Purpose

The St. Michael Liturgical Conference is for pastors and laymen concerned with the Evangelical-Lutheran liturgy. It will inform them of the liturgy's rubric, rite, and ceremony so that they might make informed decisions about local customs in their parishes.

The 2010 St. Michael Liturgical Conference will be held Monday, September 27, at Zion Detroit.   The theme of this year's conference will be taken from the Augusburg Confession, Article XXIV:  “Falsely are our churches accused of abolishing the Mass; for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence.”  The conference will examine the Mass in the Lutheran Confessions and the writings of Luther, stressing the practical contemporary application of our Confession “The Mass is celebrated among us with the highest reverence.”

   The keynote presenter, the Reverend Professor Roland Ziegler of Concordia Theological Seminary Fort Wayne, will address the question “What does it mean when the Augsburg Confession claims that the subscribing churches retained the Mass?” This requires a historical investigation of the form of worship used among Lutherans around 1530 and the decade to follow, and what dogmatic relevance the form of the Mass had among Lutherans in the time of the reformation. Only then can we discern what this statement means for contemporary practice.

2010 St. Michaels Flyer

Sectional presenters will be Fr. Burnell Eckardt, Pastor of St. Paul, Kewanee, and editor of Gottesdienst magazine; the Reverend Dr. Daniel Reuning, Kantor and church musician of Redeemer Lutheran Church of Fort Wayne, and Dean of Chapel at CTS for 31 years; Deacon David Muehlenbruch of Bethany Lutheran Church, Fort Wayne, and of the Lex Orandi web site; and Fr. Mark Braden, Pastor of Zion Detroit. 

Sectional presentations will treat of both the ceremony and the rite of  the Lutheran high Mass, with special attention paid to the rubrics for the Celebrant, Deacon and Subdeacon, and the chanting of the Gospel.   

At the Mass, Fr. David Petersen of Redeemer, Fort Wayne will preach, the Rt. Rev. David Stechholz, Bishop of the English District, will preside, and Fr. Braden will serve as Celebrant. 

 Zion Detroit sponsored the St. Michael Liturgical Conference from 1998 until 2005. From 2006-2008 the St Michael Liturgical Conferences were held at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

For more information about the Thirteenth Annual St. Michael Liturgical Conference, please contact the Church Office.

Last Year's Conference Resources

• Photos from the 2009 Conference
• Papers from the 2009 Conference
• Audio Files from the 2009 Conference