Queering Liturgy

Convener: W. Scott Haldeman (Convener pro tem standing in for Sharon Fennema), Associate Professor of Worship, Chicago Theological Seminary

Members in Attendance: Susan Blain, Steph Budwey, Bryan Cones, Jill Crainshaw, Scott Haldeman, Jason McFarland, Mike McMahon, Lis Valle-Ruiz, Janet Walton

Visitors in Attendance: Kat Olson, Terry Todd, Dan Schlorff

Description of Work: Always operating, fittingly, just outside of the normal within the academy, the seminar experimented with a new meeting schedule model in Atlanta. We held conversations all day Friday, had discussions over dinner on both Thursday and Friday evenings, and, then, dispersed to other seminars on Saturday. The experiment was successful, allowing, again, for those committed to other seminars to contribute to our on-going work.

After introducing ourselves at table on Thursday afternoon, we had a general orientation to the work of the group for new participants—exploring the ideas and practices that emerge at the intersection of liturgical theology, LGBTQIA+ lives, and queer theory. Then, Bryan Cones discussed his work on reading liturgies closely and comparatively to tease out how they structure gender dynamics in relation to LGBTQIA+ realities. We congratulate Bryan on his earning of the PhD from Melbourne University this past year and look forward to his future projects.

On Friday morning, we focused on Lis Valle-Ruiz’ recent and upcoming liturgical/performative explorations of identity, faith, and sexuality. As her alter-ego, Sophia Divinitrix; High Priestess Unrobed, Lis embodies (and so reveals) how we negotiate varieties of roles imposed by particular cultural contexts while holding on to our particularities of ethnicity, language, gender, sexuality and so forth. She is gearing up for a series of nine services of this type in April; we look forward to hearing of the insights and practices that emerge from these next year. In addition, Dan Schlorff also introduced us to his recent DMin project on confronting toxic masculinity within and without the church. Finally, we discussed the emergence of the new Book of Worship within the United Church of Christ and especially the revision of the ordination rite in which Sue Blain and others are attempting to queer the narrative of Christian religious leadership, by adding names of people from scripture who have not usually been recognized in such rites, such as Junia (Romans 16: 7), and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8: 21-40).

long immersion in the life, thought and praxis of a queer male religious order of nuns, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. We posit (and will test) that her concept of “serious parody” is central to the task of queering liturgy. We then began to plan for 2021.

Over dinner, Steph Budwey and Mike McMahon gave us an update on the queer hymnal project, “Songs for the Holy Other” at https://thehymnsociety.org/hymnsearch-holy-other/, which has been completed, is available as a downloadable pdf, and has been acquired by at least 3,000 pastors, congregations, and scholars. In sum, we had a rich, improvised meeting!

Other Work and Plans of the Seminar for the Future: In 2021, in Atlanta, we plan an agenda based on the following ideas:

  •  sharing new work, especially Sharon Fennema’s developing manuscript of “A Primer on Queering Liturgy,” and a new article on sacramental theology and queer theory by Haldeman;   •  to discuss Steph Budwey’s developing book manuscript on intersex persons in Germany;   •  to explore Wilcox’ theory of “serious parody” in relation to “extraordinary form of the mass,” led by Jason McFarland;   •  to read a crucial queer theory text together (we are currently contemplating weather Marcella Althaus-Reid’s Indecent Theology and/or Ashon Crawley’s

BlackPentecostalBreath); and,   •  to identify additional trajectories of inquiry at the intersection LGBTQ+ experience, queer theory, and liturgical theology/practice.

I also note, with deep gratitude, that Susan Blain, Minister for Worship and Gospel Arts in the United Church of Christ, has taken up the mantle of convener of our seminar.