From the Archives: "Enculturating the Liturgy in North America"

Each month, our blog features articles from the archives of Liturgy. Our goal is to share the wisdom from decades past so that we might celebrate the work and insights of these excellent ministers and scholars.

In 1986, Litrurgy published an article by Michael Galvan entitled, “Enculturating the Liturgy in North America.” Michael Galvan, a Roman Catholic priest who is also a First Nations member of the Ohlone tribe, reflects on the question of how to reconcile the Roman Catholic and the Native American symbols in worship. He raises critical issues that explore differing options: adaptation (updating the liturgy to include present matters), enculturation (altering the Roman liturgy so that A+B=AB), and inculturation (including a culture’s ritual ingredients that are theologically equivalent to the Roman rite so that A+B=C). Core to Native American spirituality, he writes, are the vision quest and the requisite silence that allows the seeker to experience reverence. He encourages those who are addressing the reconciliation of rites to attend to the principal symbols of the native people.

Selected Quotes from

“Enculturating the Liturgy in North America”

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“This past summer [1986], I was part of a consultation group for the Tekakwitha Conference, which is headquartered in Great Falls, Montana. There were ten of us: three priests, three women religious and four laypeople. During one of our sessions, we reflected on how our native spirituality might be expressed in the Roman liturgy.”

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“The Tekakwitha Conference consultation group was asked to describe the elements of the Roman liturgy they found most appropriate and congenial. They singled out the naming ceremonies, baptism, the use of the word in teaching, the breaking of bread and sharing of a meal, and the use of movement. When asked what they felt most uncomfortable with, they mentioned the often hurried style, the excessive use of words, the presence of pews (which makes a circle almost impossible to attain), and the use of a building (which cuts us off from the created world).”

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“Cultural enculturation does not end with the use of sage, feathers and shawls during a liturgy, but rather calls us to a decisive shift in how we experience ourselves.”

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Michael Galvan, a member of the Ohlone tribe, is a priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, California.

If you would like access to this article, please follow this link:

Michael Galvan, “Enculturating the Liturgy in North America,” Liturgy 5, no. 3 (1986): 40–45, https://doi.org/10.1080/04580638609408748.