Proceedings of the North American Academy of Liturgy 2020

Seminar on the Way: Liturgical Perspectives on the Lutheran-Roman Catholic Dialogue Conveners: John Baldovin, S.J., Professor of Historical & Liturgical Theology, Boston College School of Theology & Ministry; Thomas Schattauer, Professor of Liturgics and Dean of the Chapel, Wartburg Theological Seminary Members in Attendance: John Baldovin, Shane Brinegar, Timothy Brunk, Hans Christoffersen, Joseph Donnella, Benjamin Durheim, Virgil Funk, Gordon Lathrop, Melinda Quivik, Anthony Ruff, Martin Seltz, David Turnbloom, Julia Upton, Paul Westermeyer

Visitors in Attendance: Davide Bracale, Kathryn Johnson, Tomi Kartunnen, James Puglisi, Jonathan Tan, Trish Sullivan Vanni Description of Work: This was the third meeting of the seminar which was convened in 2018 in order to discuss how liturgical scholars might respond to the Declaration on the Way: Church, Eucharist, and Ministry of the Committee on Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (2015) from a specifically liturgical pint of view.

This year we began by discussing how the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification (Lutheran World Federation, Roman Catholic Church, 1999) impacts the specific work of the seminar, especially in light of a consultation held at the University of Notre Dame on the 20th anniversary in 1998. Three papers relevant to the work of the seminar were discussed: on shared communion, on the role of the epiclesis in the Eucharistic prayer from the point of view of Critical Realism and Social Change, and on Liturgical Ecclesiology. We also had a report on and discussion of “To Serve the People of God”—the Boston College Statement on the state and future of Roman Catholic priesthood in the US as well as an update on the Anglican/Episcopal and Roman Catholic Dialogues relevant to the issues we have been studying. Finally, we had a presentation on developments on the international level with regard to moving the “Declaration on the Way” forward.

An entire session was given over to a discussion of submissions toward a common statement of the seminar that had been offered by five of our members after last year’s meeting.