African-American Liturgical Traditions
2003 Indianapolis, Indiana
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2003
Scott Haldeman (assistant professor of Worship, Chicago Theological Seminary)
Seminar Participants 2003
Barbara Berry-Bailey, William Cieslak, Carol Cook, Melva Costen, Joseph Donnella, Scott Haldeman, and J-Glenn Murray
Seminar Report 2003
In Indianapolis, the work of the group revolved around four major foci:
(1) the state of African-American liturgical studies;
(2 ) J-Glenn Murray’s letter on Liturgiam Authenticam to the black bishops of the USCCB;
(3) Joseph Donnella’s research on Lutherans in the Caribbean; and
(4) Scott Haldeman’s early work on a book on worship and racism among U.S. Protestants.
Details of the discussion follows:
- After (re)introducing ourselves this small but mighty group spent a little time considering where the study of African-American worship is and where it is going. As central figures like Melva Costen approach retirement, we face a dearth of qualified scholars to keep on teaching and writing. There are so many traditions and practices not yet known, not yet reflected upon. The need to identify potential doctoral students and to strengthen the doctoral programs that will prepare them is clear and pressing. Yet hope remains—in places like the Franciscan School of Theology that this year lent us its president as well as prominent faculty member and at Drew University where people like Joseph Donnella and Carol Cook are currently pursuing studies.
- In the fall of 2002 the black bishops asked J-Glenn Murray to advise them on the potential effects of the promulgation of Liturgiam Authenticam, especially those of particular interest to African-American Roman Catholics. He prepared a letter which he brought with him for us to review together. As might be expected of the author of Plenty Good Room, he attempts as sympathetic as possible a reading of the document while also attempting to clarify its potential harmful effects. The bishops, it turned out, were even less sanguine about the document than he. The question is, given their unique ability to articulate a response based upon the potential harm this document may do to efforts to evangelize the African-American community, will they speak up and attempt to persuade the Bishops’ Conference as a whole to “not receive” the document? Our discussion was pervaded by continuing astonishment at the central claim of the document—that the Roman rite, a product of inculturation over centuries, can adapt no longer, is fixed, and will be the way all Catholics pray no matter their mother tongue, their distinct spirituality.
- Joseph Donnella is currently recovering and analyzing the liturgical practices of Afro-Caribbean Lutherans. There have been Black Lutherans on St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix since 1703. Yet these communities and their rites have been neglected in “American” Lutheran self-understanding and, while honored in some ways through recent efforts to produce inculturated African-American Lutheran liturgical resources like This Far by Faith, remain obscure to most North American Lutherans. Clues to the past remain in Dutch-Creole catechetical documents and an altar book, in liturgical objects and spaces, in journals and letters of church members and their Danish neighbors. His remarks led us into a wide-ranging discussion of mission and colonialism, Creole language and culture, and methods of historical reconstruction and interpretation of rites. We look forward to future conversation as Joseph delves deeper into this investigation.
- Scott Haldeman is working on a book tentatively titled, Praying Apart, Praying Together: Worship, Black and White, in which he seeks to articulate the role of racism in the shaping of U.S. Protestant worship generally, to identify central characteristics of European-American and African-American worship traditions so that those who seek reconciliation might be able to speak meaningfully to one another, and to propose models for preparing liturgies in which all are honored equally. Grateful for a place to speak of such delicate matters directly and respectfully, he asked the group to respond to the current outline of the work. We spoke of the motivations of both white and black Christians to attempt to be community together, to pray together regularly, and the reasons why both might, quite legitimately, resist. We spoke of the history of African-American Protestant worship and its distinct elements and style. We experienced, as well as spoke about, the risky-ness of speaking across the divide of race of things so dear, and yet of the greater risk of not speaking at all.