Masses cancelled, funerals with just ten people, marriages postponed, sacramental programmes delayed, no shared chalice, and a new way to exchange the sign of peace, touchless ashes on Ash Wednesday, no ashes on Ash Wednesday are a few of the now-familiar marks of what has been termed a Liturgical Disruption. Add to them, the lengths Read more
After growing up Baptist, Nate Tinner-Williams became a Roman Catholic in December 2019. Now, after a move to New Orleans, he is planning to enter the seminary of the Josephites, an order of brothers and priests who have ministered specifically to the African-American community since 1893. In the meantime, he has devoted himself to developing Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the way most Catholics around the world are used to worshiping, having led to measures ranging from outright bans on physical gatherings to limits on the size and behaviour of congregations. The various restrictions have raised numerous theological, liturgical and spiritual questions. And the Holy See and the local Churches Read more
It is just on year since Francis offered an inculturated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica for Congolese immigrants. The Mass marked the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Congolese Catholic Chaplaincy of Rome. The Mass included traditional Congolese music and the Zaire Use of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite (Zaire Use). An Read more
The Worshipping Under Southern Skies 2020 conference, scheduled to be held in Auckland in early October this year, has been postponed for a year because of uncertainty over Covid-19 restrictions. The conference, which had a theme of “Weaving together Liturgy and Life”, was scheduled to be held at Auckland’s Baradene College on October 1-3, 2020. Read more
As parishes re-open to varying extents – and with a range of anti-viral measures from face-shields to people scattered by tape in near-empty benches, many clergy note that the numbers have not returned to the pre-COVID-19 level. The preferred explanation seems to be that now is still not ‘normality’ and that many are fearful about Read more
Disruptive innovation is not a common term in theological and liturgical discussions. The term comes from Clayton Christensen’s 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma. Christensen explains that successful companies are those that can meet not only their customers’ current needs but anticipate their future ones too. Disruptive innovators – disruptors – are more likely to displace Read more
Philosophers often point out that space is one of the basic prerequisites of human experience. We exist as spatial creatures – we have size and location and movement. We imagine ourselves ‘in space,’ we arrange things in space in relation to other items located around us. We constantly locate (i.e. put in a place in Read more
It’s time to think big about the future of worship before the future passes us by. As this pandemic transforms faith communities, the national conversation among leaders has been too timid and tactical — focused mostly on the logistics of returning to our brick-and-mortar buildings: How soon can we get bodies back into the pews? Read more
“We need to revisit the issue of ministry in the Church,” said Anne-Marie Pelletier in June 25 article in La Croix International. But what would such a revisiting look like? It raises several fundamental questions and might be far more undermining of the status quo than the few changes in the Code of Canon Law Read more