Proceedings of the North American Academy of Liturgy 2020

Liturgical Hermeneutics Convener: Sonja K. Pilz, PhD, Ordained Rabbi, Editor of CCAR Press, Central Conference of American Rabbis Members in Attendance: Ron Anderson, Michelle Baker-Wright, Bryan Cones, Dirk Ellis, Ed Foley, David Hogue, Jennifer Lord, Hwarang Moon, Gil Ostdiek, Sonja Pilz, Don Saliers, Allie Utley, Michelle Whitlock Visitors in Attendance: Jonghyun Kim, Nick Peterson Description of Work: This year’s seminar continued our group’s work on the meaning of the body in liturgy specifically focusing on the body in pain, a topic that we began to explore last year with the presentation of David Hogue and Don Saliers on lament and tragedy.

Papers and Presentations: • Allie Utley, dissertation: “Transmitted Affects: ‘How Worship Feels’ ” Allie Utley presented her doctoral work on the intersection of affect theory and liturgy, focusing especially on liturgical silence, which sparked a rich conversation on the different kinds of silences from the demonic and dead silences to poised and God-filled silences. In the framework of our larger conversation, this conversation led us to a discussion of ritual ambiguity, liturgical practice as a tool, and authoethnography as a method of theological inquiry.

• Michelle Baker-Wright, dissertation: “Kinetic Sacramentality: Liturgy as Technology” Michelle Baker-Wright led a conversation about her finished dissertation on the juxtaposition of liturgical theory and musicology. Unpacking her definition of “sacramental symbols [as] kinetic loci of expressive encounter and expressive response, in which the dynamic of symbolic reciprocity serves as a technology that forms a felt sense of divine presence to human experience,” our group engaged in a lively discussion on liturgical practice and musical performance, and embodied and trained liturgical knowledge.

• Dirk Ellis: “Addressing Applause in Worship” Dirk Ellis broadened our discussion of embodied liturgical gestures to include clapping defined as applause (in contrast to clapping as an expression of joy, affirmation, enthusiasm, and musical engagement). The inherent difficulty in assessing the experience of the “clapper” and therefore in arriving