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
Catholic liturgy has had its greatest social shock in generations. No one had seen churches locked before, few had ever thought of “streamed” liturgies and, across the world, there have been liturgical experiments that were unthinkable just weeks ago. Now the churches are opening up – slowly – but the legacy of the virus experience Read more
One person recently said, the Virtual Mass was great. “We could lie in bed, go to Mass in London, Florence, Ireland and even Auckland. It would be great if we could keep it”. Another said, “The first week I stood when I should, the second week I felt comfortable knitting and in the third week Read more
The coronavirus pandemic has seen a flurry of new activity in Catholic liturgy. Clergy are streaming live coverage of themselves celebrating the Eucharist and inviting others to join in by watching. As lockdown eases in some places, the latest desire is to have a system – similar to that used for social distancing in shops Read more
COVID-19’s impact on liturgical praxis has left us reeling! Significant liturgical decisions have left the liturgical ministry by all the baptised out in the cold and refocused the Mass as a clerical experience. John N. Collins addresses the issues of priest and presbyter and as a factor in clericalised worship decision in ‘“Is it just Read more
COVID-19 has done more to enliven the liturgical debate than anything else in the last decades. The vast amount of material produced in the run-up to Easter was astounding. It’s been a long time since I have seen so much that guided, challenged and questioned our liturgical response to lockdown. It was as if the Read more
Religions are inherently optimistic. That is why, despite the mess in the world, they proclaim an order, and celebrate it with repeated rituals. Even in a pandemic, religions see a world where “the facts are friendly”. Christians, along with Jews and Muslims, see the Creator as infinitely – and quite literally so – greater than Read more
The Catholic Church in New Zealand has not as yet prohibited sharing the chalice and sharing a handshake at the sign of peace at Mass. “Should there be a need for restrictions on receiving Communion or the exchange of the Sign of Peace, these will be immediately notified to parishes throughout the country,” said the Read more
Msg Andrew Wadsworth (pictured), the executive director of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) is defending his social media posts calling liturgical events at the Amazon Synod as “scenes of pagan worship”. “I, Andrew Raymond Wadsworth, do not wish to belong to the new idolatrous Pachamama Church currently being brought into being,” Read more