Problems in the Early History of Liturgy

Convener: Jim Sabak, OFM (jimsabak@gmail.com) is the Director of Worship for the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina. He has taught at The Catholic University of America and the Franciscan School of Theology. He serves as the chair of the American Franciscan Liturgical Commission and is a member of Societas Liturgica.

Members in Attendance: John Baldovin, Teresa Berger, Paul Bradshaw, Harald Buchinger, Glen Byer, Nathan Chase, Charles Cosgrove, Rick Fabian, Pawel Figurski, Daniel Galadza, Maxwell Johnson, Lizette Larson-Miller, Martin Lustraeten, Anne McGowan, Anna Adams Petrin, David A. Pitt, Jim Sabak, Dominic

E. Serra

Visitors: Innocent Smith, O.P.

Description of Work: The Problems in the Early History of Liturgy seminar discussed a variety of trajectories in the evolution of liturgical practice from the second to the tenth centuries. Among the areas researched were the understanding of Eucharist as an agape and meal practices in the Apostolic Tradition. We considered the role that singing played in liturgical and non-liturgical settings. The role of the Eucharistic Prayer as envisioned in the Roman Canon and the Euchologion of Sarapion. Patristic influences on contemporary Eucharistic euchology and theologies on Original Sin, as well as the ancient practice of exorcism rituals were studied. We compared liturgical practices in the cosmopolitan centers of Rome and Milan in the fifth and sixth centuries; and explored the varieties of song in the early hagiopolite tropologion and the impact of medieval Holy Week practices in Jerusalem on contemporary celebrations.

Papers and Presentations:

• Paul Bradshaw, “Eucharist and Agape”—a summary of early evidence for Eucharist and Agape.

• Charles Cosgrove, “Clement of Alexandria’s Instructions about Singing at Christian Social Meals”—an exploration of Clement of Alexandria’s description of evidence that early Christians that Christians who belonged to his social experience sang at Christian dinner parties, with repertoires that probably included biblical psalms.

• Nathan Chase, “Eucharist, Foodstuffs, Firstfruits, and Meal Practices in The Apostolic Tradition”—This paper explores the various layers in the document topically with an eye to where the document may have received its final redaction.

• Max Johnson, “Euchologion Sarapionis”—presented the preface and introduction to the Euchologion Sarapionis, to be published in the Popular Patristics Series by St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. which is based on his 1995 Orientalia Christiana Analecta volume, this shorter version includes updated scholarship and a corrected text and translation.

• Pawel Figurski, The Eucharistic Liturgies and the Forging of Sacramental Kingship in Europe (c.750-c.1250), “Part One: Preliminaries”—an overview of the two chapters from the monograph which is a study of how the perception and practice of political power was often determined by slight, nearly invisible, bearers of beliefs conveyed in the liturgical manuscripts that were transported from one ecclesiastical centre to another and triggered various reactions to and understandings of kingship among medieval intellectuals; specifically the text focuses on the liturgical invocations of rulers during the crucial Christian ritual of the Eucharist (specifically during Canon Missae).

• Martin Lüstraeten, “The Standardization of Exorcism: From Freedom to Formula”—Starting with the observation that the exorcism of possessed appears in the lives of the saints as extemporized, the question is raised when formulas of exorcism were standardized and became written liturgy. Since the existence of written formulas for exorcism of the possessed is testified from the 5th century onwards and the formulas themselves from the 8th century onwards, evidence is collected to determine whether those formulas were already used then.

• Anna Petrin, “Patristic Influence in John Wesley’s Theology of Post-Baptismal Sin”—The paper explores attempts reconcile the tension between outward sign and invisible grace at the heart of Wesley’s understanding of baptism and its effects on the baptized. A first step to understanding is analysis of the patristic roots of Wesley’s theology and examining how he navigated this tension practically in a pastoral setting.

• Harald Buchinger, “Perspectives on the Early Hagiopolite Tropologion”— discussed questions of the origins and codifications of the earliest Christian chant repertory in Late Antique Jerusalem in the framework of the development of liturgical singing in general and the development of the festal cycles in particular, paying attention also to the implications for the history of modal ordering.

• Dominic Serra, “Rome and Milan: Liturgical Independence and Dependence Regarding Chrismation”—Many assume that the differences between ancient Milanese and Roman liturgical practice are minor and even not significant of foundational differences in theological meaning. This paper highlights the differences in the postbaptismal chrismation rites and concludes that these are symptomatic of deeper differences between the practices in the sphere of Ambrosian influence in Italia Annonaria and those under Roman influence in

Italia Suburbicaria. These differences include ceremonial practice, euchology, and are reflected in the physical construction of baptismal fonts in the two spheres.

• Rick Fabian, “Eucharistic Prayers at St Gregory Nyssen Episcopal Church”— written at the invitation of the Eucharistic Prayer Seminar, and published in Proceedings 2022, this paper described Eucharistic Prayers at St Gregory Nyssen Episcopal Church, San Francisco. They reflect changes in gospel criticism: Jesus not a future seer but urgent prophet: here comes God now, ready or not! Forgiveness precedes repentance. In place of Apocalyptic, the Great Entrance brings authority now for doing justice. God’s raising Jesus makes Jesus’ death a sacrifice. Biblical universalism replaces Abrahamic myth.

• Daniel Galadza, “Medieval Jerusalem’s Holy Week Liturgy and Theology Today”—This paper (previously presented at a conference in October 2022 and discussed here prior to publication) examined a unique 12th-century Greek manuscript (Hagios Stavros Gr. 43) for Holy Week and Easter from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre according to the Rite of Jerusalem and proposed to examine the particular liturgical theology it expressed. The themes of topography, resurrection, and eschatology were examined by delving into the hymnography, scriptural readings, and rubrics of the liturgical text. Although the manuscript reflects a lost, 12th-century liturgical tradition, certain similarities with the current Byzantine Rite, as well as mystagogical approaches in Byzantine Rite liturgy that emphasize the imagination of the topography of Jerusalem in architecture and arrangement of every Byzantine Rite church, suggest connections between the Holy Week liturgy presented in the manuscript examined here and the current worship of Byzantine Rite Christians deserve further reflection.

Other Work and Plans for the Future: The seminar will continue its work in unearthing and analyzing the various complexities of early liturgical practices and the impact that such practices had upon the faithful who enacted them.