NAAL Newsletters > Fall 2004

NAAL Newsletter
Fall 2004

12 September 2004
Revised: September 21, 2004

Dear Colleagues,

The beginning of the academic year for many of us also signals the approaching dates of the annual NAAL meeting which will be held this coming January 5-9, 2005 at the Hyatt in Louisville, Kentucky, with pre-meetings on January 5.

This newsletter contains some preliminary information about the upcoming meeting—including the schedule— so that you can make your travel plans accordingly. You will happily notice the reduction of some costs as the Academy Committee has tried to reflect the lower costs in Louisville in the pricing of the meeting.

Your registration will be arriving via email. Only members may register for the meeting. Visitors must first be approved by Ruth Meyers. If you have any students interested in attending the meeting, please have them contact Ruth as soon as possible. They would probably be helped by viewing out the visitors webpage as well.

http://naal-liturgy.org/documents/visitor_applications.htm

Past visitors who are applying for Candidacy should already have contacted Richard Rutherford CSC with their application documentation.

http://naal-liturgy.org/documents/member-app.htm

Dues notices will be sent in October, but please do not include dues payment with registration.

You will notice that we now have the capability of accepting payment by VISA. If you choose this option, please be sure to fill out all the required information on the form before submitting it. We do not yet have on-line registration; maybe next year!

You may already know that Doris Donnelly appointed Michael Driscoll to chair a Web Committee to review the NAAL web page. They have made a proposal that was accepted by the Academy Committee. (See the resolution below.) In view of this resolution, I have volunteered to continue taking care of the NAAL web until the January 2005 meeting when I will step down. Thanks for all the information many of you have shared for the Web and for the various emails of appreciation you have sent.

With every best wish,

Jerry

Gerald T. Chinchar, S.M.,
NAAL Secretary and Web Master

Registration

Registration materials are being sent by email to all members who have submitted email addresses. I am waiting on one piece of pricing information that should have been here by now. I will send the registration forms as soon as I get it. Sorry for the delay. Those without email will receive information by surface mail. Registration will include the various options you might need. Make a total and add it up! Please do not copy the registration form for visitors, candidates or any non-members. They will receive the form upon approval.

Hyatt Louisville

Our NAAL rate for January 6-9, 2005 will be $119.00 for single-occupancy and $131.00 for double-occupancy. Be sure to ask for the NAAL rate. In the heart of downtown, overlooking the scenic Ohio River, Hyatt Regency Louisville is in an ideal location just 8 minutes from Louisville International Airport. The Hyatt is accessible via I-64, I-65 and I-71. See further information on the

Web: http://louisville.hyatt.com/property/index.jhtml

Hyatt Regency Louisville
320 West Jefferson
Louisville, Kentucky 40202, USA

Tel: 502 581 1234 — Fax: 502 581 0133

Our local committee will provide information about optional visits either before or after the NAAL meeting to the Trappist Monastery at Gethsemani, Bardstown, Saint Meinrad Archabbey, and the Grotto of Tillich's Head. They are also assembling the names and telephone numbers of restaurants near the Hyatt. The AC has sampled some of these and is able to make some very fine recommendations.

NAAL 2005 Annual Meeting, Louisville

January 5, Wednesday
2-7 PM	Academy Committee Meeting
January 6, Thursday
9-6 PM	Pre-Meetings: - Anglican - Catholic Academy of Liturgy - Lutheran Caucus - Presbyterian - United Methodist
2:00-6:30 PM	Registration: Top of escalator
4-5 PM	President’s tea for Visitors and new members Kneeneland Room
5:00-6:30 PM	Dinner for Seminar Conveners
7:30 PM	Rite of Remembrance and Thanksgiving at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption. 433 South Fifth Street John Baldovin, SJ, presiding See local street map in registration packet
8:30-9:30 PM	Registration—top of escalator
8:30-10:30 PM	President's Reception Wine and Hors d'ouevres Compliments of the Hyatt Regency Louisville Regency Ballroom North
January 7, Friday
8:00 AM	Morning Prayer at Hyatt Gail Ramshaw, presiding
8:30-9:15 AM	Breakfast Introduction of Candidates for Membership Regency Ballroom South
9:30 AM	Vice Presidential Address (Thomas Schattauer): “Re-Imagining the Christian Assembly: The Search for an Alternative Practice of Worship” The variety of approaches to worship in contemporary North America share a common impulse: to construct an alternative to conventional ways of worship. From the modern liturgical movement to the postmodern emerging church, Christians have been re-imagining the assembly and its relation to God's purpose for the world. What are the possibilities for a critical and constructive conversation among the alternatives for the sake of the church and its witness to God's mission?
10:30 AM- 5:00 PM	Exhibits open Regency Ballroom North
9:55 AM-10:40 AM	Registration continues —top of escalator
10:45 AM – 4:30 PM	Seminars
3:30-4 PM	Coffee break
5:00 PM	Presentation of the *Berakah* Award Berakah Awardee: Kevin Seasoltz, OSB Introduced by: Gordon Lathrop Regency Ballroom South
6:30 PM	Evening Prayer: Presbyterian Church Center See local street map in registration packet
	Free Evening
January 8, Saturday
8:00 AM	Morning Prayer (Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral) 4221 South 2nd Street Richard McCall, officiant See local street map in registration packet.
8:30-9:30 AM	Breakfast Regency Ballroom SouthGreetings from James L. Lewis (Director of the Louisville Institute)
8:30-9:45 AM	Exhibits open Regency Ballroom North
9:45 AM	Plenary Address by M. Cathleen Kaveny (University of Notre Dame) “Salvation and ‘The Sopranos:’ Is Redemption Possible?”
10:45 AM – 4 PM	Exhibits open
11:00 AM- 3:30 PM	Seminars
3:30 - 4 PM	Coffee Break
4 PM	Exhibits close
4:00 – 5:30 PM	Business Meeting & Election of Officers Regency Ballroom South
5:30 PM	Brief Academy Committee Meeting (new and former members)
6:00 PM	Choir rehearsal
6:30 PM	Reception
7:30-10 PM	Table Prayer Banquet Entertainment (Harry Pickens, Jazz Pianist)
	Evaluation Forms to be returned at the Coat room, at the top of the escalator on the second floor.
January 9, Sunday
8:00 AM	Closing Worship (Led by Thomas Schattauer and Ruth Langer) At the Hyatt (Room TBA)
8:30-9:30 AM	Seminars final work
9:30 AM	Sunday EucharistCathedral of the Assumption: RC 502-582-2971
10:00 AM	Sunday EucharistChrist Church Cathedral: Episcopal 502-587-1354
	Other times and place for worship will be provided in the packet.

Resolution regarding the NAAL website

Michael Driscoll chairs the ad hoc committee with Members, Julia Upton and Jan Robisch; Visitor, Jim Caccamo. Ruth Meyers is the liaison.

The subcommittee submitted the following resolution which was approved by the Academy Committee.

Be it resolved—that the Academy Committee expresses its appreciation to Gerald Chinchar for establishing and maintaining the NAAL Website, giving the Academy a presence on the Worldwide Web and enhancing our communications within the Academy.

Be it resolved —that the Academy Committee authorizes the ad hoc website committee, chaired by Michael Driscoll, Past Past President, to implement a professional redesign of the NAAL website with the goal of providing a site that —

continues and enhances our communication within the Academy and with the wider public, particularly potential members;
presents a more attractive and cleaner design;
gives fuller access to non-sighted users; and
complies more fully with current standards for web design;

Be it resolved —that the Academy Committee authorizes the expenditure of up to $5,000.00 for this work.

Worship at NAAL Meetings

North American Academy of Liturgy has chosen to include worship as an integral part of our professional academic meeting life. The composition of the Academy creates some unique dynamics:

We are an ecumenical organization. Our Christian members represent a number of different Christian traditions, each with a particular liturgical heritage and distinctive worship practices.
We are also an interfaith organization, with both Christian and Jewish members. However, Jews are a small minority in NAAL, and often only a few Jewish members attend an annual meeting.
As liturgists who are passionate about liturgy, we are able to enter respectfully into prayer with people from other faiths and other traditions within our own faith. However, our passion also makes it difficult at times to set aside our critical faculties in order to worship. Worship can thus become a point of contention rather than an experience of offering praise and honor to God.

The Academy President, in consultation with the Academy Committee, has responsibility for shaping the worship at the annual meeting. Since the late 1990s, NAAL has developed a pattern of worship that includes both liturgy that is rooted within a particular worshiping tradition and occasions of Academy worship using liturgical forms created for the entire Academy:

Academy worship that is intentionally interfaith and ecumenical includes opening and closing worship as well as a table prayer at the banquet.
- Rite of Remembrance and Thanksgiving. On the evening that the Academy gathers for its meeting, we remember Academy members who have died during the previous year. A member of the Academy presents a brief obituary, reminding worshipers of the individual’s contributions; a candle is lit in remembrance of each member who has died; and ritual texts give thanks and commend the deceased to God.
- Table Prayer. Drawing upon the Christian and Jewish traditions of praying at meals, this participatory prayer frames the NAAL banquet, gathering people in song and offering blessings for bread and wine. NAAL has three forms for this prayer: a rite created by Michael Joncas for the 1990 meeting, and two that are the result of a contest held in 2002: one by Don Saliers and John Foley, the other by Gabe Huck and Tony Alonso.
- Closing Worship. On the last morning of the annual meeting, a simple interfaith service marks the conclusion of the meeting.
At other times during Academy meetings, morning and/or evening worship is usually drawn from a particular tradition. The overall schedule and location of the meeting help determine when and where worship is scheduled.
- Mornings usually begin with a service of morning prayer from a Christian tradition. On occasion, a Jewish member of the Academy has been willing to lead liturgy or devotions from Jewish tradition, but the lack of a minyan makes it difficult to have authentic Jewish common worship.
- Occasionally, an evening worship service is planned, particularly when it is convenient to gather at a local house of worship rather than in the hotel where the annual meeting takes place.
- When the Academy meets on a Sunday, members may be invited to a Christian celebration of the Eucharist at a local congregation, or members of a tradition represented by NAAL members may be invited to plan a Eucharist to be celebrated at the hotel.
When the Academy meets on a Friday and/or Saturday, the program book includes information about Shabbat services in the local community, and when it meets on a Sunday, the book includes information about Christian services.

Interfaith Worship. Interfaith occasions of academy worship are planned in a manner that enables Jews and Christians to pray together, standing side by side in our own integrity. The events of the Academy – gathering, banquet, and departure – provide the common focus for this worship.

Texts. Words sung or spoken by the assembly should be those that everyone can pray within their own tradition. When texts are used from distinctively Christian and Jewish resources, the service includes a balance of texts from each tradition. Planners are mindful that Jews cannot participate in distinctively Christian forms, whereas Christians can more easily pray explicitly Jewish texts, and that some Christians find it difficult to worship without any explicit reference to Christ.
Symbols. The use of symbols common to both traditions, such as light, bread, and wine, allows the liturgy to mean differently for people from different traditions. For some Jewish members, worshiping in a Christian liturgical space introduces Christian symbols that compromise the interfaith nature of the prayer.
Sound and silence. Music and other sound, as well as silence, are integral to worship and allow individuals to pray with integrity within their own tradition.

Location

On occasion, the Academy arranges to use local house(s) of worship for its liturgies. Our accessibility guidelines call for sites to be accessible to the disabled. If the site is more than two or three blocks from the hotel, the Academy Committee arranges for transportation for those with visual or mobility disabilities.
When worship takes place in the hotel, planners are attentive to the liturgical environment. The budget for the annual meeting includes a small amount to allow the creation or purchase of art, candles, or other ritual objects to enable the space to be more conducive to worship.

Academy Committee, July 2004