The event is sponsored by the Kavanagh Lecture series and Liturgy Symposium series. The Kavanagh Lecture, presented by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, is named for the late Professor Emeritus of Liturgics Aidan J. Kavanagh O.S.B., and given in conjunction with Convocation Week at Yale Divinity School.

In 1982, Father Aidan Kavanagh published Elements of Rite: A Handbook of Liturgical Style, a set of liturgical “rules,” “laws,” “principles,” and “mistakes” to avoid in liturgical preparation and leadership that drew on his expertise as a liturgical scholar and professor. This short book is filled with the pithy, provocative, and often hilarious observations that Kavanagh was known for among his students and colleagues. Kavanagh boldly states his principles with some explanations, but without offering any argument for them. He unapologetically takes a “wisdom” approach to liturgy at a time when the liturgical renewal of the mid-twentieth century was evolving beyond its Roman and Anglican origins. Today the field of liturgical studies has expanded to include liturgical traditions and innovations that strain Kavanagh’s notion of liturgical rules, laws, and principles. Is a wisdom approach to liturgical education possible or even desirable today? This lecture will suggest ways to approach liturgical wisdom in an irreducibly pluralistic liturgical world.

Free and open to the public. This event will also be livestreamed.

Contact: Katya Vetrov

Speaker bio:

L. Edward (Ed) Phillips is Associate Professor of Historical Theology and Christian Worship, Emeritus, at Candler School of Theology and Emory University Graduate Division of Religion. Ed has degrees from the University of Tennessee at Martin (B.S.), Candler School of Theology (M.Div.) and the University of Notre Dame (Ph.D.).

Before coming to Emory, Ed taught at Duke Divinity School (2005-8), Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois (1997-2005), and Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky (1991-1997). An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church since 1981, he has served pastoral appointments in Tennessee and Indiana. He is married to Sara Webb Phillips, and they have three adult daughters. Ed and Sara live in Decatur, GA.

Ed is the author or co-author of numerous essays and books, including The Purpose, Pattern and Character of Worship (2000), and general editor of the James White’s Introduction to Christian Worship, 4^th edition, revised (2023). In recent years, Ed has led delegations to the West Bank, Palestine with the support of Sabeel Palestinian Liberation Theology Center in East Jerusalem. He and Sara continue to work for social and economic justice for Palestinians.