1999 — Series IX

Worship in the 21st Century: Both Catholic and Contextually Relevant

Mary Collins and Gordon Lathrop, lecturers

In the rapidly changing world of the new century, Christians in North America face a whirlwind of cultural paradoxes. It is a time of both rampant individualism and an increased longing for community, of multicultural diversity and a desire for shared central values, of materialism and a search for spirituality, a time of rejection of history in favor of the new yet also a nostalgia for tradition.

How does Christian worship take place within such an environment? Clergy and laity often disagree on how worship can be both "faithful" and "contextually relevant" within the complexity of North American "cultures." Insights from the global mission of the churches in the last centuries have brought liturgical theologians to realize that the cultural adaptation of Christian worship has, in fact, been a profoundly traditional occupation of the churches from the earliest centuries of Christianity. How is such adaptation to take place responsibly now, not only in "mission lands" but in the mission territory which is North America? What are the principles of the cultural adaptation of Christian liturgy? When is it faithful? When is it "dumbing-down" or misleading? How can worship avoid plain irrelevance in its missional task within the local congregation?

The 1999 Hein-Fry Lecture Series sought to create a forum of discussion on how worship can be both catholic and contextual in the 21st century. How can dialogue between culture and liturgy be undertaken ecumenically, within a pan-Christian dialogue of mutual affirmation and admonition that likewise seeks to be faithful to the evangelistic vocation of the churches in North America? The Hein-Fry Lectures in 1999 sought to address these questions, engaging in this vital discussion on the eve of a new millennium.