February 29, 2012

The Ladder of a Soul's Ascent: the Structure and Use of Liturgical Music in the Coptic Orthodox Church

by Bishoy Dawood, Hon. B.A., MTS, PhD student in the Faculty of Theology (St. Michael’s College)

In the three surviving liturgies of the Coptic Orthodox Church, namely the Anaphoras of St. Basil, St. Gregory, and St. Cyril, the entire liturgical service is chanted, and the majority of hymns for each part of those liturgies have been handed down from cantor to disciple as an oral tradition for centuries. While the Coptic Church did pray other Anaphora’s in the past, the hymns for those Anaphora’s did not survive, and it is only because the hymns did not survive that those liturgies are no longer prayed in the Coptic Church, even if the texts of those liturgies exist. This demonstrates the fact that in the Coptic Church, liturgical music is essential for liturgical prayer -- and even the survival of the liturgies themselves.

In this presentation, Dawood will present some pieces of the liturgical hymns of the Anaphora of St. Basil, and using those pieces as examples, he will argue that the music of the Anaphora is designed in such a way as to resemble the act of raising a sacrificial offering of praise. The hymnology, he will argue, takes the souls of the persons praying the liturgy up a ladder, allowing the priests, deacons, and congregation to ascend higher in musical scales until they all together work their way to heights of praise before partaking of communion.

The hymns used in this presentation will be from the CD production of: “The Rite and Hymns of the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil” by the Heritage of the Coptic Orthodox Church choir, available in the link below: 

http://www.copticheritage.org/productions/the_rite_and_hymns_of_the_liturgy_of_saint_basil

January 11, 2012

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and the Villancico: Poetry at the service of liturgy in seventeenth century Mexico

by Rev. Marcos Ramos, O.P., B.A., M.A., MDiv, ThM, PhD. cand. (St. Michael’s College)

Sor (Sister) Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695) was a Mexican nun and poet who was not only an important writer of the Baroque period, but also considered the first great Latin American writer. Her remarkable life and work was praised during her lifetime, being called The Tenth Muse in a time when scholarship in women was not encouraged nor appreciated. Sor Juana has been praised for centuries for her literary skills, with recent scholarship dedicated to the theological nature of her work and her contribution to feminist issues.

This presentation will concentrate on Sor Juana's villancicos (carols), a literary form very popular in the New Spain and used in the Church as a didactic tool to evangelize through poetry and music. We will present different examples of Sor Juana's villancicos in order to analyze her theology and her views about the Christian tradition as well as her views as a woman and a Mexican. The discussion about Sor Juana's works will also be related to the importance of art in liturgy and the unique and fascinating poetry and music of colonial Latin America. 

September 21, 2011

The Dangers of Moral Certitude and the Challenge to Prayer

by Prof. Rav Roy D. Tanenbaum (The Canadian Yeshiva & Rabbinical School)

"Most of the greatest evil that man has inflicted upon man comes through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false" (Bertrand Russell, "Ideas that Have Harmed Mankind" in Unpopular Essays [1950], p. 149).

Faith without doubt leads to fanaticism (too often anyway). Yet doubt without faith leads to nihilism. And between these two great poles, where is there room to pray? One can masquerade before others, but not before the Holy One whose seal is truth. Neither can one pray as if. So, here, in a nutshell, is one of the looming liturgical issues of the day, the theo-practical issue of prayer in our houses of worship.

In this session, we will go to some of the traditional Jewish liturgy itself for its own internal response.

Rav Roy D. Tanenbaum, Rosh HaYeshiva (President & Vice-Chancellor) and Bible Faculty, has been the force behind the conceptualization and development of the Canadian Yeshiva. Currently serving the Rabbinical Assembly as Dean of its School for Shamashim, he is also past president of the Rabbinical Assembly, Canadian Region. Rav Tanenbaum maintains a scholarly interest in the structure of the Hebrew Bible and the development of Jewish law. He has served on the faculty of the University of Miami in Ohio and Mount Royal College in Calgary. In 2009, the rav retired from Beth Tzedec Congregation where he served as Rosh Yeshiva of the Life-Long Learning Centre and as responding rav for the "Kosher Korner," completing 40 years in the pulpit. With many articles to his credit, in 1998, the University of Calgary Press published his book, Prisoner 88—The Man in Stripes, and his commentary on the Shabbat Morning Service, Rinat Dodim, A Song of Lovers, graces the pews in many synagogues. The rav studied in Yeshivat ITRI and Yeshivat Etz Chaim in Jerusalem. He has received numerous honours for his work in the community, including two doctorates. AB, Cornell University; MAHL and s'mikha.

October 12, 2011

The Sacramentality of Preaching

by Prof. Rev. Dr. Paul Scott Wilson (Emmanuel College)

The fragmentation of the theological curriculum typically has left liturgy and homiletics not only as separate disciplines, but also as disciplines that have relatively little to do with each other. This paper will explore Calvin's notion of the sacramentality of preaching as one way of holding the liturgy and homiletics together.

Rev. Dr. Paul Scott Wilson is Professor of Homiletics at Emmanuel College, an ordained minister of the United Church of Canada and a past president of the Academy of Homiletics. A world-renowned scholar in the theology, theory and practice of preaching, his most recent publications include Setting Words on Fire (2008), The Practice of Preaching (1995, 2007), Preaching and Homiletical Theory (2004), and The Four Pages of the Sermon (1999). He was the general editor of The New Interpreter’s Handbook of Preaching, which was selected by Preaching magazine as the 2010 Preaching Book of the Year. 

November 30, 2011

Ritual Dimensions of The Gospel of Truth

by Dora Kritzmanic, M.Div., M.A., B.Mus., Phd student (St Michael's College)

The Gospel of Truth (Codex Jung f.VIII^v – XVI^v / f.XIX^r-XXII^r) from the Nag Hammadi find is a Coptic text representing a 2^nd century Valentinian document.  Mostly overlooked by studies on the ritual practices of the heterodox communities of the first centuries of Early Christianity, nevertheless the text contains several clues regarding its unique genre and ritual setting.  A survey of these clues, along with the consideration of internal and external evidence, points beyond the use of metaphoric language suggesting instead an organic connection between The Gospel of Truth and a specific Christian Gnostic practice, the ritual of initiation.

March 30, 2011

The Cross and Eucharistic Sacrifice: 

An Ecumenical Attempt

by Brett Salkeld, Thd student (Regis College)

Agreement regarding Christ's Eucharistic Presence has been one of the great victories of the ecumenical movement.  The idea of Eucharist as sacrifice, however, has proved much more intransigent.  The presentation plans to look at the cross, its relationship to the Old Testament cult and the Christian Eucharist, in the hope of finding new ways forward on this question.  Do certain soteriologies make the idea of Eucharistic sacrifice more or less accessible?  Do some distort its meaning, while other are more amenable?  What do the prophets critiques of temple worship tell us about Christ's sacrifice?  How does the understanding of the Church as Christ's body open up our understanding?  These and other questions will be investigated and input from various ecumenical partners sought.

February 16, 2011

Oremus et pro perfidis judaeis

On Anti-Semitism, Israel, and the People of God in Christian Liturgies 

by Prof. Pablo Argárate Dr. phil., Dr. theol. (Tübingen) (St. Michael’s College)

This lecture discusses the highly relevant and polemical question of the different perceptions of the Jews and Israel offered in the diverse Christian liturgies from the first up to the twenty-first centuries, in the eastern (Syrian, Armenian, Ethiopian, Coptic) and western (Roman, Gallican, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic as well as Reformed) traditions, taking into account liturgical texts from the Liturgy of the Hours, Baptism, and especially the Eucharist, with particular attention to the Eucharistic Prayers.

January 19, 2011

Back to the Future: Recreating Historic Liturgies

by Douglas Cowling, MA - Musical Dramaturge for the Tallis Choir

Many early music ensembles now recreate the musical sequence of historic liturgies. Concert audiences can hear the masterpieces of Western music in the context for which they were written. But what do these experiments tell liturgists about the cultural forces which gave liturgies their particular shape at a particular moment in history?  This illustrated seminar will discuss recent concert reconstructions of two contrasting liturgies: a Venetian high mass from 1605 with the music of Gabrieli, and a festival Lutheran mass from 1745 Leipzig with the music of J.S. Bach. The results challenge many assumptions about Counter-Reformation and Lutheran worship.

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.

November 24, 2010

The Synergy between Coptic Spirituality and Liturgy and the 13th Century Wall Paintings, St Anthony's Old Church, Monastery of St Anthony, Red Sea

by Helene Moussa - St Mark’s Coptic Museum, Scarborough

The paintings in the Old St. Anthony’s Church are the most complete and best preserved examples of 13^th century Coptic art. They are considered “masterpieces.”  The paintings were “uncovered” in 1999 as a result of an extensive three years cleaning and conservation program funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and managed by the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE) in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Monastery. In addition to conservation, an important part of the project has been comprehensive documentation including a publication: Monastic Visions – The Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Anthony at the Red Sea, edited by Elizabeth Bolman (2002).  The paintings were not seen for at least 400 years. The majority of the paintings were part of a single program with inscriptions dating according to the Coptic calendar, AM 949 (anno martirorum)—  AD1233. Inscriptions also indicate that the paintings were initially executed by a Coptic team under the supervision of the master painter, also a Copt named “Theodore” who described himself as the zographis  —“the writer of life.” While one can study the conservation accomplishments that have rendered these paintings visible to us, or Coptic medieval iconographic development, the paper will “walk through” the church to illustrate how place and space in this church were carefully constructed to celebrate Coptic identity and spirituality in the liturgical life of the monks and faithful.

November 3, 2010

The Birth of Death Imagery in Baptismal Theology in East Syria

by Paul Smith, BA, ThM, ThD student (Wycliffe College)

Older scholarship worked under the assumption that a Romans 6 model of baptism, revolving around the death and resurrection of Christ, was the dominant baptismal model of the early church.  A more careful reading of the sources has led modern scholars to replace this view with a more nuanced view which saw both a Romans 6 model as well as a “Johannine” theology of   baptism as a new birth.  Under this new model, East Syria’s baptismal theology exclusively revolved around new birth imagery until (ca. 399-ca. 502 CE), under the influence of West Syria, especially Jerusalem, death imagery was introduced. It will be argued that this model needs to be slightly revised.  While it is true that new birth imagery is the dominant East Syrian image for    baptism, it is not the exclusive image.  Death imagery appears in both Aphrahat (ca. 270-ca. 345 CE) and Ephrem (ca. 306-373 CE), almost a hundred years before Narsai.

October 6, 2010

Fusion of Horizons from Islamic Perspective

by Nazila Isgandarova,DMin cand.(Wilfried Laurier University) PhD cand. (Khazar University), adjunct member of faculty at Emmanuel College - Muslim Studies. (Emmanuel College)

Fusion of Horizons from an Islamic Perspective will consider the spiritual and ritual needs of Muslims in healthcare settings. How is spiritual care is viewed by Muslims in the present cultural and religious context and what are their major spiritual needs in healthcare settings? Various practical approaches touching upon ritual activity will be considered, such as prayers from the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the verbal and nonverbal tradition of the Prophet Muhammad), reading the Holy Qur’an, etc. How can trained clergy help with their beliefs, struggles, medical decisions or other special needs?

January 13, 2010

Praying with the Angels at Qumran

by Prof. Judith H. Newman A.B (Princeton University), M.A.R. (Harvard University) (Emmanuel College) 

Of the many liturgical texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice are perhaps the most intriguing and mystifying. Indeed, some scholars have pointed to the collection as representing one of the roots of Jewish mysticism. It will be argued that this series of thirteen liturgical pieces that were offered during the first thirteen sabbaths of the solar year in fact offered a transformative rite in which the participants might be transformed into a (near) angelic state. The Songs’ allusive use of Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 make them a not-so-distant relative of the Christian Sanctus and Jewish Qedushah.”

Prof. Judith H. Newman of Emmanuel College, will be presenting “Praying with the Angels at Qumran.” Prof. 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. She is the author of Praying by the Book: The Scripturalization of Prayer in Second Temple Judaism, co-author of Early Jewish Liturgy and Early Jewish Prayers in Greek, as well as the fifth edition of the contemporary classic, with Bernhard Anderson and Steven Bishop, Understanding the Old Testament. She is currently at work on a monograph, The Liturgical Imagination about the intersection of scripture, ritual performance, and prayer in early Judaism and Christianity.

February 3, 2010

Space as Worship

by Gerald Robinson B.Sc., (Engineering) Ph.D.(Leeds) M.Arch. (Harvard) (Trinity College) 

This seminar will establish a union between space and worship in a realm where Architecture meets Theology. We will discover a liturgy where space will pray with us, and our worship will gather us up. For these entities to participate in such a meeting each must be configured so it will be compatible with the other - space must have a language that can convey meaning, and worship must have a structural logic. The value of this union is that it enables us to create and order spaces that will support our ministries.   Gerald Robinson, a Liturgical Consultant, has assisted many churches in creating supportive worship space. He teaches an M.Div. course "Shaping Space for Worship" for T.S.T. at Trinity College. 

March 10, 2010

Congregational Song as Liturgical Theology

by Rev. Nancy E. Hardy, Mus. Bac., ARCT, M.R.E., MDiv, ThD. cand. (Emmanuel College)

We learn about God in our spoken words of prayer and praise. We also learn about God through the hymns we sing, for our congregational songs can articulate our theology—what we believe about God in Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in the world. Drawing on the church’s congregational songs, Nancy Hardy will invite us to discover liturgical theology within the hymns we sing. The Rev. Hardy has had a varied pastoral and educational ministry within The United Church of Canada, working in congregations in the Maritimes and southern Ontario and serving as Mission Study Editor at the United Church’s national office. She has written and edited numerous publications within the United Church, including “Gathering,” a major liturgical resource. She co-chaired the committee responsible for the publication of Voices United, the hymnbook of The United Church of Canada.

September 30, 2009

The Forthcoming Revised English Translation of the "Missale Romanum" and Its Implications for Worship

by Rev. Paul Turner, B.A., M.Div., M.A., Th.D. USA.

Paul Turner is a facilitator for the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, a past President of the North American Academy of Liturgy, and is currently pastor of St. Munchin parish in Cameron, MO. He holds a doctorate in sacred theology from Sant' Anselmo in Rome and is the author of numerous books and resources, including, Celebrating Initiation: A Guide For Priests (World Library Publications, 2008), When Other Christians Become Catholic (Liturgical Press, 2007), Let Us Pray: A Guide to the Rubrics of Sunday Mass (Liturgical Press, 2006), and The Hallelujah Highway: A History of the Catechumenate (LTP, 2000).

October 21, 2009

Ravenna’s Baptisteries and their Mosaics

by Claudia Dobrinski, Universität Paderborn, Germany

This paper addresses the building history of the Neonian (Orthodox) Baptistery in Ravenna focusing upon its internal decoration, chiefly mosaics, and incrustations. In this analysis, new dates for the different building phases are put forth. Secondly, this orthodox baptistery will be compared to the Arian one, with particular reference to the mosaic of the Apostles’ at the cupola in both of them and their different interpretations.

November 18, 2009

Evil Spirits and Queer Psyche. Spiritual Intervention and Spiritual Equilibrium in Conflict 

by Pamela Klassen, Associate Professor, Department and Centre for the Study of Religion, BA, MA, PhD.

Arguing for a robust supernaturalism among liberal Protestants, Pamela Klassen traces a history of ritual experimentation among Anglican, Methodist, and United Church of Canada communities. Focusing particularly on rituals concerned with healing, broadly conceived, Klassen examines how liberal Protestants reconceived themselves and their religious others through experimenting with ritual practices drawn from Christian and non-Christian traditions and technological innovations. Her paper will be based on her forthcoming book, Healing Christians: Liberal Protestants and Pathologies of Modernity. For more information, see http://individual.utoronto.ca/pklassen

Wednesday, March 25, 3:15-4:14 pm

The Dominican Rite: Liturgy Reflecting Spirituality
by Rev. Marcos Ramos, O.P., B.A., M.A., MDiv, ThM, PhD. student (St. Michael’s College)

The Order of Preachers (Dominican Order) used before the changes of the Second Vatican Council its proper rite, created in order to help the friars celebrate their liturgy using elements of the Dominican tradition and spirituality. This paper will provide an overview of this Dominican Rite and how it reflects the historical and liturgical tradition that is essential to the order founded in the thirteenth century by Dominic of Guzman.