Worship in ‘the new normal’
Discovering the Riches of Christian Worship
Months of Pandemic has seen more changes to how Christians worship than the passage as many centuries:
- What does this crisis say to leaders of liturgy?
- How might we pray as a church?
- Where do we go from here?
- Do we resume or renew?
These are the key questions that a small group of liturgists and theologians are going to examine in a series of six conversations on zoom.
If you would like to participate, contact info@appliedtheology.org.uk and you be will be sent the link. The conversations will take place on Monday evenings at 1900 BST.
| Date | Starter Questions | Conversation Partners | |
| 14 Sept
|
Can you send an apple by email? The difference between on-line / physical liturgy | Francisca Rumsey | Tom O’Loughlin |
| 21 Sept | Celebrating Easter Sacraments outside of Easter? What does it mean to have missed the Paschal Triduum? | Kevin McGinnell | Joe Grayland |
| 28 Sept | Where does the Eucharist begin and end – the community as eucharistic | Tom O’Loughlin | Andrew Cameron-Mowat |
| 5 Oct
|
The Icon Corner and prayer at home: spiritual lessons from the Christian East | James Siemens | Francisca Rumsey |
| 12 Oct
|
Resume or Renew? What more do we need to do post-COVID | Andrew Cameron-Mowat | Kevin McGinnell |
| 19 Oct | Other Liturgies in lockdown: the Lord’s Prayer and the Liturgy of the Hours post-COVID | Joe Grayland | James Siemens |
For more information see: www.appliedtheology.org.uk
Worship in ‘the new normal’
Just one woman amongst the six speakers on Christian worship?
Meanwhile just one priest to be ordained in Ireland this year, while three bishops will have been ordained by the end of the year – according to Sarah MacDonald in the Tablet.
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/13266/irish-church-in-vocations-crisis-
With Irish diocesan clergy always having had a fatal aversion to convening lay people to prepare liturgically for their own looming total absence, Fr Paddy Byrne’s comment is plaintive indeed:
“We need a radical reappraisal in Ireland – an honest dialogue about what has gone wrong with the vocation of priesthood.”
The answer lies, of course, in the embargo on ‘honest dialogue’ – over an entire five decades! To compare Ireland in 1968 with Ireland in 2018 is to realise that even the recent past can be another country. This is what happens when a church hierarchy prefers the doctrinal rhetoric of ‘Communion’ to the actualisation of it – over half-a-century.
Thanks for the link, Sean.
It is refreshing to read a youngish priest like Fr. Paddy Byrne being relatively open minded about the current needs of our church. Its a shame he doesn’t contribute to discourse on this site.
I am a bit confused by this statement below. Could somebody explain?
“Fr Byrne, who has been an outspoken critic of Ireland’s system of direct provision for refugees and asylum seekers …..’
Note this is for information re ‘direct provision’. This thread is not dealing with the issues raised about asylum seekers. Genuine articles about the issues involved from a Christian perspective would be welcomed.
For those outside of Ireland not familiar with the ‘direct provision’ system for asylum seekers this article from wikipedia might help.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Provision
Direct Provision (Irish: Soláthar Díreach) is a system of asylum seeker accommodation used in the Republic of Ireland. The system has been criticised by human rights organisations as illegal, inhuman and degrading, while proponents argue that it ensures asylum seekers are housed and cared for, in accordance with international law. The system, operated by the Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) of the Department of Justice and Equality, provides asylum seeker residents with accommodation free of charge and a small allowance.[2] Asylum seekers in Direct Provision are usually entitled to state-funded medical care,[3] and children have full mainstream access to the education system.
“Genuine articles about the issues involved from a Christian perspective would be welcomed.” Mattie Long@4
Not wishing to hijack this thread, except to add that a search of this forum’s archives over ten years reveals not a single article, not a single comment on the long urgent issues of the “Direct Provision” scheme for asylum seekers. The 20-page Policy Briefing of Social Justice Ireland in October 2010 with a view to the 2011 Budget does touch on the issues on its page 17, but in a “something must be done” to reverse the scheme sort of handwringing way. Joe’s reflection on Saint Patrick for 2019 & 2020 provides a sort of context for comment but not followed up. I think one or two comments on the Direct Provision iniquities from Mary Vallely and maybe others in various threads. Thin pickings indeed over the forum’s ten-year lifetime. Something, indeed, must be done or at least adumbrated.
Thanks, Mattie. It sounds good; humane and christian.