Lecture at Yale Institute of Sacred Music

“In all and for all”: who is included in Orthodox Christian liturgy?

Friday, February 23, 2024

Event time:

Friday, February 23, 2024 – 8:00am to 5:15pm

Location:

Miller Hall (PROS406) see map

406 Prospect Street

New Haven,  CT 06511

Admission:

Free; no tickets or registration

Open to: General Public

Event description:

This daylong panel will be convened by ISM fellow Dr. Nadia Kizenko, and the speakers include:

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University

Nicholas Denysenko, Valparaiso University

Patricia Fann Bouteneff, Axia Women

Carrie Frederick Frost, Western Washington University

Nina Glibetic, Notre Dame

Vassa Larin, Vienna, host of “Coffee with Sister Vassa”

Ashley Purpura, Purdue University

Teva Regule, Boston College

Vera Shevzov, Smith College

View Speaker Bios

Orthodox Christian liturgy seems to be one of the most “traditional” traditions. Its emphasis on ordained clerical authority (limited to able-bodied males) may obscure how others participate—or might participate—in liturgy. Women have shaped the liturgical act of collective remembering and memory making through composing liturgical texts, painting icons, or as witnesses to the events often sacralized through liturgical commemoration. How might reflecting on the embodied, sensorial, and physical experience of liturgy serve as a resource for theologically affirming marginalized groups more holistically?

This workshop looks beneath the surface of Orthodox liturgy. Leading scholars of Orthodox liturgy and liturgical arts, theology, and history, will come together to ask such questions as: whose voices are heard in liturgy, how, and by whom? How are these voices granted value in the event? How do persons attending liturgy contribute? How is their contribution valued, and by whom?

Our re-examination will draw on liturgical rites from antiquity to the present to consider what more inclusive rites might look like. It will conclude with a Vespers sung in Marquand Chapel.

SCHEDULE

8-8:45 a.m. Breakfast

8:45-9 a.m. Welcome and Opening Remarks from Nadia Kizenko, Yale University ISM Fellow (Professor of History at University of Albany)

 

9-10:45 a.m. Panel I: Perspectives from History

Panel I chair: Teresa Berger, Yale University ISM

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University

Nina Glibetic, Notre Dame

Vera Shevzov, Smith College

15-minute break

11 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Panel II: Liturgy According to Liturgists

Panel II chair: Samantha Slabaugh, Yale University ISM

Nicholas Denysenko, Valparaiso University

Vassa Larin, Vienna, host of “Coffee with Sister Vassa”

Teva Regule, Boston College

12:45-1:45 p.m. lunch.

1:45-3:15 p.m. Panel III: Gender and Power

Panel III chair: Maria Doerfler, Yale University Religious Studies

Patricia Bouteneff, Axia Women

Carrie Frederick Frost, Western Washington University

Ashley Purpura, Purdue University

3:15-3:30 p.m. Concluding Remarks and Future Projects

4:15-5:15 p.m. Great Vespers in Marquand Chapel