A Conversation on “Queer Futures for Liturgical Studies”

The issue of Liturgy entitled “Future Renewals: Looking Toward the Next Fifty Years of Worship Scholarship and Practice,” was co-edited by Andrew Wymer, vice-president of the Liturgical Conference board and professor of worship at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and me.

We solicited essays from a range of members of the North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL) looking at what has changed in liturgical scholarship and liturgical practice in the years since NAAL was founded in response to the Second Vatican Council.

Here is an excerpt from the transcript of a conversation between four liturgical scholars: Scott Haldeman, Stephanie Budwey, Jason McFarland, and Lis Valle-Ruiz. They were convened by Dr. Haldeman to discuss “queer futures for liturgical studies” in a wide-ranging focus on how inclusion of LGBTQIA+ changes the field of liturgy. This excerpt describes the need for attention to language. –– Melinda Quivik

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STEPHANIE: I recently gave a presentation to the Hymn Society on decolonizing binary language and including intersex folks in congregational song at CUA based on my new book, Religion and Intersex: Perspectives from Science, Law, Culture, and Theology.

JASON: Great.

STEPHANIE: It was like one of the most appreciated talks during the whole conference. And the feedback! People came up to me in tears. It was so humbling to see how needed this work is. For me that’s really kind of a big thing right now, this notion of language and how do we navigate it? And how do we include folks who are non-binary and offer folks practical solutions? Also I said, we need hymns that name intersex folks, and Dan Damon stood up, and he has now written two intersex hymns, and we’re going to have an Intersex Day of Remembrance service here in Nashville. He’s going to come and play, so we have these two hymns that specifically name intersex folks.

So just continuing that work of naming folks in liturgy and of finding ways, as I said, trying to do more of this trauma-informed liturgy of being aware of having liturgies that are not causing harm. A lot of that is around language, because you know one of my friends said, “My kid is trans, is non-binary, and so when you say sons and daughters it’s like a knife in my heart, because my child’s not included.” So, it’s not just the folks themselves but also their family and friends. And finding ways to continue to question our liturgies and find ways that we can make them to be more inclusive of folks. I just talked about trauma in my introduction to worship class yesterday. Even the songs that we use. It could be things like music from churches or organizations that have not been very queer-friendly. And students in the class were saying you know they’ve had places where they’ve said we’re not going to sing that music anymore just because of religious trauma that those communities have caused. Regardless of the content, it’s just that they caused a lot of religious trauma. So just continuing to find ways to help folks feel included and welcome in worship.

LIS: I’ve been working on . . . trauma-informed weekly worship. I finally wrote an essay about the topic that is coming up in one of the Barefoot Guides. It is not an academic venue. The Guides are written in community by grassroots people. But they are organized by experts, so the ones running the whole thing are in Chicago. There’s a network of trauma-informed churches, and they hired the Barefoot Guide facilitators. Then they called a bunch of chaplains, pastors, mental health providers, and stuff like that. It’s been quite a journey. It’s about to come out, and when it does it’s free. It is mostly for churches. So that’s where that is coming out. When I saw the final form, I wondered, should I write a different version for my colleagues in the Academy? Maybe I do because here in the Queering Liturgy Seminar, certain things are so obvious to us but with other colleagues, you need to convince them.

The full essay including references is available now in the digital and print editions of Liturgy. All of the essays in Liturgy 38, no. 1 are available by personal subscription and through many libraries.

W. Scott Haldeman serves as associate professor of Worship at Chicago Theological Seminary. He was the founding convener of the Queering Liturgy seminar of NAAL.

Stephanie A. Budwey is the Luce Dean’s Faculty Fellow assistant professor of the history and practice of Christian worship and the arts at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, TN. Her teaching and research focus on the relationships between social justice issues, liturgy, and the arts.

Jason J. McFarland teaches theology and philosophy at The Australian Catholic University (Sydney). He did his postgraduate work in Liturgical Studies at The Catholic University of America. Jason’s work focuses on liturgical theological method, processes of liturgical change, and ritual/liturgical music.

Lis Valle-Ruiz is assistant professor of homiletics and worship and the Director of Community Worship Life at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. Her teaching and research focus on the intersection between performance, justice, worship, and preaching.

W. Scott Haldeman, Stephanie A. Budwey, Jason J. McFarland, and Lis Valle-Ruiz, “Contemplating Queer Futures for Liturgical Studies: A Conversation,” Liturgy 38, no. 1 (2023): 24–32.