The North American Academy of Liturgy is meeting this week in Washington DC.
NAAL began in 1973 with a meeting organized by two Jesuits, Frs. Walter Burghardt and John Gallen. It was officially founded in 1975 at Notre Dame, and the first meeting was at Loyola in Louisiana. Its ecumenical membership numbers somewhere around 500 members, of which a bit less than half are Roman Catholic.
The real work of NAAL is done in seminars. A conference participant typically participates in four lengthy seminars lessons on Friday and Saturday morning and afternoon.
It will interest Pray Tell readers to see what papers are slated for presentation in the seminars this year. After the listing of papers, each seminar itself is described further below.
- Suzanne Duchesne & Deborah Appler, “God has Work for Us to Do: Preaching Peace & Justice in an Expanded Advent: Hermeneutical & Homiletical Considerations for RCL Year A”
- William Petersen, “Advent’s Liturgical Formation for Peace, Justice & the Stewardship of Creation”
- Review & Discussion of Emma O’Donnell’s Remembering the Future: The Experience of Time in Jewish & Christian Liturgy (Liturgical Press, 2015)
- Richard Hamlin, “Addressing Stewardship during an Expanded Advent Season”
- William Petersen, “Further Notes on Advent & Stewardship Campaigns”
- Elise Feyerherm, “Proposed Motifs for a Devotional Companion Volume to What Are We Waiting For? Re-Imagining Advent for Time to Come”
- Catherine Vincie, “Original Sin, Baptism and the New Science”
- Nicholas Denysenko, “The Liturgy of the Faithful in Orthodox America”
- Mark Stamm will discuss his pamphlet on initiation in the Methodist Tradition.
- Paul Turner will present a paper on the implication of baptismal status on the new Rite of Matrimony
- Diana Dudoit Raiche, “Catholic Identity and Liturgical Catechesis”
- Anthony Sherman, “The Diocesan Bishop and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA)”
- John Hill will report on the project of mystagogical preaching notes for the Sundays of Easter 2016
Critical Theories and Liturgical Studies
- “Race, Revelation, and Nontheistic Celebration of Life,” Roundtable discussion on the themes of Anthony Pinn’s The End of God-Talk; Kristine Suna-Koro, moderator
- David Turnbloom, “Meeting Holy Mystery in Bodies: A Liturgical Reading of Anthony Pinn,” Benjamin Anthony, responding
- Rebecca Spurrier, “Liturgical Access and the Limits of God-Talk: Reflections on the Shape of Primary Theology,” Gerald Liu, responding
- Bruce Morrill, “Method for Liturgical Studies: Revisiting the Question”
- Kimberly Belcher, “One Flesh, Given for Us: An Ecumenical Catholic Theology of the Eucharist”
- Audrey Seah, “Deaf Culture and Worship: Communio and Communication”
- Joseph Bush, “Hosannas: Palm Sunday, Sanctus and Sukkoth”
- Benjamin Stewart, “All Flesh is Grass: Natural Burial as Embodiment of Wisdom Literature’s Mortality Tradition”
- Eileen D. Crowley, “The Use of Magic Lanterns in the Mid-1800s to Early 20th Century”
- Timothy Kent Parker, “Cultural Landscapes of Religious Pluralism: Liturgy, Difference, and the Common Good”
- Julia A. Upton, RSM, “Ada Bethune’s Wheel Calendars”
Eucharistic Prayer and Theology
- Robert Daly, “Update on the Ecological Euchology theme”
- John Barry Ryan, “Reflections on Native American Eucharistic Prayers”
- Tom Richstatter, “The Eucharistic Prayer as Performance Art: Reflections on Thirty Years of Seminary Teaching Presiding Skills”
- Brent Peterson, “Luther’s Eucharistic Theology of Presence and Sacrifice.”
- Porter Taylor, “The cosmic scope of the Eucharist.”
- Roshan Fernando, “Peace and Reconciliation of the Roman Missal: A Ritual, Euchological and Liturgico-Theological Analysis with Concrete Pastoral Recommendations for the Church in Sri Lanka”
Exploring Contemporary and Alternative Worship
- Lester Ruth, “Enthroned on the Praises of Israel: The Role of Psalm 23 in the Historical Development of Contemporary Worship’s Music Sets”
- Emily Snider-Andrew, “Explorations of Evangelical Sacramentality: Modern Worship Music and the Possibility of Divine-Human Encounter”
- Edward Phillips, “How Did Worship Become An ‘Experience;’ The History and Development of the Concept of ‘The Worship Experience’”
- Casey Sigmon, “Engaging the Gadfly: Contemporary Technoculture and Contemporary Worship”
- Heidi Miller, “Worship at the Margins and a Marginalized Church in North America”
- Cort Bender, “Leading through Transitions in Worship Style” Planning for 2018
- Discussion moderated by Deborah Sokolove, “Misogyny Abounds!”
- Hyeran Kim-Cragg, “Exploring Religious Hybridity and Fluidity: Implications for Christian Rituals”
- Carl Petter Opsahl, “Public ritual in Oslo”
- Kathy Black, “Interfaith Access/Inclusion”
- Sylvia Sweeney, “Reflections on ‘Ashes to Go’”
- Chelsea Yarborough, “Just Hospitality” in Multicultural Worship”
Formation for Liturgical Prayer
- Guided Reflection and Discussion of topic: Catechesis and Formation of the Assembly for Worship.
- Pearl Diving: mining the riches of Joyce Ann Zimmerman’s “Liturgical Notes” (editorial from Liturgical Ministry 5, winter 1996)
Historical Research: 16th Century to the Present
- Tim O’Malley, Book Discussion Adam Seligman, et al, “Chapters 1-3,” in Ritual and Its Consequences: An Essay on the Limits of Sincerity (New York: Oxford UP, 2008): 17-102
- Kent Burreson, “Making Christians: Exploring the Formative Impact of the Adult Catechumenate in North American Protestant Circles”
- Martin Connell, “Seventeenth- and Twentieth-Century Se-Baptists: John Smyth and the Apostle E. F.”
- Tim O’Malley, “Liturgy and the Secular: The Broken Hopes of the 20th Century Liturgical Movement”
- Katharine E. Harmon with Mike Witczak, “Defining Spirituality in the Liturgical Movement”
- Jonathan Riches, “Liturgical Ecumenism, Liturgical Evangelism, or Liturgical Theology?: An Analysis of Liturgical Efforts by Early Reformed Episcopalians”
- Gary Macy, “The Development of the Concept of Sacrament in the Theology of Alexander of Hales”
- Tyler Sampson, “Missae Pro Rege: Praying for the King in the Early Middle Ages”
- James Hentges, “The Themes and Spirituality of Sequences of the Holy Cross from Crosier Manuscripts”
- Michael Witczak, Further material on the Eucharist and sacraments in Carolingian lives of Saints
- Margot Fassler, Presentation on the cult of Gertrude of Nivelles: working on a 14th Century ordinal from Nivelles and the readings and music for several feasts in her honor
- Heather Josselyn-Cranson, “Discovering the Melodies for the Un-notated Office of Saint Gilbert of Sempringham”
- Richard Rutherford, Update on the Baptisteries of the Early Christian World: Database and the Pollentia (Mallorca) Undergraduate Research Expedition
- Anne Yardley and Jesse Mann, “The Devotions of an English 15th Century Cleric”
- Alison Alstatt, “Dramatic Liturgies in the Wilton Processional”
- Katie Bugis, “The Liturgist behind the Life of Christian of Markyate”
- Sonia Pilz, “The Earth is the Eternal’s and the Fullness Thereof: Jewish Food Culture and Table Blessings”
- David Hogue, “Intimations of Physicality: Memory, Emotion, Performance and the Human Brain”
- Brian Butcher, Discussion of Rowan Williams, The Edge of Words: God and the Habits of Language (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014)
- Don Saliers, “Sonic Imagination and Improvisation”
- Michelle-Baker Wright, “Noteworthy Mediations: Historical Performance Practice and Musical Hermeneutics as Sacramental Lenses”
- Ron Anderson, Discussion of Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan, 1998)
- Dirk Ellis, “Holy Fire Fell and Melted the Saints and Sinners: Language and Bodily Response in Early Nazarene Religious Experience”
- Judith Kubicki, “The Performative and Transformative Power of Classic Hymn Texts”
- David Gambrell and Kimberly Long, “Revisions to the Book of Common Worship (PCUSA)”
- Gail Ramshaw, “Perpetua and the Devil”
- Mikie Roberts, “‘Sing Ye Islands of the Sea’: The Making of the Caribbean Moravian Hymnal”
- Jason McFarland, “Music, Method, and Liturgical Theology: Fulfilling the Promise of Context and Text”
- Carl Bear, Update on Liturgical Theologies of Congregational Singing project
- Judith Kubecki, “The Performative and Transformative Power of Congregational Song”
- Paul Westermeyer, “Bach on Sending and Vocation”
- Matthew Pierce and Lorraine Brugh will lead discussion of Frank Senn, Embodied Liturgy: Lessons in Christian Ritual (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2016)
- Mark Lloyd Taylor and Tom Scirghi will lead discussion of Yves Congar, At the Heart of Christian Worship: Liturgical Essays of Yves Congar, trans. and ed. Paul Philibert (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2010)
- James Starke, “Liturgical Tradition as Lex Orandi: A Theological Interpretation and Application”
- Matthew Olver, “Scripture as Liturgical Source: A Call to Consider and a Proposal to Classify”
- David Taylor, “Mother Tongues and Adjectival Tongues: Liturgical Identity and the Liturgical Arts in a Pneumatological Key”
- Hillary Raining, “Revisiting the Rite of Reconciliation: All May, Some Should None Must…But what if we did?”
- A presentation and discussion of the pastoral and theological issues of multicultural/ intercultural worship of Mark Francis’ and Rufino Zaragoza’s Liturgy in a Culturally Diverse Community: A Guide to Understanding (Washington-FDLC: Oregon Catholic Press, 2012)
- Nathanael Marx, “The Use of Several Languages in the Liturgy”
- Joseph Donella, “Interfaith Liturgical Celebrations”
- Eunjoo Kim, “Preaching and Worship as Reflective Practical Theology”
- Brian Butcher, “Women Deacons in the Eastern Churches.”
Problems in the History of Liturgy
- Paul Bradshaw, “Remains of Older Practice in the Liturgies of Late-Fourth-Century Jerusalem”
- Charles Cosgrove, “Intoning the Psalms: Musical and Semi-Musical Aspects”
- Maxwell Johnson and Daniel Findikyan, “Reforming Armenian Baptismal Rites”
- Daniel Galadza, “St. Theodore the Stoudite and the Eucharist”
- Stefanos Alexopoulos, “Luxury Scroll of the Office of Holy Communion”
- Timothy Leitzke, “She Says What She Hears: Luther on the Spirit in Preaching”
- Michael Pasquarello, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Preaching as ‘Extraordinary’ Speech”
- Gennifer Brooks, “Beyond the Margins in Word and Worship”
- Andrew Wymer, “Knee-Deep Preaching: A Pastoral Homiletic for Preaching in a Culture of Bullshit”
- Sunggu Yang, “Picasso and Preaching: Invitation to a Cubist Homiletic”
William H. Petersen, Convener, Bexley Hall Seminary (Dean Emeritus)
The goal of the seminar is to work ecumenically for the expansion of the season from four to seven weeks. This seminar seeks to collect, collate or produce, and provide appropriate Advent worship and homiletic resources for clergy, church musicians, and congregations; also to author as well as solicit scholarship that will support and interpret this proposal for liturgical renewal.
Stephen S. Wilbricht, CSC, Convener, Stonehill College
Our seminar asks questions that stand at the intersection of a classic ordo for Christian Initiation and the ongoing formation of the church. What is the vision for the church inherent within these rites? How is that intention both supported and resisted by the church? What historical sources inform us?
Critical Theories and Liturgical Studies Seminar
Kristine Suna-Koro, Convener , Xavier University
In our 2017 meeting, the Critical Theories and Liturgical Studies Seminar will focus on the themes raised in Anthony Pinn’s The End of God-Talk (Oxford University Press, 2012). In addition to papers and discussions inspired by Pinn’s text, we will also discuss the current challenges for liturgical studies. The seminar will conclude with sessions devoted to the presentations of work-in-progress by seminar members and visitors.
Benjamin M. Stewart, Convener, The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
This seminar aims to explore the multiple ways in which ecological consciousness/practices and liturgical consciousness/practices intersect and contextualize each other, and to develop articles/resources on this topic for the use by scholars and practitioners of worship.
Martin V. Rambusch Rambusch, Convener, Decorating Company
The Environment and Art Seminar Group takes its work into the field visiting a variety of worship spaces in the locale of each national meeting. During these visits the members discuss the various spaces as to their suitability for active participation in worship. In addition, members also make slide presentations and occasionally present papers for discussion.
Eucharistic Prayer and Theology
Charles Pottie-Pâté, SJ, Convener, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Calgary, Alberta
Description of the Seminar: This seminar is a scholarly application of the lex orandi, lex credendi axiom. It devotes its sessions to the study of both the classical Eucharistic Prayers and to the new Eucharistic Prayers of modern or relatively modern national, ethnic or church groups. The studies, based on papers written by members of the group, or on Eucharistic Prayers written or selected by them, have alternatively a literary and a theological focus, depending on the nature of the work being discussed.
Exploring Contemporary and Alternative Worship
Taylor W. Burton-Edwards, Convener, Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church
The members of and visitors to this seminar track developments in “contemporary” worship (seeker services, praise-and-worship services, convergence worship, and “traditional” services that “blend” in elements from these other kinds of services). We research particular faith communities’ worship, as well as the history of and general trends in worship and music styles, liturgical art, architecture, and seminary education for those preparing to become worship leaders in these worship settings, Protestant and Catholic. Members and visitors also addressed “alternative worship” as it has developed in locally specific ways in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, US and Korea and other locations, particularly in response to marginalization and changes in technology.
Elizabeth (Sue) Moore, Convener, Abbot, the Order of Saint Luke Ashland City, TN
The Feminist Studies in Liturgy Seminar examines existing and new liturgies from a feminist perspective, and invites participants to explore new metaphors and new styles of liturgical expression and leadership. Our commitment to inclusiveness leads us to consider not only texts but also gesture, environment, music and all aspects of embodied worship. Our studies include the connections among formal worship, the academy and the larger society.
Formation for Liturgical Prayer
Patricia J. Hughes, Convener, pro-tem Director of the Office of Worship, Catholic Diocese of Dallas
This seminar is shaped by a commitment to cultivating a profound awareness of the forces that affect the formation of the faith community for liturgical prayer. To achieve this purpose, the seminar members reflect, study, and dialogue on the ecclesial, social, psychological, pastoral, and cultural conditions that bear upon the celebration of the liturgy. Embedded in the mission of the seminar is the development of scholarly writing to support the vision of the seminar.
In 2016, the work of the seminar included three primary foci: resources for teaching, learning, and sharing the Liturgy of the Hours in a parish setting (U.S. and Canada), an insightful discussion of Goffredo Boselli’s The Spiritual Meaning of Liturgy, and the presentation of a scholarly paper from both Susan Roll and Bernadette Gasslein. These papers are in the final pre-publication stages. A discussion introduced by Bernadette Gasslein rounded out the seminar, resulting in the question, as of yet unanswered, “What lies at the intersection of catechesis and liturgy?”
Historical Research: 16th Century to the Present
Katharine E. Harmon, Convener, Marian University (Ind.)
The work of the Historical Research to the Present Seminar is interdisciplinary in nature as we analyze liturgies and liturgical issues from the 16th century to the present with an emphasis on practical application for the church and the world today.
James Hentges, Convener
The Issues in Medieval Liturgy Seminar devotes itself to the scholarly study of liturgical and devotional life in the Middle Ages. The time period stretches from the late patristic through the renaissance/reformation. The group is interested in any prayer activity of the period which includes both liturgical and devotional. Two sorts of presentations are encouraged: finished papers awaiting publication and works in progress which will benefit from the work in seminar.
Ron Anderson, Convener, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
The intent of this group is to engage in critical exploration of how we know what liturgical celebrations mean, with a view to learning how liturgy might better work to build a spiritually renewed community. Toward that end, the group will review current understandings of how liturgy means, with attention to pertinent pastoral projects.
Barrington Bates, Convener, Church of the Annunciation, Oradell, NJ
The Liturgical Language Seminar attends to issues of the language of worship by examining liturgical texts, considering scholarly essays, and discussing ideas and issues related to liturgical language. We welcome guest presenters and occasional participants, as well as Academy visitors and regular members. We occasionally meet jointly with another seminar, and sometimes we sing. We also strive to maintain a seminar group of a manageable size to encourage full and active participation by all.
Kenneth Hull, Convener, Conrad Grebel University College Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
The Liturgical Music Seminar devotes its sessions to discussion of liturgy and ritual music 1) through papers by members of the group, 2) around issues, projects and studies about music in rites, and 3) by examining new and emerging resources, e.g., hymn collections and musical settings for liturgy.
Timothy Brunk, Convener, Villanova University
This seminar explores a wide range of topics and issues in the field of liturgical theology, with attention to theology of liturgy (theological reflection on particular worship practices), theology informed by liturgy (liturgy as a source for theological reflection), and doxological theology (theology oriented toward worship). Our sessions include discussion of papers and discussion of a book read in common.
Mark R. Francis, CSV, Covener, Catholic Theological Union
The Liturgy and Culture Seminar probes both the cultural context of North American worship practices and the relationship of worship and culture in a variety of cultures outside of North America, drawing on works in liturgical theology, history, cultural theory, music and the arts, and several related disciplines.
Problems in the History of Liturgy
Stefanos Alexopoulos, Convener, Catholic University of America
Our mission is to study issues in Christian and Jewish liturgical history through the early centuries of the Common Era.
Brian T. Hartley, Convener, Greenville College
The work of the Word in Worship seminar is located at the intersection of preaching and worship. The mission or purpose of the seminar is to investigate and interpret for the church and the academy the conjunction or overlap of the proclaimed word and the content of the liturgy in which proclamation occurs. This is based on an understanding of or belief in the liturgical nature of the proclaimed word in worship.
awr/djw
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