Reshaping the Liturgical Tradition: Ecumenical and Reformed

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Reshaping the Liturgical Tradition: Ecumenical and Reformed presents a series of essays honoring the work of the late Horace T. Allen, Jr. This volume not only looks back to celebrate the moment of a life, but also around to the present liturgical moment and ahead to emerging developments, flowing from Allen's work, that are leading the Church into the future. In this way, this book mirrors the insight that author David Gambrell describes in his essay about ecumenical and liturgical leaders in general: "There is a sense in which ecumenical and liturgical leaders-such as Horace Allen-must be time travelers. They are compelled to haunt the catacombs, to stalk the saints, to search the archives of antiquity, always trying to tap the wellsprings of our traditions. At the same time, they are called to scan the horizons, to venture into the unknown, to entrust themselves to the future, always hungering for the heavenly banquet."So too in this Festschrift. Looking back, one sees the passionate brilliance and idiosyncrasy of a teacher, scholar, and storyteller who inspired generations of students and colleagues, especially in North America and South Korea, a liturgist who delighted in breaking the bread and in breaking open the word, ever finding new life in these ancient ways of worship. Granting the challenges that still impede the unity of the Church, might we now press ahead to realize in new ways the ecumenical vision that drove him? Could it be that even when some institutions falter and fail in their progress toward God's kin-dom, other movements arise that embody the unity of the Church in unexpected forms? Could it be that even now - in bars, around kitchen tables, on the streets - the liturgy that Horace Allen so loved is emerging anew, drawing unlikely people together to encounter the word and share the bread and cup, proclaiming the coming of God into this weary world? We, the editors and authors in this book, yet have hope that it may be so.