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

Gray, who for twenty-one years has been the citation calligrapher. For both, 2020 marked the last year of their service to the Academy in these capacities.

Many have a part in the success of a meeting, but deep thanks are fitting for this year’s Academy Committee: Bruce Morrill, SJ (President), Gennifer Brooks (Vice-President), Anne Yardley (Treasurer), Taylor Burton-Edwards (Secretary), Kristine Suna-Koro (Delegate for Membership), Lisa Weaver (Delegate for Seminars), Melinda Quivik (Past President), and Jennifer Lord (Past-Past President). Newly elected to office this year were Todd Johnson (Vice-President), Nathaniel Marx (Treasurer), and Kimberly Belcher (Delegate for Seminars).

The heart of the annual meeting consists in its seminars. As such, the work of our twenty-one seminar groups also comprises the bulk of this edition of Proceedings. Part 2 displays the breadth and rigor of the seminars’ work in 2020. In Part 3, four peer-reviewed papers stand as examples of the diverse work taking place within our membership. Benjamin Durheim leads us in an exercise of liturgical pneumatology to unearth an understanding of how epicleses function in Christian community, while William H. Petersen situates music as central to the work of the Advent Project seminar and brings three unexpected hymns into the Advent repertoire. To be sure, in this time of global pandemic when gathering for public worship is fraught with uncertainty, the already-but-not-yet theological riches of Advent give us hope. Christopher Grundy plumbs the potential of practical sacramentality “to draw our attention to certain overshadowed…aspects of sacramentality as a category of experience…” Finally, in an important contribution to an underexplored dimension of Christian liturgy, Hwarang Moon asks, “Is a funeral ceremony for suicide necessary?”

This is the first issue of Proceedings for which I serve—gladly—as Editor, albeit during unusual times. On behalf of the Academy, I extend thanks to my predecessor Stephanie Perdew VanSlyke. Thanks are due as well to the Editorial Advisory Board: Kimberly Belcher, Christopher Grundy, and Sebastian Madathummuriyil. Academy member David Turnbloom serves as the Subscription Manager, Arlene Collins was again contracted for the design and layout of this volume, and Meeting Manager Courtney Murtagh continues to facilitate the production and distribution of the hardcopy edition of Proceedings. Thanks to all three.

The 2021 Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy will convene in Seattle, Washington, from 7-10 January if the spread of COVID-19 has been sufficiently contained by then. The Academy Committee is at work considering possible alternatives should we be unable to gather together.

Jason J. McFarland Editor of Proceedings