September 26, 2012

More Abundant and Varied: Looking at the Links between two Twentieth Century Lectionaries

by Dr. Fred Graham, PhD.  (Associate Professor Emeritus - Faculty of Theology - Emmanuel College of Victoria University)

The dates 1963 and 1978 point to significant turning points in congregational life for Roman Catholic as well as for Protestant and Reformed Churches. In 1963, the Second Vatican Council convened and a year later announced the preparation of a new lectionary containing “more abundant, varied, and appropriate reading of the sacred scriptures.” Reformed and Protestant bodies soon picked up the idea, and in 1978 convened an ecumenical and international consultation in Washington to emulate the success of the Ordo Lectionum Missae adopted by Roman Catholics. The result was the Common Lectionary (1983) and the Revised Common Lectionary (1992). Dr. Fred Graham was a member of the editorial committee (1988-92) for the RCL, and is a past chair of the Consultation on Common Texts who published it. His new account of why it looks the way it does is now available from Fortress Press. He will comment on this new history and the related commentary.

November 7, 2012

An Examination of Luther's Taufbüchlein and Deutsche Messe: Liturgical Reform in Moderation

by Rev. C. Pierson Shaw, Jr., BS, MDiv, STM, STL PhD Student  (Faculty of Theology - St. Michael’s College)

Some of the most enduring elements of the liturgical reform are preserved both in Martin Luther’s Baptismal rite, published in 1523 with a revision published in 1526, and the German translation of the Mass or the Deutsche Messe of 1526. While these liturgies have themselves undergone significant reform over the past five centuries, much of the liturgical and theological thinking which inspired their development by the Augustinian Wittenberg Reformer have profoundly impacted baptismal and Eucharistic Liturgies and practice across the Traditions of the Western Church. While Luther redacted these liturgies from 16th medieval forms, none the less, the revisions show a pattern of “reform in moderation”, more common to the Wittenberg theologians. In other words, while these liturgies reveal a solidly evangelical character, they remain at the same time strongly catholic.

November 28, 2012

Surprises in a Ukrainian Euchology: Wedding Rites in a 16th-century Trebnyk from the Stefanyk Library in Lviv

by Prof. Rev. Peter Galadza, PhD.  ( Faculty of Theology, Saint Paul University - Ottawa)

Prof. Galadza will analyze the wedding rite found in a 16th-century Western Ukrainian euchology. Especially from the perspective of present-day usage, the rite is significantly different, with several fascinating features. The euchology (trebnyk) under consideration is the first in a series of manuscripts that have been transcribed for the Slavonic-English Analytical Catalogue of Liturgical Manuscripts in Ukrainian Repositories (SEACLMUR) compiled by Prof. Galadza, and supported by a major SSHRC grant.

Prof. Peter Galadza is Kule Family Professor of Liturgy at the Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, Saint Paul University, Ottawa.