Abstract
This book has many tentacles and, as a non-zoologist, I use this image cautiously, but its sheer complexity and variety suggest this image. It is difficult to know, for this reason, precisely where the ‘nerve centre’ that connects the various limbs lies. An introduction by the editors sets the scene for the book’s four sections: ‘The case for difference’, ‘Leadership and ministry through liturgy’, ‘Liturgy in migration: people, culture and language’ and ‘Liturgy and mission in the world’. This panorama includes further multi-variety within each of the four sections.
In the first two essays, Cones and Burns set out with clarity what is intended to be the overarching theme. In essence, this is to affirm the primary nature of ‘the assembly’ within liturgy, but then to establish the need to work with the variety of individuals within any liturgical assembly. Cones uses a worked example, arguing for mutuality and participation in the Maundy Thursday foot washing. Burns starts with the image of ‘acts of uniformity’, echoing the English Reformation, and using the image to show the need to allow for variety and individuality within the assembly. Participation is a key word and there is reference to ‘dialogue sermons’. Section 2 focuses on sexual identity and variety within the liturgy. Rachel Mann’s essay speaks of the ‘erasure of difference’, notably in ontological approaches to worship and priesthood: Michael Ramsey and Steven Croft are marshalled as examples. Mann argues for provisional and multiple meanings, using the theologically adapted concept of ‘queerness’. Susannah Cornwall follows this with an impressive theological critique of Elizabeth Stuart’s feminist/queer theology. Cornwall argues for a recovery of the importance of difference. W. Scott Haldeman uses three contrasting models of wedding rite to indicate a sense of ‘queer’ in the liturgy, again looking to the significance of difference. Finally, Frank C. Senn talks of the shift in his views, whereby he officiated at his son’s non-religious same-sex wedding.
In Section 3 there is perhaps the most diversity. Kristine Suna-Koro argues for a ‘magpie approach’ to liturgy and uses her own mixed experience as a Latvian American. Bruce T. Morrill offers an interesting analysis of the divine and human within the liturgy, based in his experience in Yukon, and again argues for inclusion. Michael Jagessar’s essay is interrogative in approach and it is difficult to identify the key focus of his argument. Finally, the book turns to mission and liturgy, with an outstanding sermon from Teresa Berger, ‘All are welcome?’ Ed Foley follows with an excellent essay on ‘liturgy and preaching as public theology’, while Miguel A. De La Torre’s closing essay largely focuses on the New Sanctuary Movement, although the implications for the liturgy are not clearly extrapolated.
There are some gems here: some tentacles touch their target precisely, but others seem tangential to the focus of the book – as in most collections, some essays trump others. Certain concepts would benefit from further clarification: for example, does liturgical participation require every member of the assembly to speak or be part of the drama in an individualistic sense? Nonetheless, overall, liturgical specialists and theologians focusing on inclusion will be grateful for this volume.