2008 Conference  - Liturgical Formation

Keynote Lecture      

What is Celtic about Contemporary Celtic Worship?

The Revd Professor Bryan Spinks  
A verion of this paper has now been published in Spinks, The Worship Mall, (London: 2010, SPCK).
 

The Programme of other Papers and Communications given was as follows:

 

* Liturgical Formation: To What End?    
Thomas Whelan  

 

Alerting Silence:  Reflections on the Dramatic Expression of Silence
within Liturgical Space
David Torevell  

 

Living Communion: what do children say about the Eucharist and how might this shape and challenge the liturgical formation of the gathered community?
Diane Craven   

 

* Liturgical Competence
Juliette Day

 

* Formation for Dying
Bridget Nichols  

 

Eucharist as Formation in Lancelot Andrewes
Andew Hammond

 

Priestless Parishes - An Interim Solution? A Pastoral Approach to
the Liturgy of the Hours
Patricia Rumsey

 

*Harvey Whitehouse:Modes of Religion and Liturgical Formation
Martin Stringer  

 

* The Vigil of Pascha: Formation in Silence
Richard Bastable

 

* The Empire Strikes Back: A Study of the Liturgical Impact of Ghanaian Methodism on the Methodist Church in London
John Lampard

 

*Worship and Belief: A Divorce or a Remarriage?
Ian Paton   

 

* Towards a liturgical missiology: A Trinitarian framework for worship, pastoral care and mission in the context of Christian discipleship and formation.
Victoria Johnson

 

* starred papers have since been published in Anaphora

 

 

 

 

The Conference 2008 - A View from Praxis

 

The editor of Praxis News of Worship, The Reverend Canon Gilly Myers, wrote a brief review of the 2008 conference:-

 

“The biennial SLS conference met in Mirfield during a gloomy August week, but with much to stimulate and raise the spirits. All in all twelve papers were presented on the general topic of 'liturgical formation', covering a range of subjects including  liturgical competence, what children say about the eucharist (and the resulting questions regarding the liturgical formation of a eucharistic community), worship and belief, dramatic expressions of silence within liturgical space, and formation for dying. Some of the findings posed a challenge to the church, and the outcome of the keynote lecture by Brian Spinks - 'What is Celtic about Contemporary Celtic Worship' - was quite a surprise.  Having examined the sources that exist of ancient Celtic liturgy, and compared these with some prominent contemporary publications purporting to be in the same tradition, he concluded  that there is mainly very little that is Celtic in much of the material, and in some cases nothing at all - other than a use of archaic language conventions.

 

The Society was originally formed in order to encourage 'younger liturgists'. Thus members were delighted to find that the more experienced scholars presenting papers were joined by a number of fresh and younger faces.

 

Many of the papers will find their way into the Society's journal - Anaphora. Members of the Liturgical Commission, and anyone involved with liturgical formation at any level will find something of interest within.”