Aquinas Day Lecture: “The Welcome Table Mass: Inculturating Liturgy with Historic Negro Spirituals”
January 25, 2024 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Sponsored by Candler’s Aquinas Center of Theology, this annual event is held the last week in January, near the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas Day provides the opportunity for younger theologians to be introduced to Emory and the greater Atlanta community expanding our vision into the future of theological thinking.
Speaker: Dr. Kim Harris, assistant professor of African American thought and practice in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California.
“The Welcome Table Mass: Inculturating Liturgy with Historic Negro Spirituals”
Fifty years after the composition of Missa Luba by African Catholics of so- called Belgium Congo and the groundbreaking work of African American Catholic priest and liturgical pioneer Fr. Clarence Joseph Rivers with An American Mass Program, these transnational encounters inspired the composition of the Welcome Table: A Mass of Spirituals. The text is from the Revised Order of the Roman Catholic Mass 2010. The melodies of specific historic Negro spirituals are quoted in full, thus linking each Mass part to a Spiritual that best captures its meanings. Dr. Harris, co-composer of the Mass, will present on the ongoing work of Black Catholic liturgical inculturation by use of African American sacred song.
The afternoon lecture will be offered in person and as a webinar.
Register here to attend in person. Lunch will be provided for registrants.
To join the livestreamed webinar, please register here.
For more information, contact Alice Cameron at alice.cameron@emory.edu.