Modern History of Worship

Convener: Katharine E. Harmon, PhD, Assistant Professor of Theology at Marian University, Indianapolis, IN; Rev. Kent J. Burreson, PhD (2020 Convener pro tem), Louis A. Fincke and Anna B. Shine Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean of the Chapel at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, MO

Members in Attendance: Sarah Blair, Rychie Breidenstein, Kent Burreson, Tim Gabrielli, Bill Johnston, Tim O’Malley, Kevin Moroney, Sarah Mount Elewononi, Jonathan Riches, Kyle Schiefelbein-Guerrero, Todd Stepp, Shawn Strout, Karen Westerfield Tucker

Visitors in Attendance: Laura Steiner

Description of Work: The seminar’s work began with a paper from Kevin Moroney entitled, “Liturgy for Mission: An Interpretation of Resolution A068 of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention 2018,” providing a map for how prayer book revision in the Episcopal Church might proceed. Following the MLK Academy Field Trip, the Seminar met jointly with the Liturgy and Culture Seminar. This resulted from seminar discussions in 2019, indicating the desire to explore a topic jointly with another seminar, and a topic which had surfaced in previous meetings was the relationship between liturgy and culture. In the first half of this joint-seminar meeting, Dr. Catherine Meeks, the Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing in Atlanta, presented on the work of the Center under the general topic of Living into God’s Dream for Racial Healing and Harmony. The latter portion of the joint session saw the presentation of two papers that resulted from grant-funded congregational studies: Kent Burreson’s and Rhoda Schuler’s paper on “Lessons from Contemporary Lutheran Catechumenates” from research into current catechumenates in Lutheran congregations in the United States, and Ruth Meyers’ paper resulting from research into “Worship in Racially Diverse Congregations in the Episcopal Church.” Following the joint session on Friday, the Saturday session brought a presentation from Todd Stepp entitled “Authentic Christian Worship: Discovering Wesley’s Criteria,” prepared for the work of the Worship and Liturgy Committee of the Word Methodist Council. Sarah Mount Elewononi followed with a paper exploring the Wesleyan Way of Salvation as a map, coupled with biblical poetic imagery and paradigms, to guide congregational life and identity. Timothy Gabrielli then presented a work in progress entitled “Help My Unbelief: Faith, Doubt, and the Body in Liturgy and Catechesis,” examining the unembodied assumptions and practices of liturgical

catechesis. Our presentations concluded with Timothy O’Malley’s paper exploring liturgical epistemology entitled “Lex Orandi as Habit: John Henry Newman and a Liturgical Epistemology.” The last part of Saturday focused on best practices for the seminar, including the distribution of papers prior to the meeting, and plans for 2021.

Other Work and Plans for the Future: Since many of the papers in Atlanta coalesced unintentionally around the question of how liturgy forms identity, at the 2021 meeting in Seattle, the Seminar plans to explore the issue of the formation of identity through liturgy. A paper will provide literature review relative to this topic. The intention is to explore the possibility of joint publication of essays coming from the seminar on this topic following Seattle and subsequent meetings. Eight members indicated a potential willingness to bring papers/presentations to next year’s meeting, although the slate of papers will be finalized throughout 2020.