April 2021 News

From the President

Shalom! Peace be with you!

Springtime greetings NAAL colleagues!

The signs of nature’s awakening from winter sleep are all around us. They are visible for me in the purple flowers that in their abundance beautify my environment (who cares if they are weeds), in colorful birds that alight on my back porch, in the pair of Canadian geese that have arrived once again to inhabit their nest somewhere in the cul-de-sac where my house is located.

But renewal and rebirth are also present in the hopeful signs of emergence from the worst of the COVID 19 Pandemic: in more and more persons being fully vaccinated, in grandparents having full access to beloved grandchildren after more than a year’s physical absence, in restaurants, movie theatres and churches opening to physical patrons, even though limited, and even in schools preparing to re-open to on-site in-person classes. These all provide evidence of human resilience that are worthy of celebration.

For our Jewish siblings, the celebration of Passover lingers around you with the memory of God’s interaction in freeing an enslaved people. For Christian believers, whether Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant, we celebrate in this liturgical season the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, in the midst of all our celebrations, we cannot lose sight of the sobering evidence of the challenges that still haunt our world.

We are confronted by the continuing violence against people of Asian ancestry, the scourge of racism evidenced in part by the trial of former Police officer Derek Chauvin for the killing of George Floyd, the unholy sight of thousands of unaccompanied minors travelling lonely and dangerous roads, even dropped over high walls, fleeing the violence and death-dealing systems in their countries of birth in the hope of being admitted into the “haven” of life in the USA, the establishment of laws that prohibit persons from caring for one another even to providing a drink of water to alleviate the thirst as they try to live out their right to vote as free people and even in the force of nature experienced through tornadoes, fires and floods that take lives and destroy homes. At times it seems as if we will never know true peace in our world.

As we begin to emerge from the cocoons that have enclosed us and to overcome the restrictions that have held us captive during this past year, my fervent hope is that we can receive again that word of peace that is an eternal gift of the divine. Shalom! Peace! We need God’s shalom in order to navigate our lives successfully as the people of God. We need God’s peace that alone gives us fulness of joy and hope that lasts. But peace can be experienced fully among the disparate people of God only when we recognize and honor the imago Dei in all people.

In many places in scripture we are called to love others as we love ourselves. I hesitate to use the word love as a call sign because of its blatant misuse in our society. It is too easy to say and too difficult to do in our world, but if we can accept and honor the reality that God created each human being in the image of God, then honoring each one becomes easier to accomplish because in doing so, we honor God. Seeing the imago Dei in every human makes it possible to show the respect and love for the other that alone enables us to have peace in our world.

As persons dedicated to the development and stewarding of the elements that pertain to the worship of God, our lives and our work commit us also to seeking justice for all people as that is intrinsic to God’s shalom. Whether that requires us to participate in overt expressions or actions or whether we simply pray for divine guidance or intervention in all the work that is done, our call is to seek peace and pursue it, to let the peace of God reign in our hearts and to spread that peace throughout our world.

In this season of spring, of rebirth, of life renewed, may that be the focus of our every action. May we offer that word, be that representative of God’s peace in our world.

Shalom! Peace be with you!

Gennifer Brooks, President

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NAAL 2022 Annual Meeting 

There will be an Annual Meeting in 2022 (DV).

Get ready, plan for it, look toward it.

We believe the place will be Toronto.

We expect that it will offer attendance in multiple ways.

We trust that it will provide a rich and rewarding experience for all.

We know that the dates are January 2-5, 2022.

Look for details in the Summer newsletter.

Berakah Recipient for 2021/2

It is our joy to remind one and all that we have named The Rev. Dr. Maxwell E. Johnson as the recipient of the Berakah Award in 2021/2.

Max is Professor of Liturgy in the Department of Theology, at the University of Notre Dame, and is well known and respected for his scholarship in Early Church liturgy. His classic work The Rites of Christian Initiation: Their Evolution and Interpretation is a staple for the study of worship and liturgy across ecumenical circles and his contributions to the study of liturgy extends in multiple areas and historical periods.

He is a prolific writer, his latest publication, co-authored with Paul Bradshaw, Prayers of the Eucharist: Early and Reformed. Fourth Edition, was published by The Liturgical Press in 2019. He is currently completing Introduction to Eastern Christian Liturgies, which is being co-authored with Stefanos Alexopoulos, His knowledge and influence has been shared with multiple scholars in the field of liturgy. He is also a respected presenter, and the recipient of many awards, grants, and honors. In 2019, he was made an Honorary Canon of the Episcopal Cathedral of St James, South Bend, IN. Over his years of membership, Max has served the academy as the convener of the Problems in the Early History of Liturgy and as a member of the Academy Committee centered around his presidency in 2015. He is the founder and active vocalist and guitar-playing member of the Oblates of Blues!

We are pleased to name Max Johnson for this prestigious award and look forward to celebrating this honor with him at our annual meeting in Seattle.

For the Academy Committee,

Gennifer Brooks,President

From the Vice President

Dear Friends,

I pray this note finds you well and good.

Many, if not most, of us we have recently celebrated Passover and Holy Week rituals with inhibitions we never could have imagined two years ago. Even if this year’s liturgies had less restrictions and more polish than last year’s rites, our recent ritual offerings were not what we desired or expected.

And as much as we may have developed new skills in creating and executing physically distanced—even geographically distributed—rituals, I know of no one who does not pray for the early end to these new practices. At the same time, I have heard few people who think that there will be no long-term effects on the ritual modes and execution of our communities’ worship moving forward. The same could be said regarding our academy’s choices made for our 2021 “meeting” and the choices we will make for 2022 in Toronto—and beyond.

I now have the honor of holding the longest term as Vice-Present in our academy, which means I have had the longest time to prepare for my Vice-Presidential Address. Even though the context of my address has changed significantly since I initially conceived it, the question I will explore has not. That is, “What should be the charism of our academy moving forward in this new century?”

Our religious traditions and our world have changed significantly since the inception of our academy nearly a half century ago, as have the diversity of people within our academy. We are no longer in the springtime of liturgical renewal. Instead, we find ourselves in the midst of some of the most challenging ritual negotiations we have experienced in generations. I continue to research the various categories of academic communities and where we fall within them, how the histories of those others may or may not offer us insight into our future, and how the changing landscape in which our future rituals will take place may influence our future options and choices.

It is a deep honor to have been elected to serve as your Vice-President, and soon your President. With our communities of worship, our academic institutions, and the communities we live in, all in states of flux, I hope to provide you with insights from my research to help us make wise decisions moving forward, that we may continue to be a thriving community of faithful liturgical scholars and practitioners.

Blessings on you all in what we pray is the dawning of the diminishment of this pandemic.

Sincerely yours,

Todd E. Johnson, Vice President

From The Meeting Manager

Courtney Murtaugh, Meeting Manager

From Your Secretary: “The First Shall Be Last”

Our new meeting schedule begins in earnest in 2022.

Starting in 2022, our meetings will begin with on January 2 and conclude on January 5.

And denominational and interest-group pre-meetings will become post-meetings.

For those of you who are responsible for convening or making arrangements for these meetings, this is an advance reminder of this significant change in their scheduling.

Taylor W. Burton Edwards, Secretary

Treasurer

Our financial position remains strongly positive and little changed from one year ago. Our current total assets are also slightly higher than at the close of FY20 last June. Our net revenue for FY21 is currently positive, but I still expect that we will either break even or incur a small loss for the full fiscal year, as the revised FY21 budget projects.

In a  normal year, we would have collected approximately $2000 at the Berakah Banquet for distribution to a local charity. Since we did not meet in 2021, and there was no collection, the Academy Committee approved a $2000 donation to Feeding America as a means of addressing the hardships caused by winter storms and power outages in Texas that were very much in the news and in our prayers at the time of our meeting in March.

Your Academy Committee and I continue to review the fiscal outlook given remaining uncertainties about who may be able to attend the 2022 meeting in Toronto. We will keep you updated as we learn more.

Nathaniel Marx,Treasurer

Delegate for Membership

Due to Covid disruptions and with awareness that 2021 annual meeting would not proceed as usual in the circumstances of pandemic, we did not proceed with the regular review of membership applications that were submitted in early 2020 as the Membership Committee ordinarily does in summer and fall. However, all applications that were received in 2020 will be reviewed in the fall of 2021.

We are accepting new visitor applications until September 15, 2021 which is our usual application deadline. Application can be made from this page of our website: https://www.naal-liturgy.org/membership/visitor-status

If you would like to apply for membership, please visit the information page on NAAL website. There you will find a detailed description of the application process. Please do not forget to contact your seminar convener and one other NAAL member outside your seminar for the required two recommendation letters (the respective two forms are required) as per application guidelines. It is the responsibility of the applicant to secure both recommendation letters (to be submitted to the Delegate for Membership via the website) as well as to fill out the electronic application form and submit the picture. All components of the application are due by September 15, 2021 to receive full and timely consideration for the election to full membership at the annual meeting in January 2022.

Kristine Suna-Koro, Delegate for Membership

Delegate for Seminars

The Emerging Scholars virtual symposium in January was well-attended, with 9 paper presentations and more than 40 people participating in conversations surrounding pandemic worship and social inequality in the discipline and beyond. Two of the papers have already been published in the Religions special issue, “Worship in a time of Pandemic: Fresh Possibilities and Troubling Inequalities,” edited by Ed Foley. The special issue is open to all who would like to submit an essay on this topic for peer review. Instructions for submission and the essays already published may be found here:

Kimberly Hope Belcher, Delegate for Seminars

Past President

My primary duty as Past President concerns First-Time Visitors to the Annual Meeting: communicating with inquirers, deciding to accept or reject applications, allocating scholarship funds, and guiding new Visitors into their first Annual Meeting. People interested in being First-Time Visitors may find our FAQ webpage helpful.

The basic criteria for evaluating applications for First-Time Visitors align with those for Membership, that is, a fair expectation that the Visitor eventually would be eligible to join NAAL. The First-Time Visitor Application, which includes listing one’s credentials and seminar interests, is due by September 15th which allows me time both to vet applications and work with a small Visitor Scholarship Committee (Past President, President, Treasurer), responding to those applicants seeking financial aid.

Bruce Morrill, Past President

From the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee

A significant part of the vision of our Academy President for our 2022 meeting is a plenary session regarding equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Academy.

Here is the recently updated version of our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion statement:

As an ecumenical and inter-religious association of liturgical scholars, the pursuit of more equitable, diverse, and inclusive practices are core to our scholarship and membership. Our approach to liturgical scholarship includes critical liturgical reflection and examination of race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, abilities, age, national origin, religious and ecclesial affiliation, political and theological commitment, marital/parental/domestic status, and more. We reject any individual or guild conduct that would limit or harm the diversity of scholarship and membership within the Academy.

The Academy’s first gathering in 1973 followed the liturgical innovations of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), and it blossomed alongside movements of liturgical renewal. More recently, the work of the Academy has engaged critical theories of postcolonialism, race, gender, sexuality, and class to name a few. Going forward, we aim to flourish with sustained attention to the array of sacramental and ritual experiences, and widen our focus upon equity, diversity, and the inclusion of all persons as cornerstone commitments to our scholarly and doxological work.

You may view this updated version on the NAAL website:
https://www.naal-liturgy.org/resources

Report from the Toronto Area Host Committee Meeting

We are in very good hands for our Toronto meeting with an active committee of six onsite in the Toronto area so far. The Academy Committee will continue to consult with our Toronto host committee in preparation for our site visit when that becomes possible later this year.

Jobs

If there are job openings at your institutions, please send these to the Secretary. An updated listing of current opportunities is on our website.

Seeking Your NAAL Photos and Video

If you have good photographs or video from recent NAAL meetings (2018-2020) and are willing to share these to help keep our website fresh and add to our upcoming new website please contact Taylor Burton Edwards. When you contact him, he will let you know how best to share your media resources.

Contact us

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