created position of Translation Services Coordinator.

Mansella, 60, is an Episcopal priest and member of the American Translators Association (ATA), which he has served as an administrator in the Spanish Language Division. Most recently, he has worked as a translator in Falls Church, Virginia.

In his new role, Mansella will provide regular translations of news reports, statements and other documents into Spanish while also coordinating translations into French and other languages as needed.

He will also arrange for simultaneous interpretation services at General Convention, Executive Council and other related meetings.

Mansella was recommended for his new post by a collaborative panel representing Executive Council, the Office of Hispanic Ministries, diocesan Latin American ministries, the Office of Communication, and the Church Center Human Resources Office. The position was funded as a 2004 action of Executive Council.

"All of us at the Episcopal Church Center are delighted to welcome Thomas Mansella to his new and much-needed ministry," said Robert Williams, the Episcopal Church's director of communication. "The Episcopal Church will be well served by Thomas's proven expertise, his generous spirit, and his passion for Spanish-language ministry development."

Set to begin his new work May 19, Mansella will help shape the Episcopal Church's emerging Spanish-language website, http://www.iglesiaepiscopal.org/, set to debut later this year, Williams said.

Prior to joining the Episcopal Church Center Office of Communication, 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, introduced and managed a translation memory software and language database and offered

"I'm very excited," said Mansella. "This is a wonderful opportunity to serve our church, the members and the wider Anglican community. I'm very happy that the Episcopal Church is responding to the needs of our global society and global church. "

He has been the translator for the Virginia Episcopalian for more that 10 years and has been coordinating translation and interpretation services for the General Convention office for the past year.

"I see this as an important ministry of the church." he said. "I became involved in translation services mostly out of pastoral needs of the church. Evangelism is communication and to be able to evangelize we need to communicate in a way that people can hear and understand."

Mansella was trained at the Diocesan Priesthood Program in Argentina and Paraguay and attended seminary at Buenos Aires International Bible Institute. He was ordained in Paraguay in 1976. He came to America in 1987 as Hispanic diocesan missioner for the Diocese of Virginia.

He also brings extensive technological skills in operating systems, Translation Memory Management, Language Processing, Web design, E-Commerce, Networking, Information Security.

He is the assisting priest at Grace Episcopal Church, in Alexandria, Virginia and was missioner and founding vicar of La Iglesia de Cristo Rey in Arlington, Virginia.

He is married to Elizabeth, an educator for more than 20 years, and they have three grown children.

Episcopal News Service