Proceedings of the North American Academy of Liturgy 2020

Foreword In 2020 the North American Academy of Liturgy gathered for its annual meeting at the Sheraton Downtown Atlanta Hotel from 2-4 January. Atlanta—a hub of both culture and transportation—was a fitting place for the meeting, bringing one hundred eighty-nine members and forty-six visitors and affording the Academy the chance to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historical Park, including Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King Tomb. The members also gathered for Midday Prayer at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. The Academy extends its thanks to the local committee for its hard work in bringing the meeting to fruition: Tony Alonso, Martha Moore-Keish, Don Saliers, Rebecca Spurrier, Lisa Weaver, and Khalia Williams. At the business meeting, the Academy received twelve new scholars and practitioners into its membership.

With “Irrelevant Wisdom: NAAL at the Margins,” Academy Vice-President Gennifer Benjamin Brooks set the tone for the meeting. Just as the title of the address came to her as if by divine inspiration, Dr. Brooks’ message inspired the Academy to introspection and action. In fact, a number of seminar groups have taken up her challenge, which she posed as a question: “Have we been involved in the required wisdom work in our gathering as the academy and in our places of endeavor, as people dedicated to advancing the liturgy of the church?” For, as she says, “in order to gain wisdom, we must learn, understand, and use those activities that embody justice and equity in our relationship with all human beings, as a mandate from Holy Wisdom.”

The Academy celebrated the enormous contributions of Joyce Ann Zimmerman, C.PP.S., to the NAAL and the discipline of Liturgical Studies by bestowing upon her the 2020 Berakah Award. In her response “The Relationality of Gratitude” she reminded us “of the need to strive for the indispensability of community, the incomparable joy of happiness, and the requirement of forming a habit of gratitude that leads to worship.” Prophetic words, considering the challenges to community that now haunt our world in this time of pandemic.

President Bruce T. Morrill, SJ, provided an update on NAAL’s progress toward a new website and the appointment of an Academy webmaster. Crucial for all of our calendars, he noted that the standard meeting dates of 2-5 January will first come into effect at our Toronto meeting in 2022. His full report is published in this volume. The President also led a special presentation of thanks to Don Saliers, the composer of the Berakah citations for the past twenty-nine years, and Carol V