About the NAAL

The North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL) is an ecumenical and inter-religious association of liturgical scholars who collaborate in research. It is open to those who are engaged in and who can contribute to such research. Academy members are specialists in liturgical studies, theologians, artists, musicians, and persons in related disciplines, whose work affects liturgical expression and furthers liturgical understanding.

Connecting scholarship and worship

The Academy's purpose is twofold:

to promote liturgical scholarship among its members through opportunities for exchange of ideas, and
to extend the benefits of this scholarship to the worshipping communities to which its members belong.

Gathered first in 1973

The Academy's origins date to December 1973, ten years after the promulgation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council, when more than fifty American experts in liturgy met at Scottsdale, Arizona. The ecumenical gathering, sponsored by the journal Theological Studies and organized by two Jesuits, Walter Burghardt and John Gallen, met to discuss the principle opportunities, needs, and problems of liturgical renewal.

In January 1975 the academy was founded at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, when a basic agreement was reached on goals, structures, and membership qualifications. The first official meeting was held in January 1976 at Loyola University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Growing in membership and diversity

The learned society meets annually in early January in locations throughout the United States and Canada and has grown from the original eighty-three members to 489 in 2002: 231 Roman Catholics, 8 Eastern (both Orthodox and non), 5 Jewish, 161 Protestants, and all others undeclared.

Exploring diverse topics

The academy consists of some twenty standing working groups that foster the scholarly exchange of its members on a wide variety of liturgical topics. The proceedings of the annual meeting, initially published in Worship magazine from 1976 until 1987, are printed in an in-house publication of the academy since 1988.

Annual Meetings since 1973

Developing a collaborative atmosphere

Members of the Academy exchange information within a wide spectrum of liturgical research with representation from diverse Christian churches and Jewish denominations.

The primary vehicle for such dialogue is the annual meeting, usually held in the first week in January, where members divide their time among plenary sessions on topics of contemporary concern, seminars formed around specific areas, and special sessions where members present research in progress.

Publishing collaborative work

The Proceedings of the North American Academy of Liturgy, published each summer, contain peer reviewed papers from the annual meeting, seminar reports, and selected essays growing out of the collaborative research of the membership.