Academy Meeting in Toronto
January 3-7, 2007
Candidate for NAAL Delegate for Membership: Eileen D. Crowley
Eileen
D. Crowley is Assistant Professor at the Catholic Theological
Union in Chicago and wrote as follows:
Rich diversity is my experience of NAAL. Rich diversity is my hope for NAAL in the years ahead. As an Assistant Professor of Word and Worship at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, I teach theology and ministry students from around the world and around the block. As a doctoral student at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, I enjoyed the riches of an ecumenical environment. At UTS we faced the challenges of people from different worship traditions stretching themselves and their concepts of liturgy in order to worship together. My interest in ritual led me to the NAAL’s Boston meeting, an adventure prompted by my ritual studies professors Mark Searle and Larry Hoffman. How grateful I was to be a visitor in the Ritual Language and Action seminar and to be invited to present the following year on the effects of television on worship. That kind of hospitality distinguishes the members of the North American Academy of Liturgy. How grateful I was at the NAAL meeting in San Antonio to be counted among its ranks, me, the unlikely candidate who was that odd combination of liturgist and media producer. As I reviewed applications for membership this year as part of the ad hoc committee on membership, I was delighted by the diverse backgrounds, interests, and talents of our applicants. How fortunate will we be as an Academy by our ongoing welcoming of diversity.