Liturgy 38.1: Future Renewals

Issue 38.1 of Liturgy is entitled “Future Renewals: Looking toward the Next 50 Years of Worship Scholarship and Practice” and is guest-edited by Andrew Wymer and Melinda Quivik. What follows is an excerpt from Wymer and Quivik’s introduction to the issue.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Contributors were invited to consider the following questions: Surveying liturgical practice in your tradition what strengths do you see and what opportunities for improvement/development do you see? What are the present needs or tasks that liturgical studies might helpfully address to more fully participate in the faithful practice of liturgy? Where is the field of liturgical studies headed today, and what, if any, alternative trajectories would you hope for? As we consider the future of liturgical studies what obstacles stand in the way? A rich array of responses to these and a host of other questions engaged by individual authors are manifest in this issue.

In “A Vision of What Is Possible: Orthodox Liturgy in the Future,” Nicholas Denysenko writes of Orthodox liturgy, sharing qualities that make it unique. He examines current Orthodox discourse on liturgical reform and offers some possible pathways forward. Offering focused and practical interventions for liturgical renewal, Denysenko’s envisioning of liturgical renewal reveals a rich counterpoint against other liturgical traditions in which innovation moves at a more harried pace.

“A Postcard from Naarm” by Stephen Burns explores the violent unfolding of settler colonialism that has shaped his liturgical context in Melbourne, Australia. He examines not only colonial brutality but also what might be called indigenous ritual resistance that continues to contest the land and its inhabitants. Naming possible avenues of liturgical reckoning with legacies of violence, Burns leaves us with the haunting invitation to write back, sending a postcard to Naarm regarding liturgical renewals in the context of the United States that might lead to reckoning with colonial violence and finding ways forward in mutuality with indigenous persons.

David Turnbloom’s “Mystagogy of the Unauthorized” is an insightful and practical pedagogical vision for the teaching of liturgical studies in undergraduate settings in ways that draw students from a variety of religious and non-religious backgrounds to more deeply engage their own faith or spirituality in conversation with others. In this pedagogical framework, Turnbloom argues for a shift in the teaching of liturgical studies toward respectful curiosity and the nurturing of classroom experiences that lead to encounters with diversity and individual particularity.

In “Contemplating Queer Futures for Liturgical Studies: A Conversation,” Scott Haldeman converses with members of the Queering Liturgy Seminar of the NAAL—Stephanie Budwey, Jason McFarland, and Lis Valle-Ruiz—inviting us to bear witness to an honest conversation about how liturgical scholarship and practice might be rendered life-giving for LGBTQIA+ persons. This conversation invites us to imagine a present and a future in which justice is deeply centered in liturgical scholarship and practice and our awareness of human ritual is expanded beyond the walls of churches.

Highlighting the contributions of the Liturgical Renewal Movement in “Contributions of the Liturgical Renewal Movement and Concerns for the Future Renewal of Liturgy,” HyeRan Kim-Cragg shares three concerns for the future study and practice of liturgy that envision a more just and decolonial future for liturgy. She encourages us to imagine clergy roles and leadership in ways that push beyond white, cisgender, male dominance and to continue to center justice and the active involvement of the laity.

Marcia McFee’s “Metamorphosis Moment: Ritual Artistry and the Work of the People” casts an imaginative vision of liturgical renewal that expands our awareness of what liturgy might be and our sensitivity to the ritual needs of all human beings. She challenges liturgical scholarship and practice to encompass the new realities of our post-pandemic era.3

Sketching a brief survey of Pentecostal engagement with worship, in “Renovating the Building Versus Restoring the Foundations: The Need for Pentecostal Liturgical History,” Jonathan Ottaway explores the possibilities of shifting Pentecostal worship scholarship and practice from a focus on excavating past practices to more intentionally attending to present-day Pentecostal worshipers. His work suggests that this will provide a rich and complex foundation from which to anticipate future renewals of Pentecostal worship.

In “Is it a Tenebrae Moment Again?: On Crisis in Liturgical Theology as an Opportunity for Renewal,” Kristine Suna-Koro examines the crises which shape the ecclesial and social context of liturgy today. Her work is a reminder to liturgical scholars and practitioners of the need for decolonial engagement, and she soberingly names the costs to the status quo that this will necessitate. She asks whether or not decolonial horizons might also bring forward new ways of doing liturgical theology.

In “To Serve This Present Age”: The Future of Worship in the Baptist Church,” Lisa Weaver examines the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on worship in Baptist churches and the new liturgical realities that have profoundly altered worship in irreversible ways. Weaver engages how technological changes alter understandings about church authority in light of the priesthood of all believers. She envisions active engagement of lay persons, integrating worship with social realities and concerns, and the need for mutual respect among clergy over the next fifty years of liturgical change.

Richard Vosko’s “Moving Forward: Liturgical Transformations in the Roman Catholic Church” grapples with the challenges of religious shifts and decline in Catholic contexts, offering practical liturgical insights into how churches might respond in creative and bold ways. He proposes a time in the next 50 years in which congregations across denominational and even religious boundaries will share resources to live out their faith and to minister to their communities.

Building upon an engaging sketch of the biblical and philosophical frameworks that situate religion in the modern world as well as present-day Jewish and Christian liturgical scholarship, in “Liturgy’s Ethical Dilemma” Lawrence Hoffman invites liturgical scholars to locate ourselves in the midst of a second Reformation (and Counter-Reformation) in which religious truth is pluriform and interreligious harmony is possible. In the midst of increasingly visible antisemitism and Christian domination in the United States, Hoffman’s vision is compelling and haunting. He asks: Might we be able to reform the singularity of truth in a manner that leads to interreligious respect and cooperation? And if so, will this Reformation hold?

As you read these essays, you—like many of the contributors to this issue—may have found the present challenges that face liturgical scholarship and practice to be weighty. You have born witness to how each contributor grapples with the past and present. The challenges are sobering. Yet as each of these contributors has done in their unique way, we encourage you not only critically to take stock of the past and present but to imagine ways in which you and your communities of faith might continue to renew your liturgies, theologies, rituals, or pedagogies to embrace future possibilities.