From January 2nd through the 5th, approximately 190 liturgical scholars, teachers, practitioners, students, and guests gathered at the Westin in Seattle to remember with deep affection and sorrow nine members who died over the past year, to engage in wonderful conversations within seminar groups, to rethink and celebrate what shape future gatherings will take, to celebrate ecumenical (and sometimes interreligious) bonds, and, of course, to catch up with friends and colleagues of long-standing as well as those newly met.
As the St. John’s monastic community met to elect a new abbot (congratulations Abbot Douglas) the honour of offering the memorial for Fr. Allan Bouley fell to me.
Allan Bouley, of the Order of St. Benedict: faithful Christian, faithful monk, faithful priest, faithful teacher. Richard Arthur Bouley was born in 1936 in Anoka and died in St. Cloud, Minnesota on April 22nd, his 87th birthday.
Allan professed his first vows as a Benedictine monk at St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville, in 1957. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and did seminary training at St. John’s before being ordained to the priesthood in 1962. From there he went to Rome for graduate studies in liturgy at Sant’ Anselmo, earning an STL and a doctorate with his dissertation: “From Freedom to Formula.”
Allan taught liturgical studies from 1969-2008, primarily at St. John’s, served as liturgy director for the abbey, as an advisor to the US Bishops’ Committee on Liturgy and as a charter member of this academy.
He was my teacher and my advisor, in academics and in gently nudging a young and clueless student to grow up academically and toward maturity of faith. I still remember bumping into him for the first time, clutching my newly purchased copy of his book, and being rendered speechless at meeting the author. Allan kindly suggested I actually read the book (and let him know what I thought). I thought it was great.
Eternal Rest grant onto him, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him
I also had the honour of receiving the Berakah award this year. Like many of us, I suspect my dancing between four different topics (until the last minute) was typical, but I did make a rather abrupt shift (truly at the last minute), from a ‘state-of-the-question-on-late-antiquity-and-liturgy’ to the state of teaching (and learning) liturgy in institutions of higher education in North America. The talk, titled “Imagining the Future: how do we teach the teachers for the whole church?” was born from an increasing concern of fewer advanced study programs in liturgy, fewer students pursuing graduate liturgical studies, fewer jobs for those looking, and all of this within the profound shifts in universities, seminaries, and other centres of learning.
I began with the world of university teaching, recalling the Catholic Theological Society of America’s webinar this past October titled “the end of the golden era: theology in the age of academic precarity.” At the heart of the panel discussion was the reality that a number of Roman Catholic universities and colleges are cutting humanities programs (yes, even liturgy!) as well as an ecumenical shrinking of theology departments. In addition there is the reality of a post-pandemic shift to smaller communities and online education. I moved from universities to the world of seminaries, often an even more fragile world than universities. I explored the Episcopal and Anglican seminaries in North America, the shrinking number of seminaries, the shrinking number of students, and the fast-shrinking amount of financial support for all of the above. In both of these settings, the change for those who teach (from security to precarity) is giving pause to the next generation of scholars and teachers.
I reflected on my own journey toward a PhD in liturgical studies and how different the reality has become even in the past 20 years for my own doctoral students. For many in the academy of liturgy, a fulltime tenure-track teaching position remains elusive. But, there are also many who teach in parishes, dioceses, schools, and other settings where their training has been life-giving to many in the ways we teach and learn outside of formal classrooms. I also asked how people prepare to delve into the multi-faceted field of liturgical studies these days: a PhD in liturgical studies? A PhD in theology and work with a mentor? The study of other subdisciplines which brings scholars around to the field of liturgy in other ways? Through the plethora of DMin programs now available? Building on an MA in liturgy by adding other disciplines?
I concluded by reminding us to return to what it is we actually do – what is it to liturgize? How do we do it? What is our elevator speech to introduce people to a field most have never heard of? How do we explain it succinctly and with joy? The latter is so important – why do we do this? Because we love the content of our field; we love the settings of our field; we love our colleagues; and because it is an endlessly fascinating interdisciplinary academic field and we have the luxury of sharing what we love to do and learning from others every time we meet. We do well to remember liturgy, liturgizing, as the heart of how we live our lives as faithful Christians. In both the study of liturgy and in living liturgically we find a heart for our understanding of God, our relationship with God, and our actions for the good of the world which make sense!