I’m intrigued by LutherPunk’s comment below about what he sees as the coming growth and development of local organic liturgies. Especially since he says in the context of ecclesial bodies with well-determined liturgical structures. I want to hear more about what he thinks on that. Furthermore–I’m wondering what the rest of us think–or hope–will be emerging as the Body of Christ continues to gather and form itself liturgical in the unfolding century. So–I’m announcing a blog carnival entitled:
“Common” Prayer in the 21st Century
You’ll note the quotes around the word common… I’m choosing to highlight that for a number of reasons. What does it mean for our prayer common in this day and age? What is the internet doing to our notions of common prayer? One of the hallmarks of the post-Vatican II era is the notion of indigenous liturgies; how does this fit into our understanding of common prayer? Furthermore, the denominational structures and lines that we currently inhabit will–I’m convinced–be shifting, perhaps radically, in the coming years. What will it mean to have common prayer between, across and along these? I ask in particular because the possibility of separated Anglican brethren seems but a few months away–what liturgical bonds of affection may we share? What if the much rumored motu proprio appears and the Tridentine Mass reappears on the scene; what might this mean for us all–on both banks of the Tiber?
All you have to do to participate is post something that relates to this wild mass of questions, and drop me a comment here or an email at haligweorc at hotmail before May 14th. As before, if you’d like me to post something here on your behalf, I’ll be happy to accommodate, just contact me…
So–smooth your wax, sharpen up your stylus, and drop me a note before the 14th!
As I blogged recently the idiom of Coverdale, Cranmer and the King James Bible is our liturgical language so I’d like to see indigenous future English-language rites continue in that.
Inculturation is a difficult matter but not only is there nothing wrong with it but it’s desirable in some cases (I’m thinking of Fr Matteo Ricci in China).
As long as the new rites have the same orthodoxy, objectivity and Godwardness as the old ones.
That said, that and the Tridentine Mass and Roman Breviary (the ‘base’ for all Western liturgies for the past 425 years and before that this was true of older forms of the Roman Rite) are not mutually exclusive. Big swaths of Western Europe, the Americas and the Antipodes should be using the old Roman Rite! It’s theirs. (English speakers can use the existing translations into liturgical English like the Knott Missal, American Missal and Anglican Breviary.) And that’s still possible, unlike trying to revive Sarum or the Gallican Rite, because it’s still in living people’s memory.
I know of no massive movement in the Eastern churches to scrap or augment the Byzantine and other traditional rites.
The last priest celebrating the last Mass or reading the last office in a shattering universe may well be reading in Latin or Slavonic… or using a rite we’ve never heard of because it doesn’t exist yet!
And that’s the trick, isn’t it–figuring out how inculturation should work, whether to choose or make static a liturgical language, and stay faithful to the proclamation of the Gospel in a register comprehensible to those not yet touched by it and those who have fallen away from it while nurturing and nourishing those who have remained within it…
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