Carl Bunderson has published another excellent article, summarizing a number of sessions at the recently-concluded conference of the Society for Catholic Liturgy in Colorado Springs, which was held from October 2-4.
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The Society's next conference will be in New York in October, 2015.
The Society's next conference will be in New York in October, 2015.
By Carl Bunderson
Colorado Springs, Colo., Oct 8, 2014 / 12:43 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A conference held last week in Colorado Springs by The Society for Catholic Liturgy brought together experts from multiple disciplines to discuss the continuity between the Jewish temple, and Catholic churches and liturgy.
Dr. Michael P. Foley, associate professor of patristics at Baylor University, is president of The Society for Catholic Liturgy. He told CNA at the closing of the Oct. 2-4 conference that the speakers “did a marvelous job connecting the dots” regarding its theme of “how the Christian church really is this fulfilment of the great Temple of Solomon.”
“The society as a whole, I've always thought of as an enormously important organization because of the kinds of conversation that it generates. We get a really good interdisciplinary approach to things; there is a lot of talent that assembles – experts in art, architecture, music, and theology – and it's rare to get all those people in the same room … so it's nice to see the synergies that come together.”
Foley added that the conferences of the Society for Catholic Liturgy, which publishes the journal Antiphon, are notable for their inclusion of both scholarly and pastoral presentations: “We don't want to be just some ivory tower, castle-in-the-air kind of organization, especially where the liturgy is concerned, because the liturgy … is about worship, which is active and practical. For it really to be a liturgical organization, we need to have both a scholarly and a pastoral side; I am pleased we have both those tracks.”
The Oct. 2-4 conference, hosted by the Cathedral of St. Mary, included the celebration of Mass in both the ordinary and extraordinary forms, and of Vespers with Bishop Conley and with Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs. It was among the best-attended annual conferences The Society for Catholic Liturgy has held, according to one of the group's board members.
The event began with Vespers and a keynote address by Bishop Conley, who called The Society for Catholic Liturgy “a true sign of hope” for the renewal of liturgy.
His keynote focused on the thesis that evangelization will be carried out by bringing beauty to Catholic culture and worship: “The ugliness of secularism demands that we proclaim the 'via pulchritudinis' [way of beauty] in the cathedrals and chapels and parish churches across the country,” he said.
Bishop Conley asked those present to “imagine the transformation of our Church – of culture, in fact – if beautiful liturgy awakened Catholic souls to wonder, to conversion. Imagine the consequences of beautiful liturgy awakening souls to Jesus Christ.”
He then offered three principles essential to promoting beauty in Catholic worship: gratitude, charity, and steadfast commitment.
Additional plenary addresses at the conference were given by Dr. Denis McNamara, an architect who spoke about how rediscovering the meaning of the Temple informs the design of Catholic churches; Duncan Stroik, also an architect, who spoke on renaissance-era churches as the fulfilment of Jewish Temple architecture; and Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, C.O., on the concept of sacrifice seen in St. Augustine's City of God and its link to the Eucharist.