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OCIA 5

Order of Christian Initiation of Adults: Translating the Rites

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We embark on a series during Lent that might seem the height of all nerdiness to some (and Rhoda and I might rightly be accused of being liturgical nerds). With the appearance of the new 2018 translation of the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults last November from the Roman Catholic Church, it seemed appropriate to us to begin exploring this new translation. It is the form of catechumenate that the Roman Catholics will be using in English into the foreseeable future. So, we will compare prayer texts over the next five weeks from the stage of enlightenment and final preparation for baptism from the former process, The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, and the new translation, with each other. Nerdy as it may seem, important issues such as clear understanding and participation in the process by which God through the church is making new Christians is at stake in the translations and in any Lutheran adaptation of them. Failure to understand and participate hinders the vary process of making Christians through the catechumenate itself.

What got this whole process of providing new translations for all the Roman liturgical books and rites started was the 2001 document Liturgiam Authenticam: Fifth Instruction on Vernacular Translation in the Roman Liturgy. Since in many ways some of the translations immediately after Vatican II were considered provisional, it was expected that new translations would appear in the future. All the original translations were guided by the first instruction Comme le prévoit of 1969, which was supplanted essentially by Liturgiam Authenticam. The catechumenate was one of the last documents to be translated anew. Comme le prévoit operated under the translation principle of dynamic equivalence. As John Baldovin observes, “It is as concerned with the receiver as it is with the original text. In other words, how is this text going to make sense (in an oral/aural fashion) for the listeners? This approach gave translators great leeway in fashioning texts and inspired avoiding a wooden literalism when translating” (Baldovin, 117). Liturgiam Authenticam on the other hand operated under the principle of formal correspondence, a literal, word-for-word approach. As Liturgiam Authenticam itself says,

“The translation of the liturgical texts of the Roman Liturgy is not so much a work of creative innovation as it is of rendering the original texts faithfully and accurately into the vernacular language. While it is permissible to arrange the wording, the syntax and the style in such a way as to prepare a flowing vernacular text suitable to the rhythm of popular prayer, the original text, insofar as possible, must be translated integrally and in the most exact manner, without omissions or additions in terms of their content, and without paraphrases or glosses. Any adaptation to the characteristics or the nature of the various vernacular language is to be sober and discreet” (Liturgiam Authenticam, 49; italics mine).

In previous translations, such as the Missal, some of the prayer texts are cumbersome and lack clarity in meaning. Is that the case for the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults under the principle of formal correspondence? Or do they achieve their own goal according to Liturgiam Authenticam of providing “language which is easily understandable, yet at the same time preserves these texts’ dignity, beauty, and doctrinal precision?” (Liturgiam Authenticam, 25). Only an examination of the texts from the RCIA versus The Order can determine that.  One that was helpful and positive was the change of title. The RCIA was always a series of rites, a process including significant ritual action that birthed new Christians. It is an order, a process that identifies and creates a vocation, in this case catechumens, within the church’s life. And, as Stephen Wilbricht notes, “We have long been accustomed to abbreviating the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults as the RCIA. It is time that we cease this unfortunate habit” [Wilbricht, “Synodality, Baptismal Ecclesiology, and Welcoming a Newly Translated Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, Worship 98 (October 2024), 305].

So, nerd away on prayer texts we shall over the next five weeks as we make the journey to the paschal feast in sincerity and truth. May these prayer texts invite us into that mystery. And may we keep in mind the words of Pope Paul VI when he said of the sacrifice of the priceless treasure of the Latin for the vernacular languages, “What is worth more than these sublime values of the church. The answer may seem trite and prosaic, but it is sound because it is both human and apostolic. Our understanding of prayer is worth more than the previous, ancient garments in which it has been regally clad. Of more value, too, is the participation of the people” (quoted in John Baldovin, Reforming the Liturgy, 117). Undoubtedly a truly catholic sentiment.

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Field Trip to Explore Multicultural Ministry

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We (Kent and Rhoda) will be presenting the opening plenary address at Concordia Seminary’s Multiethnic Symposium, May 6-7, 2025. Our concern to have concrete, firsthand data coalesced with the desire of a pastoral team in Springdale, Arkansas, to have outside “consultants” visit and make recommendations for strengthening congregational faith formation across generations. It was a match made in heaven and came to pass through the work of the Holy Spirit and a generous grant from the Mid-South District of the LCMS.

On Saturday, February 22, we arrived in Springdale and received a warm welcome from Pastors Adam Gless and Brandon Martin, who serve the bilingual Salem Lutheran Church. During our four-day visit we worshipped with the congregation; broke bread with congregational members; attended Bible studies and faith formation gatherings for adults and for youth and their parents; and interviewed a variety of members.

And yes, there was time for relaxation and fun, as the banner photo and gallery of photos indicate. Those who know Kent will not be surprised to see him under the banner of Rendezvous Junction Brewery. A thoughtful colleague, he made Adam and Brandon aware that my beverage of choice is wine, that, according to the Psalmist, “gladdens the heart” (Ps. 104:15). The bartender “poured”—squeezed is more accurate—a generous glass of rose from the “dregs” of the bladder of the (un)boxed wine. One can see the seriousness with which each of the guys approached the flights of beer as they hunched over the beer rating apps on their cellphones. As we parted after a sumptuous breakfast Thursday morning, the four of us gave thanks to God for our time together; we pray our research will be a blessing for the people of Salem Lutheran and for the church at large.

To learn more about our findings, we recommend attending the Multiethnic Symposium. Click for more information.

Rating each flight sample: There’s an app for that!
There’s no beer in heaven, so they’re drinking it here.

Banner photos by anonymous, friendly person at table next to us at brewery. Gallery of photos by Rhoda Schuler.

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Baptism as Incorporation into the Body of Christ

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Last week Kent concluded his post with a quote from Max Johnson noting the importance of the role of the Holy Spirit in questions “about faith, justification, ecclesiology, eschatology, and the meaning of the eucharist.” With that assertion in mind, we turn to the final chapter of Images of Baptism, Baptism as Incorporation into the Body of Christ. Johnson’s thesis (echoing both/and statements typical among Lutherans) claims that in baptism the person is incorporated into both the Head, Christ, and his body, the church:

It is not that we are first initiated into union and communion with Christ and then as a consequence into the community of the church. Rather, baptism itself signifies and effects both at the same time (Images of Baptism, 109-10, emphasis in original).

Reflecting his own ecumenical spirit, Johnson draws on Roman Catholic theologians Karl Rahner and Edward Schillebeeckx before turning to Lutherans Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Carl Braaten to support his thesis. A quotation from Braaten draws together the Christological, ecclesiological, and eschatological dimensions of this chapter: “The church is Christ as his bodily presence in the world, prefiguring the future of the world in the kingdom of God” (Braaten, Mother Church, 7 in Images of Baptism, 111, emphasis added by Johnson).

After warning against chasing after a romanticized ideal of “the church” as a cozy community, Johnson offers three biblical images as “proper” ways to understand what the church is, and, more importantly, ways to live as the body of Christ in the world.

Church as a Priestly Community

… the community of the church is a particular kind of community, one that knows itself as engaged in active priestly ministry and self-sacrificial service in the world. The body of Christ is not a community bent on its own survival or self-preservation. The body of Christ, who is Priest, Prophet and King, exists that it may die in Christ, so that it may extend itself for the life of others as it continues its baptismal pilgrimage through death to resurrection (Images of Baptism, 118).

Church as an Ecumenical-Inclusive-Catholic Community

… we are not really baptized “Catholic” or “Lutheran” or anything else. We should strive to remove such an incomplete theology of baptismal identity from our vocabulary (Images of Baptism, 121-22). [Referencing 1 Corinthians 1:13 and Ephesians 4:4-6 he says,] Christian unity is, above all, not a demand, not a call, but already a gift to be received and further realized gratefully…. Through baptism all are incorporated into the one Christ, the one church, the one body of Christ (Images of Baptism, 121, emphasis in original).

The Community of the Church as the “Communion of Saints”

To be incorporated into that body is to be incorporated into communion with the “great cloud of witnesses” who have gone on before us and who, according to the Letter to the Hebrews (11–12), fill the great stadium to cheer us on as we follow Christ, our great pioneer in the pilgrimage to the eschatological City of God (Images of Baptism, 128).

His trinity of images speaks to our current context, evoking ways to imagine the church that can inspire us

  • To be a priestly community “not … bent on its own survival or self-preservation” but for the sake of others;
  • To live with gratitude that, in spite of the fractured witness of the church, we, as the body of Christ, are already one;
  • To rest in the assurance that the communion of saints transcends space and time; we are not alone in our priestly pilgrimage.

We have made it possible for readers to comment on our blog posts. What insights have you gained from this series on Images of Baptism? We would gladly receive your comments.

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Image: Padua Baptistry
Frescos by Giusta de’ Menabuoi, 14th century
Photo, © José Luiz Bernardes Ribeiro, 2016
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Communion_of_saints_-_Baptistry_-_Padua_2016.jpg

Easter Vigil 2019 (90)

Images of Baptism: Sacrament and Seal of the Holy Spirit

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                In our last post Rhoda concluded by highlighting the two primary biblical images of baptism: the tomb and the womb. Permeating those two primary images is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is a thread through all of the images of baptism because as Maxwell Johnson says, “the one great and single mystery of our Christian faith” is the “unitive nature of Jesus’ death and resurrection and [the] gift of the Holy Spirit” (Images of Baptism, 73). Yet, as a thread through all of the images of baptism we can lose sight of the Spirit as gift and of the Spirit’s work. This happened in ritual history with the dissolution in the removal of baptismal sealing (anointing) from baptism itself and the creation of the distinct sacrament/rite of growth, confirmation. So, we must focus on the gift as a seal of the Holy Spirit as a distinct image of baptism. Paul himself does this in Ephesians when he says, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:13-14). The Holy Spirit is poured out on the disciples of Christ Jesus abundantly through baptism. It seals us in the Holy Spirit who both fills and surrounds our living as children of God. The intent is that that seal is both complete and enduring into the kingdom of God. As Johnson says,

“It is the Holy Spirit, the very breath of God in us, who conforms us to the dying and rising of Christ in our lives, who brings us to new birth and regenerates us to new life in the living waters and womb of the font, who seals us in down payment for redemption, who gives us special charisms and gifts for the building up of and living within Christ’s body, the church, the Spirit of God who directs us in our mission of reconciling love, forgiveness and justice in the world, the Spirit alone who makes it possible for us to say, “We believe” or “I believe” in the first place” (Images of Baptism, 74-75).

The Holy Spirit is sent by Christ as our anointing in Him in baptism so that we might live at the direction of the Spirit.

               It is that anointing in baptism by the Holy Spirit that is symbolized and expressed through the postbaptismal anointings in the western tradition. Historically the West has had a presbyteral anointing and an episcopal anointing. Whether we are talking about both as independent ritual actions or a combination of them, they both express that through the Word in the water the person is anointed with the Holy Spirit. As Johnson says, the baptismal water and the Spirit go together inseparably (80). “It is the presence and gift of the Holy Spirit that makes all the difference in the world in terms of baptism’s meaning and significance. Christian baptism is ‘baptism with the Holy Spirit!’” (Images of Baptism, 80).

               This should have significant implications for our practice of baptism and of the catechumenate. As Johnson shows through the New Testament witness and as an implication of the anointing of the Spirit, all baptismal life in Christ is directed by the Spirit. If the Spirit is poured out in baptism, then that should be ritually expressed by anointing in baptism. It should not be delayed to the rite of confirmation. Doing so deconstructs the reality that as Johnson says, “all life in Christ is dependent upon the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit” (Images of Baptism, 82). Baptism as the gift of the Holy Spirit calls for the practice of post-baptismal anointing.

               The practice of the catechumenate bears out the reality that all life in Christ is dependent upon the Spirit. In no way can the catechumenate be understood as some great Pelagian enterprise, as Johnson indicates (Images of Baptism, 88). “A clear baptismal spirituality places the emphasis where it should be: on God, the great author and initiator of salvation” (Images of Baptism, 88). Conversion through the catechumenal process, as Johnson notes, is grounded in the Spirit’s activity and “the Holy Spirit is active before, in and after baptism” (Images of Baptism, 89). The catechumenate is the ground for the Spirit’s activity through the Word. As Johnson indicates, “Baptism invites the gathered assembly to faith, trust, dependency and receptivity to the sheer gift of God’s baptismal grace. The minds and hearts of that assembly are to be continually directed back to the foundational realities of new birth and new life in the Spirit” (Images of Baptism, 91). That is exactly what the catechumenate does in all its fullness.

               Baptism as the seal of the Holy Spirit is in the end about everything regarding Christian faith and life post Christ’s ascension. “Questions about faith, justification, spirituality, ecclesiology, eschatology and the meaning of the eucharist are ultimately always questions about the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s role in forming people as believers in and disciples of Christ” (Images of Baptism, 102). Sounds very much like the catechumenate to me!

Banner photo: Post-baptismal anointing with chrism at Redeemer Evangelical Lutheran Church, The Bronx, New York.

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Images of Baptism: New Birth and Adoption

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To read Images of Baptism is a bit like being back in the classroom (as I was three decades ago) with Maxwell E. Johnson, whose teaching style was direct, straight forward, to the point, and thus quite engaging. His introduction to chapter 2, “Baptism as New Birth and Adoption,” begins by stating liturgical scholarship’s “accepted” evolution of baptismal theology in the early church: Eastern traditions had an emphases on regeneration, new birth, and adoption “rooted in Jesus’ own baptism in the Jordan” and the West had a focus on “baptism as a ritual of death, burial resurrection in Christ” (Images of Baptism, 39). He continues, “To say that baptism as ‘new birth’ or adoption ‘by water and the Holy Spirit’ is only a characteristically Eastern image or focus, however, is simply incorrect…. The image of new birth and adoption is as much Western as it is Eastern” (42, emphasis in original).

Johnson’s goal is to expand our baptismal theology to include the full range of images and metaphors expressed in Scripture; as he says, “How one thinks of baptism will shape how one views Christian life and identity” (64). He succinctly summarizes the two primary images of baptism shaping Christian identity:

For one spirituality, baptism is the tomb in which the sinful self is put to death in Christ. For the other spirituality, baptism is the womb through which the Mothering Spirit of God give new birth and new life (64, emphasis in original).

In good Lutheran fashion, Johnson does not see these images as either/or but rather as both/and, embracing the seeming paradox of baptism as a sacrament that calls for the death of the sinner while at the same time declaring that the one being baptized is a beloved child of God. This latter image, with the baptism of Jesus as the paradigm, links Christians to the Incarnation, as Athanasius said, “God became what we are so that we could be made what he is” (quoted by Johnson, 64).

I close with two of the questions Max Johnson poses in this chapter (Images of Baptism, 64-65), inviting comments from you, the reader (a new feature to our blog posts).

What might it mean to say in our catechesis of parents who present their children for baptism, that in a real sense they are presenting “their” children for “adoption” into a whole new family network of relationships …?  

What might such [language] mean for the identity, nature and mission of the church in the world, empowered by the baptismal Spirit, which understands itself to be so closely united with Christ that, as the very body of Christ, it shares in the divine nature?

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Banner photo: Font at St. John’s Lutheran Church, Wheaton, Illinois. By Rhoda Schuler.

Easter Vigil 2019 (78)

Images of Baptism: Participation in the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ

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It is the quintessential image of baptismal images as Paul says in Romans 6: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4). Since Vatican II with its proclamation of the Paschal Mystery, it has become the chief image for baptism. The primary pattern of culminating the catechumenal process at the Easter Vigil as expressing Christ’s Passover from death to life has only cemented this primary association. In its predominancy lies both the challenge and the gift. The challenge? Ignoring other images in deference to this one. The remainder of the blogs in this series will address that challenge. The gift? In Maxwell Johnson’s words, “How, then, might this foundational and rich image or metaphor of baptismal death, burial and resurrection in Christ be rescued from the realm of contemporary cliché and brought to new life within the church today?” (Images of Baptism, 5).

New life for this image surfaces under a number of themes. First, Johnson acknowledges that death must truly be death for us. There must be no escaping it. We must let death be death. That means we must experience our dying as death. Quoting Jennifer Glenn, he notes the unassailing loss of death: “The vision of death lurking within the experience of sickness seems to cut off the future absolutely, at least from the experiential and imaginative viewpoint. With the loss of the future goes the loss of meaning…life and its relationships threaten to become absurd” (8). In this experience death is not cosmetized at all. And Christ’s death must fully be death. He must be encountered as the crucified Christ who cries out in his forsakenness.

Experiencing death as death raises the question, what does our death and burial in him mean? Well, it means hope. As Johnson says, “For Paul, baptism is really about our participation in the death and burial of Christ in the hope of our ultimate resurrection in him….Whatever the future holds in Christ, because of baptism death itself is a reality and experience already behind us! . . . Because of baptism into Christ we are already dead! (18-19).

This means for Christians that baptism becomes, as they approach death, the rehearsal for death. Quoting the late Joseph Cardinal Bernardin who wrote of his own impending death, “Our participation in the paschal mystery—in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus—brings a certain freedom: the freedom to let go, to surrender ourselves to the living God, to place ourselves completely in his hands, knowing that ultimately he will win out!….It’s in the act of abandonment that we experience redemption, that we find life, peace, and joy in the midst of physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering” (23).

That experience of hope in the midst of death—a baptismal experience—has implications for a church that lives as though dead in the world. Living in hope as a result of dying and rising in Christ means that the church can fully live in mission to the world that God will renew in the living One. As Johnson expresses, “A church dead and buried by baptism into Christ is liberated from the fear of death itself and, therefore, can dare to risk itself in a mission of suffering service in the world because it knows and seeks to know only the cross and suffering with the world as the way to resurrection” (28). A church buried with Christ in baptism into his death is a church that can live in the resurrection for the sake of the world. So Johnson can affirm, “From that watery grave emerges a servant community of the cross, which expects nothing other than what its Servant-Master himself endured and experienced. Who knows what kind of church might yet arise when such baptismal-Paschal Mystery imagery is embraced by the baptized themselves?” (29). Then baptism into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ will truly be a living metaphor in the life of the redeemed community of the crucified One.

 

 

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Images of Baptism: The Full Baptismal Plunge

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The ecumenical report Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (WCC, 1982)—a valuable indication of where the various member denominations stood on those practices both theologically and ritually—said that the images of baptism “are many but the reality is one” (II, A-E). It is that plurality of images that we intend to explore in this new series over the next four weeks through the book Images of Baptism by Maxwell Johnson. We recommend the book to you as a basis for studying the various sets of images of baptism in your catechumenate or in congregational Bible studies. It provides a biblical and liturgical summary of the us of these primary sets of images in the church:

  • Baptism as Participation in the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Christ
  • Baptism as New Birth and Adoption by Water and the Holy Spirit
  • Baptism as the Sacrament and Seal of the Holy Spirit
  • Baptism as Incorporation into the Body of Christ

This week and over the next four weeks we’ll take up each of the images on the basis of Dr. Johnson’s book and reflect upon the plurality of images of the one reality: baptism.

How amazing though is the gift of that plurality. Johnson’s introduction begins with a quote from Cyril of Jerusalem’s Procatechesis (introductory lecture to the elect) that reveals the multitude of ways in which baptism is participation in the work of God in Jesus:

Great indeed is the baptism which is offered you. It is a ransom to captives; the remission of offences; the death of sin; the regeneration of the soul; the garment of light; the holy seal indissoluble; the chariot to heaven; the luxury of paradise; a procuring of the kingdom; the gift of adoption” (Cross, Lectures on the Christian Sacraments, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1977, 50).

The gifts that baptism imparts through the Word associated with the ritual washing and “plunge into the waters of the font with Christ” (Johnson, xiii). We want to receive those gifts and be able to impart them through our catechumenal preaching, teaching, and ritual practice. As Johnson says regarding the intent of the book,

“An attempt toward recovering those images for the church today. As such, these images provide for us models by which we might glimpse some of the manifold riches that baptism is and offers to us. Hence, we might say that it is precisely a variety of models for conceptualizing, catechizing and celebrating baptism that these images provide” (Johnson, ix).

The models encapsulate the primary sets of images that the Scriptures and the liturgical reflection of the church employ to enrich our experience of baptism. As Johnson notes, they are intend to “give rise to thought and invite further reflection” (Johnson, x). That is what we intend to do with this series as well. We hope it will spur your thinking so that your baptismal practice, catechesis, and preaching is as baptismally rich and full as possible. We hope these blog posts will allow you to consider the multitude of metaphors for participation in baptism and in baptismal living.

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More Wisdom from Author Chad Lakies

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In this video interview, Dr. Lakies suggests that a “winsome witness” includes a willingness to enter into conversation with others in order to see people “in the complexity of their full humanity.”

The video is six minutes in length. To view, one must be logged into Google.

Pastor Lakies has been on the podcast circuit since the publication of his book. To learn more about the book, here’s a list of podcast options (click on the orange title for the link to each):

Concordia Publishing House
August 31, 2024; 41 minutes

Topics include:

  • Looking at the commonalities we share with others (sports teams; civil goals, such as good education for our children) and connecting with folks in these ways.
  • Unpacking of his statement “Disagreement does not equal hate.”
  • A nuanced understanding of “authenticity”
  • Navigating some of the difficulties of maintaining relationships with others of differing views
  • Three goals of the resilient church (patience; forgiving; if you want the third, you’ll have to listen to the podcast.)

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Make It Simple, “Junk Drawer Jesus Series”
December 10, 2024; 39 minutes

The hosts are Matt Popovits, pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church in Houston, and Rachel Ryder. This podcast is a discussion of Matt’s book, Junk Drawer Jesus, and Chad’s book.

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Tangible: Theology Learned & Lived
“Exploring the ways theology permeates all aspects of life”
Concordiatheology.org; November 15, 2024; 35 minutes
Host: Jessica Bordeleau; with Chad Lakies and Dale Meyer

As I’m a big fan of Rev. Dr. Dale Meyer, President Emeritus of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, this one is my favorite. Topics include:

  • Back in the day: the church had a voice of relevance and trust
  • The book attempts to address the emotional state pastors serving today: frustration, anger, and sense of humiliation at the loss of relevance of the church in society
  • The church’s public witness is impacted by this emotional state of pastors and congregations; how can we offer a “winsome witness”?
  • Responses of congregations: Resignation, trying to be relevant, and resistance (a response to fear)
  • Historic liturgy as museum piece; worship is God breaking into our lives with Jesus and his word!
  • Navigating the “Two Kingdoms” theme from Luther’s theology
  • To soak ourselves in the Word of God is a way to renewed vitality in the church—and that’s a communal process
  • Things are not “going our way” today; there are lessons for us today from the early church
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A Conversation with Author Chad Lakies

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The Rev. Dr. Chad Lakies is the Vice President of Ministry Engagement for US Ministries at Lutheran Hour Ministries and author of How the Light Shines Through: Resilient Witness in Dark Times. The first of today’s video is from the beginning of our lengthy conversation on Zoom and touches on the connections between this book and Kent’s and my research on congregations with robust adult catechumenate.

This first video is less than four minutes; to watch it, one must be logged into Google Drive.

This next link is a bonus video in which Rev. Lakies offers the “testimonial” of his journey from “nonbeliever” to a person with faith in Christ. It is just under five minutes long. Chad speaks about the Holy Spirit working through the proclaimed Word of God, extravagant hospitality, and relationships with mature Christians. Next week’s post will be another video clip from this interview and a list of podcasts in which Chad speaks further about his book.

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Christmas Greetings from Kent & Rhoda

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Christmas greetings to our subscribers from the Annual Meeting of the North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL), which we both started attending in the late 1990s as graduate students. This year’s gathering is at our Alma Mater, Valparaiso University, where worship at the Chapel of the Resurrection fostered in both of us a love of graceful and grace-filled liturgy. Attending NAAL is a time for scholarly discussions with other academics and practitioners as well as a time to enjoy the fellowship of others who share our conviction that liturgy is not an end itself but the primary means through which the faithful encounter Jesus Christ in the proclamation of the Gospel (in preaching, liturgy, and song) and through participation in the sacraments.

Here we are at our Alma Mater! In between Kent and me is Noel Snyder from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. Noel and other staff at CICW have reviewed our book manuscript, so over dinner and adult beverages, we had a lovely chat about the long process of our research (funded by CICW) and the writing of our book, now in the hands of our publisher, Wipf & Stock. It will be part of a CICW series on Christian worship.

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Banner photo (by Rhoda Schuler, June 2024):
Adoration of the Magi, textile; back yoke section of a cope in the Cathedral Treasury, Cologne, Germany.

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