Past Event: "In all and for all”: who is included in Orthodox Christian liturgy?

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Brown University, Willard Prescott and Annie McClelland Smith Professor of History and Religion (late antique, Syriac, and Byzantine Christianity; asceticism, women and gender, hymnography (liturgical lament), and piety in late antique Christianity: biblical women in Syriac hymnography and homiletics, and the Syriac women’s choirs that performed these works. Books: Scenting Salvation: Ancient Christianity and the Olfactory Imagination; Managing Emotion in Byzantium: Passions, Affects and Imaginings; Holy Women of the Syrian Orient.

Nicholas Denysenko, Valparaiso University, Emil and Elfriede Jochum Professor and Chair and associate professor of theology: liturgy, liturgical reform, Ukraine; books: The Church’s Unholy War: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine and Orthodoxy; This Is the Day That the Lord Has Made: The Liturgical Year in Orthodoxy; Liturgical Reform after Vatican II: The Impact on Eastern Orthodoxy; The People’s Faith: The Liturgy of the Faithful in Orthodoxy; The Blessing of Waters and Epiphany: The Eastern Liturgical Tradition.

Carrie Frederick Frost, Western Washington University modern Orthodox Christianity, women and mothers in the church, sacraments and practice, Christian material culture, and contemplative prayer; author of Church of Our Granddaughters; Maternal Body: A Theology of Incarnation from the Christian East, The Reception of the Holy and Great Council: Reflections of Orthodox Christian Women.

Nina Glibetic, Notre Dame. Assistant Professor of Liturgical Studies, History of the Byzantine Liturgy, Pre-Modern Ritual Culture, Sinai Monasticism, Christianity among Medieval Slavs, Sacred Space & Ritual Purity, Medieval Liturgy and Gender.

Nadieszda Kizenko, Yale ISM Fellow: history, hymnography, penance, and gender in Russia and Ukraine. Books: A Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People; Good for the Souls. A History of Confession in the Russian Empire; Orthodoxy in Two Manifestations? The Conflict in Ukraine as Expression of a Fault Line in World Orthodoxy.

Vassa Larin, Vienna. Nun, the host of “Coffee with Sister Vassa,” author of many scholarly articles and a monograph on Byzantine liturgy and theology, and public intellectual on current issues concerning the Russian Orthodox Church. Books: Praying in Time: The Hours and Days in Step with Orthodox Christian Tradition.

Ashley Purpura, Purdue. Associate professor of religious studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at Purdue University. She publishes on gender and Orthodoxy. Books: God, Hierarchy, and Power: Orthodox Theologies of Authority from Byzantium (2018), Rethinking Gender in Orthodox Christianity (2023)

Teva Regule, Boston College: theology, liturgy and liturgical revival, especially the revival of the office of the deaconess.

Vera Shevzov, Professor of Religious Studies, Smith College: religion and collective identities (including ethnic and national), historical and sacred memory, religion and secularism; politics and revolution. Books: Russian Orthodoxy on the Eve of Revolution; Framing Mary: The Mother of God in Modern and Post-Soviet Russia.