Alcuin Club – serie

In our post-modern, technological and visual age, there seems to be a new fascination with symbols. And in such an age as this, it is not enough just to understand and use the written liturgy, whether old or new, like Common Worship. In worship and in our pastoral rites, the preoccupation with texts has to be balanced with the vital liturgical language of symbols. Never before has there been such scope for the use of symbols as can be found in the family of Common Worship services. Not simply visual aids, liturgical symbols are suggestive and evocative; they belong to a whole matrix of imagery in Scripture and in the prayer texts that accompany the ritual acts of worship. Each chapter of Symbols and Worship provides theological and historical background to the symbols discussed (water, oil, light and incense), as well as practical guidance on the place and use of these symbols in the whole range of Common Worship services.

This helpful book is the first of two volumes that encourage parishes and other communities to explore the way they mark the festivals and seasons, and that offer practical advice on how to celebrate the Christian story through the Christian year.Celebrating Christ's Appearing covers the year from All Saints to Candlemas and comments on seasonal aspects of the celebration of daily prayer and Christian initiation.The second volume, Celebrating Christ's Victory, will cover the period from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost and include a number of agricultural celebrations.

The book deals with the origins of the liturgical year - the feasts, fasts and seasons. It is accessible to the general reader and to students, while being a serious academic text.

This is a handbook to the Eucharist looking in detail at the principles of liturgical celebration as well as ritual instructions. This approach to the rite will show ministers how to enable the community to gather, encounter Christ in word and sacrament and be sent out in response to that encounter. This will help ministers to hold the liturgy together, with a sense of momentum which moves the community from the gathering to the dismissal, and which allows various members of the community to exercise individual ministries within the gathered setting.

This study proceeds historically, from the origins of the Eucharist up to our own day. Unlike most studies of this kind, it includes an introduction to and developmental summary of the diverse Eucharistic liturgies of the Christian East. It also explores the various Western rites (Ambrosian, Gallican, and Mozarabic) in addition to the Roman. With regard to theological themes, the authors give special attention to the topics of real presence (including the "consecration" of the bread and wine) and eucharistic sacrifice, the most central and most ecumenically challenging issues since the sixteenth-century Reformations. Making the book especially teacher- and student-friendly are the summary points at the end of each chapter. Each chapter also contains an abundance of liturgical texts for ease of reference.

The book gives an account of various movements in art and their relation to the visual and in churches and in liturgy, for example the Franciscan movement, different approaches to the crucifixion, and the restoration of creation. It recovers the links between the cross and creation, and relates the baptismal covenant to a commitment to care for creation.

This is a textbook with an international slant, blending established and young experts, and covering a much wider, and less historical, focus than The Study of Liturgy. This reflects the way the subject has changed, from one based upon a historical narrative to one drawing additionally on the social sciences. This new Guide draws upon the valuable approach contained in the old book - short accessible chapters by leading liturgical scholars, which provide sufficient introduction to a topic and advice on further research.