March 14, 2018

The Colonizing Power of Song and Other Ways of Singing

by Becca Whitla, Ph.D. Cand. Toronto School of Theology

Becca Whitla, BFA, MSMus, CRCCO, ARCT, is a doctoral candidate at TST with a focus on liberationist, decolonial and postcolonial perspectives on congregational song. With over twenty years of music-making experience—from congregations and multifaith events to community choirs and multidisciplinary artistic collectives—she has served as the Music Director at Church of the Holy Trinity, Toronto, has taught courses at Emmanuel College, Toronto, and Seminario Evangélico de Matanzas, Cuba, is a SSHRC scholarship winner, and is presently Interim Director of Chapel at Emmanuel. Her peer-reviewed publications include several journal articles, book chapters and encyclopaedia entries related to her dissertation research.

January 24, 2018

The Epiclesis in Early Eastern Eucharistic Prayers

by Dr. Pablo Argárate (University of Graz - Austria) 

The belief that God is One and Three forms without doubt the core of Christianity. However, while the highly conflictive development of the doctrine on the second Person is well known, the role and relevance of the third Person in the Trinitarian dogma remain obscure and to a great extent subordinated. The present lecture addresses the emerging Pneumatological discourse, based however not on the Patristic Pnematological treatises, but on the analysis of the evolution of the epiclesis up to the beginning of the fifth century, focusing upon its different forms in the main Eastern ancient anaphorae. It presents their essential characteristics and differences, paying particular attention to the technical terminology and function. In this way, it explores the different theological substrata patent in the diverse formulae. Liturgy precedes the theological reflection and, in the same time, follows it.

Prof. Pablo Argarate is Professor of Patristic at the Faculty of Theology  and Head ot the Institute for Ecumenical Theology, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Patristicat the University of Graz.

November 1 2017

The Eucharistic Body of Paul and the Ritualization of 2 Corinthians

by Prof. Dr. Judith H. Newman (Emmanuel College) 

This seminar presentation draws on material from Newman’s forthcoming book, Before the Bible: the Liturgical Body and the Formation of Scriptures in Early Judaism (Oxford, 2018) in which she argues that a key to understanding the formation of scriptures is the widespread practice of individual and communal prayer in early Judaism. She demonstrates that scriptures were formed because of the intertwined relationship of worship practices, learned figures who interpreted scripture, and the ongoing performance of scriptural tradition. The seminar focuses on the role of Paul as one who initiates communal liturgical practices and serves as mediating figure of the scriptural tradition.

Prof. Judith H. Newman is Associate Professor of Religion and Old Testament/Hebrew Bible at Emmanuel College, and cross-appointed to the Department and Centre for the Study of Religion and the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto.

March 8, 2017

Liturgy as Enacted Reconciliation:  The experience of All Inclusive Ministries (AIM)

by Gilles Mongeau SJ Th.D. (Regis College at the University of Toronto)

The Second Vatican Council affirms that the Eucharist "makes" the Church, that it is the source and summit of our communal life as Christ's Body. The various General Instructions of the Roman Missal have, over the years, articulated how the actions of ritual itself are an enactment of right relationship with God, with the neighbour and with creation. This presentation will share how one Eucharistic community that reaches out to LGBTQ persons lives and expresses this reality in its liturgy.

February 8, 2017

The Bahá'í Temple of South America: Hariri Pontarini Architects

by Siamak Hariri, arquitect. Hariri Pontarini Architects.Toronto.

 A temple of light expressing a faith of inclusion is poised to become an architectural landmark in Chile and world-renowned. Set within the Andean foothills, the complex curved shelter is designed by the distinguished Canadian architect Siamak Hariri as an invitation to spiritual contemplation and pilgrimage. Siamak is going to share with us his 14 year journey to create the South American Bahá’í House of Worship, the last of the eight continental temples commissioned by the Bahá’í Community.

November 9, 2016

Baptizing the Dead or Burying the Baptized: The Need to Recover the Link Between Baptism and the Funeral

by  Rebecca Spellacy,B.A, M.A, ThD, ABD. Trinity College.

The Episcopal Church’s funeral liturgy wants to locate the funeral in the context of Easter, of the Paschal Mystery. While much can and has been made of that link, there is another, equally as important link that is made in the liturgy, that is the link between the baptism of a Christian and their funeral. This is based on the claim that the body of the departed has worth because of baptism. This presentation will argue that the way to address this situation is to highlight the liturgical link between baptism, the Paschal Mystery, and the funeral and to view them as a liturgical triplet.

April 1, 2016

The Transept Doors of the St. Michael’s Cathedral Restoration Project 

by Farhad Nargol-O'Neill, sculptor

 

The Ontario born and raised sculptor, Farhad Nargol-ONeill, has been commissioned to create two Marian double doors, carved in bas-relief and cast in bronze, as part of the restoration of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto. Nargol-O’Neill was born in Unionville, Ontario, grew up in the York Catholic school system, studied music at York University, and ran a successful sculpting studio in Belfast, Ireland for ten years before returning to Canada. His work has been shown in exhibitions around the world; his commissions can be found in private, public and diplomatic collections. Since 2014 he has been creating twenty bronze Rosary-themed panels for two monumental transept doors, “The Joyful and Glorious Mysteries” and “The Sorrowful and Luminous Mysteries.” 

 

March 3, 2016

The Grammar of Silence in Liturgical Language

by  Rev. Dr. Eileen Scully, Director of Faith, Worship and Ministry for the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC).

The Rev. Dr. Eileen Scully (PhD, St. Michael’s College, 1993) is Director of Faith, Worship and Ministry for the Anglican Church of Canada [ACC]. She has also served as Chair of the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation, Associate General Secretary for Faith and Witness with the Canadian Council of Churches, with numerous liturgical and theological bodies both in the ACC and the worldwide Anglican Communion, and has lectured widely in Church History, Theology, and Christian Education and Formation.

November 25, 2015

Play, Symbol & Festival in Worship Design

by  Dr. David H. Pereyra,  OCAD University & St Michael’s College University

The German philosopher, Hans-Georg Gadamer throughout his work asserts, “The experience of the beautiful in art is a form of knowing.” To confirm this argument, he works on three basic concepts of his philosophical aesthetics: “play,” “symbol,” and “festival.” In this presentation Pereyra will explore the application of those concepts to the design of Christian churches. Sacred spaces are capable of moving and transforming us because of their particular language of beauty. He will argue that by designing a sacred space with Gadamer’s concepts of play, symbol, and festival in mind, we can enhance our knowledge of beauty through the art of liturgical design. He will explain Gadamer’s three concepts, describe how they can applied to the design of Christian churches, and consider their potential effects. The reality of beauty, as a transcendental quality of being, invites one to enter the world of contemplation wherein beauty gives herself freely and without personal regard. The beauty of the liturgy and the place where it is celebrated must converge in an experience that transforms worship space into Sacred Space.

David H. Pereyra is a seasonal professor at the Faculty of Theology at the University of St Michael’s College in Toronto, and the coordinator of the Liturgy Seminar, at the Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto. He has a degree as an architect at the University of Buenos Aires, a Master in Arts in Theology, and a degree of Doctor in Philosophy of Theology, both at the University of St Michael’s College. For several years he has been a lecturer of Church Design at the Catholic University in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has presented his work in international conferences in Argentina, Austria, Belgium and United States. Right now, he works at the Inclusive Design Research Centre, at Ontario College of Art University in Toronto (OCAD U). His research examines inclusivity and accessibility throughout welcoming space.

October 21, 2015

Music, servant of text? Liturgical deliberations at Vatican II

by Dr. Michael O’Connor. Senior Lecturer. St. Michael’s College University

Michael O’Connor is a Senior Lecturer at the University of St. Michael’s College. His areas of expertise include Cajetan, music and liturgy. Dr. O’Connor’s academic scholarship and practical music-making overlap in the theory and practice of liturgical music.  He has recently published, "The Liturgical Use of the Organ in the Sixteenth Century: the Judgments of Cajetan and the Dominican Order" and has a monograph due out next year on Cajetan's biblical exegesis. In addition to teaching in the college undergraduate programs at St. Michael’s he runs a weekly Singing Club on campus and directs the USMC Schola Cantorum. Dr. O’Connor is a board member of the Royal School of Church Music Canada.

In the context of Christian worship, music is often said to be a "servant of the text" (or a "servant of the rite"). This is found across denominations and centuries -- e.g., among Calvinist reformers and twentieth century popes. This presentation will first of all consider the implications of this assertion and then the surprising decision, at the Second Vatican Council, to omit it from the Constitution on the Liturgy. The presentation will conclude with some reflections on the consequences of this decision, which remain to be worked out in practice.

March 20, 2015

Grace Art Glass Treasures of Toronto: a FREE tour of Art Glass 

Led by Sarah Hall, RCA

 

Sarah Hall was born in Dundas, Ontario, Canada in 1951.  She studied in the Architectural Glass Department at Swansea College of Art in Wales, UK and followed this with an internship with Lawrence Lee, master at the Royal College of Art in London.  After completing studies in the U.K., Sarah spent a year in Jerusalem studying Middle Eastern techniques in glass. Her work has received numerous awards for outstanding liturgical art. The American Institute of Architects has awarded Sarah several ‘Honor Awards’ in light of her challenging and creative installations within contemporary church architecture.

 
In 2002, Sarah was elected into membership of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art.  Her exceptional contribution to the built environment was honored in 1997 by the Ontario Association of Architects “Allied Arts Award.” In 2005, Sarah received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship to research and integrate photovoltaic technology (solar energy collection cells) into her art glass installations. This unique fusion of art and technology is the first of its’ kind in North America.Sarah has established her studio in Toronto and keeps a busy schedule with lectures, exhibitions and projects which span a wide range of communities and architectural settings.

February 25, 2015

The Hegelianized Calvin:
Re-Examining Calvin’s Place in the Separation of Art from Religion

by Dr. Rebekah Smick. Associate Professor of Philosophy of the Arts and Culture
Institute for Christian Studies in the Toronto School of Theology. BA (Brandeis University). MA (Columbia University). PhD (University of Toronto)

Rebekah Smick specializes in pre-Kantian art theory and criticism, in particular the relation of early modern visual arts theory to poetics and rhetoric in the Western tradition. Her research and teaching investigate the aesthetic values of beauty and grace in the early modern period, the link between knowledge and imagination, the aesthetic function of metaphor, and the place of compassion. She is especially interested in delineating the connections made during the early modern period between aesthetics, metaphysics, ethics, and theology. She is author of Antiquity and Its Interpreters (Cambridge UP, 2000) and is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Michelangelo’s Vatican Pietà as Image in the Theology and Aesthetics of Compassion.

 

January 28, 2015

Grace in a Place

The Sacramental Facilitation of Physical Access for People with Disabilities in Ecclesial Spaces

by Michael Alexander Walker, M.T.S., Th.M. Th.D. Candidate (Knox College)

Christians with disabilities often find ecclesial spaces inhospitable, because such places are created with only normalized body-types in mind. For instance, steps and hard surfaces can hinder or constrain people with mobility issues, while hymnals lack Braille and large print for those who are blind or visually impaired. Nonetheless, as a Christian constructive theologian with cerebral palsy, I assert that these physical conditions can change. Baptism and Holy Communion can facilitate dialogue about physical access to ecclesial spaces for people with disabilities: they allow Christians with various levels of ability, conversing passionately across difference, to explore the capacities of people with disabilities to receive dignity from the spaces that we inhabit, and to give dignity back to our communities using our gifts.

 

The sacraments can create this space for material access. Because baptism represents human equality in Christ (see Galatians 3:28), it can attest the importance of universal-design principles for church sanctuaries. All people, particularly people with disabilities, possess the right to buildings with ramps, non-slip flooring, and adequate lighting. Furthermore, Holy Communion entails vulnerability to and solidarity with the plight of people who are oppressed, those who suffer unduly in the world. By pointing out the needs of those who hunger or lack clothing or shelter, Communion demands that Christians provide all users of their spaces with satisfactory food, heat, and light. God’s love can flourish in accessible ecclesial spaces where people with and without disabilities can feel communal and transformative acceptance. 

 

November 19, 2014

Prayer, Praise and Postcoloniality: Rethinking Liturgy in Canada

by Dr Sarah Travis (Knox College)

Postcolonial theories have been brought into dialogue with many fields in recent decades, including biblical and theological studies.  Even more recently, liturgical scholars have begun to wonder about the relationship among postcolonial theories and worship practice.  This seminar will ponder this relationship with specific reference to the contemporary Canadian context.  What critiques and cautions are brought into the space of worship from a postcolonial perspective?  In what sense does liturgy interact with key postcolonial themes such as identity and hybridity?                                    
 
Rev. Dr. Sarah Travis is Minister-in-Residence at Knox College, where she also teaches courses in the areas of preaching and worship.  Her forthcoming book will be published by Wipf and Stock and is entitled Decolonizing Preaching: The Pulpit as Postcolonial Space.

October 29, 2014

Singing, Prayer, and Sacrifice
The Neo-Platonic Revival of Musica Humana
in the Swiss Reformation

by Dr Hyun-Ah Kim (Trinity College)

Dr Hyun-Ah Kim is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies in the University of Toronto and teaches at Trinity College in U. of T. and the Toronto School of Theology.

September 17, 2014

From Vancouver to Busan: Promises and Challenges in Ecumenical Worship since 1983

by Dr. Andrew Donaldson (Consultant in Worship and Spirituality, WCC, Geneva)

The worship that took place in the tent at the 6th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Vancouver in 1983 opened up fresh possibilities in ecumenical liturgy and global song. This presentation will sketch some key turning points in the use of global song in North America since 1983. We will also consider some of the changes – the new possibilities and the fresh challenges –  that global song has brought to ecumenical liturgies.

Dr. Andrew Donaldson, Worship Consultant to the World Council of Churches
Co-editor of The Book of Praise for the Presbyterian
 Church in Canada and a past-president of the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, Andrew received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree
 from Knox College in 2007 for his work in congregational song.

 Andrew works with the World Council of Churches in the area of worship and spirituality. Last year, along with Dr. Lim Swee Hong, he helped create and facilitate daily worship at the world-wide gathering of the WCC in Busan, Republic of Korea.

February 28, 2014

Let us sit and tell sad stories of the deaths of Kings: How to Bury a Medieval King in 2014

by Douglas Cowling MA - Musical Dramaturge for the Tallis Choir

*Special TST Liturgy Seminar and Concert  in collaboration with the Tallis Choir of Toronto

The discovery of the bones of Richard III in 2012 unleashed a flood of interest in medieval funerary customs and a spirited public debate about where and how the much-maligned king should be reinterred. As part of the historical commemoration of the event, the Tallis Choir is recreating a requiem mass as it may have been celebrated by Richard III's sister, Margaret of Burgundy. He may have been buried secretly in England, but he had a royal funeral in Burgundy. The polyphonic requiem was invented by the Franco-Flemish school of Ockhegem and Brumel and gives students of the liturgy an opportunity to hear the lavish obsession with death that seems to overwhelm the late 15th century.  

Douglas Cowling is a writer, musician and educator in Toronto who has written on the relationship between medieval liturgy and English religious drama. He is the co-author of Sharing the Banquet: Liturgical Renewal in Your Parish and a contributor to Let Us Keep the Feast. He edited two collections of global music for liturgical use in Let Us Make Music Together, and his own music has been published by CHC in the USA. His children’s symphony show, Tchaikovsky Discovers America was recently performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is Director of Music at St. Philip’s Church, Etobicoke, and musical dramaturge for the Tallis Choir of Toronto.

Concert: “Requiem for Richard III” with the Tallis Choir of Toronto, Saturday, March 1, 2014 7:30pm, St. Patrick’s Church, 141 McCaul St (north of Dundas). For more information see:

http://www.tallischoir.com/currentseason.html#RichardIII   

February 19, 2014

May The Angels Lead You Into Paradise: Medieval Liturgical Expressions of Eschatology

by Rebecca Spellacy (Trinity College)

*A joint session with the TST Patristics Seminar. 

“Who I was, you are. Who I am, you will be. Pray for me”. This Medieval admonishment from the dead to the living reminds all who would read it of two very important things, the inevitability of death, and the necessity of prayer for the departed.  This presentation will concern itself with the liturgical prayers around the death of a Christian in the Middle Ages and how the prayers for the dead reflected the theology, both popular and established, of the day. It will demonstrate a development and continuity of the related liturgies in relationship to the eschatology of the time that still allowed for local adaption. Ultimately, it will attempt to show that the prayers for the dead exhibit a deep ecclesial and personal response to an eschatology that could at times prove both hopeful and hopeless.