Inauguration of new Liturgy Institute

Ealing Abbey

Bishop Alan Hopes and Prof Ephrem Carr will be welcomed as guests of honour by the Abbots of Ealing and Farnborough at the inauguration of Institutum Liturgicum - a new Liturgy Institute at Ealing Abbey - on Tuesday 12 July. The Liturgy Institute promotes graduate research and teaching accredited by the Catholic University of Leuven, and the Bishops of England and Wales have given their endorsement. The first courses begin the following day and the sixth annual Latin Institute begins on 16 August.

The inauguration was marked by the first St Bede Liturgy Lecture, given by Prof Ephrem Carr, OSB, President of the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy in Rome: 'Sacrosanctum Concilium and its Consequences: A Contribution to the Current Discussion on Liturgy in the Church'.

If there is one aspect of Catholicism that can always be relied upon to cause interest and either raise or quench a discussion, it is liturgy. From the so-called 'Tridentine Rite' to the new English translation of the Missal and the arrangement of a church, worship provokes strong emotions. It is the hope of the founders that research and graduate level teaching will help those who attend to rise above polarised positions to make an irenic contribution to the broader Church.

The summer teaching programme from June to August prepares future university teachers and forms members of diocesan, national and religious liturgical commissions. All interested will be welcome to attend as credit or auditor students for single courses or the certificate programme. The courses provide English language access to Licence and Doctoral degrees at the Catholic University of Leuven and the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy in Rome. Other specialist courses for clergy, laity and and religious are being considered. The teaching programme is supported by research and publishing throughout the year. The Latin Institute provides instruction from the first encounter through to proficiency, using the teaching method of Fr Reginald Foster, OCD, forty years Papal Latinist.

The Liturgy Institute is the product of three years of study and preparation by Dom Daniel McCarthy of St Benedict's Abbey, Atchison, Kansas, and Dom James Leachman of Ealing Abbey, London, their respective communities and that of Farnborough Abbey.

Endorsing sponsors include Abbot Barnabas Senecal of St Benedict's Abbey and Sr Anne Shepard OSB, the Prioress of Mount St Scholastica, both of Atchison, and Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey, Missouri.

The Rt Rev Alan Hopes, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster is Chairman of the Committee on Liturgy of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. Rt Rev Martin Shipperlee, OSB, of Ealing and Rt Rev Cuthbert Brogan, OSB, of Farnborough also welcomed guests, benefactors and collaborators.

Honoured guests included Prof Lieven Boeve, the Dean of Theology, Catholic University of Leuven; Abbot Francis Rossiter, the former Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation; and Abbot Cuthbert Johnson of Quarr Abbey, President of the Henry Bradshaw Society and Advisor to the Vox Clara Committee on the Liturgy. All the guests were invited to tour the institute's new facilities.

"Now, first of all, whenever you undertake any good work, beg the Lord with most earnest prayer to bring it to completion". (Rule of St Benedict, Prologue)

Enrolment information is available at: www.institutumliturgicum.org.uk

For more details contact Dom James Leachman at: +44 (0) 7732 175 744, +44 (0) 208 8862 2143 or il@bsac.ac.uk