Reminder: Voting at the Business Meeting

As we approach the annual meeting, we remind you that we will be voting on a proposed change to the NAAL by-laws on membership. You can find the background and rationale posted in the special newsletter we sent at the end of September. The proposal can also be found at the end of this newsletter.

The by-laws on voting require that members must be present to vote on the proposal. If you are registered, you can attend the business meeting in person or virtually, through Zoom. Being present allows those who vote to be informed by the debate on the proposal.

In accordance with our by-laws, any member not attending the business meeting may vote by proxy for officers. To cast a proxy ballot for candidates for office, identify a member who is present to cast your votes for you and send an email to Christy at secretary@naal-liturgy.org to verify your wish to vote by proxy and the proxy you have named. Information about the candidates is in the Fall 2024 newsletter, posted on our website https://www.naal-liturgy.org/members/newsletters/.

Visitors who are elected to membership at this annual meeting will be able to vote on the proposed by-law and the election of officers.

Rules of Order

Any member may speak to the proposal, whether in support or in opposition.

A member may speak once on the main proposal and once on any proposed amendment, and may speak a second time after everyone who wishes to speak has had the opportunity.

In person, please line up at one of the two microphones. Online, request permission to speak through Zoom’s chat function.

The president will recognize each speaker.

Please limit your remarks to 2 minutes.

Any member may propose an amendment, whether adding or deleting words, sentences, or sections. A proposed amendment must be seconded, and debate will then be only on that amendment, until a vote is taken on the amendment.

We will vote on amendments and then on the final, perfected proposal after debate. A simple majority is required to adopt an amendment and the final proposal.

Any member may move to end debate, or “call the question,” whether on an amendment or on the full proposal. You may not speak to a motion and then move to end debate. A motion to end debate is not discussed and requires a 2/3 majority to pass. Once debate is ended, a vote is taken on the motion.

Proposed Changes to By-laws

Introduction

Acting on suggestions from both established members and visitors over the past few years, an ad hoc committee chaired by Andrew Wymer (Delegate for Members) and including Kim Belcher (President) and Glenn Byer (Past President) developed the following suggested revision of the by-laws, which has been approved by the Academy Committee and thus comes as a recommendation to the membership. The process was very simple, as veteran and new members and first-time visitors all had very similar advice: make the process clearer, more flexible, and more welcoming.

Rationale

Institutional shifts, changes in the field, and COVID have changed the transitions from visitor to member. Visitors come from a wider array of backgrounds and are involved in the field in various ways; their funding to attend meetings is less secure than in previous generations. Some come to us having worked in liturgical leadership for some years, including publishing worship resources, and perhaps only then attending graduate schools; some have their own liturgical outreach without “a prominent professional appointment with their respective religious bodies.” As a result, some know and are well known to their seminar before they attend the first meeting; others have gaps in years they can attend in person; some need more meeting experiences before they are prepared to choose a seminar. Some who are doctoral students and contributors to our organization are also full-time liturgical ministers, and in some cases have been for several years, before reaching the candidacy stage.

In order to simultaneously clarify the qualifications of those we desire to welcome as members and be inclusive of this diversity of trajectories, we recommend simplifying the membership requirements. In the proposed by-laws the language about accomplishments has eased to clarify that those who are interested in the practice of liturgy and the scholarly study of that liturgy are welcome to apply regardless of their rank. The way they express their interest in the field in their application is weighted more than before, while external recognition by a denominational body is less mandatory. The membership committee should thus have an easier time interpreting the by-laws, since much liturgical leadership and development of resources is done on a local level or grant- rather than denomination-funded as the previous language took for granted.

The Academy Committee has developed corresponding changes to the Policies and Procedures document that governs the application of the by-laws and to the website copy, which will be implemented if the membership approves the following changes to the by-laws after discussion at the January 2025 meeting. Please be in touch with Kim Belcher (president@naal-liturgy.org), Christy Condyles (secretary@naal-liturgy.org), or Andrew Wymer (membership@naal-liturgy.org) with any feedback on the by-laws language that would help us structure the meeting discussion.

New By-laws Language (changes underlined)

Section 6.2. Membership Committee.

The Membership Committee shall be a standing committee. The Committee shall be composed of three Members of the Corporation appointed by the President. The Membership Committee shall examine the credentials of those applying for admission and recommend those qualified for Membership. Candidates qualify for membership when, having completed the application process, they are judged to have articulated in their application a steady commitment to the field of liturgy, or have contributed to it through work in allied arts and disciplines and additionally meet one of the three following criteria: (1) hold or are pursuing a doctorate in some aspect of liturgical studies or another relevant academic or professional degree; (2) hold a position through which they contribute to public worship, liturgical music, publishing, or speaking; or (3) hold an appointment with their respective religious bodies and actively contribute to the development and practice of liturgy.

Old By-laws Language

Section 6.2. Admissions Committee.

The Admissions Committee shall be a standing committee. The Committee shall be composed of three Members of the Corporation appointed by the President. The Admissions Committee shall examine the credentials of those applying for admission and recommend those qualified for Membership. Candidates qualify for membership when, having completed the application process, they are judged to have met two of the three following criteria: (1) hold a doctorate in some aspect of liturgical studies or the equivalent academic or professional degree; (2) hold a professional position through which they contribute to liturgical formation, publishing and speaking, or hold a prominent professional appointment with their respective religious bodies and actively contribute to the development of liturgy; (3) demonstrate a steady and on-going commitment to the field of liturgy, or have contributed to it through work in the allied arts and disciplines.

Fall 2024 News

President’s Update

Dear friends and colleagues,

This January, we will mark 50 years since the 1975 meeting at Notre Dame when the first official agreements gave a shape to a nascent organization committed to liturgical practice, formation, and interpretation. We return to northern Indiana, to Valparaiso University, in a time of institutional change – for us as for many other organizations – yet when I look to the future of this organization, I am very hopeful.

OUR FUTURE

The Academy Committee spends most of our time working on the place, time, and cost of our meeting, but the real wealth of an organization like this, and its future, is in the people devoted to its work. In that regard, recent years are very encouraging. At the 2019 and 2020 meetings, before the pandemic, we were regularly welcoming 30 new visitors to every meeting and accepting between 10 and 20 new members. After a decrease in new visitors in 2021 and 2022, in 2023 and 2024 we again invited about 30 new visitors and accepted more than 10 new members. It’s been heartwarming to read the names of the new members from these past six meeting years: many of them have now served as seminar conveners and academy committee members, as well as committed scholars, teachers, and practical liturgists.

Responding to feedback from both new and veteran participants, the Academy Committee has been working on simplifying and clarifying the process of becoming a member of NAAL. Please be on the alert for a proposal from the Academy Committee, which will come in your email from our secretary in the next few days, to change the by-laws language about membership. We will discuss and vote on this proposal at the January meeting. If the by-laws are changed, the Academy Committee will make corresponding changes to the Policies and Procedures document and the website to implement the membership’s decision. (Changing these documents does not require a full vote by the membership.)

We are also currently completing the move to make Proceedings a no-fees, open-access journal.

OUR PAST

Our website has a partial list of our founding members, a treasure buried in the About section. Those listed were mostly men, a few women; they are luminaries who have had a profound impact on the way people in the United States and beyond pray and think about prayer.

Just this year we have sent out memorial notices for founding members Jake Empereur, S.J.; Mary Collins, O.S.B.; and my beloved dissertation director Nathan Mitchell. We receive from them, and from all the members who have gone before us in this organization, a gift and a task: this organization and its imperfect structures are a gift, and the challenge of discerning the future of liturgical practice is an ever-changing task.

If you are aware of members who ought to be remembered at this year’s Opening Rite, or you would like to volunteer to read the memorial for a member who will be remembered this year, please email me at kim.belcher@gmail.com or president@naal-liturgy.org.

OUR PRESENT

We’re making a number of changes in our organization at the moment. Perhaps the most visible for most of us is the shift to meeting on a university campus, with housing available at inexpensive nearby hotels. We hope this will make meeting in person available to more people at a time of declining institutional financial support. At the same time, we have made changes to improve online participation for those who are better served by that model for a number of reasons.

The Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso will be the backdrop, this year, for remembering those who have gone before and discerning our places in the legacy of liturgy in North America. The chapel is in many ways an emblem of the impact of the liturgical movement on worship in North America. It offers a space designed for a worship experience (and a team experienced at livestreaming that experience); it also represents a specific tradition among NAAL’s religiously diverse membership. It thus creates different opportunities and challenges for worship than we have been used to in hotels. To take full advantage of the space, we will be having music on the world-class organ and piano in the chapel on the first day of the meeting during the registration period: if you’re interested in playing, please email me or J. J. Wright (jwright9@nd.edu) or sign up on the registration form, and as you arrive, drop by to listen!

Teresa Berger’s Berakah address will be a fitting synthesis of past and future. With an urgency inspired by approaching ecocatastrophe, she will be presenting her new research on the work of non-human worshippers of God in the liturgy.

All of our lunches and dinners during the conference, as well as social time, will be in the Harre Union, which has excellent food and scrupulous accommodations for dietary needs. The reasonable cost at this location has allowed us to include in the registration fee two dinners and two lunches that previously would have been additional costs for members. During the lunches, our sidebars will meet at designated tables in the main dining area.

We have heard encouraging reports about the Emerging Scholars pre-meeting, which allows for networking and discussion across seminars. This year we will be experimenting with a pre-meeting for practitioners (congregational clergy, musicians, liturgy directors, independent scholars, publishers, editors, and others who want a space to talk about very practical liturgical leadership while at the meeting). Lisa Weaver and Bryan Cones have agreed to lead that meeting this January: sign up on the registration form if you’re interested.

Most of our seminars will also be in the Harre Union; a few will be in two buildings just across the street. Valpo’s rooms will greatly improve the technology available for online participants. The liturgies and the business meeting will also be livestreamed for online participation.

James Farwell, in addition to preparing his vice-presidential address, has been exploring meeting options for 2026. I am deeply thankful to him, and to the rest of the Academy Committee: to Nathaniel Marx whose care for our financial security has been invaluable these past years; to Christy Condyles for her ever-meticulous attention to detail; to Andrew Wymer who is thoughtfully working on more inclusive membership procedures; to Khalia Williams whose support of our seminars’ work has been unwavering; to Glenn Byer who is corresponding with our new visitors; to Todd Johnson and our nominations team; to all those who have agreed to be nominated; and of course Courtney Murtaugh whose institutional memory for our meeting is a light in my darkness.

It’s been an honor to work for and with all of you towards this meeting. Thank you for your trust, and please, sign up for the meeting!

Peace,
Kim Belcher, President
president@naal-liturgy.org

From the Vice President

I just returned from teaching two weeks of in-person Intensives in Liturgics at The General Theological Seminary in New York City, which is now home to a hybrid-only M.Div. program. At this writing, I am back at Virginia Theological Seminary just outside the nation’s capital, where the residential Fall Term begins tomorrow. It is warm and sunny with a pleasant breeze.

Standing in the margin between these institutions in which I hold a dual appointment, I am struck by what is common to both: students who sense the importance of ritualization; who have known, in their own experience, the power and the steady-making of liturgical praise and prayer; and who want to lead, plan, and catechize around liturgy with excellence. They want to resource their institutions, growing ever smaller in a “secular” society, so that seekers and followers alike might encounter afresh the One Who Lives at the horizon of our word and sacrament and song.

As I ponder this strong desire for sound liturgy that I see in my students – whether in residence in Alexandria or spread from Alaska to Oregon, from Iowa to Texas, from Louisiana to Georgia to Maine – I feel a renewed gratitude for this Academy, for its ongoing work of mentoring mentors, fortifying scholars, and deepening the formation of teachers and leaders who can inspire our students in their learning. I believe our Annual Meeting in Valparaiso will not disappoint in this work, even as we continue to explore the forms and places through which our Meetings will continue beyond 2025.

James W. Farwell, Vice President
vicepresident@naal-liturgy.org

Candidates for Office

Vice President

Lester Ruth has been a worship professor since 1998, teaching at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music and Divinity School, Asbury Theological Seminary, the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, and, currently, Duke Divinity School.  Prior to teaching, he was a pastor of four congregations in the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.  He has liturgical studies degrees from Candler School of Theology (ThM) and Notre Dame (MA, PhD). He has been a member of NAAL since the 1990s and is the founding convener of its Exploring Contemporary and Alternative Worship seminar. He is also a former president of the Charles Wesley Society. An author or editor of fourteen books, he most recently co-authored (with Lim Swee Hong) A History of Contemporary Praise and Worship. Lester describes himself as a liturgical historian who maintains his pastoral sensibilities, always interested in seeing how classic forms of worship can renew congregations today.

Rev. Dr. Kristine Suna-Koro is Professor of Theology at Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, USA. She is a diasporic Latvian-American theologian who works at the intersections of postcolonialism, liturgical and sacramental studies in dialogue with migration and diaspora discourses. She is the author of the trailblazing study in postcolonial sacramental theology In Counterpoint: Diaspora, Postcoloniality and Sacramental Theology and numerous articles and book chapters engaging postcolonial perspectives on sacraments, worship, migration, and theological aesthetics. She is currently working on a manuscript developing a postcolonial liturgical political theology. At NAAL, she has previously served as the Convener of the Critical Theories and Liturgical Studies Seminar and as the Delegate for Membership. She is Co-Editor in Chief of Dialog: A Journal of Theology. Since her ordination in 1995, she has served as a pastor in the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran communities in Great Britain, Germany, and the United States.

Delegate for Seminars

Emily Snider Andrews, PhD, serves as Assistant Professor at Samford University where she teaches church music and worship leadership and leads their Center for Worship and the Arts. As an instructor, she has especially contributed to courses on congregational song, liturgical history, worship design, aesthetic theology, and intergenerational worship. As Executive Director of the Center, Emily was awarded monies from Lilly Endowment, Inc. to further engage teens and emerging adults at the intersection of worship and the arts. Other research interests include studies of Free Church worship, sacramental theology, and the interlacing of music and theology. In particular, her work explores the sacramental underpinnings of contemporary worship music practices in evangelical contexts. Emily participates in NAAL’s Contemporary and Alternative Worship seminar and Free Church Worship pre-meeting. An ordained minister, Emily is deeply committed to the corporate worship life of the church and has served congregations in Alabama, Texas, and California.

Sarah Kathleen Johnson is Assistant Professor of Liturgy and Pastoral Theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario. Her research at the intersection of liturgical studies and sociology of religion employs qualitative methods that value everyday religious experience. Commitments to interrogating the relationship between liturgy and ethics and engaging ecumenically across Christian traditions ground her research, teaching, and leadership.

A member of NAAL since 2019, Sarah is currently the convenor of the Critical Theories and Liturgical Studies seminar. She has also served as the convenor of the Free Church Traditions meeting (2020-2022) and on the membership committee (2023). Publications include Occasional Religious Practice (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), the co-edited volume Worship and Power: Liturgical Authority in Free Church Traditions (Cascade, 2023), and articles in journals including Worship, Studia Liturgica, Liturgy, and The Hymn. Sarah was the worship resources editor for Mennonite hymnal and worship book Voices Together (MennoMedia, 2020). Sarah holds a PhD (University of Notre Dame, 2021), MAR (Yale Divinity School, 2010), MTS (Conrad Grebel University College, 2008) and BA (University of Waterloo, 2007). She is ordained for ministry in Mennonite Church Canada.

From The Meeting Manager

Annual Meeting 2025

Valparaiso University

January 2-5, 2025

REGISTRATION FOR THE ANNUAL MEETING WILL OPEN SEPTEMBER 15.  All Registration Details will be found on the NAAL website.

The Annual Meeting will take place at Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN. You can find details regarding the meeting below. 

Hotel Information:

You can make room reservations at one the following four hotels listed below. If you need assistance with finding roommates to help offset room costs please contact our Meeting Manager, Courtney Murtaugh (meetings@naal-liturgy.org).

1) Holiday Inn Express and Suites (35 rooms with 2 Queen Beds, breakfast and internet included) 
1251 Silhavy Road
Valparaiso, IN 46385
219.464.9395
Cutoff date for reservations is December 19, 2024
$109 per night plus 14% tax
Room Reservation Link
Cancellations must be made 24 hours in advance of reservation and by 4 pm Central Time.

2) Hampton Inn and Suites Valparaiso (5 rooms with King bed, 5 rooms with two Queen Beds, breakfast and internet included)
1451 Silhavy Road
Valparaiso, IN 46383
219.531.6424
Cutoff Date for reservations is  December 1, 2024
King room – $119 rate + tax
Queen room – $129 rate + tax

Reservations can be made two different ways:
Simply click on the below booking link to make reservations online
Booking Link: Reservation Booking Link- Hampton Inn Valparaiso IN
OR
Contact the hotel directly at 219-531-6424, provide your arrival/departure date and group code NAA.
Cancellations must be made 7 days in advance of reservation.

3) Fairfield Inn and Suites Valparaiso (35 rooms at $107 per night, breakfast and internet included)

Reservation details are forthcoming and will be on the NAAL website once confirmed.

4) Country Inn and Suites Valparaiso (20 rooms with Queens and 20 rooms with Kings, rates will range from $99-$109 per night, breakfast and internet included.)
2020 LaPorte Avenue
Valparaiso, IN 46383
219.386.2188

Cutoff date for reservations is December 1, 2024
NAAL Group Account – 4896838

Transportation to and from the O’Hare and Midway airport:

We are currently working with a couple of vendors to assist with transportation to and from both Midway and O’Hare. Details are forthcoming and will be posted on the NAAL website once confirmed.

Air Travel

You are encouraged to book your flights ASAP to get the best rates.

ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES BEFORE, DURING, AND AFTER THE MEETING

PREMEETINGS

On Thursday the following groups will be meeting on Valpo’s campus.

Emerging Scholars a group for liturgy scholars in the early stages of their career, particularly tailored to the needs of those in graduate school up through the first few years of their first permanent position. This group will also have the option to continue the discussion at lunch on Friday and Saturday during the Side Bars.

Contact Gabriel Pivarnik

Practitioners a gathering of congregational clergy, musicians, liturgy directors, independent scholars, publishers, editors, and others who want a space to talk about very practical liturgical leadership.

Contact Lisa Weaver or Bryan Cones

SIDEBARS

Sidebars will be held on Friday and Saturday during lunch on Valpo’s campus. There will be sign-up option in the registration process. If you would like to host a side bar not listed below, please contact Courtney Murtaugh via email – meetings@naal-liturgy.org

• 2026 Planning Side Bar
• NAAL Visitors Side Bar
• Emerging Scholars Side Bar
• Black Scholars Side Bar
• Underrepresented Scholars Side Bar
• Asian American Pacific Island Scholars Side Bar

POST MEETINGS CONTACTS

If you plan to attend a denominational post meeting, please contact your convener.

Episcopal/Anglican | Contact Sylvia Sweeney
Free Church | Contact Sarah Johnson
Lutheran | Contact Kristian Kohler
Roman Catholic | website
United Methodist | Contact TBD

Reformed/Presbyterian| Contact Jonathan Hehn

If I can be of any assistance as you prepare for the 2025 Annual Meeting in Valparaiso please do not hesitate to reach out.

Courtney Murtaugh, Meeting Manager
meetings@naal-liturgy.org

From the Secretary

As we get closer to our Annual Meeting, the tasks of preparation increase for all of us in our own ways. In order to help our meeting run smoothly and have everyone on the same page, I want to make sure that all of our seminars, post-meetings, and other events are added to our Sched app. Seminar conveners can pass their information along to Khalia Williams, our delegate for seminars. Those who are hosting a post-meeting, and want to have it included on Sched, please contact me. The sooner we have this sort of information, and the more complete it is, the easier it is for members and visitors to find where they need to go during the meeting.

Also, as Kim mentioned above, you will be receiving an email from me shortly with information about the proposed changes to our by-laws language around membership.

Christina Condyles, Secretary
secretary@naal-liturgy.org

From the Treasurer

NAAL closed the books on FY2024 (July 2023–June 2024) with $50,836 in net assets remaining after negative net revenue of $13,620 during the fiscal year that included the annual meeting in Seattle. The FY2024 loss was less than half the size of the $31,121 loss in FY2023 (Toronto) and the $29,791 loss in FY2022 (Kansas City). Still, it is important to return to positive net revenue in FY2025.

Members can help by registering early for the 2025 meeting at Valparaiso University. When you log in to MyNAAL to register, please also confirm that you have paid membership dues for calendar year 2024, and turn on auto-renewal to have your dues for 2025 automatically charged on January 1. Consider selecting “donor paid fees” when you pay dues and register for the meeting. Last year, your donations to cover transaction fees saved the Academy $2,589, or 68% of this significant expense.

Nathaniel Marx, Treasurer
treasurer@naal-liturgy.org

From the Delegate for Membership

Warm blessings to you as summer quickly wanes and autumn approaches!

The AC has extended the deadline for membership applications this year until September 30, 2024. Information about our membership requirements and application process as well as the necessary forms are available on our website, https://www.naal-liturgy.org/members/application/.

Special thanks are due to Allie Utley and Jan Robitscher who have joined me on the Membership Committee this year. We look forward to reviewing applications this fall and welcoming new members in January.

In the spring newsletter I let you know that I was working with Kimberly Belcher and Glenn Byer to review our membership polices and application process. Our goals were to simplify our policies and to ensure that we have a membership policy that contributes to NAAL vibrantly and inclusively living into our mission. Special thanks are due to Kimberly and Glenn for lending their enthusiasm and wisdom born out of deep commitment to our guild! Earlier this summer we brought a proposal to the AC for feedback, and we have recently concluded our revision of that proposal. I look forward to more about this being shared with you in the coming days.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions. I look forward to seeing many of you in Valparaiso at our annual meeting.

Andrew Wymer, Delegate for Membership
membership@naal-liturgy.org

From the Delegate for Seminars

Seminar Reminders: Rooms are assigned for each seminar. We’ll have a full slate once again, with 20 seminars scheduled to meet. Please email me the plans for your presentations as soon as possible so we can complete Sched in a timely fashion. The schedule is slightly different this year, see below:

January 3:

            10:15am – 12:00pm

            1:45pm – 3:30pm

            4:30pm – 6:15pm

January 4:

            8:45am – 10:30am

            11:00am – 12:45pm

            2:15pm – 3:15pm

Technology. We will continue with the hybrid opportunity this year for seminar meetings. We will be enlisting Zoom support to ensure access for all registered participants. If you took home the bluetooth speaker from your seminar in 2024, please bring it with you to the 2025 meeting. Conveners, if you have not already completed the Information and Request form, please remember to indicate all of your technology needs and which of your members will bring the speaker or your need for a new one. Please complete the form by Oct. 1.

As always, we appreciate those who are able to bring power strips!

All attendees are encouraged to bring laptops or tablets to have cameras on to allow for eye contact between remote participants on Zoom and those in the room.

I am happy to be able to assist our seminars in their important work. Feel free to be in touch by email if there’s something I can do to improve your seminar experience.

Khalia Williams, Delegate for Seminars
seminars@naal-liturgy.org

From the Past President

As we turn towards the Autumn, excitement is building around the meeting in Valparaiso. This new meeting format will be especially important for the visitors to our Academy. I ask you all to continue the tradition of reaching out to ensure that visitors to the Academy feel especially welcome both during our discussions but especially during the social events of our time together. These visitors are meeting you, the authors of articles and books that have inspired their work in liturgy. It is important that we live up to our teachings around the importance of community and hospitality.

As Past President I am happy to report issuing credentials to 8 first-time visitors, in addition to the large contingent of those whose visitor status was confirmed in previous years. If you know of others who should be on this list, it is a simple matter to have them fill out the visitor application on the website. Now is the time to make that happen. If I can help facilitate that activity, please feel free to contact me through the Academy Website.

As a reminder, visitors to the Academy should either have or be in the process of obtaining the credentials or professional experience that would lead to Academy membership.

The promising number of visitors means that our funds for scholarships will certainly be fully used again this year. For those who are able, please consider adding a gift to the Academy during your registration process. And while we are at it, please consider the work of the Academy in your estate planning. The last few years have taught us how important member support can be.

Finally, as we move forward, permit me one glance over our collective shoulder. I want to reiterate my sincere thanks to the many people who made the Seattle meeting such a success. So many of you volunteered to help, but even more of you pitched in whenever you saw a need. It made for a wonderful meeting. So thanks.

See you in Valparaiso!

Glenn Byer, Past President
pastpresident@naal-liturgy.org

Jobs

If there are job openings at your institutions you wish to post on our website, you may upload them using our request form. Current postings can be found here: https://www.naal-liturgy.org/members/jobs/  

Seeking Your NAAL Photos and Video

If you have good photographs or video from recent NAAL meetings (2023-2024) and are willing to share these to help keep our website fresh  you may upload them via our web form. If you have more than 5 photos to share, be sure to check the box and our webmaster will get back with you to discuss how best to share them.

Contact Us

All Academy officers’ email and other contact information is available on the Academy Committee page of our website.

Spring 2024 News

From the President

The first Annual Meeting I attended was in Savannah, in 2008. I was a doctoral student with a toddler. My husband and I couldn’t afford flights and the conference hotel; we drove to the meeting, stayed with friends in a mobile home in Hilton Head, and I drove in for each long day of stimulating seminar discussions. I was very nervous to meet the heroes from my bookshelf, but they were worth meeting. Bruce Morrill took me and my family out to lunch. Gary Macy, in the line for the bus, asked me about my dissertation topic and encouraged me. (There is no hunger like that of a dissertationist who’s been isolated!) I loved my seminar and made lifelong friends in the field. As someone who was writing while non-resident in my doctoral program, it made all the difference in the world to find my scholarly community.

Maybe some of this resonates with you and some does not, but my first experience of the joy and the challenge of NAAL as a visitor have been much in my mind over the past year as I’ve worked to lessen the total cost of attending NAAL in person. I have particularly had in my heart access for those who are visitors, graduate students, professional ministers, retired, or contingent faculty.

As I announced in an earlier circular, the 2025 meeting will be held at Valparaiso University. This will require a little adjustment for those of us who are used to staying in the conference hotel, as the closest hotels are a little over a half mile from the center of campus (there will be a private bus service at the beginning and end of each day). But it will make a big difference for those (55% of the respondents in our 2022 survey) who have minimal or no funding for travel to the meeting. It prioritizes hybrid access, the possibility to make in person connections, and lowering the cost of attending the meeting, as that same survey indicated were our membership’s top priorities. And I believe it will make it possible for us to make space for new scholars and practitioners to receive the vocational support and joy of our seminars and the institution as a whole.

Some of the highlights I am looking forward to:

• worshipping as a community in the renowned Chapel of the Resurrection;
• eating together in the state-of-the-art Founder’s Table (with an allergen-free station) in the Harre Center, where lunches and dinners will be covered by our registration fees, and there will be more time for socializing;
• visiting the exhibits and enjoying an Oblates of Blues concert in the Bell and Beacon pub zone;
• having superior technology and excellent technical support;
• and, of course, listening to our Berakah address with all of you.

For more information about the meeting, you can see Courtney’s report and my circular from mid-May (now on the new Newsletter section of our website). More details will be coming, as we work out the specifics of our airport travel and the daily buses from the hotels to campus. In the meantime, feel free to email me with any concerns—and thanks to those of you who have already done so!

Once again I would like to thank Courtney, Nathaniel, the whole Academy Committee, and the Valparaiso University staff who have been working with us, especially Jim Wetzstein, for all the work they were willing to do to develop our plan for this January. Likewise, I want to thank Jan Robitscher and Taylor Burton-Edwards, who finished their terms on the Academy Committee this January. We are very much obliged to all who were willing to stand for election, and I encourage you to be active in the nominations process for this year as well.

2025 Berakah Award Winner

Because we have had to delay the newsletter, I have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to announce our Berakah Award winner for 2025: Professor Teresa Berger (Professor of Liturgical Studies and Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of Catholic Theology, Yale Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School).

Teresa has long been at the leading edge of liturgical scholarship, always among the first calling for attention to the liturgical work done in places and among communities that are underrepresented in our scholarship. Perhaps her best claim to prescience comes from publishing her still-essential study of worship in digital environments, @worship, in 2017. Yet her attention to gender in the history of liturgical practice has also been of enduring importance, centering the liturgical work of women (Women’s Ways of Worship, 1999) and later the broader significance of gender in its various forms not captured by simple binaries (Gender Differences and the Making of Liturgical Tradition, 2011). Her publications in sum call attention to how our scholarly presuppositions, like any uncritical assumptions, can reinforce problematic power dynamics—even when we believe we are offering liberation.

Teresa’s current work lifts up an especially important set of marginal worshippers: the non-human, non-angelic creatures who praise and lament, and into whose praise and lament we human creatures are invited (Psalm 148; Romans 8:22). This is both a reclamation of earlier Christian patterns of prayer and belief and a necessary response to the current ecological crises. Her Berakah address promises to bring both past and future to bear on our tumultuous present.

In her teaching and in her work supporting other scholars (in her teaching positions and in her professional institutions), she is unfailingly generous. I am deeply thankful for her contributions to the academy, and I look forward to hearing her address.

I hope to see you all at our Valparaiso meeting. Thanks for all you do for the world of liturgy.

Peace,
Kim Belcher, President
president@naal-liturgy.org

From the Vice President

Change is our constant companion. The rolling of the seasons, the coming and going of holydays, and the end of another academic year that will, soon enough, turn over to a new cycle. In the meantime will come graduations, retirements for some, relocations for others, perhaps travel for respite and renewal or to visit family. Lives end, lives begin, chapters are closed and new ones open. I am grateful, in all of this, for God’s unfailing love and for the company of friends and colleagues—not least, the company of those in our Academy.

As the Academy Committee prepares for our Annual Meeting at Valparaiso in 2025, which is shaping up nicely, we are also thinking forward toward 2026. We are all aware of the financial challenges that the Academy is navigating, and we have that firmly in mind as we consider future sites. We have not ruled out the possible advantages of one year’s meeting fully online. There are competing goods to be weighed as we make our decisions: ease of travel, the value of face-to-face networking, the possible fiscal benefit of a digital gathering, and the various needs and interests of long-timers and newcomers alike. We will weigh all these goods and consider all the possibilities with due diligence and with hope for the ongoing life of this Academy that we all treasure.

I have had conversations with many of you about how we might make our way forward and I welcome your input and ideas. You can reach out to me at vicepresident@naal-liturgy.org. We are always smarter together. In the meanwhile, I commend to your prayers and thanksgivings the Academy Committee as we do our work, and the world we share, in all its beauty and travail.

All blessings,
James W. Farwell, Vice President
vicepresident@naal-liturgy.org

From The Meeting Manager

Annual Meeting 2025

Valparaiso University

January 2-5, 2025

The Annual Meeting will be held at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN. Kim Belcher and I conducted a site visit in early spring, and the Valpo staff provided us with several options for meeting space. The spaces chosen, primarily Harre Union, the Chapel of the Resurrection, and the Arts & Sciences Building, are all within a short walk of each other, forming a tight triangle that minimizes travel time between buildings.

We will be using four separate hotels near the campus. I am working with the Valpo Staff to secure prices and blocks at each hotel and a shuttle between the hotels and campus. The hotel and shuttle details will be in the Fall Newsletter.

There are two airports in Chicago, O’Hare and Midway. If possible, we recommend you fly into Midway Airport (closest to Valparaiso). We will provide airport transportation options and details in the Fall Newsletter.

Registration for the Annual Meeting will open around September 15, with fees of $450 for both members and visitors. This year, we will offer a hybrid meeting, ensuring everyone can participate in a way that suits them best, whether in person or virtually.

The HOTEL SHUTTLE, LUNCH and DINNER MEALS are  included in the registration fee.

If you are planning a sidebar, please contact Courtney Murtaugh at meetings@naal-liturgy.org.

If you are planning a post meeting in Valparaiso please contact Courtney Murtaugh at meetings@naal-liturgy.org. We will help facilitate a space at one of the hotels or a local church.

Courtney Murtaugh, Meeting Manager
meetings@naal-liturgy.org

From the Secretary

I want to thank everyone for the support they have given me over the past few months as I transition into this role after Taylor’s excellent tenure over the last several years. I look forward to serving the Academy.

While it is not time to register for our 2025 meeting yet, there are a few things you can do now to begin getting ready for it. First, take a few minutes to verify and update your information in in your MyNAAL account. This will ensure that we have your current contact information for sending out newsletters and updates about the meeting. Next, consider adding the Academy leadership email addresses to your contacts/safe senders list. With all of the enhanced security in email systems, some of our communication to you might be blocked and we don’t want you to miss anything! And on that note, my final suggestion is that you periodically check out our NAAL website. We will posting updates there as we receive them regarding our upcoming meeting and will also be posting the newsletters (which will continue to be sent via email as well).

For those of you who are post-meeting coordinators, I encourage you to reach out to Courtney, our meeting manager, to begin discussing your group’s needs.

Christina Condyles, Secretary
secretary@naal-liturgy.org

From the Treasurer

The 2024 meeting in Seattle successfully brought together 174 in-person attendees and 30 virtual participants. Registration fees for virtual participation were equal to those charged for attendance in person. Revenue from meeting registration was $88,000, about $3,500 greater than in 2023. This fell short of our projected registration revenue by about $12,400. For the first time since returning to in-person meetings, however, we filled enough of our contracted block of hotel rooms to avoid an attrition charge.

To provide a reliable and robust livestream experience linking our virtual and in-person participants, we spent $35,400 on audiovisual equipment rentals and full-time support staff on site. While the technology expenses came in under budget, catering expenses of $69,000 were almost $20,000 more than expected. Increases in food prices and service charges raised the cost of catering the annual meeting to its highest level in more than a decade.

Thanks to the phenomenal fundraising efforts of Michael Prendergast, donations from sponsors and other supporters set a record, with $22,750 received. Exhibitors paid an additional $1,250 in fees and enriched the meeting with their presence. Membership dues remained a consistent revenue stream, contributing $19,000 to the Academy’s bottom line. Please log in to MyNAAL to pay dues or confirm that your membership for calendar year 2024 is already active. By selecting “donor paid fees” when you pay dues and register for the meeting, you offset transaction expenses that have cost the Academy $3,800 in this fiscal year alone.

Our sponsors, exhibitors, and members all deserve great thanks for closing the gap between $88,000 in meeting registration fees and almost $152,000 in total expenditures on the annual meeting and ancillary operations in 2024. The Academy also received $1,250 in donations to the scholarship fund and awarded $3,300 in scholarships to twelve attendees. In one more sign of our members’ and visitors’ generosity, we collected $1,250 in donations to PEER Seattle at the Berakah Banquet.

Although we will not close the books on fiscal year 2024 until the end of June, I estimate that the Academy will see negative net revenue of about $15,000. This loss is half the size of the $30,000 losses we incurred in FY2022 and FY2023. It also represents a significant improvement from the outlook I presented in January. Before the pandemic, the Academy had built a cash reserve of $130,000, a significant cushion that has allowed us to remain solvent throughout the financial challenges of the past four years. As of this writing, our remaining assets total approximately $55,500. While this is sufficient to pay our ordinary operating expenses and plan for the meeting in Valparaiso, it is significantly less than the expenses we are likely to incur for the 2025 meeting.

The most helpful thing that members can do to support the financial health of the Academy is to attend the 2025 meeting in Valparaiso, either in person or virtually. In budgeting for this event, we have focused on controlling the food and technology costs without reducing the communal experience or greatly increasing the registration fee. With similar or increased attendance, we anticipate covering the full cost of the meeting and beginning to rebuild the Academy’s cash reserve.

Nathaniel Marx, Treasurer
treasurer@naal-liturgy.org

From the Delegate for Membership

The deadline for membership applications is September 15, 2024. Information about our membership requirements and application process as well as the necessary forms are available on our website, https://www.naal-liturgy.org/members/application/.

I am grateful to be joined by Allie Utley and Jan Robitscher on the Membership Committee this year.

Our president, Kimberly Belcher, and past president, Glenn Byer, and I are working together this spring to develop a proposal to bring to the AC, refreshing our membership policies and application process.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me with questions. I look forward to reviewing applications this fall, and I look forward seeing you at our next meeting.

Andrew Wymer, Delegate for Membership
membership@naal-liturgy.org

From the Delegate for Seminars

Greetings! I want to first extend a huge thanks to all the conveners who led our annual meeting seminars, navigated hybrid gatherings, and managed pre-meeting coordination, e-mail communications, and agenda preparation.

This gratitude also extends to all who had to step in to convene at this meeting unexpectedly, for various reasons. The whole Academy appreciates your leadership, time and service.

Nineteen seminars gathered in 2024, down from 20 in 2023. One seminar elected a new convener, one seminar decided to end their group and explore new seminars to engage, and three seminars have indicated, to date, that they are exploring joint sessions in 2025. We encourage this kind of collaboration and cross-discipline sharing!

Joint sessions. Early notification of joint sessions will help the Academy Committee plan necessary accommodations well in advance. If you are considering a joint session, please register it here. Please take a few minutes to notify me early. You can withdraw from a joint session via email later.

Seminar Feedback. Seminar leaders and participants, both in person and online, generally reported a positive experience of the seminars. Some of you reported challenges with meeting rooms and needing additional outlets; we will verify our inventory of power strips and purchase additional ones as needed. A few of you also noted a need to have the Zoom links earlier to send to registered members. We are in conversation on how to improve this process for more timely communication to virtual meeting attendees in the future, which can include having members of the IT team present at the Conveners meeting to get everyone access a little earlier. Adjustments to the schedule to allow for longer breaks were well received by many, and we will continue to explore best options for seminar meeting times/schedules.

It is my privilege to serve the Academy as the Delegate for Seminars, and I look forward to working with you as we prepare for our 2025 meeting.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email me.

Khalia Williams, Delegate for Seminars
seminars@naal-liturgy.org

From the Past President

From my perspective as Past President, I am optimistic about the future for our Academy. Last year we welcomed a great cohort of new members, and the level of visitor participation was high. And now, with Kimberly’s innovative leadership, we have a hybrid meeting format that will expose us to much less financial risk, so things are looking great indeed.

I hope that we will all build on all of this good news. Which brings me to my happy task. I will be processing the applications for visitor status. I hope that each of you will take some time to find a colleague or two who would benefit from membership in our Academy. I recall my first meeting, when I got to meet the leaders in liturgy, many of whom were authors of my textbooks. It was also great to see my mentors in a new way, as colleagues who put forward ideas that were then challenged and refined. I got to offer my few insights, which was great. But above all, from the rite of remembrance to the banquet, being part of the Academy meeting allowed me to participate in our tradition and our vision for the future of worship in North America and beyond. I hope you share your own experience of being part of our meetings with prospective visitors.

Applying for visitor status is a good experience, as bureaucracy goes. If you want to refresh your memory about how one becomes a visitor at NAAL, read our Visitor FAQs page. Then, when you have a visitor identified and the application portal has opened (by early June), have them complete the Visitor Application, due by September 15th. This allows me time both to vet applications and work with a small Visitor Scholarship Committee (Past President, President, Treasurer) to distribute what financial aid we can offer.

Some 25 years ago I was invited to come as a visitor. In addition to the benefits I and the Academy have received, we are talking 25 years of dues, almost a hundred nights contributed to the room block, and several years of service on the Academy Committee. I am excited to meet the visitors who will contribute even more to the Academy in years to come.

Glenn Byer, Past President
pastpresident@naal-liturgy.org

From the Proceedings Editor

Warm greetings from Australia, fellow academy members, where this spring newsletter arrives in autumn! Proceedings 2024 is in the initial stages of production, though we are still awaiting a few seminar reports (nudge, nudge, Conveners—please send them as soon as possible to proceedings@naal-liturgy.org).

Since undertaking the editorship in 2020, the Academy Committee and I have been discussing what might be the best platform to use for Proceedings in the future. ISSUU has served us very well, and we owe a debt of thanks to our former editor, Richard McCarron, for facilitating that transition in 2013. After considering several options, the AC has decided that, beginning this year, Proceedings will be hosted by Open Journal Systems (OJS), an open-source software system for the management of peer-reviewed academic journals. OJS was created by the Public Knowledge Project, whose motto is “making research a global public good.”

OJS hosting will ensure wider access to the work of the Academy and facilitate broader dissemination of the work of our members who deliver plenary addresses or have papers accepted for publication in Part 3: Select Seminar Papers. OJS hosting includes features like connecting author ORCID IDs and creating unique DOI numbers for articles, as well as allowing journal content to be registered with Crossref. These features will bring Proceedingssecurely into the future, both by putting our work more squarely into the global conversation, and, importantly, by making publishing in the journal more attractive. The costs associated with the new platform will be approximately the same as what we spend currently on producing each issue. A parallel project will be to digitize and index all past issues of Proceedings.

This is an exciting development for the Academy. The transition to OJS as well as an extended deadline for paper submissions this year will likely mean Proceedings will be published later than usual but rest assured that production is underway.

Jason J. McFarland, Proceedings Editor
proceedings@naal-liturgy.org

Jobs

If there are job openings at your institutions you wish to post on our website, you may upload them using our request form. Current postings can be found here: https://www.naal-liturgy.org/members/jobs/  

Seeking Your NAAL Photos and Video

If you have good photographs or video from recent NAAL meetings (2023-2024) and are willing to share these to help keep our website fresh  you may upload them via our web form. If you have more than 5 photos to share, be sure to check the box and our webmaster will get back with you to discuss how best to share them.

Contact Us

All Academy officers’ email and other contact information is available on the Academy Committee page of our website.

Dear NAAL participants:

Thank you so much for your patience as we’ve explored various options for our January 2025 meeting. In this letter, I would like to introduce our location for the 2025 meeting and our rationale. Our Spring Newsletter will be slightly delayed to the end of May as we finalize the contract and fee structure; in that newsletter you will also find our regular reports.

Since the 2024 business meeting, Nathaniel, Courtney, and I have made budgeting estimates for both a hybrid meeting at Valparaiso University and a virtual-only meeting. Courtney and I went to Valparaiso to evaluate the hospitality we can offer there, and we have run estimates of likely registration numbers for both meetings, using the feedback we gathered during the business meeting of 2024. It seems that a hybrid meeting at Valparaiso University, January 2-5, 2025, offers us both the most accommodating meeting and the best financial outcome. There are several features at Valpo that will lower total cost for those in attendance, while allowing for a full meeting.

Hosting the 2025 meeting at Valpo will have several advantages:

• Valpo’s Chapel of the Resurrection is a wonderful space for Academy worship and is used regularly for streaming services.
• Valpo includes technical support, including screens and cameras, in their rental fees for the space. Our hybrid meeting capabilities will be better than we have been able to afford in a hotel setting, at a much lower price. Those of us who need to attend online or prefer to do so will have a better meeting experience than we have been able to provide thus far.
• Catering costs are much reduced over a hotel setting, so we will be able to include lunches on January 3 and 4 and dinners January 2, 3, and 4 (the banquet), as well as coffee breaks, in the registration price, while paying significantly less than we paid for catering in Seattle (see the Treasurer’s report in the upcoming newsletter). This will reduce costs for those of us attending in person while giving more opportunities for fellowship.
• We will not contract for a hotel room block. As a result, hybrid attendance or staying in cheaper housing does not impact the organization’s costs. The hotels identified in Valparaiso are less expensive than our normal hotel block.
• We are still evaluating different options for transportation from the airport and will communicate a final plan before registration for the meeting opens. We will be gathering information about who needs transportation from Chicago-area airports in the registration process and putting together a team to arrange safe and economical transport for anyone who needs it.
• The meeting spaces are lovely. Our exhibits and coffee breaks will be in a lovely lounge setting with comfortable areas to socialize, our meals will be in the same building as the plenary spaces, almost all the meeting rooms we will be using have natural light, and there are a variety of rooms to suit our various seminars’ needs. Most of our seminars, including all those who request mobility accommodations, will only be an elevator ride away from the plenary gatherings and meals. About six seminars will be hosted in the Chapel building or the College of Arts and Sciences, just across the drive from the Harre Union (see the map).

A few other things to look forward to for our 2025 meeting:

• In lieu of a free evening, we will have an included dinner and social on January 3, with entertainment. Those who wish to go into town on that evening are welcome to arrange their own transportation.
• We will be circulating information to seminars and discussing at the meeting the ecumenical Feast of Creation proposed for September 2025 as a celebration of the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea.

A note on the virtual meeting budget:

The budget for a virtual-only meeting is less total cost than a hybrid meeting. At the same time, it would still have substantive fees, and the results of the survey at the business meeting make it more financially risky—if less people would register than for Valpo, which the survey suggested, we could lose substantial amounts of money on a virtual meeting. At the same time, the technical capabilities for virtual meetings continue to improve, and we are holding the budgeting for a virtual meeting in reserve for potential future needs. See the Vice President’s report in our upcoming newsletter for more information on future possibilities for our annual meetings.

I want to thank especially Nathaniel Marx and Courtney Murtaugh, as well as Jim Wetzstein and the other staff at Valparaiso University, for their commitment, wisdom, and generosity in this unusual process. I am especially grateful to all of you also for your patience, trust, and feedback.

Peace,

Kim Belcher, President
North American Academy of Liturgy
president@naal-liturgy.org

Late Summer 2021 Newsletter

From Your President

Dear Colleagues:

Grace and peace to you in this summer season as we find new and different ways to enjoy the warmth of these sunny days. Unfortunately, in the midst of that enjoyment, we are also confronted with the pain that results from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and also with the various and often devastating effects of natural disasters. The fires, storms and floods too often speak of humanity’s lack of care and even abuse of nature and they are sober reminders when we think (fool ourselves) that we are the ones in control, that God is still in the midst.

That sobering realization was actualized recently during the summer meeting of the AC. Prior to that meeting, we had made what I thought was a secondary decision, in addition to confirming among ourselves that there WOULD BE an annual meeting in 2023, that the format would be hybrid. Our concern then and still was to find a way for all members to be accommodated.

Well, the reality is that while we will indeed meet in some way, because of the uncertainty cause by the resurgent spread of COVID-19 due to the Delta variant, and also because of the exorbitant cost of doing a hybrid meeting, we were unable to come to a decision as to the form or even the location of our annual meeting.

As you might well understand, the ramifications of this delay are great, but it is where we are. Be assured, we WILL meet. I think we would like it to be in-person, but we are also aware that there are many among our membership who are not ready to do airline travel, particularly to another country. Add to that the restrictions that have been in place in Canada, regarding permitting non-nationals entry into the country, and the possibility that those restrictions may be re-instituted if the new spread continues, puts the actuality of meeting at our planned location, Toronto, Canada in question.

With respect to using a hybrid format, assuming some of us we can be present in body, the cost of putting in place the required communications structure would be significant enough to deplete all our financial reserves. At this point it does not seem a viable option, but we have not determined as yet that it is not worth considering.

As to having a fully on-line meeting, although that option was rejected last year, we are all in a different place having lived through more than a year using Zoom and other such protocols to engage with one other. We all know, I believe, that it is not the ideal for inter-personal communication, but it does provide a way for us to meet if necessary.

The bottom line is that we do not have the answer to the format of our gathering, but we are working on it. Courtney is working diligently to put in place the best options, given our hotel commitments. We are continuing to prepare in all the ways required for us to meet from January 2 -5, 2022.

The AC will meet again at the end of the summer and by God’s grace, we will be able to finalize the plans for our meeting. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available. In the meantime, please take every care and precaution to preserve your health and well-being. And please remember your academy and the AC in your prayers, as together we participate in this ministry of care for the life and work of the church.

Blessings to you all.

Gennifer Brooks, President
president@naal-liturgy.org

From Your Treasurer

With the cancellation of the 2021 meeting, our budget for the current fiscal year (FY21) has sought to maintain our ongoing operations, appropriately fund any activities approved by the Academy Committee, and preserve our current, positive financial position in preparation for the 2022 annual meeting.

With these important goals in view, and regardless of how our meeting takes place in 2022, membership dues will be more essential than ever to maintaining the financial health of the NAAL.

Many of us renew our memberships and pay our annual dues when we register for the annual meeting. Though we do not yet have a registration process to announce, please take a moment now to visit the website and renew your membership for 2022 or set up your account for auto-renewal.

And if you have questions about either of these, please do not hesitate to contact me for assistance.

Nathaniel Marx, Treasurer
treasurer@naal-liturgy.org

From Your Delegate for Membership

Inviting New NAAL Membership Applications

Fall is approaching fast and that means it’s the time to prepare and submit new membership applications for those NAAL visitors who are now eligible to apply for full membership. Over the last year we paused the membership application and review process due to the pandemic. There is still quite a bit of uncertainty about the upcoming 2022 Annual Meeting but we will nevertheless move forward with membership application review even as the Academy Committee is working on finalizing the details about the meeting in January 2022.

All those who have participated in at least two previous NAAL annual meetings in the status of visitor and have the necessary qualifications for full membership are cordially invited to consider becoming NAAL members. The initiate the application process, please visit our new website where you can find application and recommendation forms.

To make sure your application is reviewed in time for the vote at the 2022 Annual Meeting, please complete and submit your application form and the two required recommendation forms by your seminar convener and one other full member of NAAL by September 15, 2021. Please note that it is the responsibility of the applicant to contact the colleagues who will write recommendations for them and ensure that they have the required forms as well as information about the application deadline. All forms are available for electronic submission (preferred) or download on NAAL website. Membership Committee will ordinarily reach out to the applicants on November 1 to inform them about the outcome of their applications. If I can help with questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me using the email link on NAAL Membership site!

In hope of seeing many of you at our next meeting,

Kristine Suna-Koro
membership@naal-liturgy.org

From Your Delegate for Seminars

Kimberly Belcher, Delegate for Seminars
seminars@naal-liturgy.org

From Your Secretary and New Webmaster

As has already been alluded to in several of our reports above, we now have a new website! With many thanks to Troy Messenger, Micah Boon, our Academy Committee, and our new webmaster, Layla Karst, the fully revised and updated NAAL website has gone live in the past two weeks. We encourage you to check it out, try out its new navigation system, click on the links, and start to become familiar with this new and much improved tool for communication within the Academy and about the work of the Academy to the wider world.

As we launch the new website and now have a dedicated webmaster, I want you to be aware of changes in who will receive what information going forward.

1. Continue to send memorial notices of our colleagues to me (secretary@naal-liturgy.org). While we are also now hosting these on our website, I will continue to create the memorials and distribute them first through our Neon email system. After they are created and distributed, our webmaster will post them to the website.

2. Also, continue to send job opportunity notices to me (secretary@naal-liturgy.org). I will review them, edit them for our website, and then send them to our webmaster for posting.

For all other inquiries about the website, information about new articles or books you have had published, any errors or glitches you may find, or other content you would like to see updated, revised, or presented in a different way, please contact our webmaster, Layla Karst.

Taylor W. Burton-Edwards, Secretary
secretary@naal-liturgy.org

Layla Karst, Webmaster
webmaster@naal-liturgy.org

From Your Coordinator of Sponsors and Donors

Though how we are meeting in 2022 is still being discerned, we are always looking for sponsors and donors, and our Oral History project is ongoing.

Donations and Sponsorships. If you can suggest institutions and individuals we can approach to ask them to be a sponsor of our annual meeting, please send me those suggestions (dlasalle@nd.edu)! Please remember our Scholarship Fund when you register for the annual meeting. Every dollar you contribute to the Scholarship Fund helps to encourage the participation of future and present NAAL members. All donations large and small are appreciated.

NAAL Oral History: Founding Stories. If you are a charter member of the NAAL, or if you have stories from the early years, I will available be at the Atlanta meeting to record those stories. This is part of an effort to develop an oral history of the founding of NAAL. If you have heard stories from Story Corps you have an idea of the kind of stories we are seeking. Individuals and pairs of people who want to share a story are welcome.

Don LaSalle, Sponsorship Coordinator

From Ed Foley, Co-Convener of Emerging Scholars

From Gail Ramshaw: Lauding the North American Academy of Liturgy

Perhaps there are other members of the North American Academy of Liturgy who, like me, owe an immeasurable debt to the organization.

I have never been professionally employed in the field of liturgy. Yet I have faithfully attended forty-two Academy meetings in a row, receiving each January my assignments for the coming year.

The NAAL has granted to me hundreds of colleagues, a dozen treasured friends, interdenominational collaboration, conversation with a dear Jewish comrade, consultations with editors, Lutheran get-togethers, seminar members who respectfully listened and responded to my presentations – whether insightful or ill-conceived – as well as the pleasure of serving as Academy president in 2001 and the gift of a Berakah Award in 2010.

Where else could I, a laywoman, have encountered this microcosm of the Christian church, annually instructing me in an updated vocabulary and an enhanced picture of liturgical needs, encouraging me toward more luminous religious speech?

It seems to me that without the North American Academy of Liturgy, I could have offered far less of value to the church’s repository of prayers and to the academic study of liturgical language.

Thank you, North American Academy of Liturgy.

Late Summer 2021 Newsletter Addendum

From Your Past President

To date, the Past President has received eleven applications and accepted ten First Time Visitors for the January 2022 Annual Meeting. First-Time Visitor acceptance is based on the qualifications for membership, found on the Academy’s website. The deadline for visitor status and scholarships is November 1^st.

Application for Visitor Status
Application for Scholarship

Bruce Morrill, Past President
pastpresident@naal-liturgy.org

From Your Webmaster

New Email Addresses
I am glad to report we now have three new NAAL email addresses available for the work of the Academy:

webmaster@naal-liturgy.org (which will direct to me);

subscriptions@naal-liturgy.org (for our Proceedings subscription manager, David Turnbloom), and

exhibits@naal-liturgy.org (for our exhibits manager, Michael Prendergast)

New Job Opportunities Form
Now, as an alternative to sending job opportunity postings to your secretary (which you may still do), you may post them through an online form on our website.  Your secretary and webmaster will receive a copy, your secretary will approve the final posting, and I will post it to the website.

Layla Karst, Webmaster
webmaster@naal-liturgy.org

Contact Us

All Academy officers email and other contact information is available on the NAAL Leadership page of our website.